“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We must go much further into this particular subject. Nevertheless it must be clearly understood that thoughts and emotions are actualities in themselves, that directly work upon the physical mechanism. Any thought or emotion is bound to directly affect the physical body. Because thoughts and emotions, as electrical actualities, are independent from their subjective point of origin, a given thought or emotion, initiated by an individual, may be rejected by him and cast out. If the thought or emotion is similar to those usually accepted, then this will take time, for new electrical patterns must be set up. But an idea, thought or emotion so rejected still has independent actuality, and may be attracted to the emotional climate of another.

Various emotional factors within each personality cause what we may call a characteristic emotional climate. Certain types of thoughts and emotions are entertained therein. Since these are electrical actions, they set up strong electrical fields of attraction within the personality, easy electric paths. Uncharacteristic thoughts or emotions must then meet with some resistance. Habit, then, has not only a psychological, but an electrical and psychological nature and implication.

So does the personality, through negative charges, cause boundaries to be set about its own emotional system. It will accept most readily those thoughts and emotions, or electric actions, which attract it, which have a similarity to its own charged emotional climate; and it will have greater resistance to those which have the greatest dissimilarities. It is, therefore, most advantageous to study well those thoughts and emotions which are habitually accepted by any given personality.

Thought and emotion then, is not only generally related to the physical mechanism, but as electrical actions, thoughts and emotions act directly upon the system. Again here you see, however, that it is the individual himself who initiates his own emotional climate, and then suffers or enjoys the results.

[...] In your relationship you inhibited the expression of joyful and loving emotions first. You were not afraid as much of negative emotions, briefly, because in your family your father found safety in negative emotions. By the denial of hope and the inhibition of joyful emotions he tried to protect himself against disappointment or defeat.

[...] To the both of you, unconsciously, an emotional encounter means an encounter with unpleasant emotions. You have both done a job of hiding your emotions from each other, even more than your thoughts.

Now Ruburt took this out physically, and blocked emotions, not from the distant past but a current life-habit, now shows these blocked emotions. Again, he suffers more from the lack of rich emotional interaction than you; he is less able to take it.

[...] You are instead giving into old patterns of emotion, and you can break this habit. You are afraid then not of the negative emotional release—which meant, to the degree mentioned, safety—but of the joyful loving emotions. [...]

[...] (Pause.) Your beliefs generate emotion. It is somewhat fashionable to place feelings above conscious thoughts, the idea being that emotions are more basic and natural than conscious reasoning is. The two actually go together but your conscious thinking largely determines your emotions, and not the other way around. Your beliefs generate the appropriate emotion that is implied. [...] Your emotions do not betray you. [...]

You are not at the mercy of your emotions, either, for they are meant to follow the flow of your reasoning. [...] If your beliefs about existence are fearful, then the emotional reactions will be those leading to stress. [...]

(Pause at 10:22.) Here the belief itself will generate the negative emotions that will, indeed, bring about a physical or emotional illness. [...]

If emotion could be trusted above conscious reasoning then there would be little point in aware thought at all. [...]

In the psychological realm it goes without saying that a repressed emotion is never really repressed, since action cannot be retained. [...] The cause of such difficulties lies not in the repression of an emotion, for this is impossible. The emotion in one way or another, will out, but the difficulty lies in the attempt to repress the emotion. [...]

The rejected emotion, in other words, will express itself in any case, but it will do so then as a rebel, outside of the organizational directives of the ego itself. Hence for example, actions that appear senseless to the ego are often the results of such unassimilated or denied emotions. At one time or another such emotions were acceptable to the ego. There was an attraction, or the emotion would not have been permitted to enter into a realm close to ego control.

Emotions are a quite natural portion of action, and left to themselves are fluid. [...] When an attempt is made to reject an emotion, this does not affect the emotion half as much as it affects the individual involved. [...]

The habitual pattern or characteristic nature of the ego may then be led to refuse to accept an emotion, at the same time that a pattern has already been set to receive the particular type of emotion. [...] Such an emotion may of course be given release through dreams, but this is of limited value to the ego involved, since the ego does not accept the reality of dream existence.

The commercial art served your emotions quite simply. It allowed you to release your emotions in stereotyped impersonal ways. Some situations, drawn, might be of highly charged areas—the Spillane strips, for example—yet the release of the emotion was stereotyped. You knew that one of Ruburt’s purposes would be to insist upon the expression of your emotions to him personally. [...]

You have always wanted, in this life, to express yourself emotionally in that fashion. You taught him how to direct his emotions in his work. Because of the tensions and the challenges, however, and for other reasons having to do with this existence, Ruburt became worried that you would not relate to him in the emotional way that his nature demanded. You asked me how you could relate to him emotionally. [...]

[...] The two of you, now, chose that aspect of your lives together in this life, to help you understand the meaningful relationship between spontaneity as connected with the emotions and creativity, and discipline as connected with the intellectual: to feel and understand the creative tension that connects them both, to learn the personal aspects of emotional relationships as they affect others, and the reflection of the emotions into creative endeavor. [...]

[...] You would help him mold and direct his own strong emotional nature. [...] He would have gone, and has gone, to considerable lengths to allow you to freely begin to express your emotional reality to him.

The emotions will not feel like stepchildren, with only the best-dressed being admitted. [...] Now, again, some of you will say that your trouble is that you are too emotional, too sensitive. [...] In such cases you are afraid of your emotions. [...]

(10:27.) No matter how open it may seem that you are, you will nevertheless accept certain emotions that you think of as safe, and ignore others, or stop them at particular points, because you are afraid of following them further. [...] You will accept only those emotions that appear to be in keeping with your ideas of youth. [...] You consider yourself quite emotional, perhaps.

When you refute such emotions or become terrified of them, you impede the flow of feeling from one moment to the other. [...] Any emotion will change into another if you experience it honestly. [...]

If this strikes you as too intellectual a method, then you can also work backward from your emotions to your beliefs. [...] Both approaches require honesty with yourself, and a firm encounter with the mental, psychic and emotional aspects of your current reality.

[...] This is the kind of thing I have been speaking of—the avoidance of a direct confrontation with those (in quotes) “negative emotions” blocks out the one emotional (in quotes) “solution”: an emotional statement on your part that counters it—a meeting of emotions.

The expressed (underlined) emotional anger, accusation or hurt on Ruburt’s part would automatically, or should, bring out in you an answering emotional statement. Answering in that any hurts or reasons on your part would be expressed with feeling, and the way cleared for an emotional statement of love, regret, or on both of your parts an emotional expression of sorrow for having hurt the other.

Instead you get to the point where the emotion barely surfaces and you say “Oh, yes, that came from such and such.” [...] Now you both handled emotional situations involving you both more or less in the same manner. You still do not want to feel and counter the emotions on their level.

I want to get around your basic fears that emotional freedom is automatically the feeling of negative emotions, though you may initially begin there. [...]

Emotional reasoning however rises far above this. The inner highly precise nature of the in quotes “emotional intellect” is hidden from you, for the physical intellect cannot follow it. The emotional intellect therefore would seem chaotic. [...]

[...] Emotion, a particular emotion as you know it, is the result of information and deductions already made of which you are aware. Because all of this information is not available to the brain, it sees the emotion as a sudden thing, appearing within the brainscape’s reach, often unexplainable and therefore to some extent threatening.

The emotional intellect for example is not time-oriented, and this alone makes no sense to the physical brain. [...] Now this information is helpful to your development, and we shall continue to discuss it, for you can to some degree, with my aid, understand how this emotional intellect works if you try to understand the material intuitively, use your imagination with it, and try to feel it out.

Emotions, to the brain, are also somewhat frightening, because of their vividness, which seems out of order to the brain. To the brain something in the past seems dim, yet an emotional feeling that occurred in the past may suddenly appear again within the brainscape’s awareness, as vividly as its first occurrence, and the brain feels disoriented. [...]

(To me:) Because you are so drawn to Ruburt, there is the struggle to actualize your emotions toward him in daily life. This of course superimposed on your early fear of emotionalism in this life. Part of your artistic impetus does come from this inhibited emotion, but fresh impetus is received when the emotion is allowed to go outward toward Ruburt; and through Ruburt, acting as a symbol to you, to the world at large.

[...] He is more emotionally attuned than you, in that it is easier for him, when coming out of his private world, to rush toward you with spontaneity. You are both equally dependent however, basically, on this necessary emotional refreshment. [...] (Smile.) Without your feeling toward Ruburt and the resulting urge to emotionally actualize yourself to another personality, your background could have prevented even artistic development. [...]

The emotional basis does not limit the quality or extent of the. [...] The information is carried along in the emotional stream. [...]

On the other hand your relationship teaches Ruburt to direct and mold his strong emotional feelings into meaningful, productive work. [...] You should be alert however to the fact that emotional actualization in daily life is necessary, even though at times it will be much stronger than others, for the reasons given.

[...] The emotional feelings connected with an item are as real to me as the item itself. It is these emotional charges that are interpreted, and finally translated into physical terms.

In other words, the emotional charges allow me to hunt for the item that you want me to identify. [...] I identify first of all with the emotional realities, for these are the only basic realities to me. [...]

[...] The answer of course will be picked up in the same manner, through emotional force. [...] To call this telepathy tells you nothing however, for all such information is the result of emotional force.

[...] Color is closer to emotional experience than shape. [...] The connections between color and emotion are too obvious to discuss here.

In helping Ruburt do so you will also find your own emotional nature released and enriched. Ruburt feels emotions deeply, hence the repression of them causes such difficulties. It is the conscientious self, incidentally, who attaches the idea of good and bad to emotions. [...]

It was his emotional nature however and spontaneity that opened your eyes to the necessity for emotional expression. [...] Letting him know that you are not afraid of emotional expression on his part is most important.

[...] He would do anything then to avoid an emotional scene. Emotions belonged to parents, who were unreasonable.

[...] He repressed the emotions (underlined) in an effort to show improvement.

(10:17.) In man, again, generally speaking, reason and emotion become separated so that man can think about his emotions, or emotionally feel his reasoning thoughts. [...] In human health difficulties, usually, the paths taken by reasoning and emotions become, say, too divergent, so that the reasoning mind says one thing and the emotions say something else. Fears as emotions are not reasonably considered, and thoughts are not emotionally tinged.

In your case, I meant to mention (in the last session) that the time of taxes has some involvement with your difficulties, for reason tells you they must be paid, while your emotions are resentful. [...]

[...] You are not your emotions. You have emotions as you have bacon for breakfast. You are not the bacon—and you are not your emotions. [...] You are as independent of your thoughts and your emotions as you are of the bacon and the eggs. You use the bacon and the eggs in your physical composition; and you use your emotions and your thoughts in your mental composition. [...] Then, do not identify with your emotions or your thoughts. [...] But the bacon goes through your physical system and the thoughts of emotion, left alone, will pass through your psychic system. [...]

[...] You are not physical matter; you are not your thoughts; you are not your emotions. You have emotions; you have thoughts; you have a physical body—but you are far more than these. [...] Use the emotions. [...]

Now, emotions flow through you like storm clouds—or like blue skies—and you should be open to them and react to them—and let them pass. You are not your emotions. [...]

[...] (One minute pause, eyes closed.) The girl’s emotional condition the other evening acted indeed like a psychological bridge, over which Ruburt could pass. [...] Emotional patterns are quite wordless. [...]

[...] You are afraid of emotional demonstrations, as you know. At the same time the withheld emotional energy acts as a propellant, you see.

[...] This does not mean that I do not sense you emotionally, that you do not impress me in that manner. For many reasons having to do with such necessary cautions, I have not tried to impress you particularly with my own emotional existence, nor to communicate in that manner. [...]

[...] The intensity is emotional. [...]

[...] You listen to the words and that is all, but the power behind the words, and the power behind the voice, is emotional power and emotional energy and it represents, again, energy that is within each of you and there is no need to be afraid of it. [...] And why should you try to be psychically educated while closing yourself off emotionally from the others who come to class for you all have put up barriers between yourselves. You must learn to recognize and use and pool your emotional energy. [...]

[...] You have various gradations of intellectuals; you have various gradations of those who are willing to express some emotions; you have some of those who are willing to disappear at the drop of a hat, and I am looking at no one in particular. I am the only one who expresses any emotions and I am supposed to be dead. [...]

[...] You are beginning to reach out and accept emotional realities. [...] The concepts are important but the emotional realities are the basis of your existence and you cannot deny them. [...]

Now you are all out of touch with your own emotions. [...]

You will automatically begin to inhibit any stimulus that might bring about forceful emotions, and so deny yourself needed feedback. You are at the mercy of your emotions only when you fear them. [...] But when you are unaware of the contents of your conscious mind, and not fair with your emotions, you run into difficulty.

[...] She called to tell Ruburt that she had lost her job this morning; but more than this, that she was involved in a week of very negative circumstances and emotional encounters. [...] Finally she became ill and emotionally overwrought. [...]

[...] They express emotional reactions to beliefs. [...] She is to say, “I feel inferior,” and at the same time to understand that the feeling is not a statement of fact but of emotion. [...]

Experiencing your emotions as such is not the same as accepting them as statements of fact about your own existence. Andrea is then supposed to ask, “Why do I feel so inferior?” If you deny the validity of the emotion itself and pretend it away, then you will never be led to question the beliefs behind it.

The particular words are not important, but the emotion behind them is important, for they will—the words and the emotions—be reflected in every muscle of the face, as well as in the thrust of the head and the hands. [...]

The face, in intense (underlined) joy and in intense terror, may often be much the same, but the emotion still will speak within it, and you will know clearly despite the similarity of some muscular effects, which emotion is being expressed.

[...] It is the emotions beneath (smile) that give meaning to the image, and yet these emotions are held and contained and given direction and force by and through the image. [...]

[...] You can build form or a structure with lines, or a face, and leave it and wait for the emotion to fill it up, and then quickly with a touch here and there bring out that which has appeared, the movement that was within the form, that you barely sensed. Or you can perceive the movement, the emotion and the power first, and then paint the form that grows about it to form it. [...]

The shifting of polarity occurs in rhythm with changing emotional intensities, or emotional energies, if you prefer. The “initial” originating emotional energy that sets any given unit into motion, and forms it, then causes the unit to become a highly charged electromagnetic field with those characteristics of changing polarities just mentioned. [...] But the rhythms have to do with the nature of emotional energy itself, and not with the laws of matter.

[...] Now these intensities of emotional energy, forming the units, end up by transforming all available space into what they are. Certain intensities and certain positions of polarity between and among the units and great groupings of the units compress energy into solid form (resulting in matter). The emotional energy within the units is obviously the motivating factor, and you can see, then, why emotional energy can indeed shatter a physical object. [...]

The units so charged with intensive emotional energy formed patterns for matter that retained their strength. Now these units, while appearing within your system, may also have a reality outside it, propelling the emotional energy units through the world of matter entirely. [...]

[...] The initiation point is the originating, unique, individual, and specific emotional energy that forms any given unit. [...]

[...] He has a rich emotional nature, and he responds emotionally. [...]

His attempt to have you encourage him up and down and running, is a not-too-well disguised attempt for further emotional involvement on your part. [...] However often he simply feels lonely—not necessarily for your physical presence, for you are often in the house, but for emotional recognition that you are apt to forget about.

[...] But the spontaneous emotional character warms up, brightens, and refreshes what can be a morose inner self at times. Therefore your emotional response to him is important for that reason.

[...] The emotional quality of furniture appeals to him, and without knowing it the emotional qualities of space do also.

[...] It is highly possible that the emotional part—and perhaps even what we think of as the display— are necessary in some cases—or are of great help. [...] Recall; it is only the first less emotional part that yielded the precise information as far as I know. I do think that when we get the notes, I should just have Barb write out yes or no to the points given; very professional and purposely unemotional but I do want to know if that emotional bit added anything data-wise or not.

[...] Barb and I drank our stingers and divided Rob’s. She talked about her past; suicide attempts, miscarriages, operations; very emotionally charged. I gave myself the suggestion that I would only react to constructive suggestions, to offset her emotional attitude. [...]

[...] Again I saw nothing; no images; but I was oddly unprotected; the emotional state was not a bit pleasant as I was screaming over this episode, apparently a past one of Barb’s. With Seth, for example, I feel nothing. [...] “I” was taken over by the emotional mood so that it was difficult to snap back. [...]

[...] At the end I was inside an emotion; I didn’t feel “possessed” by Barb for instance or taken over by another; but I did feel and was immersed in an emotion not my own, and a very unpleasant frightening one for which I wasn’t prepared—again, at least consciously.