"Seth Speaks" Physical objects as symbols, method of expression of thoughts

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Very interesting, self-explanatory:

CHAPTER 5
HOW THOUGHTS FORM MATTER —
COORDINATION POINTS

Chapter Five: As you read the words upon this page, you realize
that the information that you are receiving is not an attribute of the
letters of the words themselves. The printed line does not contain
information. It transmits information. Where is the information that is
being transmitted then, if it is not upon the page? (Pause.)
The same question of course applies when you read a newspaper,
and when you speak to another person. Your actual words convey
information, feelings, or thoughts. Obviously the thoughts or the
feelings, and the words, are not the same thing. The letters upon the
page are symbols, and you have agreed upon various meanings
connected with them. You take it for granted without even thinking
of it that the symbols — the letters — are not the reality — the
information or thoughts — which they attempt to convey.
Now in the same way, I am telling you that objects are also symbols
that stand for a reality whose meaning the objects, like the letters,
transmit. The true information is not in the objects any more than the
thought is in the letters or in words. Words are methods of
expression. So are physical objects in a different kind of medium. You
are used to the idea that you express yourselves directly through
words. You can hear yourself speak them. You can feel the muscles in
your throat move, and if you are aware, you can perceive
multitudinous reactions within your own body — actions that all
accompany your speech.

(10:29.) Physical objects are the result of another kind of
expression. You create them as surely as you create words. I do not
mean that you create them with your hands alone, or through
manufacture. I mean that objects are natural by-products of the
evolution of your species, even as words are. Examine for a moment
your knowledge of your own speech, however. Though you hear the
words and recognize their appropriateness, and though they may
more or less approximate an expression of your feeling, they are not
your feeling, and there must be a gap between your thought and your
expression of it.
The familiarity of speech begins to vanish when you realize that
you, yourself, when you begin a sentence do not know precisely how
you will end it, or even how you form the words. You do not
consciously know how you manipulate a staggering pyramid of
symbols, picking from them precisely those you need to express a
given thought. For that matter, you do not know how you think.
You do not know how you translate these symbols upon this page
into thoughts, and then store them, or make them your own. Since
the mechanisms of normal speech are so little known to you on a
conscious level, then it is not surprising that you are equally unaware
of more complicated tasks that you also perform — such as the
constant creation of your physical environment as a method of
communication and expression.
It is only from this viewpoint that the true nature of physical
matter can be understood. It is only by comprehending the nature of
this constant translation of thoughts and desires — not into words
now, but into physical objects — that you can realize your true
independence from circumstance, time, and environment.
Now you may take a break. (Smile, at 10:36.) A note: I am very
pleased….
(“At what, Seth?”)
I am pleased with the beginning of my chapter, for I think I have
hit upon an analogy, and a true one, that will release the reader from
the artificial bondage of physical form. When he sees it as a method
of his own expression, he will realize his own creativeness.

(Resume at 10:56.)
Now, it is easy to see that you translate feelings into words or
bodily expressions and gestures, but not quite as easy to realize that
you form your physical body as effortlessly and unselfconsciously as
you translate feelings into symbols that become words.
(Long pause at 11:01.) You have heard the expression before, I am
sure, that the environment expresses a particular individual’s
personality. I am telling you that this is a literal and not symbolic
truth. The letters upon the page have the reality only of ink and
paper. The information they convey is invisible. As an object, this
book itself is only paper and ink. It is a carrier of information.
You may perhaps argue that the book was manufactured physically,
and did not suddenly erupt through Ruburt’s skull, already printed
and bound. You in turn had to borrow or purchase the book, so you
may think, “Surely, I did not create the book, as I created my words.”
But before we are finished we will see that basically speaking, each of
you create the book you hold in your hands, and that your entire
physical environment comes as naturally out of your inner mind as
words come out of your mouths, and that man forms physical objects
as unselfconsciously and as automatically as he forms his own breath.
End of dictation for this evening. (Smile.)
(“Good night, Seth, and thank you.” 11:14 P.M.)

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A lot of really good information in those words. The ones that catch my attention today are a reminder that my thoughts form my body. Yes, we are in charge of what our state of health and fitness is. Not to belittle anyone that is in poor health or un well being, but a firm reminder that our bodies are an outward manifestation of our beliefs and thinking.

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Your health reference reminds of an experience of mine.

At some point in my life I was overweight, and none of the diets and other approaches was ultimately successful, until I learned the physics of it.

I always thought that being overweight is unhealthy, so I wanted to get back to a healthy weight. After finding the way how to do it, I remember that at some point while approaching my healthy weight target after several lifestyle changes, I realized that the widely accepted perspective on weight and health is incorrect: people want to lose weight to get healthy. The right approach is to simply want to get healthy, and the side-effect will be reaching your healthy weight.

This also applies to your conscious creation of your reality: want to create your ultimate goal, not an intermediary goal that would help you to achieve your actual goal!

Like getting wealthy … Excepting the case in which your pleasure is really to look at a fat bank account, most people want wealth in order to satisfy other wishes and needs: better living conditions, higher education, seeing the world, helping your relatives, friends, causes, etc…

So, wish to create a reality in which those wishes and needs are satisfied, not a reality in which you have a fat bank account!

It may be a subtle difference of perspective, but I believe it is essential.

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I never believed that eating meat was harmful to a person’s cardiovascular health, but after having chest pains and not being able to walk up stairs without having to stop and catch my breath and having very high blood pressure and painful high blood pressure headaches, I went Whole Food Plant Based(whole food vegan no oil), in jan of 2018, and all the problems went away in about 3 months. This, after watching a documentary on heart disease.

Was it because I believed in this new diet or was it the physics?

It is interesting that the new way of eating I am engaged in for the past 4 years has rejuvenated my health and vitality and I have lost a considerable amount of weight. Most noteworthy is a swim I did before covid hit and closed down all the pools, before going vegan-no oil, I would swim a lap and catch my breath at the end of the lap lane and let the others pass and then do another lap and wait and catch my breath. It was ridiculous so gave up swimming, this was 3 years before going vegan.

So, fast forward to, a year and a half into being vegan and I swam 30 minutes non stop at a pace that would satisfy an average swimmer, without any shortness of breath and the most interesting thing is that was only my 3rd swim after going vegan.

What was different other than the diet. So this diet claims to reverse heart disease, is it the physics or the belief in the physics?

Now, your point was that there is a work around by focusing on an aspect of the change you want, by focusing on it from a different angle, an angle that one might just have less emotional baggage around.

But I can not see that the changes I experienced were not a direct result of my dietary changes. But I am sure that Seth would say that, like you said, I found a work around that circumvented my beliefs that were stopping me from attaining the health and well being I wanted. Or, was it the diet?

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Seth Speaks, Session 594

Objects are the symbols.

You usually think of them simply as realities. You think of thoughts, images, and dreams sometimes as being symbolic of other things, but the truth is that physical objects are themselves symbols. They are the exterior symbols that stand for inner experience.

There are, therefore, mass physical symbols upon which you all agree, as well as private, personal symbols.

The whole nature and structure of physical life as you know it, is a symbolic statement made by groups of entities who choose to work with physical symbolism. So the body is a symbol for what you are, or what you think you are – and these may be two different things indeed.

Any physical ailment is symbolic of an inner reality or statement. Your entire life is a statement in physical terms, written upon time as you understand it.

Once you understand the symbolic nature of physical reality, then you will no longer feel entrapped by it. You have formed the symbols, and therefore you can change them. You must learn, of course, what the various symbols mean in your own life, and how to translate their meaning.

To do so, you must first of all remind yourself frequently that the physical condition is symbolic – not a permanent condition. Then you must look within yourself for the inner actuality represented by the symbol. This same process can be followed regardless of the nature of the problem, or of your challenge.

Your intimate physical environment is, therefore, a symbolic statement of an inner situation. The inner situation is a fluid one, for you are always in a state of becoming. Left alone, you will automatically translate the freely moving, spontaneous inner events into physical reality, therefore altering your environment and changing the symbols.

If however you imagine that the environment or physical condition is the reality, then you can feel trapped by it, and spend your efforts fighting a paper dragon. The environment is always altered from the inside. There is instant feedback between the interior and exterior conditions, but the mobility, the necessity and the method of changing the physical environment will always come from within.

Many of the ideas given in this book can be used most advantageously to solve personal problems. If these concepts are understood, then the individual should realize the freedom he has to operate purposefully within the structure of physical life. Many of you are so used to looking outward – and accepting the physical world as the criterion for reality – that it has not occurred to you to look within. The entire framework of your existence, therefore, is constantly flowing from within outward, and being projected into those physical symbols that you mistake, then, for reality.

The interior drama, therefore, is always the important one. The “story of your life” is written by you, by each reader of this book. You are the author. There is no reason, therefore, for you to view the drama and feel trapped by it. The power to change your condition is your own. You have only to exercise it.

To some other types of consciousness, your physical reality is clearly understood in its symbolic form. Objects, as symbols, help construct the very framework of your existence. They, the objects, can then be manipulated quite freely.
…
Seen or viewed from my natural perspective, your objects do not exist. Your inner reality does, of course.
…

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I believe that it depends. For a given personality there is an answer, for another personality or the same personality at a different level of development there is a different answer.

For example: “mens sana in corpore sano”

The phrase is widely used in sporting and educational contexts to express the theory that physical exercise is an important or essential part of mental and psychological well-being.

For a person strongly anchored in physical, that is appropriate interpretation.

But, for a person that believes that they create their reality, including their body’s health, the interpretation can also be that you are physically healthy only if you think yourself so.

This is applicable to diet too.

If a personality is in the phase of developing its intellect while mastering its emotional side, the first interpretation applies. As it achieves those goals, and graduates to mastering its intellect and developing its intuition, the second interpretation becomes possible and relevant.

So, the same physical symbol, your body’s health, means different things depending on where you are in your devlopment.

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I think that makes sense. As always, there is just so much to think about, observe and figure out.

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It was the belief. It is far more subtle than most are aware of and far more tricky as well.

This excerpt might help the thinking.

Seth: "Now: each body is of course individual, and while there must be similarities in the ways bodies utilize substances, still there are differences—and sometimes the differences can be more than considerable. Not only in the case of a given substance in many bodies, for example, but any given body may utilize any given substance in quite diverse fashions, according to varying circumstances.

The dietary methods given in the book Ruburt read have indeed worked for many, and for the following reasons: as you suspected, a kind of conversion was attained. The people involved first of all had been told by doctors—medical doctors—that they themselves had no control over their own disease, that the symptoms could be lessened somewhat—PERHAPS—but that there was no hope for recovery.

They were frightened and angry, their condition such that they were often in constant pain. When they visited the author, however, he was optimistic and brusque. He said “You do indeed have control,” and his personal manner was such that he convinced them. Now that was all to the good. They were given hope and thrown back to a feeling of self-reliance.

Now, however, the story becomes trickier. The patients had various beliefs, of course, behind their conditions. Many felt unworthy. Because of this many were unable to express normal aggression. Some were frightened of the world, and so forth. The author gives such people a specific enemy, or evil: no more must they be battered with formless fears, but these become gathered together and focused into the dietary area. Unhealthy foods become the villain.

This means that there is nothing intrinsically intrinsically wrong with the person, which many of them have believed. THEY are good (as of course they are). The trouble is what they take into their system. Those who are cured are at a certain state when they approach the author, as mentioned earlier, feeling helpless after medical treatments that did not work—feeling that there is something wrong with them. They are in their own eyes “bad”—and in one way or another that kind of belief was behind the condition to begin with.

(4:13.) To that degree, the author offers them salvation: “You are good, but the food is bad.” The fasting is symbolic, as is the emphasis upon enemas and elimination, for these are meant to flush the impurities from your system.

You are as empty, symbolically, open and vacant, as a newborn child, ready now only to partake of God’s pure foods, determined to avoid technology’s poisonous effects. You are taking in goodness, then, and becoming better and better. You accept dietary limitations—say a limited environment of food—rather than the limitations earlier felt in motion. The exterior environment opens up. Oftentimes the previously withheld normal aggression now can be legitimately expressed—against the food companies, the technological environment, the medical profession, and so forth.

The cured person becomes a convert to a new way of life. When there are no cures, or patients do not respond, or they slide back into old ways, the doctor-author simply says they are not ready to take the steps necessary, or they have taken them half-heartedly. And many who are cured, of course, come down with other conditions if they have not succeeded in identifying their own fears sufficiently with the author’s.

The body is amazingly capable of turning what seem to be toxic substances into beneficial ones, and any body carries within it quite harmlessly all kinds of seemingly deadly viruses that in a healthy person ADD to overall body balance and health.

(Intently, and with humor:) I am somewhat familiar with food before canning and refrigeration, and there were maggots everywhere, and feces and dirt, and sanitation was largely unknown. So in certain terms God’s fruits and vegetables are not entirely pure in spiritual terms, as many food faddists imply.

All chemicals are natural. They come from what was already available to you—you cannot make a chemical except from substances or elements you already have. In certain terms, now, some natural diets of five centuries ago could kill you today, though they lacked any technologically produced chemicals.

YOU TELL YOUR BODY WHAT TO DO WITH THE FOOD YOU EAT—and when you are in a technological civilization, it is rather foolhardy to convince yourselves that your food is poisoned.

Such attitudes may be part of your methods of learning, to show you that technology should only go so far. Period. "

Roberts, Jane. The Personal Sessions: Book Five of the Deleted Seth Material, DELETED SESSION NOVEMBER 15, 1978 4:00 PM WEDNESDAY - by Jane Roberts © L. Davies Butts

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@Rachel : Yep! Good, clear explanation.

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Session 660 (Personal Reality) expands on the same theme: illness, diets, insurance, aging, … It can be read here:
https://al-worldview.blogspot.com/2016/03/session-660.html

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I know.

(okay, the 20 characters thing is …)