The Real Talk World Library

Think Outside the Box

by Pete on 03/10/2009

How we define ourselves, and the world around us, forms our intent, which in turn, forms our reality.

Who are we? What’s reality? What’s the purpose of life? What can we do today for the selves we’ll be tomorrow?

We need to ask questions like these until we’re completely satisfied with our answers, and even then we need to keep asking questions, because how we define ourselves, and the world around us, determines how we treat ourselves and one another. To find honest answers to these questions, we need to experiment with and explore the nature of inner reality as well as outer reality. In doing so, not only will we be able to redefine who we are and what reality is in physical terms, we will be able to redefine the nature of the inner self and map the very contours and of the soul.

Explore the Nature of your Experience and Map the Contours of your Soul

Rating Guide:

Strong Sexual Content – S

Strong Language – L

Violence – V

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

Change yourself, and the world, for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! POTS

Seth – the Earth has a Soul

by Pete on 01/27/2012

Posted on Seth, Praciticing Idealist by Oceanside Rick, Thu Jan 26, 2012 6:01 am (PST)

The living picture of the world grows within the mind. The world as it appears to you is like a three-dimensional painting in which each individual takes a hand. Each color, each line that appears within it has first been painted within a mind, and only then does it materialize without.

In this case, however, the artists themselves are a portion of the painting, and appear within it. There is no effect in the exterior world that does not spring from an inner source.

There is no motion that does not first occur within the mind.

The great creativity of consciousness is your heritage. It does not belong to mankind alone, however.

Each living being possesses it, and the living world consists of a spontaneous cooperation that exists between the smallest and the highest, the greatest and the lowly, between the atoms and the molecules and the conscious, reasoning mind.

All manner of insects, birds and beasts cooperate in this venture, producing the natural environment. This is as normal and inevitable as the fact that your breath causes a mist to form on glass if you breathe upon it.

All consciousness creates the world, rising out of feeling-tone. It is a natural product of what your consciousness is. Feelings and emotions emerge into reality in certain specific ways. Thoughts appear, growing on the bed already laid. The seasons spring up, formed by ancient feeling-tones, having deep and abiding rhythms. They are the result, again, of innate creative aspects that are a portion of all life.

These ancient aspects lie, now, deeply buried in the psyches of all species, and from them the individual patterns, the specific blueprints for new differentiations, emerge.

The body of the earth can be said to have its own soul, or mind (whichever term you prefer). Using this analogy the mountains and oceans, the valleys and rivers and all natural phenomena spring from the earth’s soul, as all events and all manufactured objects appear from the inner mind or soul of mankind.

The inner world of each man and woman is connected with the inner world of the earth. The spirit becomes flesh. Part of each individual’s soul, then, is intimately connected with what we will call the world’s soul, or the soul of the earth.

The smallest blade of grass, or flower, is aware of this connection, and without reasoning comprehends its position, its uniqueness and its source of vitality.

______________________________

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

In other words, we create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we must live with the consequences of our beliefs, how can we afford NOT to question them?

The more we love and appreciate ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

Change yourself, and the world, for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

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Seth – A Dissertation on the Nature of Man

by Pete on 01/12/2012

Posted on Seth Jane Roberts Message Board by Oceanside Rick, Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:57 pm

Seth:

You realize that a tiger, following its nature, is not evil. Looking at your own species you are often less kindly, less compassionate, less understanding. It is easy to condemn your own kind.

It may be difficult for you to understand, but your species means well. You understand that the tiger exists in a certain environment, and reacts according to his nature. So does man. Even his atrocities are committed in a distorted attempt to reach what he considers good goals. He fails often to achieve the goals, or even to understand how his very methods prevent their attainment.

He is indeed as blessed as the animals, however, and his failures are the results of his lack of understanding. He is directly faced with a far more complex conscious world than the other animals are, dealing particularly with symbols and ideas that are then projected outward into reality, where they are to be tested. If they could be tested mentally in your context, there would be no need for physical human existence.

Too many complicated issues are connected here, so that I must at best simplify. It is as if man said: “Now what about this idea? What can we do with it? What will happen if we toss it out into reality, physically? How far can we go with any of the great social, scientific, religious ideas that are so peculiarly the offshoots of man’s mind?”

If such issues could all be mentally worked out on some nonphysical drawing board, again, the great challenge of physical existence would be neither necessary nor meaningful. How far, say, can nationalism be carried? To what extent can the world be treated as if it were external to man, as an object? What can man learn by treating the body as if it were a machine? As if it were a mirage? As if it were driven by blind instinct? As if it were possessed by a soul?

To some extent, these are all unique and creative ponderings that on the part of the animals alone would be considered the most curious and enlightening intellectual achievements. The animals must relate to the earth, and so must man. As the animal must play, mate, hunt his prey or eat his berries within the physical context of sun, ground, trees, snow, hail and wind, so in a different way man must pursue his ideas by clothing them in the elemental realities of earth, by perceiving them as events.

When he is destructive, man does not seek to be destructive per se; but in a desire to achieve that which he thinks of as a particular goal that to him is good, he forgets to examine the goodness of his methods.

One animal chasing and killing its prey serves the greater purpose of preserving the balance of nature, whether or not the animal is aware of this-and again, the animal’s intent is not evil. Man consumes ideas. In so doing he contributes to a different kind of balance, of which he is usually unaware. But no man truly acts out of the pure intent to do wrong, or to be vicious. Storms rend the summer sky, sending forth thunder and lightning. Earthquakes may ravage the countryside. You may deeply regret the havoc worked, knowing that neither the storm nor the earthquake is evil. Not only did they have no wrong intent, but the overall condition corrected the earth’s balance.

This requires some unique understanding. I am aware of that-and yet the destructive storms worked by mankind ultimately cannot be said to be any more evil than the earthquake. While man’s works may often certainly appear destructive, you must not blame man’s intent, nor must you ever make the error of confusing man with his works. For many well-intentioned artists, with the best of intentions, produce at times shoddy works of art, all the more disappointing and deplorable to them because of the initial goodness of their intent.

Their lack of knowledge and techniques and methods then become quite plain. By concentrating too deeply upon the world of newspapers and the negative reports of man’s actions, it is truly easy to lose sight of what I tell you (louder) is each man’s and each woman’s basic good intent.

That intent may be confused, poorly executed, tangled amid conflicts of beliefs, strangled by the bloody hands of murders-and wars-and yet no man or woman ever loses it. That represents the hope of the species, and it has ever remained lit, like a bright light within each member of the species; and that good intent is handed down through the generations. It is far more potent, that illumination, than any hates or national grudges that may also be passed along.

It is imperative for any peace of mind that you believe in that existence of man’s innate good intent.

It is shared by all of the other animals. Each animal knows that under certain conditions the other may fight or posture aggressively, or defend its nest. Each animal knows that in time of hunger it might be hunted by another. Except for those situations, however, the animals are not afraid of each other. They know that each other animal is of good intent.

(Louder:) Grant your own species the same.

Now: Make a distinction in your mind between man and man’s works. Argue all you want against his works, as you read in your newspapers of errors, stupidities, treachery or war. Collect pages and reams of such material if it suits your fancy-and I am speaking not only to you (Robert Butts), or to Ruburt (Jane Roberts), but to anyone who hopes to find a hint of truth, peace of mind, or creativity.

Collect books of man’s failures. I do not personally know why anyone would collect the worst works of any artist, and get pleasure in ripping them apart. Man has produced some fine works: The high level of verbal communication, the multitudinous varieties of emotional interactions and of cultural exchange, the facility with exteriorization of ideas and concepts, the reaches of the imagination – all of these, and many others, are unique in the universe.

To identify man with his poorest works is to purposefully seek out the mars, the mistakes, of a fine artist, and then to condemn him. To do this is to condemn yourselves personally. If a scientist says consciousness is the result of chance, or Darwin’s theories say that basically man is a triumphant son of murderers, many people object. If you say, however, that men are idiots, or that they are not worth the ground they walk upon, you are saying the same thing. For you must be concerned with this reality as you know it; in those terms, to condemn man is to condemn the species as you know it, and the practical terms of your world.

To say that people can escape to another probability is pragmatically a cop-out – this is apart from the reality of probabilities, for I am speaking from your emotional viewpoint.

Now: Physically your body has a stance in space and time. I will speak of primary and secondary experience. Let us call primary experience that which exists immediately in sense terms in your moment of time—the contact of body with environment. I am creating certain divisions here to make our discussion—or (with a smile) monologue-easier. Therefore, I will call secondary experience that information that comes to you through, say, reading, television, discussion with others, letters, and so forth.

The secondary kind of experience is largely symbolic. This should be clear. Reading about a war in the middle of a quiet sunny afternoon is not the same thing as being in the war, however vivid the description. Reading about the energy shortage is not the same as sitting in a cold house. Reading about the possible annihilation of mankind through nuclear destruction or other stupidities, while you are sitting calmly enough in your living room, is obviously far divorced from the actuality described in an article.

At the levels with which we are concerned, the body must primarily react to present, immediate, primary existence in space and time. At other levels it is equipped to handle many kinds of data, in that I have mentioned before the precognition of cells. “But the body depends on the conscious mind to give it a clear assessment of precise conditions of the space and time it occupies. It depends upon that knowledge.

If you are safely ensconced in a comfortable room, in no present danger, your senses should accurately convey that information. Your conscious mind should assimilate it. It should be an easy enough accomplishment to look around you and see that you are in no danger.

Your conscious mind is meant to give your body an assessment of what I will call cultural conditions, for there are sophistications and specifications that in your terms consciousness alone can assess. If, under conditions naturally safe in the terms of primary experience, you become overwhelmed by unsafe signals from secondary experience – that is, from your reading or whatever-you show a lack of discrimination. You are not able to differentiate between the physically safe present situation, and the imagined, which is perhaps unsafe, calling forth the alarms of danger.

The body mechanisms become highly disoriented. The signals to the body are very contradictory, so that after a while, if such conditions continue, you can no longer tell whether you are in actual danger or imagined danger. Your mind then forces your body to be in a state of constant alert-but more unfortunately, you train yourself to ignore your direct, sensual feedback in the present moment.

Your body then might say you are safe, and your senses show you that no danger is present-yet you have begun to rely so upon secondary experience that you do not trust your creature reactions.

Because of man’s great gift of imagination, however, the alarm signals not only invade a safe present moment, but go jangling into the next one and the one following, and are endlessly projected into the future. To whatever extent, and in whatever fashion, each individual is therefore robbed of his or her belief in the personal ability to act meaningfully or with purpose in the present.

The body cannot act tomorrow, today. Its sense data must be clear. This resulting feeling of powerlessness to act leads to a state of hopelessness of varying degrees-and that mood does not tie itself to specific details, but pervades emotional life if it is allowed to. To whatever degree, the condemning, critical material too often becomes self-prophesying-for those who put merit on it (loudly) allow it to cloud their reactions.

In your terms, while you live, and in the most pertinent terms of intimate sensation, your reality must be what you perceive in the framework of your time, and what you create within that framework as it is experienced. Therefore, I entreat you not to behave as if man will destroy himself in some future-not to behave as if man is an imbecile, doomed to extinction, a dim-witted, half-crazy animal with a brain gone amuck.

None of the prophesied destruction man so fears is a reality in your time; nor, for all of the critical prophets through the ages, and the forerunners of doom, has the creativity of man destroyed itself in those terms.

(Loudly:) There are those who make careers of condemning the faults and failings of others, or of the species itself, and because of that attitude man’s great energy and good intent remain invisible. Man is in the process of becoming. His works are flawed-but they are the flawed apprentice works of a genius artist in the making, whose failures are indeed momentous and grotesque only in the light of his sensed genius, which ever leads him and directs him onward.

When you are considering the future in your terms, constructive achievements are as realistic as destructive ones. In those terms, each year of man’s existence in fact justifies a more optimistic rather than pessimistic view. You cannot place man’s good intent outside of the physical context, for outside of that context you do not have the creature that you know. You cannot say that nature is good, but spawned man, which is a cancer upon it, for nature would have better sense. You cannot say, either, that Nature – with a capital N – will destroy man if he offends her, or that Nature – with a capital N – has little use for its own species, but only wants to promote Life – with a capital L – for Nature is within each member of each species; and without each member of each species, Nature with a capital or a small N – would be nonexistent.

Because you are natural creatures, within you there is a natural state of being. That state can be an ever-present reservoir of peace, vitality, and ‘understanding.

Whatever your scientists think, your body and your consciousness and your universe spring constantly into actualization. Therefore, through cultivating the clear experience of your own consciousness and being with time and with the moment as you feel it, you can’ draw upon the greater vitality and power that is available.

To do this, rely upon your immediate sense data. not secondary experience as described. That primary sense data, while pinpointed in the present, providing you with the necessary stance in time, still can open up to you the timelessness from which all time emerges, can bring you intuitive intimations, hinting at the true nature of the ever-present coming-to-be of the universe.

That kind of experience will let you glimpse the larger patterns of man’s creativity, and your part in it. You have been taught to concentrate upon criticisms and faults in your society; and in your times it seems that everything will work. out wrong-that left alone the world will run down, the universe will die, man will destroy himself; and these beliefs so infiltrate your behavior that they organize much of your experience and rob you of the benefits nature itself everywhere provides in direct primary experience.

Often then you ignore your senses’ reality in the world-the luxurious vitality and comfort of the daily moment-by exaggerating the importance of secondary experience as defined for this discussion.

The most negative projection or prophecy seems to be the most practical one; when you are reading of the world’s ills, you say in all honesty, and with no humor: “How can I ignore the reality, the destructive reality, of the present?” In the most practical, immediate, mundane terms, however, you and your world are in that moment naturally and physically safe, as your bodily senses immediately perceive. In the most basic of bodily terms you are not reacting to present conditions.

This would be only too clear if you were physically experiencing the conditions about which you might be reading. If the world were falling down about your shoulders, you would only too clearly understand that “earlier” you were reacting to an imagined and not a real situation.

I am afraid that I think some of this will still escape you-meaning Ruburt, yourself, and others. But while disasters, imagined or encountered second-handedly, may in fact later occur, they are far different from physically encountered ones. You only add to their unfortunate nature by negatively brooding upon what might happen in the future, and you destroy your own stance. Your stance in time is highly important, for it is your practical base of operations.

You must trust your sense data in that regard. Otherwise you confuse your psychological and corporal stance, for the body cannot be in a situation of safety and danger at the same time. It wastes its resources fighting imaginary battles.

To some people wars, poverty, murder, treachery, corruption, are primary experience, and must be dealt with-as requiring immediate action. The body must react. Such persons are beaten up, or robbed. Those are immediate sense data. And in one way or another they do react. However feebly, their point of power corresponds immediately with the point of danger.

You cannot react physically in the same way to projected or imagined dangers. There seems to be no possible reaction. You are frustrated. You are meant to deal with your immediate, primary experience, and in so doing you take care of your responsibility. You are able to take action in your own experience, and therefore affect others. You do not have to be ignorant of wars in other corners of the world, or close your eyes. But if you allow those experiences to overcloud your present, valid intersection with reality, then you speak and act from a position not your own, and deny the world whatever benefits your own present version of reality might allow you to give.

The natural creature-validity of your senses must remain clear, and only then can you take full advantage of those intuitions and visions that must come through your own private intersection with space and time.

In those terms, the ever-actual integrity of nature everywhere surrounds you. It represents your direct experience. It offers comfort, creativity, and inspiration that you only impede if you allow secondary experience to supersede your daily moment-to-moment encounter with the physical earth.

Ideas for a New Self, and a New World

by Pete on 01/09/2012

From We Create Our Own Reality:

The purpose, or challenge, of life is to learn how to use thought in its various forms to shape energy into a pleasing reality. The prize is a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of a job well done. And, like learning to walk or talk, it is a personal, subjective endeavor that requires creative aggression. It is a great balancing act, where one must accept falling down in the course of learning how to stand up.

Remember:

Thoughts are “things” with a reality of their own, and you, an artist. With thoughts in the forms of belief, attitude, value and expectation, you paint the landscape of your life. Create a great day!

Who are we? One morning I woke up with these thoughts on my mind: all life is about intention; learning to think for ourselves; understanding; perspective; exploration; experimentation; discovery; loving and being loved; all I want to do is be me; oneness and sharing.

Two days later, I woke up with the thought, we’re “victims” when our thinking habits and behavior patterns are negative, and “benefactors” when they’re positive and loving. To change negative patterns of thought and behavior requires clear intention, determination, forgiveness, humor and creative aggression, in other words – audacity! We must understand we’re meant to learn from our experiences, not define ourselves by them. In the words of the rehab community, “it’s all good!”

We’re here to learn about who we are, what “reality” is, and what we’re capable of. We are gods becoming and we create our reality whether we do so consciously or not. We’re free to regard ourselves as passive victims of the creative process or active, creative participants. It’s part of an evolutionary process of expanding our awareness until we become consciously aware of our role in creating our own reality and co-creating our shared reality.

Have you ever marched in military formation or seen other people do it? All military Basic Training includes learning to march in formation. Besides moving in lock step, we sing sexually explicit songs in tune with our movements. It’s fun and makes us feel as though we’re one.

Societies and their institutions train us to march in lock step too. Sameness is favored over individuality for the sake of control. We teach a fixed curriculum and discourage each other from asking questions unless they’re of the who, what, when and where variety. Answers to “why” questions are discouraged because they threaten the control society attempts to maintain. “Why” questions are also discouraged because they imply that intention, or consciousness, is the source of matter and not the other way around, as classical science believes.

This limiting and hardened matrix of “official” beliefs slows our pace of spiritual development. Fueled by material need, we explore and develop new technologies while spiritual understanding goes unexplored and unappreciated. It doesn’t have to be this way and many of us, motivated by unexplainable mystical experiences in addition to the psychological pain of an uncertain future heightened by threatening world conditions, are responding to this need by throwing open the doors to spiritual exploration and understanding. More than anything, we want to make sense of our experience!

During childhood, many of us learn to think we’re bad, untrustworthy, inferior or undeserving. Failing to love or trust ourselves, we accept dependence on outside authority and external judgments of right and wrong, good and bad, guilt and punishment. We do less thinking and imagining for ourselves and do more following. Instead of examining and changing old beliefs that no longer serve us, we defend them as if they are who we are!

Ideas to set us free:

Consciousness (Energetic Awareness) is the source and substance of All That Is.

You, me and All That Is are unique, individualized expressions of Energetic Awareness (Consciousness).

We are Aware Energy Beings creating a human reality.

As Energetic Awareness, All That Is is both one and separate.

We are not only the products of creation; we are creation itself!

LIVE for the love of Being and Creation!

When you (outer self or ego) feel lost or overwhelmed, stop what you’re doing and reach out to higher Awareness. Talk to your inner self or soul, or sit under the stars and talk with the universe. (Review: Ask Value Questions and Listen for Intuitive Answers)

Remember how good you are, how much you do and how well you do it.

Be who you love to be and do what you love to do.

Be yourself to the best of your ability!

Let love be the Light and the Way, not fear.

Live by Value Fulfillment and practice Idealism. In other words, determine the qualities of life and being you value most, your ideals, and actualize them to the best of your ability.

Make self-improvement and natural passion the centerpiece of your life and you will automatically change yourself, and the world, for the better.

Learn from your experiences; do not define yourself by them.

Do what works and makes you happy!

From a spiritual perspective, there is no right or wrong, good or bad, guilt or punishment, there just IS. There is what works for us, and what doesn’t, what makes us happy and what doesn’t.

“Nothing you can ever think, say or do can keep you from being loved unconditionally.” – the Energy of Unconditional Love

What can be more exciting, or worth doing, than changing ourselves, and the world, for the better?

If others don’t love, trust or believe in us, we must love, trust, and believe in ourselves, and them. We must provide each other encouragement and give ourselves room to grow. Fear and judgment imprison us while love and understanding set us free. Forget “The Audacity of Hope” and focus on The Hope of Audacity!

Use the affirmations below to replace common cultural beliefs that tell us we’re bad and we can’t trust ourselves. As you repeat them, be aware of how good they make you feel. If we don’t believe in ourselves, what hope is there for our future? They’re free, simple and easy to use. As powerful seed thoughts, they serve as antidotes to some of the most negative ideas we’re exposed to growing up. Plant them in the fertile soil of your imagination. Watch them grow and bear fruit. Believe in the good intention and healing power of your body and mind!

I love myself, because I am!

I love myself, because I can!

I trust myself, because I am!

I trust myself, because I can!

I believe in myself, because I am!

I believe in myself, because I can!

I love you, because you are!

I love you, because I can!

I trust you, because you are!

I trust you, because I can!

I believe in you, because you are!

I believe in you, because I can!

Take some time and think about how good we are, how much we do and how well we do it. We’re not perfect, but we are doing the best we can with what we know, even though we can and will learn more and do better in the future. Think about how well we treat each other at home, work, school, and in our travels. Things can always be a lot worse than they are in the present.

When we stop making judgments based on external values that define good and bad, right and wrong, and start paying attention to what works and makes us happy, our powers of observation and discernment will improve, as well as our imagination. Our awareness and understanding will expand; we will become more conscious of, and responsible for, the role we play in creating our personal and shared reality.

Find a great motto for yourself, one that inspires and directs you in a way you want to be inspired and directed. It may be inside you now. I’ve been directed by a motto most of my life but was unable to express it in words until recently. The ideas that inspire and direct my thoughts and actions are: Seek the greatest understanding and serve the highest good.

If we like what we’re doing, whether it’s learning to walk, talk, learn, parent, write, teach, create, organize or employ – we seek the greatest understanding to achieve the highest good, whatever we perceive that to be in the moment. We may have never expressed this impulse in words before but it’s what we do intuitively. When we become consciously aware of this natural ideal, we not only appreciate ourselves more, we multiply its effectiveness by being consciously aware of it and enthusiastically supporting it.

For reference, read: A New Story of Origin.

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

In other words, we create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we must live with the consequences of our beliefs, how can we afford NOT to question them?

The more we love and appreciate ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

Change yourself, and the world, for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

As with all things, take what you like and leave the rest.

A Story of Connection

by Pete on 01/02/2012

By Philip Mollica

Posted on Seth, Practicing Idealist by Philip Mollica, Sat Dec 31, 2011, 2:17 pm (PST)

My parents were our (Jo and I) best friends. My mother transitioned in 2003. My father passed in 2008. He is still around, very interested in what we are doing here. I feel his presence daily, as I have tuned into the consciousness that is his greater being. I had said after he was gone, that I wished I had one last fishing trip with him. We had talked about doing something like that, but it never came to pass.

In 2009, shortly after discovering Abraham, and my awakening, we went on an Abraham Cruise in the Mexican Riviera. Briefly, try to imagine 400 beautiful, happy, shiny people all come together on a cruise ship with a common purpose. Three day of seminars with Abraham, and three port stops on a week cruise. Abraham so beautifully whipped up our frequency that the veil between physical and non-physical was as thin as I have ever experienced, even to this day. The ship was floating on air, and even the others on the cruise who knew nothing of us were all affected by this high, high frequency. Kind of like being in a dream. Magical events and connections one after another with such energy that I was absolutely convinced in the power of what I had discovered.

At the stop in Los Cabos, I had scheduled a Marlin Fishing Excursion. As we departed the cruise ship for port, I became aware of a 60 something year old man who was to be on our fishing vessel. He was from Alaska, a gravel pit owner, big, rough and gruff, but pleasant. He was not among the people there for the Abraham cruise, but was on our ship. I immediately noted that he bore a resemblance to my Dad. We began talking and he was to meet a son of his at port who was flying in from Oakland, CA to join us on the boat. I sensed some misgivings on Rod’s part about his son, perhaps their relationship was not all that he wished it to be. Regardless, he was excited to share this experience with his son.

Anyway, when we reached port, with the help of the fishing captain, and the port police, Rod searched and searched for his son who was supposed to be on the pier, awaiting our arrival. After about 20 minutes, the captain could no longer delay our departure for the fishing trip, and Rod grudgingly accepted that his son would not be able to join us. As the day progressed, we gravitated to each other’s company – Marlin fishing is long periods of waiting. We each took a turn on watch – if a fish struck on our watch it was ours to fight. Of a crew of five of us, I was 2nd or 3rd, and my turn was uneventful. Rod and I shared our lunchtime, a bag lunch packed for each member of the crew. As the day progressed, we more and more enjoyed our time together, sharing laughs, a couple of beers, lunch and talk of our lives.

As Rod’s turn on watch came about, a mighty marlin hit and Rod was in the seat to fight the marlin in to the boat. As he did, I snapped pictures of the fight, of Rod and fish and crew. Day done, we headed back to port where more pictures were taken, and I promised Rod I would create a CD of the pictures and send them to him in Alaska.

All during this time on the boat, it became more and more apparent to me that we both had transformed in some important way. We maintained a friendly demeanor throughout, but I was certain, and could tell that he felt something much greater had transpired.

For my part, I KNEW that somehow my father’s spirit had entered into this gentleman for this fishing trip. I had told Rod of my father’s recent passing, but didn’t go beyond that with him in words. But by the end of the day, there was an unspoken understanding between us that something was happening that was larger than both of us. When we parted, an unspoken love was apparent – we hugged briefly and promised to stay in touch.

Upon our return to the ship, I happily reiterated my story to my wife and others of how I had gotten to have my last fishing trip with my Dad. It brought me to tears, that knowing, and the knowing of Rod, though unspoken, that we had shared an incredible experience that afternoon that defied explanation.

This could have been the end of the story. Rod was on the cruise with his girlfriend. We only had a day or two left at sea. I had gotten his phone number and address to send the CD when we returned home. On the day of disembarking the ship, we stepped off the ship with our baggage and walked to the curb to hail our transportation. As we waited, I suddenly heard a voice call out behind me. “Is that a Philip Mollica I see?” boomed the loud, sure voice of Rod, who was seated behind us awaiting their cab. Joanne and I walked over and I introduced Joanne, and Rod introduced his girlfriend. We exchanged pleasantries, and began to talk of our next destination, which was to visit our Navy son in San Diego. We asked about Rod’s son who had missed the boat. Rod told us his son had been there, at the pier, at exactly the time we were. For some reason, he had been invisible to all attempts to locate him. Rod said he ended up drinking in one of the bars all day, then flew back to Oakland that night. Rod’s girlfriend was due to have surgery upon their return to Alaska. From Rod’s girlfriends words, I could tell that the experience we shared had been most emotional and gratifying for him as well.

As we talked, I suddenly looked up at Rod, and saw his eyes welling up with tears. I immediately knew what that was about. As I felt my own tears begin to flood my eyes, I told him, “Rod, you know my Dad passed away less than a year ago, and what I hadn’t told you is that we wanted to get together for one more fishing trip. Well I got that last fishing trip with my Dad…” I could barely choke out the words… and by now all four of us were in tears. This time we hugged, a big, long strong hug. I never asked him what I was to him, but obviously, there was a connection and a desire that was fulfilled on that trip on the water for both of us. What is the likelihood that this big, tough, gravel pit owner from Alaska and I, a computer engineer from Michigan might develop a connection like that? It was like a trip to Fantasy Island.

I did get to have that last fishing trip with my Dad. And to Rod, perhaps I represented the relationship with his son that he wished he had.

It was a truly magical experience, and further convinced me of the ways in which the Universe works for us, and how the line between physical and non-physical is more transparent than any of us might think. I’ve only spoken to Rod once since that cruise, but after writing this story again, I am going to call him and wish him a Happy New Year!

Much Love to Everyone Here… and a very Happy New Year!

Phil

Great piece, Phil. Thank you for letting us publish it!

Seth’s New Year’s Resolutions

by Pete on 01/02/2012

Posted on Seth and Personal Reality by Kasey, Sun Jan 1, 2012, 12:15 pm (PST) [Thank you, Kasey!]

Now: I wish you Merry New Year, into which I hope you manage to insert a touch of light-heartedness now and then.

Now if I were you, making a list of resolutions, my list would include feelings and attitudes. Things to do are well and good but the feelings and attitudes are, shall we say, at least as important.

I would not presume to make a list of resolutions for you. But in an imaginative endeavor, this is what I pretend I would list if I were you. Though this is a new year, there is nothing really new about the list.

I will approve of myself, my characteristics, my abilities, my likes and dislikes, my inclinations and disinclinations, realizing that these form my unique individuality. They are given me for a reason.
I will approve of and rejoice in my accomplishments and I will be as vigorous in listing these – as rigorous in remembering them – as I have ever been in remembering and enumerating my failures or lacks of accomplishment.
I will remember the creative framework of existence in which I have my being. Therefore the possibilities, potentials, seeming miracles, and joyful spontaneity of Framework 2 (limitless potential outside of the moment) will be in my mind, so that the doors to creative living are open.
I will realize that the future is a probability. In terms of ordinary experience, nothing exists there yet. It is virgin territory, planted by my feelings and thoughts in the present. Therefore I will plant accomplishments and successes, and I will do this by remembering that nothing can exist in the future that I do not want to be there.

Join the Real Talk World Yahoo Forum

by Pete on 12/19/2011

Join the Real Talk World Yahoo Forum, ask questions and look for answers. Who are we? What’s reality? What’s the purpose of life? What can be more exciting, or worth doing, than changing ourselves, and the world, for the better? Is greed good? Is competition more effective than collaboration? Is fear, vengeance and capital punishment better than love, understanding and forgiveness? What does money represent, how does it affect our lives and how can we best use it? What’s the best way to treat ourselves as individuals and nations? How can we make education more meaningful? What role should we let government and its institutions play in our lives? Do you have questions about sexuality and its expression, bring it on!

What are the root elements that drive behavior? Let’s examine society’s “official” answers and how they affect our lives. Do they work for us or against us, do they make us happy or unhappy? Use your intuition, experience and imagination to figure out what makes the most sense to you. When we let go of external values of right and wrong, good and bad (recipes for living) and start paying attention to what works for us, and what doesn’t, what makes us happy and what doesn’t, our powers of observation, imagination and discernment grow. Bring material from Seth, Elias, the God of Neale Donald Walsch, Abraham and any other channeled entity to the table if their ideas make sense to you. Let’s drop our human masks and be the spiritual beings we are, creating a human reality. Let’s make conscious what we know unconsciously!

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

The secrets of the universe lie hidden in the shadows of your experience. Look for them!

Change yourself, and the world, for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! POTS

Seth – Physical Reality Emerges from Subjective Reality

by Pete on 09/07/2011

Posted on Seth, Practicing Idealist by Oceanside Rick, Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:11 am (PDT)

When I speak of the dream world, I am not referring to some imaginary realm, but to the … world of ideas, of thoughts, of mental actions, out of which all form as you think of it emerges. In actuality this is an inner universe rather than an inner world. Your physical reality is but one materialization of that inner organization. All possible civilizations exist first in that realm of inner mind.

In the beginning, then, the species did not have the kinds of forms they do now. They had pseudo forms, dream bodies, if you prefer – and they could not physically reproduce themselves. Their experience of time was entirely different, and in the beginning the entire earth operated in a kind of dream time. In your terms, this meant that time could be quickened, or lengthened. It was a kind of psychological time.

Again, forms appeared and disappeared. In your terms of time, however, the dream bodies took on physical forms(, although) physical reproduction was impossible. That did not happen to all of the species at once, however. For a while, then, the earth had a mixed population of species who had completely taken on physical forms, and species who had not. The forms, however, whether physical or not, were complete in themselves. Birds were birds, and fish fish.

In the beginning there were also species of various other kinds: combinations of man-animal and animal-man, and many other “crossbreed” species, some of fairly long duration in your terms. This applies to all areas. There were dream trees, with dream foliage, that gradually became aware within that dream (with gentle emphasis), turning physical, focusing more and more in physical reality, until their dream seeds finally brought forth physical trees.

There may be other terms I could use, in some ways more advantageous than the term, “the dream world.” I am emphasizing this dream connection, however, because the dream state is one familiar to each reader, and it represents your closest touchstone to the kind of subjective reality from which your physical world emerges. The dream state appears chaotic, shadowy, suspicious, or even meaningless, precisely because in life you are so brilliantly focused in daily reality that dreams appear to be staticky objective background noise, left over from when you sleep. But that is how physical experience would seem to someone not focused in it, or inexperienced with its organization.

Again, the world came into being in the same way that any idea does. The physical world expands in the same way that any idea does. I am speaking for your edification of the world you recognize, of the earth you know, but there are probable earths, of course, as real as your own. They coexist with your own, and they are all in one way or another connected.

Each one carries hints and clues about the others. In the terms used by science, there was no evolution in linear terms, but vast (long pause) explosions of consciousness, expansions of capacities, unfoldings on the parts of all species, and these still continue. They are the inner manipulations with which consciousness presents itself.

Later in the book I will discuss some of these, but they represent intuitive leaps of new understandings. The pattern of animal behavior, for example, is not at all as set and finished as you suppose. Your physical experience is a combination of dream events interlaced with what you call objective acts.

Were it not for your myths, you would have discovered no “facts.”

Links to related Seth articles:

Seth on the Impulse (Will?) to Be

Seth – Trust Yourself

Seth on Man’s Purpose

Afterthoughts

Science tells us that consciousness arises from matter even though our personal experience tells us otherwise. Could it be that we stubbornly insist on believing in science instead of ourselves? Popular belief says that consciousness is limited to brain function. While we remain hobbled to this belief, do we fail to see that Consciousness (Awareness and Energy) lies behind the organization and expression of All That Is? Do we fail to see that the activity and integrity of each day, each cell, each molecule and each atom is maintained and controlled by a combination of self-awareness and other-awareness?

Isn’t awareness and energy everywhere and everything? Isn’t it the essence of who we are? How else can we explain the exquisite detail that exists at all levels of being? Even our dreams are self-organizing and perfect, from the smallest to the largest, from the simplest to the most complex expression of being. As we think (as awareness and energy interact), we create. Change what we think, and we change what we create.

Our brains and bodies connect us to the earth’s unique field of being and creation. If it were not for our bodies and the development of our outer egos (human self-identity), how could we continue to experience ourselves as human beings over a lifetime of moments, from childbirth to death from old age? If it were not for our bodies and outer egos, time and space would not play such a prominent role in our experience. As they do in dreams, the most dominant and energetic energy forms (thoughts, feelings and intentions) would spontaneously catch us up in their expressions. Without physical bodies and outer ego identities, our physical relationships and world, time and space, would change as rapidly and spontaneously as our thoughts.

Without a strong sense of self and purpose, we lack an anchor and become more like a leaf in the wind. We blow about willy-nilly, driven by forces around us that are stronger and better organized than ourselves. In whatever form we express ourselves, our freedom and strength lies in paying attention to and determining what works for us and what doesn’t, what makes us happy and what doesn’t. To do anything less is to be blown about by the wind.

The purpose, or challenge, of life is to learn how to use thought in its various forms to shape energy into a pleasing reality. The prize is a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of a job well done. And, like learning to walk or talk, it is a personal, subjective endeavor that requires creative aggression. It is a great balancing act where one must accept falling down in the course of learning how to stand up. (from We Create Our Own Reality)

For further research, read: A New Story of Origin

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

Change the world and yourself for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

Seth on After Death 2

by Pete on 07/22/2011

Posted on Seth, Practicing Idealist by Oceanside Rick, Sat Jul 9, 2011, 8:10 am (PDT)

If [after death] you firmly believe that your consciousness is a product of your physical body, then you may attempt to cling to it.

There is an order of personalities, an honorary guard, so to speak, who are ever ready to lend assistance and aid, however.

Now this honorary guard is made up of people in your terms both living and dead. Those who are living in your system of reality perform these activities in an “out of body” experience while the physical body sleeps. They are familiar with the projection of consciousness, with the sensations involved, and they help orient those who will not be returning to the physical body.

These people are particularly helpful because they are still involved with physical reality, and have a more immediate understanding of the feelings and emotions involved at your end. Such persons may or may not have a memory of their nightly activities. Experiences with projection of consciousness and knowledge of the mobility of consciousness, are therefore very helpful as preparations for death.

You can experience the after death environment beforehand, so to speak, and learn the conditions that will be encountered.

This is not, incidentally, necessarily any kind of somber endeavor, nor are the after death environments somber at all.

To the contrary, they are generally far more intense and joyful than the reality you now know.

You will simply be learning to operate in a new environment in which different laws apply, and the laws are far less limiting than the physical ones with which you now operate.

In other words, you must learn to understand and use new freedoms.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

Change the world and yourself for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

Seth on After Death

by Pete on 07/22/2011

Posted on SethJaneRoberts@yahoogroups.com by Oceanside Rick, Fri 7/8/2011, 6:17 AM

Again, as mentioned earlier, an individual can be so certain that death is the end of all, that oblivion, though temporary, results. In many cases, immediately on leaving the body there is, of course, amazement and a recognition of the situation. At many funerals, the deceased is amidst the company — and no one gazes into the face of the corpse with as much curiosity and wonder.

(Sorry, but I rewrote the last sentence for clarification. Here’s the original sentence as it was written in Seth Speaks, the Eternal Validity of the Soul: “The body itself may be viewed, for example, and many funerals have a guest of honor amidst the company— and no one gazes into the face of the corpse with as much curiosity and wonder.” - Pete)

At this point many variations in behavior emerge, each the result of individual background, knowledge, and habit. The surroundings in which the dead find themselves will often vary. Vivid hallucinations may form experience quite as real as any in mortal life. Now, I have told you that thoughts and emotions form physical reality, and they form after death experience. This does not mean that the experiences are not valid, any more than it means that physical life is not valid.

Certain images have been used to symbolize such a transition from one existence to another, and many of these are extremely valuable in that they provide a framework with understandable references.

The crossing of the River Styx is such a one. The dying expected certain procedures to occur in a more or less orderly fashion. The maps were known beforehand. At death, the consciousness hallucinated the river vividly. Relatives and friends already dead entered into the ritual, which was a profound ceremony also on their parts. The river was as real as any that you know, as treacherous to a traveler alone without proper knowledge. Guides were always at the river to help such travelers across.

It does not do to say that such a river is illusion. The symbol is reality, you see. The way was planned. Now, that particular map is no longer generally in use.

The living do not know how to read it. Christianity has believed in a heaven and a hell, a purgatory, and reckoning, and so, at death, to those who so believe in these symbols, another ceremony is enacted, and the guides take on the guises of those beloved figures of Christian saints and heroes.

Then with this as framework, and in terms that they can understand, such individuals are told the true situation. Mass religious movements have for centuries fulfilled that purpose, in giving man some plan to be followed. It little mattered that later the plan was seen as a child’s primer, a book of instructions complete with colorful tales, for the main purpose was served and there was little disorientation.

In periods where no such mass ideas are held, there is more disorientation, and when life after death is completely denied, the problem is somewhat magnified. Many, of course, are overjoyed to find themselves still conscious.

In the late 1970s, we lived at Freedom West, a large housing cooperative in San Francisco. While there, I met an elderly Filipino man who was absolutely delightful. He had a smile on his face and a kind word for everyone. When he died shortly after I met him, my sense of loss was so great, I decided to attend his funeral for one last goodbye.

As his family and friends shared their fondest memories of him, I couldn’t help but think about how wonderful he was and how much I would miss him personally. Sensing his presence in the middle of my thoughts, I looked up at the casket and saw him sitting on it with his right leg crossed over the left one while bracing himself with both hands. He looked at us with the most loving smile I had ever seen, and hidden within it, was the thought, “if you only knew what it’s like on this side of reality, you wouldn’t be so sad.”

His knowing smile brought a smile to my face and I walked home with thankfulness for having attended his funeral and experienced this magical moment.

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Change the world and yourself for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

Seth on Man’s Purpose

by Pete on 07/08/2011

Posted on SethJaneRoberts@yahoogroups.com by Oceanside Rick [oceanside77usa@yahoo.com], Mon 6/27/2011, 6:00 AM

Physically speaking, man’s “purpose” is to help enrich the quality of existence in all of its dimensions.

Spiritually speaking, his “purpose” is to understand the qualities of love and creativity, to intellectually and psychically understand the sources of his being, and to lovingly create other dimensions of reality of which he is presently unaware.

In his thinking, in the quality of his thoughts, in their motion, he is indeed experimenting with a unique and a new kind of reality, forming other subjective worlds which will in their turn grow into consciousness and song, which will in their turn flower from a dream dimension into other ones. Man is learning to create new worlds. In order to do so he has taken on many challenges.

You all have physical parents. Some of you have physical children as well—but you will all “one day” also be the mental parents of dream children who also waken in a new world, and look about them for the first time, feeling isolated and frightened and triumphant all at once.

All worlds have an inner beginning.

All of your dreams somewhere waken, but when they do they waken with the desire for creativity themselves, and they are born of an innocent new intent. That which is in harmony with the universe, with All That Is, has a natural inborn impetus that will dissolve all impediments. It is easier, therefore, for nature to flourish than not.

What’s your reaction to this piece? I find it incredibly expansive, life-affirming and spiritually moving!

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Change the world and yourself for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

Seth – About “Mistakes”

by Pete on 06/11/2011

When you first learned to write in school, you had to be taught how to form the letters. You made many mistakes. Finally, however, you could form the letters quite easily. You felt triumphant. You forgot the mistakes you had made in the past. You had accomplished something.

Then you were told that you had to put those letters together to make words. Again you made many mistakes, and forgot them as with delight you now wrote separate words. Then you were told to put the words into sentences, and you followed the same procedure. You forgot your mistakes.

Were you stupid or dumb – or an asshole – when you could only form simple letters?

Obviously not.

Your aspirations and your curiosity kept leading you toward a more complete development, until you could finally read and write whole paragraphs. You could not only copy sentences, but – important development – you could form your own sentences, and express your own thoughts in that form.

These were all stages of development, then, and the same applies to your life (now).

Your so-called mistakes exist as mistakes only in the light of your aspirations to perform better, to express more fully developed experiences, rather than to write better sentences.

It is self-defeating, therefore, to blame yourself for mistakes, so-called, simply because in the light of your present development they are seen as less developed acts than those to which you now aspire.

Whenever you catch yourself disapproving of yourself for past mistakes, read these passages. Do not check on yourself all the time.

Trust that you will learn what you want to learn as automatically as you once learned to read or speak, or as automatically as you think.

In your realm of reality; mistakes are a part of the learning process.

They do not even seem to be mistakes until you are “at the next level” of development, or a step higher in your understanding – as when, say, in the sixth grade you looked back and saw a page of your own childish lettering done at the age of five.

I realize it is difficult to understand at times, but even your so-called mistakes have many far-reaching beneficial results that do not show in any isolated fashion.

They may add to your understanding of yourself and others. They may be applied beneficially in entirely different areas of your life – so stop disapproving of yourself, of your “mistakes.”

Try to set your goals and to trust that the proper impulses will come to you to bring them about and that others will be disposed in your direction, for their own reasons.

In the meantime, try to live in the present as much as possible. Do not undervalue or overvalue yourself.

_________________________________________

Mistakes are “mistakes” until we learn to be or do better from them. Then, they are no longer mistakes but necessary stepping stones to value fulfillment. “Never give up!” – Winston Churchill

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

Change the world for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

The Hope of Audacity (Boldness)

by Pete on 06/09/2011

The Natural Law of Consciousness and Creation

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong, good or bad, guilt or punishment – there just IS. There is what works for us and what doesn’t; what makes us happy and what doesn’t. (From Encounter with unconditional Love and A New Story of Origin)

The secrets of the universe lie hidden in the shadows of your experience. Look for them! – Pete

As human beings, we may condemn this statement as blasphemy of the worst kind. We may point to the world as it is to bolster the argument in favor of humanity’s evil nature but that would be dishonest. Our fear of suffering and death habitually portrays anyone or anything that threatens us as “evil”. It is our belief in evil that creates the world, as we know it. We fear that if individuals learn to question and think for themselves, the doorway to hell will open and chaos will reign. We will be right, of course, as long as we continue to believe we’re evil and not worthy of love or trust, incapable of real understanding and good intention.

As an individual, do you really think you’re evil? Do you honestly think you cannot learn how to manage and direct the flow of your thoughts and emotions in a world free of judgment and social condemnation? Do you honestly believe you cannot learn how to manage your body’s natural appetite for food and sex in a world of love and acceptance? Do you honestly believe you’re not capable of determining what works for you and what doesn’t, what makes you happy and what doesn’t? When we stop thinking in terms of arbitrary cultural definitions of right and wrong, good and bad, guilt and punishment, everything becomes an exciting learning experience, an opportunity to grow! We act “bad” only when we think we’re bad. Believe we’re “good”, and we’ll act good.

As we think, we create. CHANGE what we think, and we change what we create.

Growing up, we see, hear and experience many things in life and dreams. Some are pleasant and some unpleasant. How we perceive and react to our experiences determines who we become and how we react in life as adults.

As children, we often believe what we’re told without question, no matter the source. It could be a parent who strikes us repeatedly, abandons us, ignores us or tells us we’re bad. It could be a teacher who, in a moment of anger or frustration, tells us we’re too stupid to learn or we won’t amount to much. It could be an acquaintance who tells us we’re too fat or too skinny, too short or too tall, a loser, a fool or a queer. In every case, we can choose to let external judgments define us and control our behavior or we can take responsibility for defining ourselves and controlling our own behavior. This is the creative challenge we all face in life.

We Create Our Own Reality

During the course of everyday events, we often forget the role of thoughts in the forging of our material reality. We get lost in the visible symbols, the material by-products of our imaginations, forgetting the invisible blueprints from which they, and we, emerge.

Pure energy like money, its material equivalent, is shaped into matter and experience by thought. It can be used to lift up or smash down, to build character or destroy character, to express love or express hate, to beautify or make ugly.

The purpose, or challenge, of life is to learn how to use thought in its various forms to shape energy into a pleasing reality. The prize is a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of a job well done. And, like learning how to walk or talk, it is a personal, subjective endeavor that requires creative aggression. It is a great balancing act, where one must accept falling down in the course of learning how to stand up.

Remember:

Thoughts are “things” with a reality of their own and you, an artist. With thoughts in the forms of belief, attitude, value and expectation, you paint the landscape of your life. Create the change you want to see in yourself, and the world!

Only when we improve the way we think about ourselves will we improve the way we treat ourselves, and the world.

When you fall asleep at night, what’s the last thought on your mind? When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thought on your mind? You have the power to decide what those thoughts will be. Do they work for or against you? Do they make you happy or unhappy?

Dominating our current worldview are beliefs in fear, separation and competition. We too often measure “success” by how much money, power and privilege we have at the expense of love, truth and joy. Controlling behavior in a fear-driven world that believes in humanity’s “evil” nature requires external definitions of right and wrong, good and bad, guilt and punishment – a cookbook of religious and secular laws enforced by powerful forms of institutional authority. Fear of physical and psychological punishment is the stick that keeps us in line. Even though we’re held accountable for our actions, our cultures define what is and what isn’t “acceptable” in our behavior. Most laws are reasonable but some are self-serving, written to benefit those currently in power, which is shortsighted and abusive.

From our earliest years, many of us are told we’re bad and we can’t trust ourselves. How do we respond to ideas like these? We often respond with denial, defensiveness, depression and stagnation, which results in a loss of love, truth and joy in our lives. Ideas like these, if we choose to believe them, weaken us into submission and force us into dependence on others who claim to be stronger and wiser than us. At its best, it is a system of leaders and followers. At its worst, it is a system of predators and victims.

Being responsible is about changing ourselves for the better. It is about reclaiming our power and taking responsibility for creating our own reality. It is about expanding our consciousness by paying attention to what works for us, and what doesn’t, what makes us happy and what doesn’t.

Live by Value Fulfillment and Practice Idealism

By paying attention to what works for us and what doesn’t, what makes us happy and what doesn’t, not only do we discover our true selves, we actively develop powers of observation and discernment. In furthering our dreams of self-fulfillment and understanding, we learn how to use our imaginative and intellectual skills, as well as our inner and outer senses. When we pay attention to what works for us, and what doesn’t, what makes us happy and what doesn’t, we honor and acknowledge the desire to be the best selves we can be, not because we have to but because we can. In doing so, we replace confusion with clarity, weakness with confidence and fear with love.

To live by value fulfillment and practice idealism is a two-step process. The first is to determine the qualities of life and being we value most – our ideals. Ask value questions like:

What’s the best or ideal way for me to think about myself, and others?
What’s the best or ideal way for me to treat myself, and others?
Who do I love to be?
What do I love to do?

Write a paper or keep a journal to clarify your ideals. Use your dreams and imagination as tools. Identify the roots of old conflicting or unwanted beliefs and reaction patterns. Forgive all involved, including you. We’re all doing the best we can with what we know in this moment even though we know we can do better with time, effort and insight. For examples, read The Healing Power of Forgiveness and look for similar articles in books and on the web. Scientific and religious beliefs aside, Aware Energy (Consciousness) is the root of all change. It is the closest thing to anything being absolute.

The next step is to fulfill or actualize our ideals to the best of our ability over time. That’s what practice is all about. When it’s done with natural passion, it’s not work; it’s play. This process is the SOURCE of our power! It is CHANGE! It is Growth! It is CREATIVITY! It is FREEDOM! It is doing it MY WAY and learning from it as a way of life! We’re already doing this unconsciously. Why not do it consciously?

It doesn’t matter that we come up with the same answers. What does matter is that we come up with them ourselves – that we do things for our own reasons. Allowing ourselves to become receptacles for information given to us from other sources without question or examination, no matter how much we love, fear or respect those sources, is not power, creativity or freedom; it is laziness and passivity. It usually results in subjugation, which breeds resentment and conflict. Failing to question beliefs that cause harm or make us unhappy reflects poorly on us. It does not honor the source from which we come nor the creative selves we are.

A Project-Centered Life

To live by value fulfillment and practice idealism is to live a Project-Centered Life in which we are the project. Who are we? What’s reality? What’s the purpose of life? Who do we love to be? What do we love to do? What works for us, and what doesn’t? What makes us happy and what doesn’t? These are questions we must always ask if we want to fulfill our own unique potential.

If an idea in the form of a belief, attitude, value or expectation does not work for us or make us happy, we have the power to replace it with an idea that does work for us, one that does make us happy. This creative ability is our means for self-determination, for becoming self-directing and self-motivating. It is the key to self-fulfillment, honest collaboration and true democracy.

There is no greater show of love than the acknowledgment of power and worth in yourself and others. Conversely, there is no greater show of fear than the denial of power and worth in yourself and others. By taking responsibility for who we are and what we do, by putting ourselves in the driver’s seat of our own lives, we celebrate all being as having value, including our own. This is love!

Larger Dimensions of Reality

Who are we? What’s reality? Where do we begin and where do we end?

Excerpt from A New Story of Origin:

What are thoughts, where do they come from and where do they go? What are emotions, where do they come from and where do they go? Where does each moment come from and where does it go? Where is the biological “you” that existed two minutes ago and where is the biological “you” that will appear two minutes from now? In what form do they exist while you experience yourself in this moment? In what form does the universe exist in the past and future of your present? Who or what creates each new moment of your experience with such exquisite clarity, detail and integrity; who or what creates your experience in the universe of matter, time and space, and who or what creates your experience in the universe of dreams, fantasies and visions?

Three Aspects of the Self

Body - The adult human body is comprised of trillions of individual cells. One common estimate is 60 to 100 trillion. Each one provides a unique service, singly and as part of larger organizations of cells (organs). Genes serve as the blueprints for growth and change that takes place in the body (do they represent the unseen intention of consciousness, our own and larger fields of awareness?). Working together in collaboration, the cells and organs of our bodies provide us with that unique whole-body “human” experience we often take for granted. The Biological Self, the body and brain, provide us with the means to experience life within the context of fixed space and linear time. In physical bodies, we get to experience birth, we grow up, we reproduce (if we so choose), we experience, we learn, we grow and we die as human beings. The body represents the “being” aspect of Consciousness as opposed to the “source” or creator aspect. The behavior of electrons in atoms serves as a good example to help us understand this two-state idea. In one form, electrons appear as particles or solids. In the other, they appear as waves of energy.
Mind - “Mind”, is the perceiving, thinking, feeling and action-taking aspect of the Self. The human mind is that portion of us that most closely identifies with the human body and waking reality. Like Seth in the channeled material by Jane Roberts and Robert Butts, let’s call this aspect of mind, Level One. It is home to our Outer Selves or egos. It is the “I Am” of our being or earthbound identities with their unique sets of characteristics, beliefs, attitudes, values and expectations. It contains our subjective or conceptual sense of self (identity) as opposed to our biological or objective self. Along with many of our beliefs, strong thought and emotional reaction patterns learned in early childhood, and from traumatizing experiences later in life, reside in the subconscious and automatically pop up in response to related thoughts and experiences. Left alone, habitual thought and emotional reaction patterns produce robotic or habitual behavior. We think and act the same way repeatedly with little thought or question. Spreading from person to person, as they often do, they leave us with even less control over who we are and what we do, unless we stop to question and challenge those beliefs and habitual reaction patterns that neither serve us nor make us happy.
Spirit - The spiritual aspect of Self-identity is that portion of our being that is subtle, spontaneous, creative and eternal. It is our invisible connection with All That Is. It is the ghost, whose presence makes us more than machines. The Inner Self is that aspect of our being that dreams and imagines. Since we cannot see or touch it with our biological senses or scientific instruments, we must sense it intuitively. We must infer its presence or accept it on faith. It is here that information is gathered and decisions made that orchestrate and direct change in our waking minds and material bodies. The Inner Self invisibly and faithfully translates the contents of our waking minds – our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, values and expectations – into the substance of our material reality, visions and dreams. It is from here that we communicate with All That Is and it communicates with us. For examples, see: Inside Ivy and Ask Value Questions and Listen for Intuitive Answers. Let’s call this level of Consciousness or mind; Level 2. Are there more levels? The Inner Self gives us the power to change our stance in physical reality. Through the power of imagination and inner guidance, we can rethink and re-imagine negative thought and behavior patterns and turn them into positive ones.

(Remember, this is imaginative speculation based on personal study, experimentation, observation and experience in both inner and outer reality. It is what makes the most sense to me! You must decide what makes the most sense to you, what “feels” right based on your own thoughts and experiences.)

If we compare the different states of Consciousness to water, which is another form of Consciousness condensed into matter, our physical bodies are similar to ice, or water in its solid state. The human mind, with its unique capabilities, characteristics and beliefs, flowing thoughts and feelings, compares best to water in its liquid state. The invisible or spiritual aspect of the self, with its everywhere invisible presence and heightened vibrational levels, compares best to water in the form of steam or water vapor. It is free of limitation and containment. For examples of spiritual freedom, see: The Ball of Light – A Dream About the Nature of Consciousness and Being. In The Ball of Light, as my Inner Self, I shared a perspective with a young girl from inside her mind that would lead her out of growing despair from the oppressive demands and expectations of her life.

This is a good place to point out that there are no real separations between body, mind and spirit. All aspects of the self are one and separate at the same time. All That Is is one and separate at the same time. As Consciousness (Energetic Awareness) expressing itself in every way imaginable, we are not only the products of creation; we are creation itself! Everything is a manifestation of Consciousness – call it Aware Energy or Energetic Awareness, whichever you prefer – in one form or another. We exist, as not only human bodies and minds; we exist as a ghostly presence, capable of interacting directly with the Consciousness of All That Is. Every one of us, every thing, is another face of God. Some of us see this and some do not.

In her last Oprah Winfrey Show, May 25, 2011, Oprah let the world know she understands that each one of us is another face of God, and that she has believed this since she was a child. At the end of her show, she encouraged everyone to develop his or her own inner connection to higher Consciousness for wisdom and guidance in fulfilling his or her greatest potential.

Born into a world that considered being black and female an automatic two strikes against you, Oprah had much with which to contend. Her mother was single and poor. Her first sexual encounter occurred with an uncle at the age of nine. How could anyone surmount these odds in a value judgment world without access to inner wisdom and guidance, without trusting his or her own innate goodness? What could make Oprah want love more than feeling unloved, what could make her want to be valued more than feeling unvalued and what could make her want to be someone more than feeling like she was no one? How can we know success without failure?

Faced with challenging dilemmas like these, what is a person to do? Oprah’s public record clearly demonstrates she was perceptive and trusted her own inner wisdom far more than most. Starting at a young age, she memorized passages from the bible and recited them at her grandmother’s church, (Google “Oprah biography”) much to the delight of church members. At a young age, she knew intuitively, if not intellectually, that what you give is what you get. Give love and you get love. Value others and you will be valued in return. Treat others as though their lives have meaning and your life will have meaning.

Did the invisible hand of higher consciousness guide Oprah’s thoughts and actions? Did she keep her mind open to the soundless voice of her Inner Self and higher consciousness so it could whisper in her ear? Did her Inner Self and higher consciousness set the stage for her unique circumstances in life before birth, on the fly, or perhaps, a combination of both? To what degree was her waking mind involved in the creation of her reality?

The thoughts and events we experience in life do not happen by accident. We attract them to us as surely as though we were magnets. Our personal thoughts in the forms of belief, attitude, value and expectation, draw them to us. As we think, we create. Earlier, I asked, what are thoughts, where do they come from and where do they go. The answer is, they come from everywhere and nowhere in response to our need or desire in the moment. When we look for them, they appear. When we stop looking for them, they disappear, although never lost. For examples of how thoughts come and go, read Pete’s Creation Dreams.

When our bodies are hurt, hungry, horny, sick or tired, they let us know of their condition, which inspires us to thought and action. The world around us loudly lets us know about its condition. When our waking minds are quiet, as they are in meditation and sleep, we open ourselves up to thoughts emanating from more subtle levels of Consciousness. How well we receive and understand those messages depends on how experienced and open we are to them. When we ask questions, we inspire thought in ourselves.

Awareness and action define Consciousness. Without energy, or the power to act, Consciousness could not know or express itself, and without the desire for Consciousness to know and express itself, what would give rise to action? One needs the other for anything to exist!

We all have stories to tell about mysterious thoughts, impulses, dreams and encounters we’ve had in life – how we reacted to them and where our choices led us. Dilemmas, acted out by the people and circumstances around us exist to give us choices. Who creates our unique dilemmas and why do we choose them if not to learn from them, if not to discover who we are? Love, or the need for love, played a huge role in Oprah’s life. As a result, her life serves as a living example of what love, the opposite of fear, can do for us. How will we use this knowledge in our own lives? Oprah makes the mysterious real like no other.

The Reality Creation Project

The Reality Creation Project is about changing ourselves for the better. Who has more of a right to change us, and who can do a better job than we can?

To change ourselves, and the world, for the better, it helps to have a solid ground of ideas to stand on. It also helps to know what is better, and how to get from here to there. The following excerpts from A New Story of Origin give us a place to start in reshaping ourselves, and the world.

In the beginning, there was nothing – until Nothing decided to be Something. You can call this profound event Original Thought, the Divine Spark of Creation, the Birth of Unconditional Love, the Birth of All That Is or God, or the Birth of Consciousness (Aware Energy). In fact, it was, and is, ALL these things and more; including the moment Consciousness learned how to condense a portion of itself into “matter”. Humanity refers to this moment as the Big Bang.

In deciding to be Something, Nothing expressed a Primal Motive – the Impulse to Be. Why would Nothing do that? What would make Nothing want to be Something? Isn’t it for the same reason you and I learn to think, walk, talk and try new things? In its most basic form, don’t you and I “exist” and “do” things out of a Love for Being and Creation, tempered by the Impulse to Survive, once we exist? As Nothing, in the beginning, yearned to be Something, we yearn to be something in response to the same impulse, the Will to Be, tempered by the Will to Survive. Not only do we want to be everything we can be, we want to remember ourselves in every way we have been, every way we are.

Our current forms of knowledge are too specialized, intellectualized and compartmentalized. To make choices that work for us and make us happy, we must learn how to use our inner senses as well as our outer ones, our intuitive abilities as well as our intellectual ones. Our thinking must become more holistic and universal. As unique, individualized expressions of Consciousness or All That Is, we must ensure that our personal and collective belief systems take everything we can think of into account. Our worldview and our myths must make sense to us. I f they do not, we must upgrade them.

Just because someone with the authority of a parent, teacher or preacher shares their “truth” with us does not mean we must accept it without question. We must question all ideas since us, and only us, are accountable for who we are and what we do. If we fail to establish our own beliefs, we absorb them from our surroundings and create our reality by default – passively instead of actively.

Because we are Consciousness (Aware Energy), condensed into matter:

We are both one and separate.
We are not only the products of creation; we are creation itself!

The Natural Law of Consciousness and Creation

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong, good or bad, guilt or punishment – there just IS. There is what works for us and what doesn’t; what makes us happy and what doesn’t.

If an action, idea or belief does not work for you, what does? If an action, idea or belief does not make you happy, what does? Be bold! If you can disengage from current events and old reaction patterns long enough to ask these questions, you will make rapid progress in changing yourself, and the world, for the better. However, if you continue to watch and play the game as it is, change of the kind you value will not happen.

The growing collapse of our economic and social system (increases in human population, the number of people in jail, homelessness, joblessness, hunger, disease, wars, global warming, the loss of wealth and unsustainable growth and consumption), can be laid at the feet of putting individuality and self-interest (ego) ahead of oneness and the common good, fear ahead of love. A similar imbalance occurs when we put the common good ahead of self-interest so why not create a system that balances both. By giving equal value to both our oneness and individuality, we make it possible to cooperate, not compete with one another. By asking questions that include everyone, we not only acknowledge our oneness and individuality, we acknowledge our individual and collective roles – and responsibility – in co-creating our shared reality.

In life and business, how many of us ask: is what I’m doing good? Do my actions improve the quality of life or undermine it? Do they increase humanity’s chances for survival or threaten it?

Instead of continuing to create a world of leaders and followers, predators and victims, by letting thoughts of fear, separation and competition dominate our thinking why not ask: what is going to work best for ALL of us?

This question takes YOU, ME and US (everyone and everything) into consideration. It takes into account the fact that we’re both one AND separate. It also supports the understanding that we’re not only the product of creation but creation
itself!

What’s going to work best for ALL of us in personal terms? (What is the best way for us to fulfill our own unique potential in support of the world AND ourselves?)
What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of business? (What is the best way for us to maintain the health and well-being of the planet and humanity?)
What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of education? (What is the best way for us to learn and grow? What are the most important things for us to know in life?)
What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of the environment? (What is the best way for us to treat nature and the earth?)
What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of peace? (What is the best way for us to treat ourselves as individuals and nations?)

To ask questions, make suggestions and share your successful strategies with other, go to the Reality Creation Project Yahoo Discussion Board. The website address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/create_reality.

I also encourage you to form local groups for fun, experimentation, mutual support and discussion. The antidote for fear is love. The antidote for distrust is trust. The antidote for contempt is appreciation. The antidote for violence is forgiveness. The antidote for the belief that we are unlovable and unworthy is the belief that we are lovable and worthy. Instead of thinking about how bad we are, how little we do and how poorly we do it; why not remember how good we are, how much we do and how well we do it? Isn’t it better to count our blessings than our sorrows?

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

The self (the “decider” in you) is your seat of power and the moment (now) is your point of power.

“Nothing you can ever think, say or do can keep you from being loved unconditionally.” – The voice of Unconditional Love (from Encounter with Unconditional Love)

Think about what it feels like to be loved unconditionally. In the presence of unconditional love, do you feel the urge to commit hateful acts of mayhem or do you feel the urge to let your own love flow?

As I said earlier, the ideas expressed here represent what makes sense to me based on my own experience. Whether they make sense to you, based on your experience, is up to you to decide. As with all things, take what you like and leave the rest.

Respectfully,

Roger A. “Pete” Peterson – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

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Seth – Growing Beyond Limiting Beliefs

by Pete on 05/23/2011

Posted on Seth, Practicing Idealist by “Oceanside Rick”, Monday, May 23, 2011 6:10 am (PDT)

Throughout your reincarnational existences you expand your consciousness, your ideas, your perceptions, your values. You break away from self-adopted restrictions, and you grow spiritually as you learn to step aside from limiting conceptions and dogmas.

Your rate of learning depends entirely upon you, however. Limited, dogmatic, or rigid concepts of good and evil can hold you back. Too narrow ideas of the nature of existence can follow you through several lives if you do not choose to be spiritually and psychically flexible.

These rigid ideas can indeed act as leashes, so that you are forced to circle like a tied puppy dog about a very small radius. In such cases, through perhaps a group of existences, you will find yourself battling against ideas of good and evil, running about in a circle of confusion, doubt, and anxiety.

Your friends and acquaintances will be concerned with the same problems, for you will draw to yourself those with the same concerns.

The meaning of an experience can continue to unfold long after it occurs. Have you ever noticed this? I often find myself going back to review old experiences that happened in my past both in physical and dream realities. See My Recurring Superman Nightmare for example. I relived this dream for many years until I stopped running from it. When I finally confronted the monster in my dream and understood what it symbolized, it stopped haunting me.

Seth’s example of “a tied puppy dog” circling “about a very small radius” reminds of an older dog I once saw who had been tied in one place for so long there was no vegetation left on the ground, only dust. He had been living in and kicking up dust for so long, he was blind. I can’t help but wonder now, was his owner, whom I never met, as blind as the dog from circling around the same limiting concepts for too many years? It makes you wonder.

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

Seth on Fanaticism, Part 3

by Pete on 05/15/2011

Posted on Seth, Practicing Idealist by: “ocean side Rick” Tue May 10, 2011 7:21 am (PDT)

This is the last part of a series of posts about fanaticism, as requested by a member of the Abraham list. – Rick

MAY 16, 1979, 9:35 P.M. Wednesday

“Basically, a fanatic believes that he is powerless.

He does not trust his own self-structure, or his ability to act effectively. Joint action seems the only course, but a joint action in which each individual must actually be forced to act, driven by frenzy, or fear or hatred, incensed and provoked, for otherwise the fanatic fears that no action at all will be taken toward “the ideal.”

Through such methods, and through such group hysteria, the responsibility for separate acts is divorced from the individual, and rests instead upon the group, where it becomes generalized and dispersed. The cause, whatever it is, can then
cover any number of crimes, and no particular individual need bear the blame alone. Fanatics have tunnel vision, so that any beliefs not fitting their purposes are ignored. Those that challenge their own purposes, however, become instant targets of scorn and attack.

Generally speaking in your society, power is considered a male attribute. Cult leaders are more often male than female, and females are more often than not followers, because they have been taught that it is wrong for them to use power, and right for them to follow the powerful.

I said (in Session 846) that you have religious and scientific cults, and the male-oriented scientific community uses its power in the same way that the male Jehovah used his power in a different arena, to protect his friends and destroy his enemies. I spoke rather thoroughly in my last book (The Nature of the Psyche) about the sexuality of your species, but here I want to mention how some of those sexual beliefs affect your behavior.

(With amusement:) The male scientist considers the rocket his private symbol of sexual power. He feels he has the prerogative to use power any way he chooses. Now many scientists are “idealists.” They believe that their search for answers, however, justifies almost any means, or sacrifices, not only on their parts but on the parts of others. They become fanatics when they ignore the rights of others, and when they defile life in a misguided attempt to understand it (see Session 850, with Note 3).

Women make a grave error when they try to prove their “equality” with men by showing that they can enter the armed forces, or go into combat as well as any man (with more amusement). War always makes you less as a species than you could be. Women have shown uncommon good sense in not going to war, and uncommon bad sense by sending their sons and lovers to war. Again: To kill for the sake of peace only makes you better killers, and nothing will change that. In any war, both sides are fanatical to the extent that they are involved. I am quite aware that often war seems to be your only practical course, because of the set of beliefs that are, relatively speaking, worldwide. Until you change those beliefs, war will seem to have some practical value — a value which is highly deceptive, and quite false.

Fanatics always use ringing rhetoric, and speak in the highest terms of truth, good and evil, and particularly of retribution. To some extent capital punishment is the act of a fanatical society: The taking of the murderer’s life does not bring back the victim’s, and it does not prevent other men from [committing] such crimes. I am aware that the death penalty often seems to be a practical solution — and indeed many murderers want to die, and are caught because of their need for punishment. Many, now — and I am speaking generally — are in the position they are because they so thoroughly believe what all of you believe to a large extent: that you are flawed creatures, spawned by a meaningless universe, or made by a vengeful God and damaged by original sin.

Criminals act out those beliefs to perfection. Their “tendencies” are those that each of you fears you possess. Science and religion each tell you that left alone you will spontaneously be primitive creatures, filled with uncontrolled lust and avarice. Both Freud and Jehovah gave you that message. Poor Darwin tried to make sense of it all, but failed miserably.

Fanatics cannot stand tolerance. They expect obedience. A democratic society offers the greatest challenges and possibilities of achievement for the individual and the species, for it allows for the free intercourse of ideas. It demands much more of its people, however, for in a large manner each must pick and choose from amid a variety of life-styles and beliefs his and her own platform for daily life and action.

There are periods in which it certainly seems to some that all standards vanish, and so they yearn for old authorities. And there are always fanatics there to stand for ultimate truth, and to lift from the individual the challenge and “burden” of personal achievement and responsibility. Individuals can — they can — survive without organizations. Organizations cannot survive without individuals, and the most effective organizations are assemblies of individuals who assert their own private power in a group, and do not seek to hide within it (all very emphatically).

Organized action is an excellent method of exerting influence, but only when each member is self-activating; only when he or she extends individuality through group action, and does not mindlessly seek to follow the dictates of others.

Fanatics exist because of the great gap between an idealized good and an exaggerated version of its opposite. The idealized good is projected into the future, while its exaggerated opposite is seen to pervade the present. The individual is seen as powerless to work alone toward that ideal with any sureness of success. Because of his belief in his powerlessness [the fanatic] feels that any means to an end is justified. Behind all this is the belief that spontaneously the ideal will never be achieved, and that, indeed, on his own man is getting worse and worse in every aspect: How can flawed selves ever hope to spontaneously achieve any good?”

What a great series, Rick! There are lessons here for all of us. Creating a healthy perspective, one that works for us, not against us, and one that makes us happy, is one of life’s greatest challenges. You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

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Seth on the Safe Universe!

by Pete on 05/07/2011

Seth’s ideas on a safe universe were gathered and collated by Lynda Madden Dahl of Seth Network International (SNI). – Pete

Hi Seth Friends,

It’s good to be talking to you again, although I don’t really have any Sethian news to pass on this month. I do, however, come bearing gifts. Lots and lots of gifts! Gifts that are both priceless and practical, and highly sought after by Seth readers the world over. And what, you might ask, are these unique, sought-after gifts? Okay, you might not ask, but here it is anyway: A ton of amazing Seth quotes!

You had to be blind – or not in HTML – to not see the large bold heading displayed at the top of this email, so this will be no big surprise to you: the quotes are from Seth on The Safe Universe. It’s purely coincidental that this month’s newly posted Seth Talk entry on our SNI site is on this subject, too, dovetailing nicely and most serendipitously (don’t you think?) with today’s gifts.

I never know how many Seth quotes to put in one of my emails to you, because what I post on Seth Talk is usually a much longer presentation – and too long may be too boring in an email. But this time, since I have no news to fill space, I’ll give you the whole enchilada, as we say in America (maybe in Mexico, too).

Because the list is lengthy and you may doze off halfway through, I’ll officially sign off up here at the top. Have a very fine May, my friends, and come visit Seth Talk or me on Facebook (under Lynda Madden Dahl) if you’re in the
neighborhood. Until we meet again, here’s to lighthearted instead of unenlightened constructions for us all!

My best regards,

Lynda

Now sit back, relax, and absorb the words that can change your life. No kidding…

SETH ON THE SAFE UNIVERSE!

The one-line official consciousness with which you are familiar says, “The world is not safe. I cannot trust it. Nor can I trust the conditions of experience or the conditions of my own existence. Nor can I trust myself.”

You have an entire civilization and world set up about those beliefs I have just given you: that the universe is not safe; that you must defend yourselves from enemies that come from without, and worst of all, from enemies that are within.

And so indeed do you feel uneasy, and set up your barriers, and run as fast as you can, in whatever way given you, from those enemies that are the result of a one-line official kind of consciousness.

The one-line stage of consciousness was necessary… But that stage contained within it its own impetus. It set up challenges that could not be solved at that stage of consciousness, and that would automatically lead you into other strands
of awareness. Only then can you say – and listen, now – ‘I live in a safe universe.’

The belief in an unsafe universe sets up certain habits of resistance, and more practically, of self-protection. The resistance is protective. It shows itself in fears that seem perfectly realistic, and indeed highly practical.

In an unsafe universe you run your personal life along certain lines. You do not trust good fortune; indeed, it seems practical not to trust it. It does not seem to belong in an unsafe universe.

In an unsafe universe, you believe that something good will be fought over.

You are so used to feeling unsafe that you consider alarm of one kind or another as a realistic approach to life.

The idea of prevention is always based upon fear – for you do not want to prevent something that is joyful.

You try to say, “The universe is safe,” and then you watch the news on television or read the newspaper and you say, “What lie is this? How can the universe be safe when I read about wholesale murder, war, trickery and greed?

You cannot say “I live in a safe universe, but I am threatened by the economic problems of my state,” move to Pennsylvania, or to Timbuktu. It will make no difference, because the threat will follow you and erupt in one way or another while you believe in that system.

As long as you believe that you dwell in a universe that is a threat, you must defend yourself against it.

As long as you believe that the self is flawed…you must also defend yourself against yourself, and how can you then trust the voice of the psyche?

When people are convinced that the self is untrustworthy or that the universe is not safe, instead of luxuriating in the use of their abilities, exploring the physical and mental environments, they begin to pull in their realities – to contract their abilities, to over-control their environments. They become frightened people.

When you begin to realize that you do indeed live in a safe universe, these patterns of reaction begin to break up.

The safe universe becomes “practical,” where before it was not considered so. This means a great deal of energy is released.

You cannot equivocate. You cannot say, “I live in a safe universe but but but but” anything. The threat will follow you and erupt in one way or another.

You do live in a safe universe. You do. You need not believe that the world of the newspapers does not exist, but you must believe that the world cannot threaten you.

By such a belief you so attract probabilities that you actually miss the threats that appear at one level of reality. In so doing, you not only help yourself but others as well, for they perceive your safety, and look for the reasons.

The panic reaction you sometimes imagine helps remind you of the panic in which many people spend whole portions of their lifetimes. The way to help them is to perfect your own craft – your beliefs – so that others can use them also.

You live in a safe universe. This is not only a valid psychic truth, but is the basis for cellular integrity.

You need not say, “The universe is safe,” for, at your present levels that will only enrage you! You say instead, “I live in a safe universe,” and so you shall.

Ruburt said somewhere, “Sometimes you lean into the universe and feel it give.” It is indeed yielding. It is not against you, nor is the world.

You are each gradually leaving the official level of consciousness behind, in that its beliefs no longer serve as your criteria of reality.

That reality exists, but it is not yours any longer.

You are tuning into another channel, experiencing a reality that is not only quite as real, but presents a far truer picture.

It is as if you were on a hilltop, surrounded by clear brilliant air. You could still look down at the foggy valley below, and see that it existed. You would also realize that you were not down there anymore.

You cannot be hounded from one level of reality to another by a fear that you do not understand. You cannot be threatened in this life by so-called past existences.

The universe is with you and not against you.

Your fellow men are with you and not against you. When you realize that, then you reach those portions of your fellow men that are with you.

The universe does not give up on any of its creatures.

(Seth, humorously): I said it was a safe universe. I never said it was a perfect one.

Some people always feel safe and protected even when the events of their lives do not seem favorable.

Regardless of their own doubts and worries, such people feel themselves supported, and feel that in the end everything will work out to their advantage.

The greatest possible development allows the greatest possible security, for such development shows itself physically and in all other manners.

Abilities must be ultimately tied in with your greatest inner aspirations – not tied down by your fears.

Within yourself you recognize the validity of your own being. It is inviolate. It cannot be invaded or superseded by others, unless you acquiesce to such circumstances.

There is nothing in mental or physical reality that you ever need fear, for you are filled with the vitality of All That Is, and it protects you. You must simply allow it to do so.

A state of grace is provided you in which you can take action without care, without the anticipation of impediments.

When you thoroughly understand what is meant by the entire safe universe concept, then the physical, cultural climate is understood as a medium through which the ideal can be expressed. The ideal is meaningless if it is not physically manifest to one degree or another. The ideal seeks expression.

The safe universe search itself would lead to a completely different set of values and a new belief system.

Great job, Lynda!

Don’t you all just love it, it gives anyone who reads it a greater sense of peace, safety and love. Many of us grow up angry and defensive because we bought into ideas that tell us we’re bad and we can’t trust ourselves, or one another.

Seth is right. It’s up to us, as individuals to think and act our way out of this way out of this dilemma. If no one else will help us, we must do it for ourselves. This is the challenge before us. Are we up to it? Of course we are, or we wouldn’t even be considering it!

Happy Trails,

Pete – http://realtalkworld,com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

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Seth on Fanaticism – Part 2

by Pete on 05/07/2011

Published on Seth, Practicing Idealist by “Oceanside Rick, Friday, May 6, 2011

Ruburt is Jane Roberts, and Joseph is her husband, Robert Butts. This is part 2 of a series of Seth posts about fanaticism. – Rick

9:39 P.M. WEDNESDAY

Seth: Good evening.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

When you are discussing the nature of good and bad, you are on tricky ground indeed, for many, or most, of man’s atrocities to man have been committed in misguided pursuit of “the good.”

Whose good?

Is “good” an absolute?

In your arena of events, obviously, one man’s good can be another’s disaster, [Adolf] Hitler pursued his version of “the good” with undeviating fanatical intent. He believed in the superiority and moral rectitude of the Aryan race. In his grandiose, idealized version of reality, he saw that race “set in its proper place,” as natural master of mankind.

He believed in heroic characteristics, and became blinded by an idealized superman version of an Aryan strong in mind and body. To attain that end, Hitler was quite willing to sacrifice the rest of humanity. “The evil must be plucked out.” That unfortunate chant is behind the beliefs of many cults, scientific and religious, and Hitler’s Aryan kingdom was a curious interlocking of the worst aspects of religion and science alike, in which their cultish tendencies were encouraged and abetted.

The political arena was the practical working realm in which those ideals were to find fruition. Hitler’s idea of good was hardly inclusive, therefore, and any actions, however atrocious, were justified.

How did Hitler’s initially wishy-washy undefined ideals of nationalistic goodness turn into such a world catastrophe?

The steps were the ones mentioned earlier, as those involved with any cult. Hitler’s daydreams became more and more grandiose, and in their light, the plight of his country seemed worsened with each day’s events. He counted its humiliations over and over in his mind, until his mind became an almost completely closed environment, in which only certain ideas were allowed entry.

All that was not Aryan, really, became the enemy. The Jews took the brunt largely because of their financial successes and their cohesiveness, their devotion to a culture that was not basically Aryan. They would become the victims of Hitler’s fanatical ideal of Germany’s good.

Hitler preached on the great value of social action as opposed to individual action. He turned children into informers against their own parents. He behaved nationalistically, as any minor cult leader does in a smaller context. The Jews believed in martyrdom. Germany became the new Egypt, in which their people were set upon. I do not want to oversimplify here, and certainly I am nowhere justifying the cruelties the Jews encountered in Germany.

You do each create your own reality, however (intently), and en masse you create the realities of your nationalities and your countries, so at that time the Germans saw themselves as victors, and the Jews saw themselves as victims.

Both reacted as groups, rather than as individuals, generally speaking now. For all of their idealisms, both basically believed in a pessimistic view of the self. It was because Hitler was so convinced of the existence of evil in the individual psyche, that he set up all of his rules and regulations to build up and preserve “Aryan purity.”

The Jews’ idea was also a dark one, in which their own rules and regulations were set to preserve the soul’s purity against the forces of evil. And while in the Jewish books [of The Old Testament] Jehovah now and then came through with great majesty to save his chosen people, he also allowed them to suffer great indignities over long periods of time, seeming to save them only at the last moment, and this time, so it seemed, he did not save them at all.

What happened?

Despite himself, and despite his followers, Hitler brought to flower a very important idea, and one that changed your history. All of the most morbid of nationalistic fantasies that had been growing for centuries, all of the most grandiose celebrations of war as a nation’s inalienable right to seek domination, focused finally in Hitler’s Germany.

The nation served as an example of what could happen in any country if the most fanatical nationalism was allowed to go unchecked, if the ideas of right were aligned with might, if any nation was justified in contemplating the destruction of others.

You must realize that Hitler believed that any atrocity was justified in the light of what he thought of as the greater good.

To some extent or another, many of the ideals he held and advocated had long been accepted in world communities, though they had not been acted upon with such dispatch. The nations of the world saw their own worst tendencies personified in Hitler’s Germany, ready to attack them.

The Jews, for various reasons, and again, this is not the full story, the Jews acted as all of the victims of the world, both the Germans and the Jews basically agreeing upon “man’s nefarious nature.” For the first time the modern world realized its vulnerability to political events, and technology and communication accelerated all of war’s dangers. Hitler brought many of man’s most infamous tendencies to the surface. For the first time, again, the species understood that might alone did not mean right, and that in larger terms a world war could have no real victors. Hitler might well have exploded the world’s first atomic bomb.

In a strange fashion, however, Hitler knew that he was doomed from the very beginning, and so did Germany as far as Hitler’s hopes for it were concerned. He yearned for destruction, for in saner moments even he recognized the twisted distortions of his earlier ideals. This meant that he often sabotaged his own efforts, and several important Allied victories were the result of such sabotaging. In the same way, Germany did not have the [atomic] bomb for the same reasons.

Now, however, we come to Hiroshima, where this highly destructive bomb was exploded (on August 6, 1945), and for what reason? To save life, to save American lives. The intent to save American lives was certainly “good”, at the expense of the Japanese this time. In that regard, America’s good was not Japan’s, and an act taken to “save life” was also designed to take individual lives.

At what expense is “the good” to be achieved, and whose idea of the good is to be the criterion?

Man’s pursuit of the good, to some extent now, fathered the Inquisition and the Salem witch hunts. Politically, many today believe that Russia is “the enemy,” and that therefore any means may be taken to destroy that country.

Some people within the United States believe fervently that “the establishment” is rotten to the core, and that any means is justified to destroy it.

Some people believe that homosexuals and lesbians are “evil,” that somehow they lack the true qualities of humanness [and therefore need not be treated with normal respect]. These are all value judgments involving your ideas of the good.

Very few people start out trying to be as bad as possible. At least some criminals feel that in stealing they are simply righting society’s wrongs. I am not saying that is their only motive, but in one way or another they manage to justify their activities by seeing them in their own version of the good and the right.

You must realize that fanatics always deal with grandiose ideals, while at the same time they believe in man’s sinful nature, and the individual’s lack of power.

They cannot trust the expression of the self, for they are convinced of its duplicity. Their ideals then seem even more remote. Fanatics call others to social action. Since they do not believe that the individual is ever effective, their groups are not assemblies of private individuals come reasonably together, pooling individual resources. They are instead congregations of people who are afraid to assert their individuality, who hope to find it in the group, or hope to establish a joint individuality, and that is an impossibility (emphatically).

True individuals can do much through social action, and the species is a social one, but people who are afraid of their individuality will never find it in a group, but only a caricature of their own powerlessness.

To be continued…

Published with permission from current copyright holder, Laurel Davies-Butts, Seth/Jane Roberts Yahoo Group

Wow, Seth sure knows how to lay it out, doesn’t he? When we see ourselves as separate, thoughts of fear and competition dominate our thinking. If our “good” is someone else’s “bad”, that’s too bad! “Life is a matter of survival-of-the-fittest, it’s eat or be eaten, kill or be killed”, we tell ourselves.

Is it? Why not ask: what’s going to work best for All of us before we ask what’s going to work best for “me”? What’s wrong with acknowledging that we’re both one AND separate, and that we’re not only the product of creation but creation itself? What’s wrong with love and collaboration instead of fear and competition? We’ll get there, and certainly, articles like this will help us get there faster.

Cheers,

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

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Seth on Fanaticism – Part 1

by Pete on 05/07/2011

Published on Seth, Practicing Idealist by “Oceanside Rick, Friday, May 6, 2011

(Seth, whispers:) Good evening.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

Dictation:

Give us a moment. . . Let us look at the many forms idealism can take. Sometimes it is difficult to identify idealists, because they wear such pessimistic clothing that all you can see are the patterns of a sardonic nature, or of irony. On the other hand, many who speak most glowingly, in the most idealistic fashions, underneath are filled with the darkest aspects of pessimism and despair. If you are idealists, and if you feel relatively powerless in the world at the same time, and if your idealism is general and grandiose, unrelated to any practical plans for its expression, then you can find yourself in difficulties indeed. Here are a few specific examples of what I mean.

One evening, in this very [living] room, a small group was assembled not too long ago. One visitor, a man from another part of the country, began to speak about the state of the nation, largely condemning all of his countrymen and women for their greed and stupidity. People would do anything at all for money, he said, and as his monologue continued, he expressed his opinion that the species itself would almost inevitably bring about its own destruction.

He cited many instances of nefarious acts committed for money’s sake. A lively discussion resulted, but no countering opinion could enter this man’s mind. Roger, let us call him, is an idealist at heart, but he believes that the individual has little power in the world, and so he did not pursue his personal idealism in the events of his own life. “Everyone is a slave to the system.” That is his line of belief. He took a routine job in a local business and stayed with it for over 20 years, all of the time hating to go to work, or saying that he did, and at the same time refusing to try other areas of activity that were open to him because he was afraid to try.

He feels he has betrayed himself, and he projects that betrayal outward until betrayal is all that he sees in the socio-political world.

Had he begun the work of actualizing his ideals through his own private life, he would not be in such a situation. The expression of ideals brings about satisfaction, which then of course promotes the further expression of practical idealism.

Roger speaks the same way in any social group, and therefore to that extent spreads a negative and despairing aura. I do not want to define his existence by those attitudes alone, however, for when he forgets the great gulf between his idealism and practical life, and speaks about other activities, then he is full of charming energy. That energy could have sustained him far more than it has, however, had he counted on his natural interests and chosen one of those for his life’s work. He could have been an excellent teacher. He had offers of other jobs that would have pleased him more, but he is so convinced of his lack of power that he did not dare take advantage of the opportunities. There are satisfactions in his life [however] that prevent him from narrowing his focus even further.

If you want to change the world for the better, then you are an idealist. If you want to change the world for the better, but you believe it cannot be changed one whit, then you are a pessimist, and your idealism will only haunt you.

If you want to change the world for the better, but you believe that it will grow worse, despite everyone’s efforts, then you are a truly despondent, perhaps misguided idealist.

If you want to change the world for the better, and if you are determined to do so, no matter the cost to yourself or others, no matter what the risk, and if you believe that those ends justify any means at your disposal, then you are a fanatic.

Fanatics are inverted idealists. Usually they are vague grandiose dreamers, whose plans almost completely ignore the full dimensions of normal living. They are unfulfilled idealists who are not content to express idealism in steps, one at a time, or indeed to wait for the practical workings of active expression. They demand immediate action. They want to make the world over in their own images (louder). They cannot bear the expression of tolerance or opposing ideas. They are the most self-righteous of the self-righteous, and they will sacrifice almost anything, their own lives or the lives of others. They will justify almost any crime for the pursuit of those ends.

Two young women visited Ruburt lately. They were exuberant, energetic, and filled with youthful idealism. They want to change the world. Working with the Ouija board, they received messages telling them that they could indeed have a part in a great mission. One young lady wanted to quit her job, stay at home, and immerse herself in “psychic work,” hoping that her part in changing the world could be accomplished in that manner. The other was an office worker.

There is nothing more stimulating, more worthy of actualization, than the desire to change the world for the better. That is indeed each person’s mission (intently). You begin by working in that area of activity that is your own unique one, with your own life and activities. You begin in the corner of an office, or on the assembly line, or in the advertising agency, or in the kitchen. You begin where you are.

If Roger, mentioned earlier, had begun where he was, he would be a different, happier, more fulfilled person today. And to some extent or other, his effect on all the other people he has met would have been far more beneficial.

When you fulfill your own abilities, when you express your personal idealism through acting it out to the best of your ability in your daily life, then you are changing the world for the better.

Our session is late this evening because Ruburt and Joseph watched the beginning of a (television) movie in which a young woman I will call Sarah appeared as an actress. Sarah wrote Ruburt a letter, telling him of the movie. Sarah has abilities, and she is banking on them, developing them in a practical way. She believes that she forms her own reality. She quenched doubts that she was not good enough to succeed, or that it was too difficult to get ahead in show business. The satisfaction of performance leads [her] to more expansive creativity, and to her natural sense of personal power. Through developing those abilities personally, she will contribute to the enjoyment of others. She is an idealist. She will try to bring a greater sense of values to the screen, for example, and she is willing to do the work necessary.

(10:30.) Get our friend some cigarettes. Is your [writing] hand tired?

“Nope.”)

A young man from a nearby town came here recently, a highly gifted, intelligent young person. He had not gone to college. He attended a training school, however, and has a fairly technical position in a nearby factory. He is an idealist, given to great plans for developing novel mathematical and scientific systems, and he is highly gifted in that area. He wants to change the world for the better.

In the meantime, he looks with horror and disgust at the older men who have worked there for years, “getting drunk on Saturday nights, thinking only of the narrow world of their families,” and he is determined that the same thing will not happen to him. He has been “called down” several times for “things that everyone else does,” though he protests that no one else is caught. His mood was despondent. At the same time he did not consider trying to go to college, to get a scholarship or whatever, to better his knowledge in the field of his choice. He doesn’t want to leave town, which is the place of his birth, to find a better job; nor does it occur to him to try and understand better the experiences of his fellow workers. He doesn’t believe that he can change the world by beginning where he is, and yet he is afraid to count upon his own abilities by giving them a practical form of expression.

Youth is full of strength, however, so he very well may find a way to give his own abilities greater expression, and hence to increase his own sense of power. But in the meantime he is dealing with dark periods of despair.

Idealism also presupposes “the good” as opposed to “the bad,” so how can the pursuit of “the good” often lead to the expression of “the bad?” For that, we will have to look further.

There is one commandment above all, in practical terms, a Christian commandment that can be used as a yardstick. It is good because it is something you can understand practically: “Thou shalt not kill.” That is clear enough.

Under most conditions you know when you have killed. That [commandment] is a much better road to follow, for example than: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” for many of you do not love yourselves to begin with, and can scarcely love your neighbor as well. The idea is that if you love your neighbor you will not treat him poorly, much less kill him, but the commandment: “Thou shalt not kill,” says you shall not kill your neighbor no matter how you feel about him. So let us say in a new commandment: “Thou shalt not kill even in the pursuit of your ideals.”

What does that mean? In practical terms it would mean that you would not wage war for the sake of peace. It would mean that you did not kill animals in experiments, taking their lives in order to protect the sacredness of human life. That would be a prime directive: “Thou shalt not kill even in the pursuit of your ideals”, for man has killed for the sake of his ideals as much as he has ever killed for greed, or lust, or even the pursuit of power on its own merits.

You are a fanatic if you consider (…) killing (others in) the pursuit of your ideal. For example, your ideal may be, for ideals differ, the production of endless energy for the uses of mankind, and you may believe so fervently in that ideal, this added convenience to life, that you considered the hypothetical possibility of that convenience being achieved at the risk of losing some lives along the way. That is fanaticism.

It means that you are not willing to take the actual steps in physical reality to achieve the ideal, but that you believe that the end justifies the means: “Certainly some lives may be lost along the way, but overall, mankind will benefit.” That is the usual argument. The sacredness of life cannot be sacrificed for life’s convenience, or the quality of life itself will suffer. In the same manner, say, the ideal is to protect human life, and in the pursuit of that ideal you give generations of various animals deadly diseases, and sacrifice their lives. Your justification may be that people have souls and animals do not, or that the quality of life is less in the animals, but regardless of those arguments this is fanaticism, and the quality of human life itself suffers as a result, for those who sacrifice any kind of life along the way lose some respect for all life, human life included. The ends do not justify the means (all very emphatically).

To be continued…

Published with permission from current copyright holder, Laurel Davies-Butts, Seth/Jane Roberts Yahoo Group

When I first read The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events in the early 80’s, I thought Seth was talking to me and about me. Although I never attended any of Jane’s class sessions, I did stop at Prentice Hall publishing on my way to Maine to ask Jane’s editor, Tam Mossman, to call Rob and Jane to let them know I was there and wanted to visit them. At the time, I published Coordinate Point, a Seth related magazine, and besides corresponding with each other, Jane would submit comments to the magazine occasionally. Being quite ill at the time, she said, “no”.

I identified so much with the “Roger” in Seth’s discussion about fanaticism in his book, I wanted to talk with him about it. It was scary to think I would spend my life stuck in a psychological vortex of anger, cynicism and contempt. What I failed to see at the time was that I was already expressing a healthy idealism in publishing Coordinate Point. My blind identification with the “Roger” in Seth’s discussion reminded me of when I took a class in Abnormal Psychology in college. I identified with every disease symptom that was described, which excited and scared me so much, I switched from a biology major in a pre-med program to psychology, even though I knew I didn’t want to be a Psychologist!

Anyway, this is an excellent discussion. Enjoy it! Thank you for putting it out there, Rick.

Roger “Pete” Peterson – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

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Thoughts for Changing Ourselves, and the World, for the Better

by Pete on 05/01/2011

If others do not love, trust and believe in you, love, trust, and believe in yourself, and them. Give yourself and others encouragement and room to grow. Fear and judgment imprison us. Love and acceptance free us. (See: Encounter with Unconditional Love)

To personalize the thoughts below, convert them into “I” statements with exclamation points for emphasis. For example, I love myself, just because I can! I love you, just because you are! Remember them wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. We treat people and things we love better than people and things we don’t, including ourselves.

Each set of seed thoughts ending in, just because I am and just because I can, provides you with two important alternatives; one is a quiet acceptance of being and the other is a declaration of power over the creation your reality. Use whichever one suits your mood in the moment. Plant them in the fertile soil of your imagination. Watch them grow and bear fruit!

Love yourself, just because you are.

Love yourself, just because you can.

Trust yourself, just because you are.

Trust yourself, just because you can.

Believe in yourself, just because you are.

Believe in yourself, just because you can.

Love others, just because they are.

Love others, just because you can.

Trust others, just because they are.

Trust others, just because you can.

Believe in others, just because they are.

Believe in others, just because you can.

Forgive yourself, and others, for perceived “sins”. We’re all doing the best we can, given what we know and experience. Love and acceptance speed development, fear and judgment slow it down. Stop playing the “I’m right, you’re wrong, I’m good, you’re bad, I’m innocent and you’re guilty” game. We can do better than this.

LIVE for the love of Being and Creation; live for the love of your soul.

Be yourself to the best of your ability.

Determine the qualities of life and being you value most, your ideals, and actualize them.

Make self-improvement and natural passion the center of your life and you will automatically change yourself, and the world, for the better.

Being who you love to be and doing what you love to do connects you to your soul and stimulates natural passion!

As works of art in progress, natural passion leads us to daily self-improvement.

Remember how good we are, how much we do and how well we do it.

“Nothing you can ever think, say or do can keep you from being loved, unconditionally.” – Unconditional Love

What can be more exciting, or worth doing, than changing ourselves, and the world, for the better?

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

Change the world for the better with Philosophy On T-Shirts! (POTS)

As with all things, take what you like and leave the rest.

Thoughts on Worship

by Pete on 03/27/2011

Seth - “Now, Seth does not dig worship…. For one thing, Seth understands worshippers. And, when one understands worshippers, one does not dig worship!

If you will think this sentence over, then you will realize, that those who worship do no real honor to the object of their worship. For upon that object, they place all of their hopes, all of their dreams, all of their inadequacies, and all of the responsibility for their lives; and even a god – a sane god – would refuse to accept such a worship.

The god would understand also the nature of the universe, and the nature of playful creativity, and would know that such a worship is – at it’s base now, at it’s base – a denial of the very vitality of life.

For All That Is endows creatures with a latent capacity for the greatest kind of creativity. And a creature who says, ‘Save me, Oh Lord, and hear my voice! Look upon my iniquity and save me from my sin, and rule Thou my life which Thou hast indeed given me,’ says really, ‘Oh, Lord, Thou hast given me no capacity for reason, no free will, no power, no authority, and no goodness; and since Thou hast wronged me of all the holy virtue, then Thou might as well protect me, for I have no abilities of my own, and Thou hast made me without honor. Therefore, it is Thy duty to preserve the poor world upon which indeed Thy mighty foot is placed!’

So, Seth does not dig worship…but worshippers have to face the god that they believe they are worshipping. For they are saying, ‘You have made an inferior product – a flawed image. I am despicable, and therefore, although I adore you and I say, “Yea, though I travel through the valley of death, et cetera”, and though I say, “I adore you, Oh Lord!” what I mean is, “I hate you because you have created me an inferior creature, and therefore, I will make you pay – for my iniquities, Oh Lord, are yours. How can I be good when Thou hast made me evil? How can I hold up my head in the universe, when Thou hast made me flawed? Therefore, do I crawl upon my knees to show you that I cannot stand upright before Thee, for Thou hast made me flawed!’

Such worshippers take it for granted that the product of God is poor – from an inadequate factory – a poor cosmic assembly line. Ford calls back it’s products if they are flawed, and so such worshippers say, ‘Oh Lord, call back humanity, for we are flawed!’ And, no one answers, so it seems.

When the old answers and the old organizations no longer have any meaning to the individual; when he can find reflected in the official answers none of his own questions; then the individual rises up from within itself; and, as once this civilization was born, so shall others be born in the same way…. And so always from within itself does the race then go within its psyche for newer revelations; newer in that they are fresher to the source of itself – they have not been worn away by distortions and so in-turned by organizations that their meaning has become lost.

So you arise out of yourselves individually, and out of the heart of your psyche; and so shall the civilization also emerge out of its mass psyche.”

What do you think about worship and worshippers? Can you think of any examples in life where worship is promoted? I remember being told as a child in Catholic school that we’re “all sinful” because “Adam and Eve ate an apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. The nun then said, “you can’t trust the flesh because it will always betray you.” How are children expected to react to statements like these? Are they blatant attempts to force us into a dependent relationship with God and the Church by instilling us with self-doubt and the fear of retribution? We do live in a world that believes in competition and you have to wonder….

What about professionals and leaders who seek their roles, not to serve others but to serve themselves? Their demand for worship not only promises to feed their egos, it promises to fill their purses! Do we have any choice but to learn how to think for and believe in ourselves? What other choice do we have?

“So you arise out of yourselves individually, and out of the heart of your psyche; and so shall the civilization also emerge out of its mass psyche.” – Seth

(See My Recurring Superman Nightmare – it went on for years until I finally faced it and understood what it was trying to teach me).

Pete – http://realtalkworld.com

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

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March 22, 2011

When it comes to desirable change in ourselves, instead of asking why; ask, why not? When we are willing to do anything for money, power or privilege, do we lose touch with our souls? Is saving our investment in nuclear energy more important than our health and safety? Corporations want freedom from regulation. How can [...]

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We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

In other words, we create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we must live with the consequences of our beliefs, how can we afford NOT to question them?

The more we love and appreciate ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

In other words, we create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we must live with the consequences of our beliefs, how can we afford NOT to question them?

The more we love and appreciate ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

Afterthoughts

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

Blessings of love and understanding be to us all.

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love and understand ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The more we love ourselves, the better we treat ourselves, and the world.

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

The Natural Law of Consciousness and Creation

We Create Our Own Reality

Live by Value Fulfillment and Practice Idealism

A Project-Centered Life

Larger Dimensions of Reality

Three Aspects of the Self

The Reality Creation Project

Because we are Consciousness (Aware Energy), condensed into matter:

We are both one and separate.

We are not only the products of creation; we are creation itself!

The Natural Law of Consciousness and Creation

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

SETH ON THE SAFE UNIVERSE!

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.

If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.

If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?

How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth

We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.