“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] He considers the ulcer, in fact, more real and necessary than an arm or a leg, since his whole life now revolves about this illness.

In such a case the whole personality structure adopts such an illness as a new unifying principle, about which life activities are then centered. [...]

[...] But their reactions are entirely different, and Philip’s past life experiences prepared him for the nature of his present occupation, where he is dealing with medicinal matters.

[...] The tendency toward division in Philip’s personality shows itself in this tendency toward secrecy, which affects most deeply the nature of his home life.

Seth says that even in this life, each of us has various egos; we only accept the idea of one ego as a sort of shorthand symbolism. The ego at any given time in this life is simply the part of us that “surfaces”; a group of characteristics that the inner self uses to solve various problems. [...]

[...] I make no attempt to dominate Ruburt’s life, nor indeed would I expect him to allow it. [...]

[...] A murdered man will not be returned whole and intact to physical life [though he may return as a ‘spirit,’ believing he is still alive].

[...] In the following chapter I’ll tell you of one of the strangest experiences of my life—one in which I was swept out of the world of time and space and then, just as suddenly, thrown back into it again.

[...] There are multitudinous levels that can be plunged into, with various life forms, diverse and alien, but nevertheless interconnected and dependent one upon the other. [...]

[...] Overall, however, in the animals illness and disease play a life-giving role, keeping balance both within a species and between them, therefore insuring the future existence of all involved.

[...] The cycles of health and disease are felt as rhythms of the body by the large variety of animals, and even with them illness or disease has life-saving qualities on another level.

[...] Disease in itself on that level is a part of the life-survival process, and a system of checks and balances. [...]

[...] Both you and Stephen shall have gained, and better now than later: for you cannot live your physical life in such a fashion. [...]

[...] A man, sometimes mustached, brown hair and mustache, in the prime of life. [...]

[...] (Pause.) There are also other-life connections that enter in here. [...]

[...] A man who believes life has little meaning quickly leaves life—and a meaningless existence could never produce life (intently). Nor was the universe created for one species alone, by a God who is simply a supervision of the same species—as willful and destructive as man at his worst.

[...] Events and experiences which are forgotten, or which escaped the physically-oriented ego, still affect your activities in this life, and if they did not your physical existence would be brief indeed. [...]

[...] The individual in physical life shows his surface face, so to speak, outward. [...]

Strong abilities show themselves, and Ruburt’s inner life is a full and rich one, his inner perceptions well-developed. [...]

[...] You take its usual transmission in daily life for granted, overlooking the fact that all the physical aspects of its transmission and appearance serve to hide its basic non-materiality, and that words and printed data and moving pictures, all visual or physical symbols, are not the knowledge itself. [...]

“Now: Either life has meaning or it does not. It cannot sometimes have meaning, and sometimes not—or man’s life cannot have meaning while the lives of other species do not. [...]

[...] Its power comes from the source that gives it its life.

[...] Such a program will have effects in your life also, Joseph. [...]

Now, because it seemed to you for so long that you could not move freely in your own life, that you did not paint full time, you got in the habit of automatically viewing all change as negative. [...]

[...] That is not the nature of life or of existence.

The difficulty showed itself in Ruburt in keeping with the style of life that you were both accustomed to. [...]

[...] He did not choose for example a way of action, even physically, that would go against your style of life or ideas, but cleverly wove these into ideas you both initially deeply believed in. [...]

[...] He did not rob her of her own life by being born.

(Long pause, eyes closed.) Such attitudes and dire misinterpretations often occur as mistakes in reading life, as if you insert an extra vowel or syllable that does not belong, but change the interpretation of an entire passage. [...]

You are practically aware in everyday life now of a self who watches the self. [...]

[...] This is a fairly automatic tendency of his mental life. [...]

Here Seth’s impressions had been quite literal, as if the words on the bill were coming to life and being described as objects instead of as words describing objects. [...]

[...] Seth did give material pertaining to objects also, but he was more apt to give specific information on Dr. Instream’s daily life.

Here are a few excerpts from that session: “In a portrait,” Seth said, “do the same exercise as given earlier: [that is], imagine the individual as the center of all life, so that when the painting is completed, it automatically suggests the whole universe of which the individual is part. [...]

[...] The awareness of plant life is also somewhat like that of the subject in deep trance. Except for the suggestion and stimulus received by regular natural forces on your plane, the plant life does not bestir itself in other directions. [...]

[...] The inner senses of all plant life are well attuned, alert and very vital. [...]

[...] The awareness of plant life lies along these lines.

[...] Through the development of these abilities, the sacredness of all life will be intimately recognized and appreciated.

(“There were three men whose lives became confused in history and merged, and whose composite history became known as the life of Christ…. [...]

[...] Yet some exploits of his in his earlier life have been attributed to Christ — not as a young man, but earlier.

[...] Physically then, brain mappings will be possible in which past-life memories are evoked. [...]

“Individual life, or the life of the present individual, could be legitimately compared to the dream of an entity. [...]

[...] These levels are indeed filled with what may be termed life-giving differentiated and undifferentiated impulses acquired in the present life of an individual, but when these have been passed there are many discoveries still to be made. [...]

Ruburt is not myself now, in his present life. [...]

[...] The survival or nonphysical personality has somewhat the same relationship to the ego as the dreaming personality has to it in physical life.

Ideally speaking, your impulses lead you in your own proper direction, knowing the shape of your life, and your abilities and your needs. [...]

The problems arise in response to ideas that you once accepted as facts of life —ideas that have indeed exerted great sway—ideas that are responsible for much of the world’s woe. [...]