“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Long pause.) Both religion and science see the self as primarily heir to flaws, decay. Only science’s Sinful Self operates in a framework in which there is no sacramental redemption. Science sees the world as rushing toward its own dissolution, and the self as the mechanistic system running down from the moment of its conception.

The Sinful-Self concept causes you to expect the worst in any given situation. In that light, hopeful expectation seems quite out of place, and unworkable. Without the dictates of the Sinful Self, however, you can begin to sense the contours of the natural self, or the natural person. You can begin to sense your own good natures, in other words, and those basic natures are automatically optimistic.

The natural person can be evoked, and its responses elicited, particularly through touching and through statements of love and affection. The Sinful Self feels it does not deserve such attention. Love is therefore surrounded very carefully by all kinds of barriers by both science and religion, and in your own lives you could now be much more demonstrative in those regards. For they offer a natural therapy.

Ruburt was not responsible for the housekeeper’s death when he was in high school. He felt such accusations, however. Even those made him question the nature of reality. They were grist for the mill. They were the way the problem was stated.

An important point here: You use consciousness—what you think of as rational consciousness—in an unusual manner. Obviously other species use their consciousnesses differently. In a fashion their knowledge is immediately acted upon. This carries with it an exquisite sense of biological and spiritual security. Your kind of consciousness, relatively speaking, involves some intrinsic difficulties, along with spectacular potentials. You are learning how to form reality from your own beliefs. While having at the same time the freedom to choose those beliefs—to choose your mental state in a way that the animals for example do not.

(Long pause.) He is learning to create whole private and public worlds that directly correspond to his own states of mind. The possible diversity and the vast assortment of the creative ventures possible mean that he had accepted certain measures of uncertainty. He hits snags.

These issues can all be encountered, however, and adequately encountered once they are clearly understood. It is not particularly necessary that Ruburt dig back into the past on purpose to discover those old feelings. Many will now surface most likely on their own in response to current events, as per this morning: the memories will not be frozen, but will move naturally into present experience, and take their natural place.