Seth on why Jane's physical problems don't improve (rational approach)

[inavalan]

"The rational approach, built up around this framework, insists that the best way to solve a problem is to concentrate upon it, to project its effects into the future, to ruminate upon its consequences, "to stare at the bare facts head on."

This brings about an atmosphere in which the problem is compounded. The intellect on its own — so it seems — must deal not only with the problem today, but with its effects in the projected disastrous tomorrows. This well-intentioned concentration, this determination to solve the problem, this rational approach, then causes an even deeper sense of inadequacy. The concentration upon the problem brings about a kind of mechanical repetition, a repeated type of hypnotic focus.

(9:36.) The intellect is a great organizer — along certain lines, now — so if this concentration is continued it begins to organize its perceptions and experience along the same lines. It is a kind of misguided attempt to find order by finding data that agrees with itself. It collects evidence, then, to prove its point, because the rational mind, as you understand it, must have an acceptable reason for everything (underlined) (all intently).

In the meantime, of course, quite valid rockbed evidence that does not fit into the picture gradually becomes discarded, ignored, thrown away. It is there but it is not used. It disappears as evidence, becomes inactive. That method of problem-solving, need I say, is a poor one, and if anything it causes far more problems than it ever solves.

In terms of Ruburt's condition, he often thinks that he is "faced with the evidence" that his condition is not improving, that it is growing worse, that all the evidence says such conditions do deteriorate rather than improve. He sometimes thinks that he is being realistic with such thoughts.

What happens, of course, is the process I have just outlined. Other quite real, quite physical evidence — always, now, apparent in his body at any given time — is ignored as nonessential, too trivial to bother with, or take seriously, because it does not fit into the so-called rational picture that has been developed.

("Do you want to give an example?" I asked Seth, but Jane went on speaking so smoothly that I wondered if he/she had heard the question.)

The process is exactly as given in the paragraph above, so I want that understood. Any improvement, unless stated, is almost overlooked, not considered as much hard evidence, while any difficulties definitely are considered hard evidence because they fit into the overall data-collecting intellect, as stated above. They are significant, while the improvements do not seem to be nearly as much so.

(Now Seth began to give information relative to my question.)

Ruburt has had some release in the past week of the jaw, neck, and shoulder areas. His eyes at times, on three or four occasions, read remarkably better. For some time his ankles and knees have had greater freedom of motion — in certain motions — but all such evidence is ignored, largely — or worse, it is viewed ironically, since he is not walking any better.

...

You change your focus point. You change what you consider significant. This session brings us to the beginning of a discussion of the magical approach to life, to the solving of problems. I hope to stress what to do, rather than what not to do, although at times I must make the distinction clear.

If you understand this session thoroughly, and if you have the intent to really change your orientation, then the atmosphere will automatically be created in which desired changes occur."

—TMA Session Two August 11, 1980

[inavalan]

"[... 40 paragraphs ...]

(9:56 P.M. As soon as she was out of trance I told Jane the session was an excellent one. I was also quite irritated, because Seth's information had the ability to make things seem self-evident; from that point one was always left wondering how anything so basically clear and simple could be so easily missed and/or misinterpreted by those who most dearly wanted to put it to use. I've experienced these phenomena often in personal sessions, and each time end up resolving to do better next time — to see more clearly, to do all of those things that will easily and effortlessly bring the desired results. Jane often feels the same way, though I don't think she has so much lately, judging from certain remarks she's made. Yet this kind of material gives one hope, and considering it can lead to at least momentary feelings of true understanding and concomitant hope, on my part, at least. The thing is, I really believe the information is good, and that it can work, that basically it's the best kind of information people can get.

(I suppose my own irritation because of the points listed above communicated itself to Jane easily enough. We had a lively and beneficial discussion because of our feelings, though, so all in all the session is a very good one [note 3]. I want to arrange my approach to Seth's latest book, Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, so that I can quote part of this session in a note.)

[... 20 paragraphs ...]

3. And yes, the situation can be reversed, too: Seth can get irritated/frustrated with Jane and me. This excerpt is from the private session of November 11, 1979: "... the same kind of reactions, however, are involved in all activities, and it is sometimes frustrating for me that you cannot perceive the fascinating facets of any event. You still — and I do not simply mean you two alone — do not feel the unsurpassable force that thoughts have. You do not understand that they do form events, that to change events you must first change thoughts. You get what you concentrate upon."

[... 1 paragraph ...]"

—TMA Session Two August 11, 1980

[inavalan]

SESSION NINE THE BODY'S REASONING AS LOGIC. BELIEF SYSTEMS.
SEPTEMBER 8, 1980

The body is not a tool, to do your mental bidding. (Pause.) Your body is a mental expression physically materialized. More improvements are indeed even now occurring, and as long as Ruburt's attitude continues to improve you can expect such progress — for again, the body is quite capable of healing itself completely, and with far greater ease than you give it credit for.

Ruburt did not have to do anything in particular, for example, of a conscious nature, except to state his intentions, and the body's healing mechanisms immediately quickened. This is because he began to take the pressure off, so to speak, and really began to understand the abilities and limitations of the rational mind in its relationship to the body.

(8:59.) You both believed it was quite possible to have clairvoyant dreams, out-of-body experiences, creative adventures in the arts — but to some extent both of you doubted that the same power or energy could be directed effectively in the physical realm, so-called, of bodily health, or situations of the nitty-gritty (with emphatic amusement). Again, the material is indeed dealing with a far more valid explanation for the working ways of reality than the old official beliefs — and again, we are not just (underlined) dealing with evocative, creative hypotheses.