“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

He knows it now in the only real way it can be known. You learned it some time ago, and he knew it intellectually. He did not understand however that fear is not practical. I am speaking of course generally, and of anticipatory fear, not the fear, quite healthy, with which a man faces a ferocious beast.

Our poor results in the last experimental data were directly the result of the fear which he finally faced. Fear under normal circumstances is immobilizing, as he most certainly now realizes.

The symbolic journey of the spirit, and the finding finally of the self always involves the journey of the self through fear, and its emergence. To the extent that this journey is faced, the greater the perils, but the greater the rewards.

Fear cannot be ignored. It must be faced and conquered. It always leads to retreat when it is not faced. The physical image is indeed a replica in many ways of the inner self. When a man is ill it is not necessarily because he wants to be ill subconsciously. It is not necessarily because he is receiving some hidden psychological benefit, or because the illness fulfills some need. He is ill often—always in fact—because of a distortion that is occurring within the self, and materialized in physical form.

Fear, and a complete, if sometimes momentary loss of confidence, was the basic cause that led to retreat and the physical symptoms. Fear itself is damaging as such, particularly when it is anticipatory. He knew enough so that this was partially counterbalanced. Otherwise he literally would have been in worse shape.

But this lesson, learned, is a valuable achievement. He understood it, it would seem, of a sudden, but this was only a crystallization of knowledge. The habit of fear would have finally been reflected here in our sessions. I have to a large degree kept my eye upon him, but you see the lesson had to be learned by him.

You can be grateful also. The winter of the spirit must be journeyed through, and it must not only be conquered but the benefits used. Yet without it maturity cannot arrive. The immobility showed itself physically in faithful replica to the inner immobilization caused by fear. You could see, in other words, the exact extent of the distortion in quite physical terms.

This response to fear is a danger to psychic work, where freedom is necessary. In projections most of all the self must be mobile. Rapidity of perception, mobility of consciousness, openness of emotional response, are prerequisites for our work. The fearful spirit fears to leave the body, and fears to reside in it also. Ruburt has my congratulations, for he has now successfully passed a period of trial. He tried without involving you except when he grew more than usually discouraged.

He is now released because he has released himself as much as possible from fear. The fearing habit is highly destructive.