“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] They experience this oneness with their own growth, and they also experience pain. The pain however while definite, unpleasant and sometimes agonizing, is not of an emotional nature in the same way that you might experience pain.

[...] In a manner this somewhat approximates pain for a tree.

[...] Pain and pleasure, the strongest aspects of all consciousness, are experienced strongly by every fragment, according to its degree. [...]

[...] Had you not left at all circumstances would have been far worse in any case, and your parents might have suffered another, but this time fatal, accident. [...]

“Without this acquiescence to even painful stimuli, the structure would never maintain itself, for the atoms and molecules within it constantly accept such stimuli, and joyfully suffer even their own destruction. [...]

Now Seth comes to this point, very important in his theories: “This acquiescence to even painful stimuli is a basic part of the nature of consciousness. Action does not differentiate between pleasant, painful, or joyful stimuli. [...]

[...] In the following excerpts from a private session, he explains the biological and psychic elements of pain and consciousness and also states that illness itself is sometimes a purposeful activity.

[...] The self does not want to give up a portion of itself, even while that portion may be painful or disadvantageous. [...]

[...] Obviously this didn’t always apply, since some people became chronically ill, or died, or suffered devastating illnesses —but for the most part whatever helpings they managed to achieve came about through subconscious mental and bodily processes. [...]

[...] She has been sleeping pretty well for the most part these days, but has had a great deal of soreness in her arms [and some spontaneous jerking movements accompanied by shooting pains; it seems the arms are lengthening somewhat]. [...]

Now the body has suffered its difficulties, and there is no way out of it except to understand that there are difficulties of growth, regrettable at certain levels in particular—but growing pains nevertheless, extending over a period of time, tensions resulting over a person’s natural tendencies toward value fulfillment and knowledge. [...]

[...] In its way science went along very nicely by postulating man in a mechanistic world, with each creature run by an impeccable machine of instinct, blind alike to pain or desire.

[...] When love is denied its natural expression, creativity suffers. [...]

In this case the child did not dare slap the parent, for even the slightest move upon the mother’s bed, the slightest most unintentional motion, made the mother cry out in pain. [...]

[...] For these reasons it pains him deeply to write, even to an editor, words that are not docile.

[...] Now the present personality suffers pangs of remorse over the slightest imagined wrong it may do to another.

Now, he does not send quite normal letters of inquiry to editors for the same reason, turning the aggression he feels inward against himself, and as a result in a few cases suffering, as far as the editors are concerned, since some of them move only when pushed.

[...] Your father planked the hot shoe upon the foot and you screamed, thinking of the horse’s pain. [...]

[...] It would not have been so serious except that in the stable as a child, you could not understand how or why your father would so inflict pain upon the horse, slamming the hot shoe upon the wounded foot. [...]

[...] The nail I stepped on penetrated rather deeply through the sole of my shoe, but was not very painful; but since it was rusty we thought it best to get a tetanus shot. [...]

[...] But I ended up with the cold chills, and for the next week was in often severe pain in the joints and muscles. [...] The worst part of the whole thing was that I developed urinary difficulties during the malaise: urination became very painful indeed, and I had a strong sense of blockage and impairment at times. [...]

That area has also suffered because of your joint ideas of what artists should be like, and what men and women who happen to be artists should be like. [...]

[...] If they have not gone far enough, then they have not followed through sufficiently so that these physical disasters could truly be suffered without pain.

[...] The fact remains that millions of human beings who follow and practice Buddhism are told, as many religions tell their followers, “Better worlds are to come, so ignore this agony, and this hunger, and this pain, and the murder in the streets. [...]

[...] In their own way symptoms frequently operate, actually, as repetitive neurological ritual, meant to protect the sufferer from something else that he fears even more.

[...] There is a medicine, however, that will stop his pain. [...]

5. I thought of Seth’s material on pain and suffering, as presented in Appendix 12. [...]

[...] Although it might be difficult for us to understand, let alone accept, the whole self or entity must regard all of its counterparts as sublime facets of itself — no matter whether they loved, suffered,⁵ hated, or killed each other or “outsiders.” [...]

[...] It suffers no guilt. [...] The consciousness of the mouse, under the innate knowledge of impending pain, leaves its body. [...]

2. Seth is certainly right when he says that “senility is a mental and physical epidemic,” considering the many millions of people who have suffered — and perished — from it in the past. [...]

[...] Nor did I merely wish he would change just so that I could avoid the pain I felt watching him deteriorate. [...]

It was, however, like a second, more painful adolescence. [...]

[...] (Pause.) If so, he will see to it that she does not suffer.

[...] We’re told again and again that technically we’re on the verge of producing artificial versions of many bodily parts, as well as microcomputers that will be implanted within the body to regulate its performance; these advances, plus our “conquering” of disease, pain, and suffering, plus genetic engineering, will soon make it possible for human beings to live indefinitely. [...]

[...] There is also an ability to endure unpleasantness, or even pain, if he believes it is for a great-enough principle.

[...] For what he believes in he will try to jump any hurdle, and be willing to suffer almost any indignity. [...]

[...] Without this ego elasticity, that is without the ability of the ego to assume control and to guide Ruburt back, immediately reassuming control, we would be in for much less peaceful sessions, and the quantity and quality of the overall material would suffer. [...]

Your work, Joseph, is a synthesis of pain as well as pleasure. [...]

[...] However you might be attracted enough to project yourself spontaneously into the body of one of the soldiers, in which case you could experience pain, until your own fear pulled you back. [...]

[...] Nor can we check with Miss Callahan, who has suffered a considerable loss of memory as a result of a series of strokes since 1964.

Much in these passages fits in with material I’ve presented in Appendix 12, on the reasons behind the pain and suffering in the world. [...]

It hurt him of course to perform the up and down motions particularly, and he interpreted this to mean that you wanted him to torture and humiliate his body further by forcing it to feel the pain, and that in doing so he was punishing it further. [...]

The class sessions incidentally, served to keep the spontaneity available, for the spontaneity of our own sessions suffers when your own relationship is less than the both of you accept. [...]