Thanks everyone. That helped to make up my mind.

What would be the first Seth book to start with in your opinion?

Tom, have you tried Stevia yet? If so what was the results?

Thanks in advance,

Shin

Hermanito Cole:

I am sorry. I fell in a case of mistaken identity. I probably saw Cole somewhere in Quamta's post. I replaced Cole with Quamta in my post. Hope you don't sue me :) lol.

Quamta wrote: Tom believes that there is only one "real" PMR present, in the sense that we are only sentient and actively making free will choices in the present in one PMR database, with no sentient "clones" of us existing in parallel.

It was not Cole, it was Quamta.

I owe you 1, hermano.

Clau

_________________
"Every moment can be as good as you want it to be."
"Experience is the ultimate teacher."

> http://soprano.com <

I started with Over Soul Seven, I think it is the only one I've read. I consider that book my start on this particular path back in 1998.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Hey Shin,

Personally, and in all honesty- I would start with the actual book entitled, "The Seth Material" as it is not a book dictated by Seth but it has quite a few excerpts from various sessions and most importantly- Jane Roberts herself to explain things from "her end." After that, and if you have an interest to explore the Seth material further- I would check out "Seth Speaks" which is the sort of "introductory" Seth text. It was written for the metaphysical "layman" which becomes much clearer as you "progress" through the material. At the same time, and as an alternative you could skip Seth Speaks and go right on to "The Nature of Personal Reality" which is geared more toward improving your existence at the "day-to-day" level. After this book, the material becomes considerably more advanced, the next book in the series being "The Unknown Reality" which I highly recommend. After this, there is "The Nature of The Psyche" which is basically a deeper version of "Seth Speaks" and my personal favorite. The final book in the series of books dictated by Seth is called "Dreams, Evolution, and Value Fulfillment" which I found to be the most "in-sync" with MBT and Tom Campbell's perspective albeit obviously 'different' in terms of approach.

Hopefully you'll come to find, as I did- that the Seth material is an extremely rich source of knowledge and inspiration. I hope you'll also find that the similarities between the Seth material and Tom's work are much more important than (what appear to us to be) the differences between them and that in fact, when read together- the two bodies of work quite nicely compliment each other.

-cole

_________________
Never live so certainly as to confuse your own convictions with what is true.

Thank you for listing out the Seth books Cole, this will be very helpful to me when I give them another go.

I love that you called out the similarities and differences with MBT.

Have you read or heard any Abraham channellings, specifically Abraham-Hicks? If so, would you be able to compare and contrast those teachings a little with Seth's?

Thank you for everything, you've been so helpful to me personally!

Lynda

Aerolynda,

I have read "Ask & it's given" by Abraham (Esther) Hicks. It's similar to Seth, but doesn't go too deep into narration, it tends to go much more directly towards teaching you the principles. I got the impression that Hicks conveys the idea of a ruleset more freely broken (i.e. more impossible things become possible) than Seth, but that's probably just my interpretation.

Anyway, reading Hicks' book a couple of months ago I arrived at the conclusion that this is not good for my sanity. On the one hand, the principles are so far beyond what most of us think possible that they are very difficult to believe and hence apply. On the other, I got the impression that I was putting too much effort and expectations on something that was just a belief, if at all. The worse side effect is that, if you take the ideas for granted, you begin to feel guilty for all the things that go wrong in your life: for instance, when you experience problems in interpersonal relationships, you begin wondering whether you did something wrong or it was just that you attracted the problem with your thoughts... that, at least in me, creates a constant stress, where I begin fearing my own negative thoughts (attracting yet more) and an uncertainty that makes me, where previously I would only feel responsible if actually doing something wrong, begin to feel responsible as well for every thought and fear manifesting in my mind. From there to schizophrenia the line is really really thin.

I DO really really consider that the negatives might very well exceed the positives with all this Law of Attraction thing, especially if such Law turns out to be a hoax (or extremely limited) and we are just wasting our time and trying to find causes for our life events in the wrong place. Seth says one thing, Hicks another, Campbell another, Schrodinger another, the Bible another, ... and there you go, thrown into the reign of confusion, with a very low probability to find who has it right, that is, if any of them is right, because there is no guarantee either. I guess that this uncertainty is part and parcel of the so called Warrior's Path, and why it is so hard: you probably have to go through the frustration of trying yourself hundreds of wrong theories and models before finding what works, with no guarantee that any of them is gonna work.

Abraham is all about expansion. Expand your thinking, don't be limited. So if they help us to stretch our imagination beyond where it used to be able to go, to me this is a good thing. I'm starting to realize I've been trying too hard. I've all but abandoned "using" the Law of Attraction in favor of just letting things happen as they will. I believe it is important to keep a positive attitude, but I didn't need LOA to teach me that, I probably could have just read the Power of Positive Thinking, which I recently purchased but haven't yet read. Are you familiar with the Four Agreements? Guilt (to me) is bad. Stress (to me) is bad. Fear (to me) is bad. If Abraham-Hicks or the LOA was causing you to feel guilt or stress or fear, it is good that you chose not to pursue it. But, am I understanding correctly that you choose not to accept responsibility for every thought you think? Your own experience should be the guide. If books you read back up or confirm your own experience, then good, those are the books that work for you. If they go against your personal experience, you will be thrown into cognitive dissonance, which even by just its name, you can tell it's not a very pleasant place to be. We're all doing the best we can with what we've got.
Thank you for your reply, Quamta. I enjoy reading your posts.

Lynda I agree cognitive dissonance may not be the most comfortable space to be in, but if one comes out of it with a deeper understanding because they experienced this method of our Higher Self (maybe) saying wtf, think about this, or something, then it has use. I think cognitive dissonance is from holding two or more disparagingly dissimilar ideas until it gets easier to two or more inconsistent ideas so that we can organize our information for better potential energy potential. My former mentor told me that a system in a state of chaos was open and permeable to new information coming into it, I think she was on to something.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Ok, I suppose that is what Abraham refers to as "contrast". Knowing what you don't want helps you to know more clearly what you do want. So when you stick your finger into the fire, Abraham would say you shot out a rocket of desire not to experience that again, and you will act in such a way so as not to bring that upon yourself ever again if you can avoid it. But then Neale Donald Walsch would say, we've really seen enough of what we don't want at this point, over many incarnations, each having done to each other and had things done to us by each other every cognitively dissonant thing one can imagine to easily know more clearly what we don't want, which to me is basically a society where people simply cannot get along with one another, (mostly because of their religious beliefs).
I know Tom said in an interview once, it is not necessary for us to always have to learn from pain. I would like to agree. "No pain, no pain" as my dear friend Bette might say.

Lynda: "I know Tom said in an interview once, it is not necessary for us to always have to learn from pain. I would like to agree. 'No pain, no pain' as my dear friend Bette might say."

Frank DeMarco, who founded Hampton Roads Publishing, was a big Monroe fan and wrote a book called "Muddy Tracks." In it he describes having conversations with what he calls "the gentlemen upstairs." On the topic of not having to learn from pain, they said to him, "if you want to learn from joy instead of pain, fine, but LEARN!" Or at least it was something like that. You can't just rest on your laurels because it's smooth sailing. You still have to make the effort to take the lessons from the experience. For instance, if you are joyous, WHY are you joyous? What are you doing, feeling, intending, that is the source of the joy? How can you apply this learning to bring love and joy to others experience as well?

I think if you take it for granted, or despite the absence of pain in your own life, continue to treat others like garbage, then some painful lessons might be in your soon to be actualized future. It's all about the growth baby.

Ramon

I find this phrase understandable when you call some customer service. It makes a lot of sense in that context and it may be the case, but in other cases I find it ego style (ego likes to put things at the same level and likes using phrases starting with: "We all ...", or "Nobody knows ...").

I find very often that I can always do better. I am not going to kill myself, but at least I recognize it. I think I am usually tougher with myself than I am with others, but I would like to change, to improve and also to help others better.

Claudio

_________________
"Every moment can be as good as you want it to be."
"Experience is the ultimate teacher."

> http://soprano.com <

We all are Consciousness, and Nobody is not Consciousness. :) I love you Clau.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Exactly. Proved :)

Clau

_________________
"Every moment can be as good as you want it to be."
"Experience is the ultimate teacher."

> http://soprano.com <

Wow, Ramon, this is directed at me?

Lynda,

No, not directed at you specifically! It was meant as a general statement on learning through joy instead of pain. Sorry you took it that way. Do you treat others like garbage? : )

Ramon