“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“Now, if you find yourself with a headache, say immediately, ‘That is in the past. Now in this new moment, this new present, I am already beginning to feel better.’ Then immediately turn your attention away from the physical condition. Concentrate upon something pleasant, or begin another task.

We had a new student that evening, and someone made the remark that Seth could be quite stern. Now he said, jokingly, “I have been drastically maligned this evening, and so I come to show our new friend here that I am a jolly fellow. That, at least, was my initial intention. Now it has changed. For I must tell you again that the inner self, acting spontaneously, automatically shows the discipline that you do not as yet understand.”

“The whole focus of the personality can shift from constructive areas to a concentration of main energies in the area of the impeding action, or illness. In such a case, the illness actually represents a new unifying system. Now, if the old unifying system of the personality is broken down, the illness serving as a makeshift temporary emergency measure may hold the integrity of the personality intact until a new, constructive unifying principle replaces the original.

“Illness could not be called an impeding action unless it persisted long after its purpose was served. Even then you could make no judgment without knowing all the facts . . . for the illness could still serve by giving the personality a sense of security, being kept on hand as an ever-present emergency device in case the new unifying system should fail.

According to Seth, each case of senility is different, but generally speaking, the personality transfers the vital parts of consciousness into the next area of existence, and is often fully aware there, and functioning. Gradually the personality’s mental focus leaves this life and begins to operate entirely on another level. The physical disease—the hardening of the arteries—is caused by the personality’s gradual refusal to accept new physical stimuli, thus avoiding physical experience (either purposefully or through error). People who are terrified of physical death might take this path, since when physical death occurs, consciousness is already acquainted with its new environment and the organism’s death is relatively meaningless. In any case, the individual’s inner decision causes the physical symptoms, not the other way around.

You can even continue some symptoms after death. For example, Miss C, who lived in our apartment house, finally died of hardening of the arteries. One night I found myself out of my own body in a strange house—strange because while it was extremely old-fashioned, somehow it looked brand-new. Miss C was just going out the door as I arrived. She was very distracted. Suddenly I “knew” that the house was an hallucination she had created, a replica of her childhood home, and I knew that she did not realize she was dead.

For the envelope test in Session 300 (which is described in Chapter Eight), the target item was a scrap of paper torn from The New York Times of November 7, 1966. Note the words “Election Day” and the models on the major portion of the page, which Seth alluded to in giving his impressions of the fragment. (Rich Conz)