Session 658

SESSION 658, APRIL 23, 1973, 9:43 P.M. MONDAY em>(Yesterday Jane began writing a rather long poem, in Sumari, that she calls The Song of the Silver Brothers. She started it in a “normal” state of consciousness and ended up in an altered one — “immersed in a high state of inner concentration,” she said. As the work progressed she found herself actually writing two poems together, for after each verse of Sumari she did its English counterpart. Usually she doesn’t attempt to translate a work in Sumari until some time later. Days, weeks, even months can pass before this comes about.

(When Jane went back to the poem this afternoon, her heightened sensations returned in a considerably intensified form. They began to approach those described in the 639th session in Chapter Ten, and the 653rd session in Chapter Thirteen, to name but two such instances mentioned in this book.) Finally she called me at 3:30 p.m. as I was painting in my studio, and read Silver Brothers to me. It still wasn’t finished. “But now I don’t know what to do,” she said several times, looking quite bewildered. “I’m getting it so fast mentally, in Sumari, that I don’t have time to write it down — let alone do it in English — before I go into the next concept …(“At the same time, I’m living these ideas. They aren’t just words any more …Wow …” Her head nodded. She was growing more and more relaxed. “Sometimes what I get down — even when it’s good poetry — can’t come close to what I feel — it’s too weak. I’m even making new words out of old ones, ‘fossiling’ out of ‘fossil,’ for instance … I was going to do more, but I’m too high and exhausted to go on …” Finally, she wanted nothing more than to sleep.

(Last night, incidentally, Jane was again busily at work on Seth’s book in her sleep, dictating material that we haven’t actually gotten to yet.

(A note: Today she received a copy of her novel, The Education of Oversoul 7, from her publisher, Prentice-Hall, Inc. It’s just off the press. The “official” publication date isn’t until September 10, however. See Jane’s Introduction.)

Now: Good evening.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

Dictation: Any good demonstration of hypnosis will clearly show that the point of power is in the present, and that beliefs dictate your experience.

There is no magic in hypnosis. Each of you utilize it constantly. (See the 620th session in Chapter Four.) Only when particular procedures are assigned to it, and when it is set aside from normal life, does hypnotic suggestion seem so esoteric. Structured hypnosis merely allows the subject to utilize full powers of concentration, thereby activating unconscious mechanisms.

With the distortions present in organized procedures, however, and the misunderstandings of the practitioners, the phenomenon seems to show a different face indeed. The subject agrees to accept the beliefs of the hypnotist. Since telepathy exists (as described in Chapter Three), the subject will react not only to verbal commands but to the unspoken beliefs of the practitioner, thereby “proving,” of course, the hypnotist’s theory of what his profession is.

Hypnosis clearly shows in concentrated form the way in which your beliefs affect your behavior in normal life. The various methods simply focus all of your concentration upon a specific area, shutting out any distractions.

(Long pause at 9:54.) Your beliefs act like a hypnotist, then. As long as the particular directions are given, so will your “automatic” experience conform. The one suggestion that can break through is this: “I create my reality, and the present is my point of power.” If you do not like the effects of a belief you must alter it, for no manipulation of the exterior conditions themselves will release you. If you truly understand your power of action and decision in the present, then you will not be hypnotized by past events.

Think of the present as a pool of experience drawn from many sources, fed, in your terms, by tributaries from both the past and the future. There are an infinite number of such tributaries (probabilities), and through your beliefs you choose from these, adjusting their currents. For example: If you constantly focus on the belief that your early background was damaging and negative, then only such experiences will flow into your present life from the past. It does no good to say, “But my life was traumatic,” therefore reinforcing the belief. You must in one way or another modify that conviction, or preferably change it entirely — or you will never escape from its effects. This does not mean “lying” to yourself; but if it seems to you that your background held no joys, accomplishments or pleasures, then you are lying to yourself now. You have concentrated upon the negative to such a degree that anything else seems invisible. (See the 644th session in Chapter Eleven.) From the present you have hypnotized yourself, viewing the past not as it was to your experience, but as it appears now in the light of your current beliefs.

You have reconstructed it. So when I tell you to restructure your past, I am not telling you to do something that you have not already done. Hypnosis, again, is merely a state of concentrated attention, in which you focus upon beliefs. Popular demonstrations lead the public to believe that the subject must fall asleep or be completely relaxed, yet this is not the case. The one prerequisite is an intense concentration upon specific incoming data to the exclusion of everything else. Therefore the orders given are clear-cut, to the point. No conflicting information is received, no cross messages.

(10:12.) The shutting out of superfluous data and the narrowing of focus are the two most important ingredients. Relaxation can help simply because the body messages are also quieted, and the mind not concerned with them.

Many beliefs were originally accepted as a result of such a situation, without any formal induction, but when the circumstances were right. A period of panic induces immediate accelerated concentration. All the forces of energy are mobilized at once, while little relaxation is usually involved.

(Pause.) On the other hand, such beliefs can be accepted when it appears that the conscious mind is asleep, or dulled as in periods of shock, or during operations. The focus of attention is narrowed then, and intensified. One of the troubles is that too specific distinctions are made between the conscious and unconscious minds. They interlap. Hypnosis, used properly without the mumbo jumbo usually assigned to it, is an excellent method of inserting new beliefs and getting rid of old ones. This is only true, however, if you realize the power of your conscious mind in that moment, and understand the ability of your consciousness to mobilize unconscious reactions.

You may take your break.

(10:20 to 10:29.)

It is of greatest importance that you realize several points before you try the method I suggest.

First of all, the unconscious is not a sponge, indiscriminately accepting material regardless of the considerations of your conscious self. All beliefs or suggestions are first sifted through your conscious mind, and only those that you accept are then permitted their penetration into the other areas of the self.

No negative beliefs were thrust upon you, therefore, despite your will. Period. None can be inflicted upon you that you do not consciously accept. In formal hypnosis, the hypnotist and the subject play a game. If the hypnotist orders the subject to forget what happened, that individual will pretend to do so. In that context both hold the belief in the resulting forgetfulness, and it is the power of belief that is being demonstrated. But instead this is taken as an indication that the conscious mind is helpless under such conditions, generally speaking, and this is not the case.

Quite without any inductions, you have “hypnotized” yourself into all the beliefs that you have. This simply means that you have consciously accepted them, focused upon them, excluded data to the contrary, narrowed your interests to those specific points, and accordingly activated the unconscious mechanisms that then materialize those convictions through physical experience.

(Pause.) Formal hypnosis merely brings about an accelerated version of what goes on all the time. It is a perfect example of the instantaneous results possible ideally — but not usually seen practically — as present beliefs negate past ones.

(Pause at 10:42.) We are going to deal with practical methods that will allow you to alter beliefs and change your experience. Later in the book we’ll show how your individual beliefs attract you to joys or disasters. We will also discuss the ways in which mass beliefs will bring many of you together both in great periods of celebration, or as victims or survivors of disasters that seem to exist apart from yourselves.

Let us first of all discuss the nature of hypnosis, quite natural hypnosis, and the ways in which you use it now. Then you will see how you can utilize it quite easily and deliberately in your present point of power.

End of chapter. I said that would be a short one.

(“Yes.”)

^* See the 639th session in Chapter Ten for material on the life and death of our cat, Rooney. Seth mentioned probabilities in connection with Rooney, too.