“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt’s methods of dealing with such a situation were highly apparent, in his physical symptoms. Yours were not as easy to perceive. They did not show. In an unsafe universe you run your personal life along certain lines. This applies generally more or less, and specifically to you also. In that context you do not trust good fortune—indeed, it seems practical not to trust it. You hide good fortune for fear it will be taken away. It does not seem to belong in an unsafe universe. You do not tell people that you are doing well—you tell them that you must work from morning to night; that you do not have enough time. You have to prove that you are as hassled as they are.

(9:40.) You have built up the idea of free time being wrong, sinful, no matter what you tell yourself about wanting more of it. That is one thing. Deeper, however, is the fact that the belief in an unsafe universe sets up certain habits of resistance, and more practically, of self-protection. The resistance is protective. It shows itself in fears that seem perfectly realistic, and indeed highly practical—the feeling itself is not let go of easily, for you and others rely upon it. It is a state of alarm and readiness. You are so used to feeling unsafe that you consider alarm of one kind or another as a realistic approach to life.

Now: comments concerning several areas. First of all, generally pertaining to yourself. You have been trained, like most of your contemporaries, to deal with an unsafe universe—to hold your own amid tumultuous threats—social, economic, spiritual or otherwise.

[...] As mentioned, however, the idea of an unsafe universe automatically initiates a certain kind of thinking. [...]

[...] In an unsafe universe as given protection is necessary, and certain attitudes are accepted, coloring many areas of life, spreading out to assure that protection.

[...] You are traveling yourselves out of an unsafe universe into a safe one. [...]

[...] Those belonged to the unsafe universe, and made perfect sense there—and there they still do. When you change your affiliation and find yourself now and then encountering such feelings; and they are always one way or another feelings of insecurity—then admit to yourself that while they made sense in the unsafe universe, they do not belong in the safe one. [...]

Ruburt’s symptoms made sense in an unsafe universe. [...] Your feelings about Prentice made sense in an unsafe universe, where you had to protect the excellence of your vision from incompetence. [...]

[...] You cannot live in a safe universe and an unsafe one at the same time. [...]

[...] When you believe that you dwell in an unsafe world your reactions are far more agitated.

[...] While you had no such problem, the difficulty stands for a fear of spontaneous action in an unsafe world.

Not walking properly was an inappropriate defense mechanism no longer needed, a reaction in response to a program that made him feel unsafe.

[...] But he also needed your help, because while the main method was his, your intents were in unison and the same—to protect yourselves and your creativity from an unsafe universe. The unsafe quality showed two faces. [...]

[...] To some extent Ruburt’s symptoms served to keep the unsafe world at bay; while this was his private construction, you also took advantage of it, in that at least it served certain purposes.

[...] And because you still seem to believe that your universe is unsafe, all of your creativity must give you the weapon—money—to protect you against the inequities and uncertainties of “fate.”

Ruburt’s symptoms were largely protective in nature, providing a defense he felt he needed to protect himself against an unsafe universe from without, and against a suspicious self within.

[...] So he did indeed —to some extent, now—turn his body into a shell of a kind, cutting down spontaneous activity in an unsafe universe.

[...] The book was based on the idea that nature was against man; and that religion was man’s attempt to operate within that unsafe context. [...]

[...] Wars are basically examples of mass suicide — embarked upon, however, with all of the battle’s paraphernalia, carried out through mass suggestion, and through the nation’s greatest resources, by men who are convinced that the universe is unsafe, that the self cannot be trusted, and that strangers are always hostile. [...]

[...] The villains consisted of the following ideas: that the world is unsafe, and growing deadly; that the species itself is tainted by a deadly intent; that the individual has no power over his or her reality; that society or social conditions exist as things in themselves, and that their purposes run directly counter to the fulfillment of the individual; and lastly, that the end justifies the means, and that the action of any kind of god is powerless in the world.

[...] You feel unsafe and ill-at-ease. [...]

[...] (Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment.) Your beliefs often tell you that life is hard, however, that living is difficult, that the universe, again, is unsafe, and that you must use all of your resources—not to meet the world with anything like joyful abandon, of course, but to protect yourself against its implied threats; threats that you have been taught to expect. [...]

[...] These take it for granted that any stressful situation will worsen, that communication with others is dangerous, that self-fulfillment brings about the envy and vengeance of others, and that as individuals they live in an unsafe society, set down in the middle of a natural world that is itself savage, cruel, and caring only for its own survival at any cost.

[...] If, under conditions naturally safe in the terms of primary experience, you become overwhelmed by unsafe signals from secondary experience — that is, from your reading or whatever — you show a lack of discrimination. You are not able to differentiate between the physically safe present situation, and the imagined, which is perhaps unsafe, calling forth the alarms of danger.

[...] Here the generalized fears fostered by religious, scientific, and cultural beliefs are often given as blueprints of diseases in which a person can find a specific focus — the individual can say: “Of course, I feel listless, or panicky, or unsafe since I have such-and-such a disease.”

[...] The viewer can say: “Of course I feel panicky, unsafe, and frightened, because I live in such a violent world.” [...]

[...] In the past you have reinforced each other’s beliefs in an unsafe universe. [...]

Social injustices can cause circumstances in which people will give up reason, logic, and personal responsibility to follow a leader who offers them protection from an unsafe universe. [...]

When for whatever reason you feel unsafe over a long period of time, or when you begin to retreat, in a frightened fashion—for there are many kinds of retreat—then you cut down your options to whatever degree, and you must of necessity cut down your expectations also. [...]

[...] The garage that services it said it was unsafe to be used outside the city limits, for fear of breakdown, etc.

[...] Your beliefs often tell you that life is hard, however, that living is difficult, that the universe, again, is unsafe, and that you must use all of your resources—not to meet [life] with anything like joyful abandon, of course, but to protect yourself against its implied threats; threats that you have been taught to expect.

[...] He thinks he fears relaxing because then he will do nothing—but instead he is afraid of letting go because he fears he will go too far, and put himself in an unsafe position in the world. [...]

Behind all of this is the feeling that exposure is dangerous, that your true feelings must be hidden, and that the world is unsafe—hence your need for defenses. [...]