“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Yesterday at the dentist’s I learned through X-ray that I have two bad teeth on the lower right jaw that must be taken out. This after the pendulum had insisted many times over the past few weeks that the teeth were perfectly all right. At the same time, they’ve bothered me fairly often. My pendulum told me often that the teeth were responding to my negative projections that the two volumes of “Unknown”weren’t going to make much of an impression in the mundane world, no matter what we said or did.

(In view of the massive contradiction here, I asked that Seth explain tonight what happened. I also wanted to do some pendulum work with Jane, and wanted to understand the situation before we started with her. I still had faith in the pendulum, since I’ve obtained many good results.

Now (rather loudly:) the pendulum.

The pendulum can be used effectively under certain conditions. It allows some communication between the conscious and the “unconscious” portions of the self. It allows a certain kind of black-or-white, yes-or-no communication, with a little leeway toward a “maybe” now and then.

For one thing, dependable overall use of the pendulum would ideally entail some moments each day, so that rapport could be established under even circumstances, without the pressure, say, of wanting to know about a problem or a symptom. Ideally, you should relax yourself as much as possible first—a light trance, for example, gives much more dependable results – but the mind should be stilled. You should go into a kind of neutral drive.

The pendulum has been used for a variety of purposes in various cultures —where, however, diviners from childhood have been trained to use such an instrument. When your mind is confused, and when you are quite concerned over a given problem, then you do not dip down far enough, say, into the psychic level.

You did not want the teeth to be bad—natural enough. The level you reached was one that responded to that fear, that perhaps the teeth were bad. You say that of course you wanted to know the truth—but the pendulum responded to the part of you that was afraid, by trying to soothe your fears, as for example a mother might say “No, do not worry, everything will be all right,” while on the other hand she might be making rapid calculations as to what should be done, but first she will soothe the child.

Had you been more relaxed when using the pendulum, “it” would not have needed to soothe your fears, and would have realized that you were quite capable of learning the answer. The fact is that a “yes” answer—at that point—would not have particularly helped you—a fact known to the unconscious, of course. When using the pendulum, it is a good idea to mentally place a distance between your conscious mind and the pendulum, in which fears are allowed to dissolve, so that body and mind are smooth-enough. As far as the teeth are concerned, you are, as you said, surrounded by a sea of beliefs, so that the teeth are considered not long-lasting. If you can think of your body as existing primarily in Framework 2, that might help you separate yourselves from negative beliefs connected with Framework 1, for by such a mental change of view you take the body out of that context.

Here, however, you are allowing the subconscious a greater range of expression; or you can ask for such writing to give further background on a yes-or-no pendulum answer. It does take some time to understand why the pendulum answers as it does, but it will be responding not only to your question but to the greater framework and the emotional circumstances connected with it. It is very difficult, when you are honestly concerned, to then be unconcerned as you work with the pendulum—and yet, for the best results you must attain the state of mind in which you let the answers flow, unconcerned as to whether the answer is yes or no. Otherwise your very concern affects the results, of course, and the pendulum will “treat” your fear first.

In the case of the teeth in particular, the pendulum’s answer was not “devious.” Had there been considerable danger for example, that danger would have overridden other circumstances in your case. Sometimes, however, fear is so great that the unconscious begins soothing processes, for the healing process depends upon them. Do you understand the difference?

In like circumstances with the pendulum, you might ask it: “Are you saying this to calm my fears?”

—and do not be bothered by your pendulum-itis.