“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(My own chest difficulties are much improved, although at the same time I’m not doing any additional hard physical labor. I’m simply mentioning ordinary activities—chopping a little wood, etc. I still haven’t shoveled any snow, in spite of the series of massive snowstorms we’ve experienced within the last week—the worst in over a decade. I have been rereading the latest sessions on self-disapproval, and these seem to have made the difference. Jane has also been working on her feelings of self approval and disapproval, and credits her efforts with her improvements.)

Now let us look at the roots of self-disapproval from another vantage point.

When man identified with nature, as given in Psyche, he did not imagine that the gods disapproved of him when storms lashed across the landscape. He did not at that time, as is supposed, do sacrifice then to win the gods’ approval. Instead, identifying with nature, man identified also with all of its manifestations.

Once this was done, nature it seemed could be dealt with, could be cajoled, tricked, or reasoned with as circumstances warranted. If a large area was besieged by stormy weather of any kind, then obviously a god must have somehow disapproved of human action. It was vital that the person so disapproved of be cast out. If any doubt was present then another person would be cast out or sacrificed. Acts were scrutinized so that those offending to the gods could be clearly categorized so that men would not unknowingly offend. Tribal life became a series of ritualized activities. If certain patterns of behavior were followed and the weather was pleasant, then those patterns of behavior must be ones that were safe. If the weather turned disastrous, the people were in a quandary, reexamining the patterns of behavior, finding perhaps minute differences, suspicious variations, that seemed to occur just before the storm—so these became the new sins.

Self-disapproval in that context became a virtue, for indeed survival depended, it seemed, upon constant self and tribal evaluation. None of this has anything to do with natural guilt, as described in Personal Reality. Now man does feel a certain amount of natural guilt when he loses his identification with nature, for that identification leads to intuitive connections with nature’s greater source.

(Long pause at 9:41.) Your religions have been largely patterned from such self-disapproving bases. The thrust of your civilizations has been concerned with manipulating nature. Your latest snowstorm is an excellent example. Not only of nature’s power and its effects upon civilization, but it also provides you with a very small hint of the other side of the picture, for man despite himself has not lost entirely that identification with the elements. People still feel a part of nature’s power. Storms often, oddly enough it seems, bring out a feeling of adventuresomeness and neighborliness, because people are united—not against nature, as they may think, but by it. The good skier feels a part of the snowy hill, yet most skiers feel that the hill must be conquered. When you take a walk, you usually think of walking through nature, not realizing that you are a part of the scene through which you walk. The loss of a real, sensed, appreciated identification with nature has been largely responsible, however, for man’s attitude that self-disapproval is somehow a virtue.

Again, the animal approves of himself, whether he is sick or well, slow or swift. The sick animal wants to get well. It does not disapprove of itself, however, or even think of itself as “a sick animal.” In those terms it might think of itself as an animal who was sick—a big difference—and even then no self-disapproval would be indicated.

Do not label yourselves, for then you often try to live up to those labels, and they can be highly limiting. I do my own part in these sessions, and if I may say so (highly amused:) very well indeed—and yet there is certainly something in Ruburt’s mind and abilities that allows him to speak, regardless, over the years, an immense amount of material, some of it highly detailed and orderly. So how can Ruburt say that he cannot deal with the details, and thus disapprove of himself?

You have disapproved of yourself, thinking yourself not spontaneous, and so your belief has often hampered your natural spontaneity, so that you struggled for notes because you thought you must; that was the kind of person you thought you were.

Disapproval of that kind prevents you from perceiving your own abilities, and limits of course your appreciation of yourself. To some extent your acts become ritualized, as those of our tribesmen mentioned earlier.

Since disapproval will never bring abundance or pleasure, it gradually cuts down on your options, until there is little about yourself you approve of. Again, I am speaking generally as well as specifically.

To an important degree, each of you have believed that self-disapproval was indeed constructive or virtuous. You were not on the lookout against it, therefore.

When you look for “what is wrong,” you are feeding self-disapproval. When you are looking for the reasons behind a condition, that is different. The two attitudes, while they may seem similar, are really quite opposite in their intent and effect. Ruburt recognized self-disapproval today (after her nap). He saw that the feeling itself was the culprit. He disapproved of himself because of his condition, or so he thought, and he has felt that way often. The self-disapproval causes the condition, however, and not the other way around. This got through to him.

Your own ease in “Unknown” now is the result of your suspension of self-disapproval, and would be the same if you were doing appendixes. You do need to support each other in that regard, helping each other to approve of yourselves.

The pendulum will not work, of course, if your self-disapproval is paramount, for then you cannot trust your own answers. Ruburt should concentrate upon his ideas and creativity. I have said this so often, and yet I repeat: concentration upon a problem magnifies it.

You, Joseph, are making gains as you know—again, because you minimize self-disapproval, and therefore bring into the range of your attention abilities of your own that before you quite inhibited

This is quite enough for this evening, since I expect you to take an almost equal amount of time not only to read this session together, but to explore at the same time the ways in which your own self-labels may have added to your own self- disapproval. That exercise is a part of this session.