“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I want it understood that we are indeed dealing with two entirely different approaches to reality and to solving problems — methods we will here call the rational method and the magical one. The rational approach works quite well in certain situations, such as mass production of goods, or in certain kinds of scientific measurements — but all in all the rational method, as it is understood and used, does not work as an overall approach to life, or in the solving of problems that involve subjective rather than objective measurements or calculations.

It certainly seems that the best way to get specific answers is to ask specific questions, and the rational mind thinks first of all of something like a list of questions. In that regard, Ruburt’s response before such a session is natural, and to an extent magical, because he knows that no matter what he has been taught, he must to some degree (underlined) forget the questions and the mood that accompanies them with one level of his consciousness, in order to create the proper kind of atmosphere at another level of consciousness — an atmosphere that allows the answers to come even though they may be presented in a different way than that expected by the rational mind.

(10:24.) Ruburt kept a strong rational approach to make sure that he was keeping his psychic activity in line, because in your society this seemed the only rational thing to do (ironically). Your problems have not been solved, then, largely of course because you have taken the wrong approach, and that is because you were jointly not convinced as yet. You still held to those trained beliefs. In that regard, Ruburt has suffered more than you have.

The old beliefs, of course, and the rational approach, are everywhere reinforced, and so it does indeed have a great weight. The magical approach has far greater weight, if you use it and allow yourselves to operate in that fashion, for it has the weight of your basic natural orientation. The rational approach is the superimposed one. I think that you are both ready to understand that.

The thin, cold “rationality” that is recognized as such is instead a fake veneer covering a far deeper spontaneous rationality, and it is the existence of that magical rationality that provides the basis for the intellect to begin with. The rationality that you accept is then but one small clue as to the spontaneous inner rationality that is a part of each natural person.

The rational approach of course suits certain kinds of people better than others, even while it still carries its disadvantages. You have been living in an industrialized, scientific society, so that the benefits and the great disadvantages of the rational approach appear everywhere in the social and political world. [...]

All of this material applies to your lives in general and to Ruburt’s physical condition, because you must be clear in your minds as to your own status in that regard, and much of this material will clear the air and dissolve lingering doubts; doubts that cause both of you — but Ruburt in particular — to hold on to the rational approach in a misguided effort to maintain what he thinks of as a balanced viewpoint and open mind. It seems, because of the definitions you have been taught, that there is only one narrow kind of rationality, and that if you forsake the boundary of that narrow definition, then you become irrational, fanatic, mad, or whatever (all very emphatically).

[...] It shows you that the rules of the rational world are filled with holes. It shows you that the rational world’s views do not represent the bulwarks of safety, but are instead barriers to the full use of the intellect, and of the intuitions.

In other words, the magical approach and the so-called rational one are to be combined in a certain fashion for best results. [...] They may also, however, have quit their jobs, ignored impulses to find other work, or to take any rational approaches, and rely upon, say, the magical approach alone. [...]

[...]

The scientific framework of reference has become equated with the term “rational thinking,” to such an extent that any other slant of thought automatically seems to be irrational. [...]

[...] Science has so dominated the world of thought, however, that many nuances and areas once considered quite “rational” have become quite unrespectable. [...]

[...] Your society, however, has indeed considered the rational approach to be the masculine-favored one — so Ruburt had an additional reason in that regard to be such a proponent of the rational approach. All of the beliefs connected with the sex were of course erroneous, but they were part and parcel of that “rational” framework itself.

When you follow that so-called rational approach, however, you are bound to feel threatened, divorced from your body. [...] That rational approach goes against what I can only call life’s directives and life’s natural rhythms. [...]

[...] I hoped their errors are not rationalized, or made just for the publicity, since the psychics have to live with them. [...]

[...] Such thoughts follow “naturally” the dictums of so-called rational thought. [...]

[...] The trouble is that the rational view of life has separated man from a sense of his own power source. When he has a problem, the rational approach to its solution seems the only answer, and often, of course, it is no answer at all.

[...] You tried to rationalize your creativity, both of you, to some extent. The rational line of thought finds creativity highly disruptive, so in those terms as highly gifted creative people, you would have encountered some difficulties in any case.

Ruburt feels hopeless at times because the assumptions of the rational approach often lead in that direction, and because he has not been certain enough of himself in those other areas to get the kind of long-lasting results he wants. [...]

“I’m not quite sure of the meaning of the older handsome Navy man who stands at attention — an authority figure … whose purpose is merely to stand guard and observe; perhaps a reassurance to Rob that the rational self is there, in its true position — but standing apart, observing the magical proceedings. [...]

[...] It is highly rational, but it is not the type of rationality that people are familiar with. [...]

In the past, again, poetry was an important method of communication, but the “rationally” tuned mind suspects it. [...] People like poetry as a rule in your society only when it is dealing with conventional subjects, or directly with nature, so that in a way, now, the intuitions are used “to a rational end.”

When man really intensified “rational” thought, and developed the electric light, he lengthened the time of waking consciousness to some extent. [...]

It is basically far more rational to enjoy the summer night present to your senses than to react instead to unpleasant events separated from you in probabilities. [...]

“To me at least, poetry — like love — implies a magical approach to life, quite different from the presently accepted rational way of looking at the world. [...] It delights in forming correspondences between events that seem quite separate to the intellectually-tuned consciousness alone, and reveals undercurrents of usually-concealed actions that we quite ignore when we’re most concerned about thinking rationally. Actually, that kind of vision contains its own spontaneous rationality, and often supplies us with answers more satisfying than purely intellectual ones.” [...]

[...] It is simply that your culture puts the various elements together in ways that stress the qualities of what you refer to as rational thinking.

[...] They exist in a multidimensionality with which rational consciousness is not yet equipped to deal.

[...] (Pause.) In your terms, this action is in the process of automatically changing the nature of rational consciousness — which is, as you think of it, in a state of evolution.

[...] Your power as a rational consciousness focused in the present provides you with opportunities for creativity that you are but vaguely learning to understand. [...]

[...] She remembered Seth mentioning her book idea—on rationalism—although she didn’t have “any great feelings yet” about it—how to do it or start it. I was surprised that she was interested in a study of rationalism, since her own abilities would seriously question many of rationalism’s tenets, at least in ordinary terms.

[...] The idea of Ruburt’s book (on rationalism) is a good one because it represents creative impetus—undertaken, however, in the light of newer understanding, and I will have more to say concerning that issue. [...]

[...] The textbook division represents the workings of the intellect in the usual terms of rational thought, and in those books the qualities of the imagination, of the psyche, of poetry, of creativity, are quite lacking. [...]

Now: As I said before, also, when faced with the difficulty, the conventional, rational approach tells you to look at the problem, examine it thoroughly, project it into the future, and imagine its dire consequences — and so, faced with the idea of a disclaimer (for Mass Events), that is what you did to some extent, the two of you. [...]

[...] Ruburt mentioned those concerns, but not with the same kind of feelings that he would have, say, [last] Saturday — and when you realize that you are protected, your own intellects can be reassured enough through experience so that they do not feel the need to solve problems with the rational approach in instances where that approach is not feasible.

[...] They are in the back of your mind and what you said earlier this evening was a rationalization, for you have hidden your own fears from yourself. [...]

[...] The mind’s powers are far greater than those generally assigned to rational thought alone, as per our last (private) sessions. Rational reasoning, overdone, can for example actually limit practical use of the intellect’s faculties, and therefore serve to dim some of the mind’s scope. [...]

[...] The knower is of course always present, but the part of your culture that is built upon the notion that no such inner knowledge exists, and those foolish ideas of rational thought as the only provider of answers, therefore often limit your own use of inner abilities.

The will to live can be compromised by doubts, fears, and rationalizations.

[...] They will concentrate upon all of the dangers present in society in their own country, or in other portions of the world, until their own frightened overall concern for safety seems to be a quite natural, rational response to conditions over which they have no control.

[...] Remember, along with these passages, material I gave recently on the uses of the rational mind, and its necessary dependence upon intelligence that it cannot itself directly perceive.

An important point here: You use consciousness—what you think of as rational consciousness—in an unusual manner. [...]

[...] I’m not writing here about rationalizing the existence of one or more probable selves to account for personal shortcomings in this reality, however, but of simply using the idea to enlarge our basic notions of the human potential. [...]

[...] But it would be part of our natural way of looking at the world — a way that has been overlaid by our belief in the “rational” way of doing things. That way was proving to be not so rational at all, incidently. [...]

[...] Now, this is mainly, but only mainly, on Ruburt’s part; but it is in deep response to your early attitudes, and some of those still continue: to you it seems obvious where Ruburt “errs,” yet some of your own strategy very neatly escapes you, so that the rationalization so clear to you on Ruburt’s part, is invisible in your own case.

You withdraw your support at that point, you find all kinds of reasons, rationalizations, and you withdraw all enthusiasm, so that you effectively inhibit his enthusiasm, so hard won. [...]

[...] To some degree you both decided that you would ration your freedom. You cannot ration freedom—you have it or you give it up.

[...] Very understandable, then, that Jane, both for herself and for Seth, would write so eloquently about the disparity between her psychic abilities and “the currently scientifically-oriented blend of rationalism,” as Seth describes that quality earlier in this Session Six for The Magical Approach.

[...] Under such conditions it seems only rational to look for the worm in the apple, so to speak, and to expect pain or danger in each new experience or encounter.