“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Eddie Albert calls again today telling me he just finished Speaks, asking about world problems, starvation, good and evil, etc. [...]

[...] Science, if it bothered, might label him a fool, but fundamental religion could label him as evil, or claim his work was inspired by the devil in Christian terms, and so the old beliefs in the Sinful Self or evil self were activated. [...]

[...] “Nothing evil, but certainly a fear of letting go, of expression, maybe abandonment.” [...]

[...] And there was a tremendous effort involved individually to get spring going—to get the buds out...that the good things that we do that we don’t realize...you know we think of war—and we see all the evil we do; and that the good things we do, we often don’t realize—and that we actually form the seasons—the spring, the other seasons; and that the earth itself, the physical earth, is like the Garden of Eden in our subconscious. [...]

[...] There is no good within it in which you do not participate—and there is no evil within it in which you do not participate—and in which you have no part. [...]

On the one hand, they believe that the self is evil, and on the other they are convinced that the self should not be so. [...]

[...] I do want to point out that few crimes are committed for “evil’s sake,” but in a distorted response to the failure of the actualization of a sensed ideal.

[...] If an individual sees only evil and desolation in the physical world, it is because he is obsessed with evil and desolation and projects them outward and closes his eyes to all else. [...]

Now: There is nothing evil in the nature of Augustus Two. In spiritualistic circles however he would most certainly be interpreted as an evil spirit or guide.

[...] (Gesturing:) He believed that the individual personality was relatively powerless to understand itself and that it stood precariously alone and undefended, with a chasm of evil beneath and with an unattainable, cold, just, but not compassionate Good (with a capital “G”) above.

While this may seem like the sheerest Pollyanna, nevertheless there is no evil in basic terms. This does not mean that you do not meet with effects that appear evil, but as you each move individually through the dimensions of your own consciousness, you will understand that all seeming opposites are other faces of the one supreme drive toward creativity.

[...] It does not bother thinking in your terms of good and evil. [...]

I did not say you were evil and never would I say such a thing. [...] I said, recognize within yourself those evils that you recognize in others, but I meant only those things that in your own mind you set up as evil for you project those things upon others and make your own reality. [...]

[...] I put the word “good” in quotes for now because of your misconceptions about the nature of good and evil, which we will discuss somewhat later.²

2. Jane and I are really looking forward to Seth’s material on man’s “misconceptions about the nature of good and evil.” [...]

[...] The cats did not represent your physical cats (Mitzi and Billy Two), but old comfortable beliefs about the nature of the spontaneous self connected with ideas he picked up from his mother, in which cats represented the worst aspects of human behavior and impulses: they fawned upon you, yet were evil, and could turn against you in a moment.

[...] The Catholic Church judged evil thoughts as evil deeds, and to some extent this is valid. [...]

[...] But what you have is a learned pattern of face-saving self-deception and nefarious (with amusement) techniques, taught by parents to children; so often you pretend to want one thing, and you may say that you “will it” to happen—perhaps because what you really want is unacceptable, or so you have been taught: it is demeaning, or evil, or whatever. [...]

[...] You may discard or dismiss “what you want” as unworthy, evil, but you must first be aware of your motives. [...]

[...] If you believe that abortion is evil and have one—it will be an evil. It is not basically evil, but that makes little difference to you if you believe that it is. [...]

[...] When you think in terms of possession, you are thinking again in antiquated terms of good and evil. [...]

[...] So that beneath the whole attitude is the idea: “This is an evil food,” and be shunned as you would shun an evil person, within that framework of thought.

[...] You know the three little monkeys who sit: “see no evil” and so forth. Now you have simply hit upon the “hear no evil.” [...]

[...] You considered, in the past, joy “evil.” [...]

[...] You do not need to fear that if you allow yourselves freedom you will travel into evil ways. [...] What appears to you as evil is a result of your own ignorance. [...]

The overconscientious self is protecting the whole personality against what it considered evil. [...]

[...] Hence the Pollyanna attitude at times, a desperate attempt to cover up thoughts that are spontaneous, but that are considered evil by the conscientious self.

(3:20.) One portion may believe that sex is natural and good, while the other portion believes vehemently that sex is evil and depraved. [...] Joe B may hold the opposite viewpoint most intently — that sex is at least evil, perhaps sent by the devil, and below or beneath the dignity of a good man.

If you believe that hate is wrong and evil, and then find yourself hating someone, you may try to inhibit the emotion or turn it against yourself — raging against yourself rather than another. [...]

[...] All natural aggressive elements were denied in their natures, and any evidence of momentary hatred was considered evil and wrong. [...]

(“In this book, Seth leads the reader beyond conventional ideas of good and evil to a new framework of understanding. [...]

(Long pause at 9:25.) Some other civilizations have believed that illness was sent by demons or evil spirits, and that the world was full of good and bad spirits, invisible, intermixed with the elements of nature itself, and that man had to walk a careful line lest he upset the more dangerous or mischievous of those entities. In man’s history there have been all kinds of incantations, meant to mollify the evil spirits that man believed were real in fact and in religious truth.

[...] Tonight’s material, however, adds to our understanding of subjects like free will and choosing, good and evil, sickness and health, and reflects upon many questions people have asked us over the years.

Now: Your beliefs about what is desirable and what is not, what is good and what is evil, cannot be divorced from the condition of your body. [...] You will have definite ideas about what success or failure means, or what good or evil is.

[...] He began by believing that some of his thoughts were so evil that they must somehow be made nonexistent. [...]