“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] To some extent he thought of that as punishment, of course, of being abandoned, forced to take charity as well, and the home reinforced all of the Catholic beliefs, particularly stressing the sinfulness of the body. [...] There was no distinction made: to be sinful was of course to be a sinner, and in that home there was no time to foster any kind of independence—the children had to follow strict schedules, toe the mark. [...]

[...] They end up neatly summarized in the concept of the Sinful Self—a self so sinful that its own body had to be hidden from itself while it washed (all intently). [...]

[...] If he looked into a mirror and was caught at it, he was then caught in the sin of pride. [...]

[...] The Sinful Self then became very alert: how could it trust its own works, if it were so indelibly tainted? [...]

The idea of the sinful self will not be predominant in our own book, but we certainly will delve into the many unfavorable concepts that are held by the various religions — concepts that certainly make many people feel that the self is indeed sinful rather than blessed.

[...] We thought his comment about the sinful self might have come about through my reading to her earlier today my question to him of last October about what part the sinful self might be playing in her challenges.

(Before the session I mentioned the question I kept in mind for Seth, concerning what the Sinful Self may have learned since this last series of sessions was started. [...] I wanted to know the Sinful Self’s attitudes toward the fact that it had rendered Jane literally helpless as far as her survival was concerned; she couldn’t take care of herself physically without the aid of others, I said, so this obviously implied that the Sinful Self was creating its own demise also. [...]

[...] He feels caught between that image of expected super-competence and the image of the Sinful Self, which feels competent of doing very little. The Sinful Self and the superself are alike unrealistic. [...]

The Sinful Self in the past has felt even more sinful, or example, in comparison to the unrealistic expectations set upon the self by the super-images. [...]

[...] I said that I wanted information on the present status and beliefs of her sinful self, for comparison with its earlier stances in life. [...] Actually, I regard the attitudes and beliefs of her sinful self as the key to Jane’s recovery, since better attitudes there will leave her free to automatically restore mobility, both physically and psychologically. [...]

I will give you more on the sinful self (long pause), and I myself like to have our material smoothly flowing in your directions, so that the sinful self material will naturally come when it is most naturally meant and needed. [...]

[...] They also probably answer some of my questions about the role her sinful self may be playing these days.

(Long pause at 8:00.) In a manner of speaking, the Sinful Self created the superhuman self-image that demanded so much, and it encased Ruburt’s body as if in concrete. [...]

(We were very encouraged by two points especially that Seth had mentioned this evening: that Jane’s thyroid had repaired itself before—which event now could free her from dependence upon medication—and that the Sinful Self’s superhuman image had “cracked and crumbled in the hospital experience.” [...]

[...] The body finally became so desperate to free itself of that rigid Sinful-Self superhuman image that it took itself into the hospital for a month—even if it did almost die in order to get itself in there. [...]

(I also had to wonder what Jane’s “Sinful Self” would have to say now, in comparison to the material Jane had received from it beginning in June 1981. [...]

[...] I mentioned in a fairly mild way some of the questions I had for Seth, saying I didn’t want to pass judgment too quickly on a given concept or idea like the Sinful Self. “My feelings toward the Sinful Self aren’t very friendly,” I said, “but I don’t want to be too hostile or I might create other problems....” [...]

[...] A small segment this evening on television gave you a picture of the confused activity that can take place in exaggerated situations—the segment dealing with the abused children, for there you have parents reacting in the worst possible way to the religious dictums as interpreted by “Sinful Selves.” [...]

(Long pause at 8:42.) The Sinful Self is of course put upon, turned into what it is. [...]

[...] The main issue, again, is to reassure that one important portion of Ruburt’s personality that the self is not sinful, not bad or evil, and to show it the limited nature of the framework that so defined it. [...]

(During lunch I’d asked Jane if she thought Seth might want to comment on the sinful self, and its material. [...] I thought the sinful self had to be cooperating in our endeavors, and I wondered whether there might be some scrap of new information it possessed that could help us. [...]

The sinful-self data does not apply now, and I am seeking to present the necessary material that is most pertinent and vital. [...]

She learned of the concept of sin through her intense early involvement with the Roman Catholic church. It’s easy to see how, in Jane’s case at least, the church’s teachings about sin began to grow as the innocent child started protecting her spontaneous natural mysticism—that prime attribute she’d chosen for exploration in this life. I don’t think her “sinful self” could have risen to such prominence without feeding upon those repressions, clamping down more and more within the psyche as the years passed, continuing its misguided but “well-meaning attempt to protect the creative self … to keep a hand of caution on its course lest the centuries of men’s belief in sin carried a true weight that I shared but could not comprehend.” And so, of couse, the sinful self’s own overreactions, although carried out without “malice,” became themselves a portion of Jane’s long-range learning challenges this time.

[...] (That session is presented in the essay for April 16.) Any decision Jane makes about altering the deeply set beliefs involved in her condition will require the cooperation of a number of portions of her psyche, including her sinful self, and it appears that at this time neither of us is ready to try achieving that kind of overall effect. [...] Ironically, Jane’s sinful self is one of the main creators of and participants in her illness syndrome, so any beneficial changes she can bring about will first call for a major shift in the attitude of that very stubborn portion of her psyche. [...]

[...] The anger I’d felt at Jane and myself when she began recording her sinful-self material (see the essay for April 16) has long since dissipated. [...]

[...] I plan to work with the rest of that sinful-self material….”

Then just before session time, I mentioned my question about her sinful self’s reactions to our efforts to help her in recent weeks. We have yet to see the kind of physical response we want, and I wanted to know if we’d prompted her sinful self to step up its attempts to keep her “under control.” I explained that I think Seth’s and our own endeavors on her behalf had been negated each time because we’d alerted her sinful self’s fears—making it try harder to protect her according to its own very restrictive orientation.

4. (Seth at 9:07:) “Your earlier comment (about Jane’s sinful self) is pertinent. Remember, again, that the sinful-self designation is a method of identifying certain attitudes. [...]

[...] I reminded her that when I refer to her sinful self, I only mean certain groups of ideas that we’ve personified for convenience’s sake.)

[...] You are not under a sentence placed upon you for original sin, by any childhood events, or by past-life experience. [...] You may be less when you would be more, but you are not under a pall placed upon your psyche, either by original sin, Freud’s infancy syndromes, or past-life influences. [...]

Behind such ideas is of course the central point of Christianity, or one of the central points at least, that earthly man is a sinful creature. He is given to sin. [...]

[...] A very significant sentence:) The entire structure of fears, of course, is based upon a belief in the sinful self and the sinful nature of the self’s expression. [...]

I now want to put the Sinful Self material in a larger spectrum. [...]

The Sinful Self material represents those ideas that were strong element in the original belief structural of a cultural nature, to which Ruburt was “bonded.” [...]

[...] Seth’s use of “matrix” above reminded me that before the session Jane had mentioned that he wanted to discuss her Sinful Self material in a new sort of matrix.)

[...] The ideas presented by the so-called Sinful Self represent several layers of activity, then, that should be understood as represented. [...]

What is the difference between a crime and a sin, as most of you think of those terms? Can the state punish you for a sin? [...]

[...] Are laws made then to protect man from his “sinful nature”? [...]

[...] The Sinful Self, so-called, now, is only too willing to accept such responsibility, for it believes to some extent that such responsibility is a kind of penance for its own shortcomings. [...]

(Long pause at 9:22.) Now nothing is all that simple, so there would be changes in his attitudes: He would tell himself, for example, that television or whatever would fritter away his time, or at other occasions other fears would rise so that the Sinful Self would think “Suppose such activity succeeded only too well, leading whole groups of people away from established systems of belief?” (Long pause.) There seemed to be little resolution. [...]

It shows a change of belief —being willing to bring the body physical pleasure instead of the Sinful Self’s idea of, say, penance or atonement. [...]

[...] Their severe religious training made them feel that any luxury was sinful —and so they set about to upset their own apple cart. [...] No one should at least consider a lush field filled with all kinds of cultivated flowers sinful. Luxury is not sinful, and there is no such thing as waste. [...]

[...] It seems somehow sinful, however, wasteful and wrong.

[...] I wanted to know what her sinful self thought about what it was doing to her body, if it cared, if it even understood that it’s protective actions threatened its own existence. Or was her death the ultimate goal of the sinful self? [...]

[...] I think this means that her sinful self, or whatever, has once again clamped down. [...]

[...] No need to go into details here, but it ended up with Jane asking me to get the notebook of sinful-self material. [...]

Last night, at Rob’s suggestion, I looked over my notebook of sinful-self stuff with related material, hoping of course that it might trigger some important impetus or clue that would give me insight into my own position. [...]

[...] So Dr. Kardon’s visit was behind Robby’s suggestion that I look at my own sinful-self material, and I intuitively felt that the time was probably right. [...]

I plan of course to work with the rest of that sinful-self material. [...]

[...] I know this refers to the belief in man’s sinful nature or deadly intent; when you believe that you end up with the assailant’s hand your own. [...]

(Both of us have been curious as to how the material in Monday night’s session fits in with that on the Sinful Self, which Jane still hasn’t typed except for the first five pages. I’m somewhat handicapped because I don’t have the Sinful Self material to compare anything to, but I’m sure there are many connections between the two. [...]

[...] “It’s the sort of thing I think is rooted in Sinful-Self stuff, on both of our parts—you’re not going to feel guilty about the gifts of nature unless those feelings have a pretty strong base in the psyche, somewhere.... [...]

So do not think you are being spiritual when you are being long-faced—and do not think you are being spiritual when you berate yourself for your sins. [...]