A Seth Book: Suggestions and Health

Suggestions are usually statements directed toward a particular action or hypothesis. To a large extent, suggestions are tied into the conscious thought processes, following the dictates of reason.

For example: “If thus and thus be so, then thus and thus must follow.”  There is no magic connected with suggestions - but repeated often enough, and believed in fervently, such suggestions do indeed take on a deeply habitual nature…

Thoughts and beliefs do indeed bring about physical alterations. They can even – and often do – change genetic messages. There are diseases that people believe are inherited, carried from one generation to another by faulty genetic communication…

People are not simply swung willy-nilly by one negative suggestion or another, however. Each person has an entire body of beliefs and suggestions – and these are quite literally reflected in the physical body itself.

All practical healing deals with the insertion of positive suggestions and the removal of negative ones… Each smallest atom or cell contains its own impetus toward growth and value fulfillment… They are literally implanted with positive suggestions, biologically nurtured… negative are unnatural, leading away from life’s primary goals. Negative suggestions could be compared to static sound on an otherwise clear program…

Worry, fear, and doubts are detrimental to good health, and these are very often caused by the officially held beliefs of society… Such beliefs discourage feelings of curiosity, joy, or wonder. They inhibit playful activity… they cause a physical situation in which the body is placed in a state of defensive aggression.

Play is a very important – indeed, vital – attribute in the development of growth and fulfillment. When people become ill, worried or fearful, one of the first symptoms of trouble is a lack of pleasure, a gradual discontinuance of playful action, and an over-concentration upon personal problems… Comments such as “You look tired” and other such remarks often simply reinforce the individual’s earlier sense of dejection…

On the other hand, it is an excellent practice to comment upon another individual’s obvious zest or energy or good spirit. In such a way, you reward positive behavior, and may indeed begin a chain of positive activity, instead of continuing a chain of negative reactions.