“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Again, the desire for value fulfillment, development and purpose is so strong that if those seem denied, life becomes — or seems to become — less precious. In many cases it is the son and daughter of the upper middle-classes, or the well-to-do, who run into such life-endangering dilemmas. Some youngsters are so overly provided for by their families that it seems that there is no way for them to achieve any more than they have.

(Long pause at 4:00. Jane had been interrupted once during her delivery.) If their parents are overly indulgent, then the youngsters may actually feel as if they were adjuncts to their parents, or possessions alone. On the other hand, some upper-middle-class families stress competition to such a degree that it seems to the children that they are only valued for their achievements, rather than being loved for simply being the people they are.

To most people, none of these situations seem particularly drastic, and certainly there are far worse cases of human disillusionment in the world. Yet many such youngsters literally see no future for themselves as adults.

They do not visualize themselves as future parents, or as having certain careers. It is as if their whole lives accelerated to the brink of adulthood — yet they could see nothing beyond. Along the way, whether or not it was obvious to parents, such youngsters begin to feel that life is meaningless. Often such individuals are highly gifted, yet they feel as if that promise will never blossom.

On any given day a youngster may take a ride on a merry-go-round. [...] The same child might see the image of a merry-go-round on the television screen, or be told about another youngster’s visit to a playground, and a subsequent ride on a merry-go-round.

[...] All the lives are actually occurring at the same time, as the hypothetical youngster’s merry-go-round experiences happened all in one day.

Some parents, unfortunately, use the nature of suggestion in the most undesirable way, so that a child is often told that he or she is sickly, or weak or overly sensitive, and not as robust as other youngsters. If that kind of behavior is continued, then the child soon takes such statements as true, and begins to act upon them, until they do indeed become only too real in the youngster’s everyday experience.

I do not mean that ill children should not be treated with kindness, and perhaps a bit of special attention — but the reward should be given for the child’s recovery, and efforts should be made to keep the youngster’s routine as normal as possible. [...]

[...] So if the parents begin such questioning and reassurance when the child is young, then the youngster will learn that while illness may be used to attain a desired result, there are far better, healthier ways of achieving an end result.

[...] If your child believes that a particular illness is caused by a virus, then suggest a game in which the youngster imagines the virus to be a small bug that he or she triumphantly chases away with a broom, or sweeps out the door. Once a child gets the idea, the youngster will often make up his or her own game, that will prove most beneficial.

[...] Then have the youngster chant, say, three times, “I’ve taken a better and better pill, so I will shortly feel better and better myself.”

(4:05.) In other cases of a child’s illness, have the child play a healing game, in which he or she playfully imagines being completely healthy again, outdoors and playing; or have the youngster imagine a conversation with a friend, describing the illness as past and gone. [...]

[...] Each child should be educated as early as possible by their parents, so that the youngsters are repeatedly reminded of the body’s natural resources and healing abilities.

[...] It does, as Ruburt thinks often, support other poor but gifted youngsters, and poor and ungifted youngsters (with amusement). [...]

Creatures play because the activity is joyful, and spontaneous and beneficial, because it activates all portions of the organism — and again, in play youngsters imitate adult patterns of operation that lead finally to their own mature activity.

[...] As a youngster, you—and also Ruburt—challenged many of “the world’s” beliefs, and refused to accept them as a part of your personalized world views.

These food ideas are important, since they are passed on from parents to children, and parents often use food as a way of rewarding a child’s good behavior, thus starting the youngster out toward conditions of overweight.

[...] It seems to such youngsters that the pinnacle of life is just at hand, to last only briefly, and then to be snatched away. [...]

[...] It impressed several youngsters in a particular manner. [...]

[...] We’ve realized for some time that Jane is sensitive to those subjects, particularly religion; she had strict training in that field as a youngster. [...]

Parents may become particularly aware of that lost sense of joyfulness as they watch their own youngsters in their natural play. [...]

[...] One of them is that she may have associated punishment with physical motion — this idea stemming from her days at the Catholic home, where the youngsters were made to kneel for long periods of time as punishment for various “wrongs.” [...]

[...] Now, the animal went on as a youngster leaves the house and grows up. [...]

(After In Search Of ended on TV at 2:30 Jane read the draft of my note for session 896 for Dreams, in which I wanted to know whether she’d ever willed herself sick [as I had] when a youngster, in order to avoid something I wanted to get out of doing. [...]

[...] She realized that as a youngster she had loved her mother, and tried hard to do things for her, even when Marie had rejected her efforts say, in buying a nightgown of the “wrong” color.

[...] As a youngster particularly, he rebelled against male-oriented learning and orientation. [...]

[...] He is a symbol of the frontier spirit, and many youngsters through the years have been helped through his efforts. [...]

[...] This offers the sense of safety and security in which the youngster can then feel free and curious enough to explore its world and the nature of reality. [...]