(Ruburt:) “Because you have to go beyond that group at that time. Besides, there are two people in that group who are not really friendly. While they are here in this room now, frankly, they were not friendly at that time. I was one who was friendly at that time. It is only because I was there and you were there at that time, that you can now realize this. This is apparently some kind of neurosis that you picked up that you can get over now ... and only that you progressed so far in the end that you can. You have the opportunity to make adjustments and to leave the group when the night comes. You have the same sort of thing that Jane had, but Jane is getting over it egotistically in this life. Although Jane’s ... was so strong she had to egotistically become more permissive. The sense of resistance has to do with the neurosis picked up in that time.

“In that time, you did not leave the group and you should have. Now you have the opportunity to go back and leave the group. It is as if in your terms, you see, you could go back to a period of this life where you should have acted in a different way and didn’t. Well you have the opportunity now to go back into that existence and make it different in the present. Because you can change—now this is in our physical terms—you can change what we would think of as the past through actions in our present. Do you understand me?

(Conversation back and forth between Rachel, Ruburt and others about leaving and not leaving past group and present group.

[...] The death of the old grouping now allows for the birth of a new grouping, this time a grouping that will effectively deal with the problems at hand, and that will allow the personality to develop and expand. The instructions in the book will help guide the formation of this new grouping.

That grouping has been disintegrating since the crisis point last winter. The death of that grouping is now a fact. [...]

There are still some lingerings of mourning, for the grouping was indeed vital, and adopted initially to help the personality. The grouping was doomed to failure, in that it could not succeed in helping the personality, you see, but hindered it.

[...] (Pause.) There are alliances in all levels of reality—there are attractions that reach even bright space and time, groupings of consciousness, associations, psychic attractions that hold and mold various kinds of consciousness in a loose organization. [...] These groups of consciousness range throughout history as you know it. [...]

[...] There are bonds of affection and understanding that unite this group, and a speaker may or may not be one. [...] It is not true to say that this is a religious group in any way, but it is true to say that this is a very strong alliance. [...]

(“What brings a group together?” Rob asked. “I know I’m speaking of beginnings and endings, but what causes a group of Sumari to congregate?”)

[...] The inner gestalt of the group has been opened, for one thing, and a better group unity will result. [...]

[...] This I know and this, intuitively, the other members of the group know, but your questions and the fact that you question it, this is good, here or in any other place or in any other group. [...]

Now as far as the group is concerned there is always a method in my madness, as there is a method in your own madness. The creative selves within you know what you are up to and I know what I hope this class will be up to and you must have faith in each other and trust if we are going to do the kind of group experiments that I have in mind. [...]

The Essenes, as they are known, were a surviving group from a larger and more ancient brotherhood. [...] Efforts were made to infiltrate into national or group cultures. [...] (Pause.) There were three basic groups: the one generally thought of, an offshoot in Africa, and the Asia Minor group mentioned earlier. Little contact existed between these groups, however, and gradually the inner doctrines themselves showed important variations.

(The Essene group generally known would be the Jewish sect in the Holy Land during the time of Christ, early in the first century. Historically they are thought of as a peaceful group.)

[...] (Pause.) There were other groups of Essenes, therefore, beside the one generally spoken of.

(“A connection with a family group, of one, five, three and two.” Both envelope objects refer to family groups. [...] Nor do the numbers fit our family groups completely. [...]

(Jane said she knew she was going astray in the data when I asked about the family group, although the envelope objects do mention family groups. [...]

(“For some reason I get the impression of the words organization with the family group.” Family groups are mentioned on the envelope objects, and the vaccine was distributed by the Chemung County Medical Society, an organization.

Large groups, however, simply left their cities, destroyed the force fields that had enclosed them, and joined the many groups of relatively uncivilized peoples, mating with them and bearing children. [...]

[...] Groups of people in various cycles of reincarnational activity have met crisis after crisis, have come to your point of physical development and either gone beyond it, or destroyed their particular civilization.

[...] They then began with a psychological head start as they formed new primitive groupings. [...]

[...] There was turmoil within the group, disagreement. [...] The group became divided. One portion of the group traveled to the land we now call Palestine, and the other migrated, in the next century, appearing in southern Europe.

[...] A group gathered together with Bael as their idea of God. You (Ron) were with the other group. [...]

[...] They were a peaceful, contemplative group. [...]

Then a group (perhaps this one?) goes upstairs to our apartment. [...] In this, I was with this same group in Saratoga, on Union Avenue. [...] It featured one of the girls in the group particularly. [...]

[...] (Emphatically:) These new cults and groups, however—these new cults and groups, therefore—therefore—are following the paths of genetic wisdom, opening up new areas of speculation and belief. And if some of their present beliefs are ludicrous in the light of the intellect’s reason, in the end—because [such groups] are following the dictates of value fulfillment, however feebly—they are significant. It is easy for the intellect, as you are used to using it, to see only the antics of such groups, and they can appear ridiculous in that light.

There are grass-roots organizations—cults, groups of every persuasion—growing up in your country as small groups of people together, once again, search for intellectual reasons to back up their innate emotional knowledge that life has meaning. These groups represent (long pause) the beginnings of new journeys quite as important to the species as any sea voyage ever was as man searched for new lands.

[...] First had come her reactions to a group of upsetting letters she’d received this noon: One is a 20-page missive from a mental patient who wants returned to him all of the notes, objects, manuscripts, and books of poetry he’s sent her over the years: another is from a woman who informed us that she’s writing a book dictated by Seth: a third is a long letter from a man who’s claiming us as his counterparts, for reasons we can’t agree with. [...]

These two groups, by the ears, tightened up in the manner of pulleys, affecting all areas of the body downward. [...] The right pulley, or group of ligaments, was most to blame, and it is that area that has been and is now releasing so well.

The difference between the two sides of his body—the slowness and entire stance—began initially with tension in the head and jaw area, and the considerable tightening of large groups of ligaments and muscles in the neck particularly.

Oftentimes members of various groups — military groups, church groups, hunting groups, will in another life form family relationships in which they will then work out old problems in new ways. Families must be considered as gestalts of psychic activity; they have a subjective identity, of which no particular member of the group may be aware.

[...] Overall plans for development are made, as the group members, say, of a town decide upon its destiny. Some individuals always choose to be born as a part of some group — reborn, in other words, with past contemporaries, while others, disdaining such endeavors, return in much more isolated positions.

[...] In such cases, through perhaps a group of existences, you will find yourself battling against ideas of good and evil, running about in a circle of confusion, doubt, and anxiety.

The fundamentalist Christian groups, for all of their fanaticism, at least offer some kind of temporary relief for their believers; they are “saved” through prayer and good works. Many other sects, however, offer no such comfort, as for example the Guyana group. [...]

Such groups frown upon the questioning mind. [...] Such groups try to defuse that new [true?] focusing. [...]

[...] I will use my own definition of a cult here, saying that a cult exists whenever a group forms a closed, emotionally charged mental environment in which the foundations of individuality are systematically and purposefully undermined.

[...] First of all, such groups have a built-in focus — political, civic, religious, sexual, or whatever. (Pause.) Certain members of the group express the repressed tendencies of others. Yet each is supported through a common sense of belonging, so that the group sometimes seems to have its own overall identity, in which each member plays a part. Any reader can easily discover this by examining the groups to which he or she belongs.

[...] If you belong to any particular groups, often your closest counterparts will also be there. [...] Many political, civic, educational or religious groups are composed of counterparts.

Now: I am using this group of Ruburt’s class as an example, but the same applies, again, to any group.

I mention various professions or occupations to give clear examples, but a garageman may belong to this (Tumold) group, or to any group. [...]

[...] In most cases, for instance, your hospitals, schools, and religions, as organizations, are initiated by and frequently maintained by this group.

The next group (Sumafi) deals primarily with teaching. [...]

[...] I’m downtown in the same town, with this group again. [...] Then one girl, not of the group, is crying. [...]

Earlier, one of the boys kissed me laughingly in front of the group and I laughed, delighted. [...]

Symptoms, then, disappear in blocks and groups, for they represent inner groupings of negative associations. [...]

A good core group will be gathered. [...]

[...] A lingering group of minor symptoms over a period of years would represent instances that could cause difficulty, given the proper circumstances, or rather, the improper circumstances. [...]

[...] Culture is as real and natural as trees and rocks, so see the various cultures of these three groups as natural environments of the different places or countries; and imagine, then, each group exploring the unique environment of the land into which they have journeyed. Imagine further of course that these explorations occur at once, even though communication may be faulty, so that each group has difficulty communicating with the others. Imagine, however, that there is a homeland from which our groups originally came. [...]

THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE.
GROUP DREAMS AND VALUE FULFILLMENT

[...] They also accused Iraq, with whom Iran is at war, but it’s almost certain that one of the dozen or more Iranian underground revolutionary groups is responsible. [...]

[...] Why, I wondered as I began to read, are Iranians harassing a whole group of other Iranians in such unpleasant ways—really seeking to exterminate them? [...]

(To Rachel, Sally and Theodore:) Now, you also fulfill a purpose in the group, and still in coming to the group you also pursue your own purposes. [...] I know you are not about to leave the group. Not this group. [...]

[...] And she fulfills a purpose in this class, and in this group, that is highly important, at the same time she is indeed fulfilling inner possibilities and opening roads. [...]