"THE PRESENT IS THE POINT OF POWER. The above is one of the most important sentences in this book in practical terms, and working within the framework of time as you understand it. As mentioned earlier (in the 653rd session in Chapter Fourteen), you actualize events from the present intersection of spirit and flesh, choosing them from probabilities according to your beliefs. All of your physical, mental and spiritual abilities are focused together, then, in the brilliant concentration of "present" experience. You are not at the mercy of the past, or of previous convictions, unless you believe that you are. If you fully comprehend your power in the present, you will realize that action at that point also alters the past, its beliefs and your reactions. In other words I am telling you that your present beliefs, in a manner of speaking, are like the directions given to the entire personality, simultaneously organizing and reorganizing past experience according to your current concepts of reality. The future — the probable future — is being altered in the same way, of course. To look backward for the source of current problems can lead you into the habit of seeking only negative episodes from your past, and prevent you from experiencing it as a source of pleasure, accomplishment, or success (very intently)." (from "The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know (A Seth Book)" by Jane Roberts)
Kindle edition: https://amzn.eu/13Zh2pX
The basis of this Seth teaching is that we need to re-think our idea of past, present and future. It is interesting to compare Seth's teaching with the ideas of John William Dunne, whose book "An Experiment with Time" is available for free download here:
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20181016
According to Dunne, a truer sense of time comes during our dreams, in which past, present, and future appear to be present simultaneously.
"For an exercise, sit with your eyes wide open, looking about you, and realize that this moment represents the point of your power, through which you can affect both past and future events.
The present seen before you, with its intimate physical experience, is the result of action in other such presents. Do not be intimidated therefore by the past or the future. There is no need at all for undesirable aspects of your contemporary reality to be projected into the future, unless you use the power of the present to do so.
If you learn to get hold of this feeling of power now, you can use it most effectively to alter your life situation in whatever way you choose — again, within those limitations set by your creaturehood. If you were born without a limb, for example, your power in the present cannot automatically regenerate it in this life, although in other systems of reality you do possess that limb."
—NoPR Part Two: Chapter 15: Session 656, April 16, 1973
"The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized. Your physical circumstances change automatically as your beliefs do. As your knowledge grows, so your experience becomes more fulfilling."
—NoPR Part Two: Chapter 15: Session 656, April 16, 1973
- "In each case, however, the point of power is the present, and from that moment you choose which you, and which world. The experience of a country is the cumulative result of the choice of each individual in it, so as you choose your own circumstances you affect each other person within your country and your world."
—NoPR Part Two: Chapter 15: Session 656, April 16, 1973
Can't not think about people dying in military conflicts, right now, in various parts of the world. Those people have no idea that "
The experience of a country is the cumulative result of the choice of each individual in it"!
So blaming aggressors, elites, military-industrial complex, bad luck, ...
- "Suppose that today your home was robbed. Yesterday, the theft was one of innumerable probable events. I chose such an example because more than one person would have to be involved – the victim and the robber. Why was your home ransacked, and not your neighbor's? In one way or another, through your conscious thought you attracted such an event, and drew it from probability into actuality. The occurrence would be an accumulation of energy – turned into action – and be brought about by corollary beliefs.
You may be convinced that human nature is evil, or that no one is safe from another's aggression, or that people are motivated mainly by greed. Such beliefs attract their own reality. If you have anything worth losing, you are then automatically convinced that someone else will take it from you, or try their hardest to do so. In your own way you send out messages to just such a person. On basic levels your convictions will be quite similar, but one will see himself as the victim and one as the aggressor – that is, each of you will react differently to the same set of beliefs. However the two of you are necessary if a crime of that nature is, or is to be, committed.
The beliefs of both of you find justification in physical life, and only reinforce themselves. The fear of robbers attracts robbers. If you think that men are evil, however, you are often not able to examine that as a belief, but take it as a condition of reality."
—NoPR Part Two: Chapter 15: Session 656, April 16, 1973
"Although time does not basically exist as you "know" it, you are neurologically forced to perceive your life as a series of passing moments. As creatures you are born young and grow older. Yet the animals, as creatures, are not as limited in their experience in that regard. They have no beliefs in old age that automatically shut down their abilities; so left alone, while they do physically die as all creatures must in those terms, they do not deteriorate in the same way.
You do not understand the communications between your selves and pets, for example, where in their own way they interpret and react to your beliefs. They mirror your ideas, then, and so become vulnerable as they would not be in their natural circumstances. In greater terms their relationship with you is natural, of course, but their innate realization that the creature's point of power is in the present is to some degree undermined by their own receptivity and translation of your beliefs. A young kitten is treated differently than an older one. The cat responds to such conditioning, In the same way your own conclusions about age become fact in your experience. In line with them, if you could convince yourself that you were ten years younger, or ten years older, then it would be faithfully reflected in your personal environment.
If you were twenty, you would be able to draw upon the wisdom you imagine you would have at thirty.
If you were sixty, you would be able to use the physical strength you imagined was denied you now, but available then. All of this would be physically and biologically expressed within your body as well."
—NoPR Part Two: Chapter 15: Session 656, April 16, 1973