“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Long pause at 8:53.) When it seems that left alone Ruburt’s condition will only worsen, you are following those old patterns of conditioned thought, projecting negative situations into the future, imagining the unfortunate outcome or outcomes, and acting as if you operated within a closed system. You are concentrating upon the problem in order to solve it, often scaring yourselves into further depressions.

They automatically expect the best from any situation. They represent your natural persons. As Ruburt begins to understand the “artificial” characteristics of the Sinful-Self concept, then those natural characteristics of the natural person will more and more emerge. It will be, for example, less difficult to have pleasant expectations, for they will begin to bubble up by themselves into the mind.

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.

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.

(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.

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.