“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

It is true that the Sinful Self carries with it a group of patterns or reactions; methods of dealing with problems, and so Ruburt’s beliefs along those lines have colored his reactions, his plans, his dealings with you through the years. In the past, however, those methods seemed to make sense: if you believe that the self is sinful or deceptive, then you must indeed set up barriers so that you allow expression while monitoring it very carefully at the same time.

The barriers become unnecessary when you realize that the self is not sinful. I use the word “sinful” in Ruburt’s case because of the early church connections in particular. Science’s flawed self still carries the same import, however, the idea being that while science does not deal with values, so its says, it misleads itself considerably in making such statements, for it projects the worst kind of values both upon mankind and the rest of nature—so even if you are not tainted from religion’s old beliefs, it is difficult to escape such ideas.

(Pause at 9:10.) Many of Ruburt’s beliefs have changed, but the core belief in the Sinful Self has been very stubborn. While you do not possess it in the same fashion, you are also tainted by it, picking up such beliefs from early background, and primarily from your father in that regard.

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.

Even these, however, act as automatic learning devices, and left alone they themselves trigger the necessary creative procedures that would begin corrective measures. When the belief in the Sinful Self is held, however, the very corrective measures themselves are often not trusted.

(Long pause at 9:37.) In Ruburt’s case the core belief, again, in the Sinful Self was hard to differentiate, because it could appear in many other guises. It dropped its most obvious religious coloration for some time, and could simply appear as an unusually strong dedication to work and discipline. The Sinful Self has no use for play, because it believes so fervently that left alone it will indeed be lazy or childish, or fritter itself away—or, looking at it the other way, it fears that left alone it will only play, or will be slothful. You see this most clearly in Protestant theology.