In his on-going review, Tom Sherlock continues
his analysis of Seth and Jane Roberts’ book,
The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events
started in the second issue of Wisp.

Exploring Mass Events

Chapter One

by Thomas J. Sherlock

In this chapter, Seth discusses the body along with other related phenomena such as illness, death, communication, natural rights and the greater framework. He also touches upon the goals of Mass Events.

Purpose

Occasionally treating chapter one as an introduction, Seth explains the purpose of Mass Events: “This book will, then, be devoted to the nature of the great sweeping emotional, religious, or biological events that often seem to engulf the individual (p.22); “This book will be devoted, then, to those conditions that best promote spiritual, psychic and physical zest” (p. 33). He intends to provide answers to such questions as: “what is the relationship between the individual and the gigantic mass motion of nature, of government, or even of religion? What about mass conversion? Mass hysteria? Mass healings, mass murder, and the individual” (p.22)? Until Mass Events, Seth had dictated books dedicated solely to “the private nature of reality”. He wanted to ensure that private reality was emphasized sufficiently before starting to discuss masse events (p. 20). It makes sense to emphasize the individual reality over the collective reality because “inner reality and private experience give birth to all mass events.” (p.22).

Illness and the Body

Conventional, modern, Western knowledge tells us that mass events such as epidemics originate from exterior causes such as viruses. Seth suggests otherwise: “epidemics … cannot be answered from a biological standpoint alone” (p.20). They arise from the needs and desires of all relevant and affected parties. They occur within a context informed by psychological, religious, philosophical, cultural and political aspects (p. 19). Such aspects “cannot be isolated from the biological results” (p. 20).

While the body may produce antibodies due to an inoculation that it knows is counterfeit, having been produced in a laboratory (p.21), it will “often produce its own … ‘inoculations’ by seeking out … new and foreign substances in its environment” (p.47).

“Illness therefore represents the overall body defense system at work.” The body survives with the help of illnesses (p.47). Furthermore, “no person becomes ill unless that illness serves a psychic or psychological reason” (p.21).

Not only does the body want to survive, it also wants to “maintain a quality of existence at certain levels [in order to promote] health and fulfillment.”(p 49). Such a drive is often thwarted by modern “scientific medical beliefs” which offer apparently effective medical procedures that “only reinforce … beliefs about the body’s ineffectiveness” (p.32) In fact, “the majority of accepted beliefs ‐ religious, scientific, and cultural ‐ have tended to stress a sense of powerlessness, impotence, and impending doom” (p.54). Often such an approach leads to suffering or anguish for those who have relinquished power over their own body to another authority.

Seth reminds us that “suffering is not necessarily good for the soul (p.34). Animals avoid suffering by engaging natural compassion. An animal will “instinctively starve an offspring while its consciousness is still unfocused, rather then send it loose under adverse conditions” (p.35). Children who “die stillborn” or who are “naturally aborted” are examples of natural compassion (p. 35). Often such children are “fragment personalities”, who want a taste of physical reality, but are not ready for a full life. (p. 35)

Beliefs effect health. Those that foster apathy, despair or hopelessness lower our bodily defenses (p. 30). Despair is a psychic contagion that moves faster than a mosquito (p. 31). Often “victims” are assailed by apathy, despair or hopelessness first (p. 30). Most accepted beliefs, whether religious, scientific or cultural, “have tended to stress a sense of powerlessness, impotence and impending doom” (p.54). Such mental states imposed by political, social, economic, religious or philosophical forces will cause the body to retaliate. (p. 31) On the flipside, those who have survived epidemics such as the plagues of England “were actively involved” in helping to heal those smitten and were “untouched by despair”. They saw “themselves as being effective” (p. 32).

Death

Death is the most prominent, and dramatic, of the secondary themes in the chapter. We learn that death is one more tool for fulfilling our value. Death serves both humanity and the individual (p.21). The very private death of an individual affects our collective existence: “part of the species dies with each death” (p.20) and “takes place within the greater context of the existence of the entire species” (p.21). In fact a whole civilization will die when the civilians see no reason to live (p. 33).

Death is a necessity. It insures “the continued vitality of the species.” (p.23) It frees “the exuberant, ever-renewed energies of the spirit [when they] can no longer be translated into flesh” (p. 23). Each individual must die “in order to survive spiritually and psychically [because] the self outgrows the flesh” (p.24, emphasis mine) and “because the nature of consciousness requires new experience, challenge and accomplishment” (p. 39).

Death is desired by those who die; it “does not come unbidden” (p.21). The desire for death is more prevalent than commonly believed. It just doesn’t get as much attention as the desire for life (p.24). A person desiring death is not necessarily a suicidal person. Seth does not condone suicide. In fact, if a suicidal person only waited for the wishes of his body consciousness to align with his own, he would die of a “more natural cause such as disease” (pp. 24, 25). Consequently, individuals who have decided upon death will “die in any case, of [one] disease or another, or of the side effects of [an] inoculation” (p. 22). Frequently a person will die young because he “originally intended to experience only a portion of earth life. This would be entwined with the parents’ intent” (p. 25). Hence, the manifestation of an illness serves “the sociological purpose of providing an acceptable reason for death” (p. 24). Illness also serves as a “face-saving device” allowing to die those who have finished with their challenges (p. 41).

Conversely, the desire to live is stronger than the conditions that might normally cause death: “No epidemic or illness or natural disaster … will kill a person who does not want to die” (p.24). For example, during “the great plagues in England there were those smitten who did not die, and there were those untouched by the diseases who dealt with the sick and dying” (p. 32).

Get out the Message

Often epidemics are an expression of mass protest that occurs after more conventional social protests have failed (p. 31). Outbreak will frequently occur during wartime (p. 31). “Specific diseases have certain symbolic meanings, varying with the times and places” (p. 33). The unexplained disease that has struck many soldiers after the Gulf War could possibly be one of these epidemic protests. Disease is a form of communication, with epidemics focusing on public problems (p. 32). The body itself is a “spiritual, psychic, and social statement, biologically spoken” (p.45). Thus by simply being in our physical bodies, we are making a statement. And the “most private life imaginable is a very social affair” (p.46) since the “most secluded recluse” depends on the sociability of his body’s cells and the creatures within the natural world (p. 46) At a molecular level there is a “constant interchange between [the body] and the physical environment” (p.38). Man is “a part of nature and not apart from it” (p. 38).

Natural Rights

One aspect of Mass Events that has surprised me is the reference to natural rights. During an election year in the United States it only seems appropriate to highlight them.

Seth says that we have the right to act (p.33), the right to exist (p.54). The right to act becomes effective in a life of joy, a life that acquiesces in itself (p.33). This brings to mind Elias’ acceptance and Kris’ allowance.

Then, there is the right to freedom of expression. We must, according to Seth, have the freedom to express our ideas on an individual basis in a “worldwide social and political context in which each individual can develop his or her abilities and contribute to the species as a whole”. This environment would thrive on many ideas that are not universally accepted (p.51). It may be this innate drive toward self expression that will catapult us into an Eliasian post-shift world wherein individuals will act according to their own value fulfillment, obviating the need for money. Although I would personally opt for a detour through community issued currency, as it will make us realize that we are the source behind the power of money and it will serve as an expression of our ideas rather then a restriction on our ideas, making it easier to shed the need for money.

Greater Framework

In order to understand the nature of mass events, we must “consider the even greater framework in which they have their existence” (p.19). We must consider the Greater Context. Our physical world is made up of invisible, configurable patterns whose final form is determined by consciousness and which our senses perceive in their own manner (p.19). Our physical community is nested within a cogitopathic¹ community or environment (p.34). Our outer environment springs from an inner, psychic environment. The exterior phenomena arise from a moving, fluctuating inner realm (p. 38). A psychic event occurring in any part of the world will be experienced by all of us to some degree.

Man’s effect upon the world makes for great debate these days. His effect is greater then most may know. Earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, hurricanes all emerge from psychic counterparts of equal or greater proportion. Such psychic events form part of the greater collective inner landscape, which in turn and in part, rises from our private individual thoughts, feelings and intents. (p. 46) At this psychic level, we are all connected; “there are no closed systems (p. 20). Such psychic connections allows for a self-regulating system: “You cannot separate issues like a population explosion [in one part of the world] from epidemics, earthquakes and other disasters” in other regions (p.25). Seth points out that ‘in wars, people automatically reproduce their kind to make up for those that are killed, and when the race overproduces there will be automatic controls set upon the population” (p. 25). He also notes that when “a species overproduces, the incidences of, say, epidemics grow” (p.34). It would be an interesting experiment to map similar events by color and to catalogue the time and location of such events in order to establish a relationship between superficially unrelated events. Perhaps we could anticipate and better prepare for unavoidable “acts of god”. Or, a more ambitious goal would be to examine our inner state to eventually draw the connection between the mass events, the condition of our body and our private, interior events.

Note:

1 WTF!?! I know, I know. Just having fun with English. A cogitopathic community is my pseudo-scientific term for community of thoughts and feelings