Create your own reality

[usmaak]

After years of Seth reading, I have had the concept pounded into my brain. So many books have been written by so many authors about this topic, and they all pretty much say the same thing. You can create your own reality. Want more money? You can have it. You can have more money, you can have that shiny new car or house or perfect health or whatever else you want in this life. I am getting stuck on this Seth quote:

"What you are learning is a technique for self-development. You cannot use it, therefore, to attain those things that do not pertain to your own self-development, and the techniques will not help you get something that you were not meant to have, nor that you have before decided as an entity that you should not have."

This seems to go against that. So say my goal is better health. That might be something that I can attain, but maybe not. It depends on if it is in the best interests of my self development. If I wasn't meant to be healthy, then I won't be. Same with any other desire I might have. This seems to fly in the face of what Seth says in much of his other material. I remember reading that it is possible to change a situation at any time, regardless of what was decided before coming into life.

Am I correct that this appears to contradict much of the other material?

[Deb]

I'm glad you brought this up, because there are still a few concepts I'm having trouble understanding completely or clearly. Interestingly, today I've been drawn to Session 440 from TES9, which I've added here and seems to kind of fit in with what you are asking. It pertains to Jane's friend who had threatened or attempted to end her life because she could not secure a relationship with a man. My original confusion with the story was Seth's comment that Jane's friend was not "accepting life on its own terms." To me, if we are making our own reality, then "life" would not have it's own separate terms. And yet he says "Life accepted on its own terms will yield secrets of joy and peace and exuberance. You cannot coerce it. You cannot force it and you cannot set conditions" and "The whole development of your individuality and of your whole self is a gift of All That Is; a state of grace is the acceptance of life and vitality and joy. Then live within it!" and then "Vitality and joy and creativity move through you all spontaneously if you (underlined) do not set up barriers in terms of preconceptions and conditions; and all of your desires will be met, but never when you set them up as conditions for your existence." Seth is saying that by swimming upstream, we are hampering our progress. Go with the flow. Be open to the intuitions and spontaneous self and good things will come. (Reluctant Messiah comes to mind.)

Your quote comes from Session 403, TES 8. I'll put the entire session in a "spoiler" below. It helps with the context of your quote. "You are still not willing to say let me develop as I should develop. You are saying let me develop as I think I should develop. The I being a highly egotistical I.... You are still saying I want this person or that thing."

My feeling is that Seth is saying, in both sessions, that we do have a plan and are living a purpose, one that had been carefully set up before we entered this flesh. We do have free will to make choices that may throw us off track, I suppose that's our prerogative. But there are things that our outside of and unrelated to our purpose that we may desire that are impractical and out of reach (despite what others say about getting that shiny new car) and not everything is possible or else we would spend all of our time here playing and accomplishing nothing. I wish I could play piano like a maestro, but at this point I know it's only a desire and will not accomplish that in this lifetime. Maybe another. But it's not relevant to why I am here right now. I'm ok with that, I have other innate skills.

We come here for a reason, and we will get what we need to accomplish our goals (and more, to enjoy the journey). And I suppose if bad health is part of our plan, then "the facts remain that your own inner self and your own entity have given you challenges that you have accepted. Now you know these challenges; subconsciously you are aware of them. Consciously you do not want to accept them..."

I remember reading that it is possible to change a situation at any time, regardless of what was decided before coming into life.

I wonder... I'd have to re-read everything with that in mind. With all of the above being said, I'm jet-lagged today and maybe not thinking clearly, so hopefully someone else here will have more insight.

What's is intriguing to me is "I will leave specifics for later." As I have not read all of the Seth books yet, I wonder if the specifics were revealed at some point.

Sorry but you must log in to view spoiler contents.

[usmaak]

Thanks for the reply and the thought and effort put into it.  I have read all of the "mainstream" Seth books at least once.  By mainstream, I mean the ones that aren't early sessions, personal sessions, class sessions, or those workbooks written by authors other than Jane.  Of course it's a huge body of work.  Compared to the sheer volume of material, I don't remember very much, and probably understand even less.  So what I'm saying is more of a feeing that I've gotten over the years, based on what I have read.  And that feeling has always been, if you don't like your reality, create something different.  If you are focusing on what you don't have, then you get more of that.  If you focus on what you desire instead of what you don't have, then that's what will move into your life.  You don't focus on not having it.  You focus on it like you already do.  Easier said than done.  If I'm in some sort of pain, then try as I might, that's what I'm focusing on.

If I'm born with a serious life challenge like missing an arm or a serious and ultimately terminal disease, well yea, there's not a lot that I can do about that.  But if I don't have enough to pay my bills this month then yea, I should be able to swing that.  Short of being tone deaf, you can take piano lessons.  You might not become a piano maestro, but you will be better than you were before you started.

I might be mixing "teachers" here.  In addition to Seth, I've read a number of other authors such as Abraham.  I stopped reading Abraham when it became obvious (to me at least), that Abraham was all about the money for them.

To me, the Seth material has always been very consistent and this is one of the first things that I've read that seems to go against everything else.  At least a little, it appears to take free will out of the equation.

[Sena]

"What you are learning is a technique for self-development. You cannot use it, therefore, to attain those things that do not pertain to your own self-development, and the techniques will not help you get something that you were not meant to have, nor that you have before decided as an entity that you should not have."

usmaak, welcome to the forum. Thanks for this quote from Seth Session 403.

Another quote from that session:
"You cannot force reality to give you what you want. You cannot
manipulate events for egotistical purposes. You can manipulate events and
you can manipulate them for your egotistical purposes; but when you do
so, you give yourself a traffic ticket."

I think this is very sensible. What Seth is doing is making clear the limits of being able to create your own reality. This is in contrast to some other best-selling writers who seem to suggest that anyone can become a billionaire overnight. That would result in the world economy collapsing.

[usmaak]

This is definitely something for me to think about. I've been playing the lottery since I could and shudder to think of how much I've thrown away, errr, played over the years. I'd settle for being a millionaire, but perhaps it isn't meant to be. Still, I play a set of numbers and am afraid that the week I don't play them will be the week that they pop up!

Reading the original quote felt a bit too much like the whole "let go and let god" thing that is prevalent in certain religions. I've dabbled in religion, but was ultimately turned off by it.

[Sena]

Reading the original quote felt a bit too much like the whole "let go and let god" thing that is prevalent in certain religions.

That quote is restricted to the monotheistic religions which I too reject. It would not be applicable to Buddhism, Hinduism, or Daoism. Buddhism seems to be too much in love with poverty and self-denial. Hinduism has Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity.

[Deb]

I've dabbled in religion, but was ultimately turned off by it.

You're among friends here for sure.

[usmaak]

My experience with religion is actually quite limited.  I remember when I was a kid, all of my friends were going through various "classes" or whatever for Catholicism.  I asked my mom why I wasn't doing what all of my friends were doing and she said that religion should be my choice, and not a decision to be made for me.  I didn't realize it at the time, but that was very wise.  I never had children, but if I did, I'd have said the exact same thing.

When I was 12, my friend got me to go to a 2 week away summer camp in Maine.  Turns out it was one of those fire and brimstone born again Christian camps.  The one where they hand you all of the tracts that are little comics that show how you are going to spend eternity roasting in hell if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior.  I remember coming home and telling my mom how it made me sad that she wasn't going to go to heaven.  Fortunately, the influence of that experience lasted about a month.  Kids are so resilient.  And no, my mom didn't backhand me for saying that to her, though I wouldn't have blamed her if she did.

I was also a Christian Scientist for a while.  That religion actually made a bit of sense.  Take away all of the religious symbolism and you get a lot of stuff about how the way we think creates our problems.  Of course you can't go to doctors when you're sick, so there's that.  I was a migraine sufferer most of my life and I remember the exquisite relief that I experienced when I finally took a couple of aspirin for a headache.

My step dad introduced me to Seth during a particularly bad time in my life.  Unfortunately the book I chose to read was Dreams and Projection of Consciousness.  That was not the best choice.  Then a few years later, he got sick and died and I didn't understand how that happened, if he believed what Seth had to say.  I tried talking to him about it, but it didn't matter.  It was more than a few years before I really picked it up again.

[transient amnesia]

...

[Deb]

Even though I was 'sort of' raised Catholic (baptized, catechism, first communion, confirmation, went to church with my father when I was little), it never set right with me and I swore that once I was confirmed (the final hoop I had to jump through for the family) that I would never set foot in a church again. I held my promise to myself, except for the rare wedding or funeral.

Somehow this last neighborhood I moved into (20 years ago) was inundated with born again christians. But being the oddball of the neighborhood, I took another good look at religion and rejected it for the final time. My search brought me to Seth, so I'm happy for that.

I just can't forget my son coming home one day after being with neighborhood friends (he was about 4 years old), asking very innocently "mommy, does it hurt if you burn in hell forever?"

[Joelr]

Even though I was 'sort of' raised Catholic (baptized, catechism, first communion, confirmation, went to church with my father when I was little), it never set right with me and I swore that once I was confirmed (the final hoop I had to jump through for the family) that I would never set foot in a church again. I held my promise to myself, except for the rare wedding or funeral.

Somehow this last neighborhood I moved into (20 years ago) was inundated with born again christians. But being the oddball of the neighborhood, I took another good look at religion and rejected it for the final time. My search brought me to Seth, so I'm happy for that.

I just can't forget my son coming home one day after being with neighborhood friends (he was about 4 years old), asking very innocently "mommy, does it hurt if you burn in hell forever?"

Where are you?
In Mass/Boston area things are fairly secular now. I rarely see fundamentalist types. Even a lot of the church goers are just kind of doing it for the kids.
I had a relative once ask for everyone to hold hands and pray to Jesus before a holiday meal and I had to say, "no thank you and my wife, who is sitting next to me, while not practicing, is JEWISH!"