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A Seth BOOK The INDIVIDUAL and the NATURE of MASS EVENTS Jane Roberts NOTES BY ROBERT F. BUTTS To Rob CONTENTS A Quotation From Seth.......................................................... .................ix A Verse From A Psychic Manifesto by Jane Roberts . .............................xi Introduction by Jane Roberts ..................................... .........................xiii PART ONE: THE EVENTS OF "NATURE." EPIDEMICS AND NATURAL DISASTERS .................................................... ........l Chapter 1: The Natural Body and Its Defenses.....................................3 Chapter 2: "Mass Meditations." "Health" Plans for Disease. Epidemics of Beliefs, and Effective Mental "Inoculations" Against Despair.......................................47 PART TWO: FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2..................... ...................79 Chapter 3: Myths and Physical Events. The Interior Medium in Which Society Exists ......................................... ............81 Chapter 4: The Characteristics of Framework 2. A Creative Analysis of the Medium in Which Physically-Oriented Consciousness Resides, and the Source of Events …... 112 Chapter 5: The Mechanics of Experience........................................ ..147 PART THREE: PEOPLE WHO ARE FRIGHTENED OF THEMSELVES........................................................... ......171 Chapter 6: Controlled Environments, and Positive and Negative Mass Behavior. Religious and Scientific Cults, and Private Paranoias....................................... ....................173 Chapter 7: The Good, the Bad, and the Catastrophic. Jonestown, Harrisburg, and When Is an Idealist a Fanatic? ............ 207 Chapter 8: Men, Molecules, Power, and Free Will........................ ....236 Chapter 9: The Ideal, the Individual, Religion, Science, and the Law..................................................................... .....253 PART FOUR THE PRACTICING IDEALIST ........................ .........................279 Chapter 10: The Good, the Better, and the Best. Value Fulfillment Versus Competition.................................................... ....281 "We have never told anybody to do anything, except to face up to the abilities of consciousness." Seth April 19, 1978 A note by R.F.B.: Seth was often pretty outspoken in Mass Events when he discussed our medical beliefs and practices, and the unfortunate results they sometimes bring about. At the same time he tempered his ideas with passages like this one, from the 870th session for Chapter 10: "Generally speaking, for example, if you are seriously worried about a physical condition, go to a doctor, because your own beliefs may overfrighten you otherwise. Begin with innocuous but annoying physical conditions, however, and try to work those out for yourself. Try to discover why you are bothered. When you have a headache or a simple stomach upset, or if you have a chronic, annoying but not serious condition, such as trouble with your sinuses, or if you have hay fever — in those situations, remind yourself that your body does indeed have the capacity to heal itself." A Psychic Manifesto My life is its own definition. So is yours. Let us leave the priests to their hells and heavens, and confine the scientists to their dying universe, with its accidentally created stars. Let us each dare to open our dream's door, and explore the unofficial thresholds, where we begin. (A note by R.F.B.: This is the first verse of a long poem jane wrote late in July 1979, as Seth was finishing his work on Mass Events. Among other things, the poem is a passionate declaration of psychic independence, written in response to Seth's ideas in this book.) • xiv • INTRODUCTION County would have been used to house refugees. Many spectacular nat