“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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. I watched my father go through the ravages of senility; he died in November 1971, at the age of 81. See Jane’s very evocative passages about him, as well as my drawing of him in old age, in Part Three of her book of poetry, Dialogues.

Now, there’s very recent discussion in medical circles that many cases of senility are caused by a “slow virus infection,” rather than just heredity or the traditional aging and oxygen starvation of the brain. The hope, and the unproven speculation, are that eventually such an infection might be treatable medically. But either way (whether senility arises through aging or infection), beliefs would come first, helping the whole body maintain its healthy performance well into old age, or encouraging it to deteriorate unnecessarily.

(Pause at 11:56.) The illnesses generally attributed to all different ages are involved. Those of the elderly, again, fit in with your social and cultural beliefs, the structure of your family life. Old animals have their own dignity, and so should old men and women. Senility is a mental and physical epidemic — a needless one. You “catch” it because when you are young you believe that old people cannot perform. There are no inoculations against beliefs, so when young people with such beliefs grow old they become “victims.”²

The beliefs people acquire when young can be changed, of course, and according to Seth (and the ideas Jane and I have also) this process of change would be the best “inoculation” there is against senility. As I watched my father grow older, with an accompanying progressive loss of memory and function, I used to wonder why he didn’t consciously revise his response to life — and why I never saw any indication that he wanted to. I clearly sensed that it was possible for him to improve his beliefs about life, and that the benefits from such a course of action would be great. Nor did I merely wish he would change just so that I could avoid the pain I felt watching him deteriorate. My father’s chosen withdrawal from the world was all too plain for everyone to see. In our imperfect understanding, Jane and I and other family members saw this process go on: We did not feel there was much any of us could do.

[...] Many instances of expansion of consciousness, and mental and psychic growth, are interpreted by you as senility. No important correlations have been made between the subjective experiences of the old, particularly in “senile” conditions, with those of other ages involved in expansion of consciousness, whether natural or drug induced.

[...] To these people senility seems a natural, inevitable end to life.

(11:06.) Any such sensations are immediately repressed by the old for fear that “senility” will be the diagnosis. [...]

[...] Diagnosis: senility. [...]

[...] On some occasions — sometimes in periods of poor health or seeming senility — such instances may occur. [...]

Biologically there is a period very rarely experienced, as jokingly suggested in the “sick jokes” about senility and second childhood. [...]

Now, old people who are considered senile or unmanageable are sometimes experiencing new bursts of sexual activity for which no outlet is given. [...]

[...] The problem, say, of senility, would be an objective phenomenon that happened to you as a result of the body’s slowing down. [...]

[...] He was busily tracing these out as he aged—he’s now 74—in order to prove out his own theory of aging and senility, about which he’s evidently written extensively. [...]

[...] Such drugs should also literally be considered dangerous for use in old-peoples’ homes, for those considered senile, or even demented. [...]

Illnesses of Childhood and Old Age
The connections between schizophrenia in the young, and senility. [...]

[...] You were not senile in either.

[...] I knew that I was resting, and that I wasn’t senile. [...]

[...] The kind of reality that you understand forms the least active portion of their actuality, and would represent, for example only, a relatively defective or “inferior” state of consciousness and comprehension, a state like (underlined), perhaps, senility. [...]

[...] If you are fifty and are still convinced that the older generations are rigid, fast in the way of growing senile, mentally incompetent and physically deteriorating, then you are holding an old belief in the ineffectiveness of the older generations and setting up negative suggestions for yourself. [...]

(Pause at 10:11.) In many cases of senility, for example, the strongly organized portions of personality have already left the body, and are meeting the new circumstances. [...]

The problems of senility would also be reduced, for stimuli would not be minimized for so long a time. [...]

[...] Do not grow old into senility. [...]

[...] She wondered if my loss of communicative abilities was also related to my father’s senility and his own physical retreat. [...]

[...] (Long pause.) The senile, in their efforts to run away from their closeted rooms in sanitariums, often show far greater sanity in their way than the relative or society who imprisoned them. [...]

[...] You have died before reaching adulthood—or you have lived and become senile—or you have lived and attained wisdom. [...]

According to Seth, each case of senility is different, but generally speaking, the personality transfers the vital parts of consciousness into the next area of existence, and is often fully aware there, and functioning. [...]