“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Margaret Bumbalo called before I left Jane and invited me to supper, but by then I was full. I stopped at their house to get the spaghetti for tomorrow’ s supper. Joe is almost bald from the chemotherapy, and very weak, his son John said. They had a package of books for me also. John made me a scotch and soda, like I’d had there the other evening, and I began to feel its effects in no time. By then I was actually half bombed, so I didn’t get down to typing this session until 9:50 p.m.)

Conflicting beliefs about the nature of reality can bring about dilemmas in almost any form, for the individual will always try to make sense out of his or her surroundings, and try to at least see the world as a cohesive whole.

Some of the most complicated ways of trying to put conflicting beliefs together are often mental or emotional ones. The more incohesive the individual feels the world to be, the greater his or her efforts will be expended in an attempt to put the world back together.

Some people possess beliefs that are so in opposition to each other that they are forced into some of the most complicated mental or emotional footwork. Their problem will seem so gigantic that only some interference from an outside source will be sufficient to give the individual a sense of wholeness and sanity. A person may become so frightened of using his or her own power of choice or action that the construction of an artificial superbeing is created — a seemingly sublime personage who gives orders to the individual involved.

Donald may be so terrified of making choices, so indecisive, that he constructs an imaginary superbeing who orders him to do thus and so. If a decision comes up on a job, for example, then the superbeing will order Donald to take one course or another. Donald has given up accepting responsibility for his actions. This imaginary personage may say that it is God, or a famous hero from the present or the past, or Jesus Christ, or Mohammed, and the personality involved will be quite certain that such is the case.

The individual, like Donald, has also given up the responsibility for his own choices, and feels that he or she cannot be held responsible for any destructive acts that might be committed.