“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In a manner of speaking, the man’s feet touch the ground but they do not touch the fire. The man believes his feet will not be burned. That belief generates certain actions or events, so that practically speaking, while he sees the flames, and perhaps smells the smoke, the heat of the fire will have no effect—because for him its character is changed. He ignores the evidences of his senses.

For him, the area taken up by the fire becomes “dimensionally neutral.” For the time of his walk that space is empty. In a manner of speaking, again, he erases the fire’s practicality, so that it can have no effect.

Our firewalker turns off the fire—for himself, however, though its form, like the turned-off light bulb, remains. His faith is the power that neutralizes the fire.

(The matter of fire ants had come up when we watched the TV show, In Search Of at 2:30 this afternoon. It had featured the explosive growth of fire ants, up from Brazil in the 1930’s, and now threatening to spread over most of the United States. [...] I also saw correlations between the spread of the fire ants and the spread of the “killer bees” —also up into this country from Brazil—at the same time. [...]

[...] Is this in reference to the program we saw on TV this afternoon, about fire ants?”)

The light of fire has a soothing effect upon his nervous system, a relaxing effect. Not only fire is involved here, however. [...]

[...] There is one question however that I will indeed answer now, and it has to do with the delight with which he views fire.

[...] He has simply discovered that fire affected him in this manner. [...]

Earlier I mentioned fire, which was intellectually grasped by man and therefore materialized in the world of matter. Previously the dream world symbolically used fire only in terms of its power to transform matter. Man was not able to see fire earlier in terms of beneficial warmth or comfort. He could not for example in his dream universe then manipulate fire, except in terms of what he considered destruction.

With his intellectual appreciation of the benefits of fire that followed his physical mastery of it, then his dream universe became enriched with a new freedom. [...]

[...] Fire, for example, is a symbol made physical, so a real fire tells you obviously that you are perceiving reality with your physically attuned consciousness.

(9:33.) A mental picture of a fire automatically tells you that another kind of consciousness is involved. A fire mentally seen that has warmth but does not burn destructively obviously means something else. [...]

[...] In your mind, that is a romantic gesture, and when he makes a comment about fire, there are several unconscious implications that you make, and that in the past have been understood by both of you at an unconscious level. [...] You interpret his remark about the candle to mean that he is rejecting deep, romantic feelings of yours, and needs; and also that the fire means that these needs are dangerous—his fear of fire being a symbol for “Danger!”. [...] They can cause a fire that we cannot control, fires being obviously destructive.”

[...] I said I was glad that candles were “in,” because I loved to light them, and the few times I did so, at birthday parties or Christmas, Jim always got upset, mentioning the fire hazard—even when we had guests for dinner.)

[...] When you light the candle, you are testing him to see how far he will go with you, and when he makes the fire remark, you take it as a rejection of the entire romantic self, and the romantic situation. [...]

[...] The symbol of fire for example as a dream symbol, simply did not exist in the way that it does now to men born before mankind learned to use fire for warmth, or to cook his food.

The old symbol of fire still does exist, fire as mysterious grandeur or destruction. [...]

Now: An open fire elicits certain responses from the cells⁴ that, for instance, a furnace does not. [...] The stimulation is much more than skin deep, however, and an open fire is cleansing. [...]

[...] I am saying that in wintertime there are definite health-value effects to be felt when you sit in front of an open fire. [...]

[...] You allowed yourselves to feel enthusiasm and expectation, and you fired each other. [...]

The reality, the physical reality, of fire was such a contribution made by the physical universe to the universe of dreams. Physical man, observing fire, dreamed of it, thereby immeasurably enriching the universe of dreams. His discovery in the physical universe of domesticating fire was another such contribution to the dream universe.

(In mid-February, Richard Kearns finally called Jane, to tell her he’d been fired from Gallery. [...]

[...] The rich and poor alike are provided with fire protection and police protection. [...]

Though you paid little taxes, the fire and police protection were not withdrawn, and all of the services continued. [...]

[...] There was a fire burning in a circle of stone at our feet, and we all held long poles like broom handles. I dropped a lighted match into a littered ashtray, which flamed up; when I tried to put the fire out I found I couldn’t.

(Then I was watching the fire spread in the stone fireplace. [...]

[...] Ideas sweep like fire among the people. [...]

(Some theoretical physicists have postulated recently that when the nuclear fires of very massive stars are finally extinguished, their enormous gravity causes them to collapse so completely that they literally squeeze themselves out of existence. [...]

[...] (Long pause, eyes closed, then open.) A death by drowning, rather than fire. [...]

There was a death by fire on two occasions. [...]

(Janet Clifton now told us that she has always had a fear of fire. [...]

[...] A portion of a stove had been left on; and though there was no danger of fire, the child was afraid of fire. [...]

[...] Jane and I have always made it a policy to have a carbon of any written material—prose, poetry, etc., in separate hands outside of our house, as a protection against loss by accident, fire, etc.

Fire.

[...] (Pause.) As a matter of fact, however, early man was a natural night dweller, and early developed the uses of fire for illumination, carrying on many activities after dark, when many natural predators slept. [...]

(10:00.) In any case, man was not by any means exclusively a daytime creature, and fires within caves extended activities far into the night. [...]

There was a death by fire on two occasions. [...]

(Jean Kluft now told us that she has always had a fear of fire. [...]