Workshop - Scottsdale, AZ - Obstructions to Abundance - 1969 - Part 1 of 4

OBSTRUCTIONS TO ABUNDANCE
Scottsdale, AZ 1969
by
Robert Rhondell Gibson

In creating a companion to the audio files found in the “Links” section,
we strive to give the reader as close a verbatim transcript as possible. 
Dr. Bob’s laid-back “Kentucky-ese” is retained – not correcting his grammar
makes reading it sound like he’s actually talking.
In addition, he purposefully used not only specific words,
but also pronunciation, grammar, and dialect as tools to get the listener’s attention.
Honoring his choices, we’ve made sure in these Verbatim Transcripts
not to take it upon ourselves to “clean it up” for him. 

Audience (laughter) is noted; he was a master at keeping the mood up!
(Audience participation is parenthesized and separated from his words.)
Speakers’ emphasized words are in italics.
[Anything that offers clarity is added by the proofreader and italicized inside brackets.]
Access the mp3 at:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8q3dk0v10spku0x/AAAYLpeldktpJMuSt9qqMbeva?dl=0

OBSTRUCTIONS TO ABUNDANCE CD #1 OF 9

First off in being here is to study ourselves – to see what motivates and what starts all the little things workin’ down in ourselves; and our purpose maybe will be to find a bit more “abundant living.”  Now, in doing this, we certainly aren’t going to give any little formulas, as ever’body knows, but we will discuss things that are “obstructions” to having more abundant living and the obstructions to knowing ourself.

Most of us have had one or more classes here and, consequently, would be somewhat acquainted with the means that we go about it; but still we find that over and over the person misses that most necessary point.  So we will try to make that point rather clear as we go along.  And if we will, we will have questions and discussions after each talk – no matter how many talks we run in this series through sometime Sunday afternoon.  But we will have talks and discussions, questions. 

And during the meantime we have asked, of course, that you do not have tape recorders to look after.  We have one master tape, and tapes will be available to any and all at once.  Furthermore, if you feel inclined to make notes, you may do so but we would recommend this:  you probably have notes galore somewheres around and if you will listen and see what effect the statements made has on you.  In other words, what does your mind do with the statements made – especially what does your belly brain do with it?  Does it act up when we make certain statements – do you feel inclined to defend yourself?  Do you feel inclined to correct it?  Do you feel inclined to counteract that statement or do you feel, “Yup, yup, that’s good!”

Whatever it is, it is well to be aware of your reaction.  Now, if you’re busy making notes, fumblin’ with a tape recorder and a few other things, you obviously won’t get those things done and you would miss the greater value of the talks.  Now, if the talk has any value, it is the value at the moment it is being given.  It will not be of any value to you next week.  If you try to recall it, remember it and repeat it, you will have learned something, yes.  Most of us are bogged down with lots of learning but discovery produces a transformation in us.  In discovery you accomplish right now by observing what effect things has on you at this moment. 

So if you want to make notes, please do so but I would recommend that you see what’s going on in your head instead of makin’ notes.  And not only in your head but in this little brain down here that flashes up every once in a while and makes so much noise, you know.  So if you do this, I feel you will gain considerable more from the series of discussions that we will have than if you make implicit notes – even shorthand – and could repeat them word for word next week. That, you would have learned something.  But that will not be discovery, and discovery is what we’re interested in in this discussion.

So, in our first line of what are we doing here and what is our purpose is to know ourselves – more completely than we have ever been doing.  And we will start with our friend, the Picture of Man.  Now, we’re all somewhat acquainted with this Picture of Man, but this time let’s see if we feel it within ourselves as we go along.  The Picture of Man, of course, is the physical body, the Awareness, and what we refer as “X,” and the Function that goes on constantly.  Now, all these feelings, reactions, sensations that we may have are Function within us at the moment.  So let’s see how the Function goes. 

The first decision or the one that we do not number – the prime one that everything starts from – is the Four Dual Basic Urges [writes it on the blackboard].  The Four Dual Basic Urges, of course, you all know.  The urge to have pleasure, comfort, to have attention, to have approval, and to feel useful or important, and to avoid the feelings of pain, the feeling of being ignored or rejected, disapproved of and, of course, inferior.  Now, the one thing that we would remark about this as we go along – that we all feel “entitled” to these.  We don’t just want them – we actually feel that we are entitled to ‘em – that they are our “right.”  And this goes back to the very infancy that we started with. 

Now, there is two fundamental principles that we have worked with and we will state these two principles again.  [Writing it on the board:]  Once the decision is made it is the rule of attitude/action for that person from that moment on until recognized – not learned, but recognized – and re-evaluated.

Now, “re-evaluated” is the key word that we will try to recall along as we go.  The other fundamental principal is that [writing it on the board:]  Whenever “I” make anything important, “I” am anxious.

Now, by anxious, of course, we refer to the false feeling of emergency or the continual feeling of danger within ourselves.  Now, as we look, we feel entitled to have the Four Dual Basic Urges – that they are our right.  “I have a right to have your attention, I have a right to have your approval, I have a right to be made feel important and useful and necessary.”

Then, of course, the next one that comes along is that it is important to have my way now and the way to get it is to complain.  So if I complain, I have the right for you to get with it and do what I want you to.  I am entitled to it.  But, you know, we complain an awful lot sometimes and nothin’ happens, don’t we, Donna, hmm?  And then we feel that something has gone terribly amiss and “my life isn’t worth livin’ and why bother with the whole show?”  Hmm? ‘Bout right?  “Because I’m a failure from the word go – here I’ve complained for two solid hours and nothin’ has happened,” huh?  Two solid hours or two solid months – which is it?  Sometimes two solid years – 20 years – “I’ve complained and nobody has gotten with it and given me what I wanted.”

So, the next one is that it is important that you see my rights, you know, and I’ve got to stick up for ‘em – it’s important to stick up for my rights.  So we have all of our rights ready to go and stick up for; and when we stick up for ‘em, you’re supposed to see it and get with it – aren’t you?  Did you ever stick up for your rights, Donna?

(Yes.)

And did ever’body let you have ‘em?  No.  So then one feels, “Oh, what’s the use, I might as well be dead, nobody loves me, the whole world has gone to pot, you can’t depend on anything.”  These work so excellent for us the first two years of our life that we cannot conceive of it not working now.  So we complain ever louder and when we complain enough, then we finally start different kinds of complainin’, right?  We complain by gritchin’ first.  And if that don’t work then we try tears; and if that don’t work, we try pitiful; and if that don’t work, we try just escaping from the whole show and just lettin’ ‘em have it, you know? 

Then comes along the one that it’s important to please ever’body.  Well, this is the last one we wanna use.  And, of course, when I do the least little thing, you’re supposed to fall down and get all excited over it and tell me how much you appreciate it, hmm?  Because you didn’t please me because you wanted to, but because you felt you should and it would get you all these things and “if I do please you once,” I’d better well appreciate it, – right?  And if I don’t appreciate it, “What’s the use?” again comes down the road, right? 

And then comes along the one that says believe and do what we’re told by our authorities then ever’thing will work fine.  And here I’ve done what I was told by my authorities for years – I change authorities every 15 minutes accordin’ to what I read in the newspaper and I try to do ‘em all, huh?  And still it’s no good.  I read all the Prentice Hall books and I try ever’ little technique in it at least once and nothin’ happens, you know – the world didn’t change and the moon didn’t set up full and stand and salute.  So I feel that it’s no good either, you know?  And so I can crawl under the proverbial snake’s tummy and never scratch a scale, you know – it’s really terrible – everything’s horrible. 

Then I really come up with it that I ought to be different – so I change my hair style or the color or I put on some new eyelashes or a wig or have my hair cut in a butch or I grow a beard or I grow a moustache or I cut it off or somethin’ like that.  And that’s supposed to make ever’thing different.  And nothin’ happens, hmm?  Just the same old thing.  And I’m miserable, I’m so worn out; and I call all over the country tryin’ to find somebody to give me a little peace, you know? 

And then I really come up with it that if I could find the proper thing to blame, I can find the cause, then I’m entitled for it to all straighten out.  So I become very enthused with lookin’ for causes. 

And I can find that if you would just be different, I’d be all right, huh?  And sure enough you’re not different ‘cause every time I look at you, you’re you.  And so I can be so miserable, so down in the dumps and I can have more problems that you can count, huh?  I have tremendous problems, tremendous agonies, and of all the misery you have ever known, I’ve had twice that much, huh?  All because I feel entitled to get over something.  I feel entitled.  Now, let’s re-evaluate for just a moment on these.  I’d like to have everything on here [referring to the “Gain” side of the 4 DBU’s on the board]: I’d like to have some attention; I like approval; and I like to feel useful, don’t you, Brother Lynn?

(You bet.)

I like to feel when I’ve worked all day that I’ve done somethin’ worthwhile.  I like to look at it and say it’s ‘while.  I like to have some attention and I’d like to have some approval.  Now, I learned how to get attention early – just be obnoxious; but I didn’t get any approval along with it and I like a little approval along with mine, if you please, sir.  But the thing where we can start re-evaluating, which most of us say, “Well, let’s just get rid of it.”  No, you won’t get rid of the urge to have some attention and some approval… 

[To someone who has just entered the room:]…As usual, late, come in – we always have two hours – this is one way to get attention, come in three hours late.  (Laughter)  So if we can go along…[his attention drawn back to the couple that just entered]  We’re glad you’re here, Bob and Jeannie, just the same – even if you do have to get a little special attention, but that’s all right.  We’re glad you’re here.

(It works, doesn’t it?)  (More laughter)

Right?  Always gets attention.  See, he’s learned how.  He re-evaluated a little bit. 

(You don’t get too impressed though.)  (Big laughter)

Yeah, because he’s liable to get a bit of disapproval from me, see?  I told somebody a little while ago that Bob Wilson’d be late for his own funeral and the only reason he got to his wedding on time is Rosemary and I took him.  So…  (Lots of laughter)

(In a long, black limousine!)  (Laughter)

In a long black limousine!  (More laughter)

(I’ve got my own stories!)

So…we get the same one later.  [Referring to the other long, black limousine – a hearse.]

So when we start “re-evaluating” instead of trying to change ourselves and say, “Well, I don’t want to ever live by this first decision anymore, that’s for the birds,” – you’re still gonna want attention, don’t you?  You still want approval.  And you still would much prefer to have the sensations that you refer to as pleasure or comfort, than pain.  So would I and anybody else, huh?  And I would a whole lot rather have – avoid – as much being ignored or rejected as I can.  And I also would like to avoid the possibility of being highly disapproved of – I don’t see really much sense in it.  Now, of course, sometimes I get a certain amount of glee out of being disapproved of by certain things and situations so I manage to arrange for that very nicely.  But, of course, that’s a form of approval to me because I got ‘em all shook up and they disapproved of me.

But, nevertheless, let’s just re-evaluate this one little decision that the whole purpose of living
is to regain the non-disturbed state and I’m entitled to it.

Huh?  Let’s just re-evaluate that one thing.  Now, we’ve been livin’ by it as automatically as breathing all of our life, feeling entitled to it and gettin’ all upset when things weren’t just like we wanted ‘em, right?  So now I feel that instead of wanting to get rid of this or get rid of this one  [Indicating the list on the board] or this one or this one or this one or this one – any of ‘em – I’m goin’ to say simply, “Yeah, I want these,” but I’m not entitled to it. 

Because if we stop at this moment and check ourselves out, we all got here “nekkid, [naked]” broke, helpless, and basically uninvited.  If they did want one, it was different from the one they got, you know – they wanted a girl and they got me or they wanted a good lookin’ one and they got me or they wanted one that behaved nice – a little bundle from heaven.  So, I was uninvited – in fact, what they got was unwanted.  So, how do we have any rights? 

But we do have something – I have the privilege of gainin’ as much pleasure and comfort as I want.  I have the pleasure of, the privilege of gaining attention.  I have the privilege of gaining approval by my own efforts and I have the privilege of feeling kinda useful, right?  All I gotta do is do a little work once in a while.  And that’s all it really takes.  Now, I’m not entitled to it, so I can have the ability to do it as a privilege, is that right, Miss Thelma, hmm?  I have the privilege of going out and taking care of the odds and ends and be as comfortable as possible and have a pretty good time, right?  And I have the privilege of gaining your attention, hmm?  And I have the privilege of gaining your approval.  Right?  And I have the privilege of being a little useful to some way every day and feel that I have been a good guest at this big party by my own efforts, is that right?  But I’m not entitled to it. 

Now, the whole thing that we forget to re-evaluate, is that we are “entitled” to all these things, you know?  And we have absolutely no entitlement to ‘em whatsoever.  Did you get here?  They wanted a girl when they got you.

(I wouldn’t be surprised.)

Yeah.  At least they wanted a boy that could do what they wanted him to.  (Laughter)  Right?  Did they get what they wanted when they got you or did they wish you hadn’t got here at all, like me, huh?  Got rid of you as quick as possible, right? 

So are we entitled to anything?  But unknowingly – back to this old first decision – the infant in the process of being born feels he is entitled to get back in that non-disturbed state he had a few hours ago and we go through a lot of time feeling entitled.  And we never really consciously looked that we feeling entitled is why we get all torn up. 

Now, if you don’t feel entitled to anything, Miss Donna, what would you get all torn up about anything or can you by your own pretty efforts go get it?  Hmm?  It’s not so difficult to get – you don’t even have to have money, you know?  Huh?  You don’t have to have money to get the Four Dual Basic Urges.  You don’t have to have a great amount of education or talent or anything else.  All it requires:  you be awake what you’re doin’, is that right?

Hmm?  I have no right anywheres in the world because I was basically uninvited as far as my parents were concerned.  They found out that somethin’ was comin’ and when it got here, they wished it’d been somethin’ else.  Or nothin’. 

And I have no… I brought nothing so I’m not entitled to anything, but I have the privilege – being a human being given an Intellect with which to work – I can be the privilege of havin’ just about any one of those things I want, is that all right?  Hmm?  Now, all I’ve got to re-evaluate is this bit of feeling “entitled” to it.  Now, every time you got upset wasn’t it because you felt you were entitled to somethin’ you weren’t getting, hmm?  And you didn’t even know you felt entitled to it, huh?  And you might try to get rid of these, but you sure didn’t succeed in that, did you?  You just became painfully aware they were there, is that all right?  Huh?  You became painfully aware that they were there – that right, Miss?

(That’s right.)

But you couldn’t get rid of ‘em, could you?  But you unknowingly noticed that you – didn’t notice – that you felt entitled to ‘em.  And you’re not entitled, are you?  But don’t you have the privilege of gettin’ any of ‘em you want to, huh?  Huh? 

(I don’t know about that.)

Well, don’t you have the privilege of being a lady and being nice and being considerate and you don’t have the privilege of having ever’body be like you want ‘em to be around you, but you have the privilege of responding any way you want to, is that right?  So if somebody comes in and goes “bup, bup, bup, bup, bup” at you, huh?  Do you have to go “chip, chip, chip, chip” back?  (Laughter)  Or can you say… because you’re entitled to be treated nicer than that, aren’t you?

(Right.)

Right!  You’re entitled to have everything peaceful around you.  Right!  But you’re not.  What’d you do to get it, you know?  But at that moment, you can say a certain thing or two and make a little joke out of it or say, “Thank you for remindin’ me – I’ll know how to behave better from now on.”  That takes all the fire out of their little “chip, chip, chip,” you know?  Did you ever try it?

(Um-huh?)

What happened? 

(It took the fire out of it.)

But the next time it came by…

(Oh, you always say that.)

[He chuckles]  Well, could you think of somethin’ new once in a while to say – you see the route.

(Actually, yes.)

As long as you see that it is your privilege.  Now, you can also just let ‘em go ahead, can’t you?  But you don’t have to fight and defend yourself; but if you feel entitled to be treated so-and-so, what’s the next thing you feel you must do – defend, right?  You gotta go on the defensive; and you then begin to be, feel, pretty low, mistreated, full of adrenalin, full of thyroxin, full of DOCA, and you can get all the good stress juices that you would so choose to have, is that right?  And you can be sick with the best of ‘em. 

And one time I wrote a little series of articles “How to Make the Doctor Doubt His Ability to Heal the Sick.”  [Also called, “How to Be Miserable and Sick Anytime” http://www.marshasummers.com/innerman/miserable.htm ]  And I gave some detailed instructions in this.  Some of my friends over in Albuquerque, physicians and so forth, thought this was so cute, they wanted to put copies in their reception rooms.  I said, “You better stay away from that thing, man!”  But they said, “Well, we’d like to – think it’d help the patients.”  I said, “Fine, go ahead.”  So pretty shortly they were callin’ sayin’, “How can I get a practice built up?  It’s all gone, you know?”  (Laughter)  People come in and pick this little leaflet up and it said how to be sick in spite of the doctor, you know – make any doctor doubt his ability. 

And all you gotta do is to just start defendin’ yourself against all these attacks that you’re “entitled” to be treated nicely – that’s one of ‘em.  Another one was to check up on yourself and see if you could find a little pimple - a little sore spot or somethin’ that was different and get worried about it, you know, you better watch it – liable to be a cancer, you can’t ever tell.  And if you watch it why, of course, you can make all sorts of bugaboos out of it in a few days, huh?  Any number of these little things will work to keep you sick all the time.  So you have to defend and then when you defend a little bit, what’s the next thing you have to do?

(Prove.)

You gotta do a little “provin’” and “attack-ting,” is that right?  You gotta also start “attack-ting” them.  And to prove that you’re right and in order to prove you’re right you gotta attack, is that correct?  And this is a jolly, glorious existence that most of us are painfully too well aware of, is that correct?  Huh?

(That sounds right.)

Pretty well that we are aware of it, huh?  Now, what is there one thing that we can do?  Re-evaluate one thing.  Are you entitled to anything in this world or did you get here pretty well like the rest of us – broke, “nekkid,” helpless, and had to have somebody take care of you, wait on you, feed you.  Hmm?  Is that about right?  Is that the way you got here, Brother Lynn? 

(I don’t remember back that far.)  (Oh, I do!)  (Laughter)

Have you checked up on how most of your grandchildren and all – did they get here that way? 

(Seems to be the way we come.)

That seems the way they get here – they don’t even have teeth, do they?  [He chuckles.]  And you can’t even fit ‘em with some new ones.  So, the total helpless state that ever’body gets here – does that make us entitled to anything?  But we felt from that first cry that we were entitled to have back that non-disturbed state that we had a few minutes before we were born, do you know?

(Now!)

Huh?

(Now!)

Right now!  And I’m entitled to it!  And we have never re-evaluated this business of being entitled.  So now suppose that we said right now, “I want everything in that Four Dual Basic Urges” – you want ‘em don’t you, Bob?  You want to be as comfortable as possible?  Avoid all pain?  You want to have attention?  You want to have approval – the more the better, huh?  If not both.  And it’s not too bad to feel a little useful – as long as you don’t have to work for it, (laughter) huh?  That right? 

(It seems unlikely.)  (Laughter)

As long as you don’t have to work for it, that’s all right.  So I would like to have those, but I am not entitled to them, but I do have the privilege of using my abilities to gain them, is that right?  I have the privilege of ‘em.  By my own efforts. 

Now, can you comprehend that about 99% of human problems went out of existence right there?  When you begin to consciously work to gain these of your own volition as a privilege, all your problems go out of the way right there, hmm?  And you can begin to be consciously working for whatever you’d like to be workin’ for.  What do you want?  Isn’t that all you want, Ralph, is attention and approval and a certain amount of pleasure and comfort and a little bit of feeling that you’re doing somethin’ useful without havin’ to work too hard for it, huh?  Isn’t that right?

(That’s right.)

And you would like to avoid being at pain as much as possible, hmm?  And you would like to avoid as much as possible being ignored or rejected.

(Right.)

And you would like to avoid disapproval, right?  And you would like to avoid feeling totally useless.

(Right.)

Right.  Now, by your own efforts, you can have ever’ one of those, can’t you, as long as you do it consciously.  But if you just react from feeling entitled to it, will you have any of ‘em?  On this side [indicating “Gain” side of DBU’s on board:] and you’ll have all of those [on the “Escape” side of the 4 DBU’s] – you know, you’ll get ignored, rejected, disapproved of, huh?  Have a lot of pain, you’ll be sick all over, many different ways, and you’ll feel so useless you’ll wish, you’ll wonder why you’re even around, is that correct?  Now, that is pretty basic easy. 

Now, we’ve looked at what are we doing here – what’s the purpose of it or what are we working on.  In a few minutes we will take another subject and we will see if we can discover what is a “purpose” and if we consciously have a purpose.  Now, if I am working for a “goal,” I have one sort of thing.  And if I’m working for a purpose, I have something else altogether different.  So we will take that direction in a few minutes.  In the meantime let’s have any questions, discussion over the material that we have covered over the last few minutes, okay?

(This feeling along the Four Basic Dual Urges with most people is on a subconscious level – they’re not aware that they have this – it kind of remains under the surface though, right?)

They’re not aware of it unless they have had many opportunities – as you have – to look at it and to observe yourself.  Unless you’re too busy makin’ notes and runnin’ your tape recorder, right? 

(Well, I go back and –)

No, we’re not interested in “most” people; we’re interested only in you, sir.

(Okay.)

Most people is outside the door – you’re here, okay?  We’re not concerned about most people, just you.  Do you aware...

(I wasn’t aware until I came upon Bob Gibson.)

Well, that’s all right.  Then we’re not talkin’ about what you used to be, we’re talkin’ about today.

(Today.)

Do you work for these consciously?  Or do you try to avoid and get around it?  Or do you fall back and feel entitled to these and get rattled and so forth?

(There are times when I get threatened by a group when I know better, you know?)

Right.

(And I don’t know what to do about it.  Well, that’s what I’m doing about it but I don’t get any reaction.)

Right, because you feel entitled to be treated “properly” by that group, don’t you? 

(They should understand me.)

Right, you’re “entitled” to be understood.  The whole bit here comes out to be that you’re entitled to somethin’.  What are you entitled to?

(Well, I’m trying to explain to them, you know, for their own good.)  (Big laughter)

Right!  And they’re entitled and you’re entitled to have them understand, aren’t you – right!

(I get a little nervous about it.)

Right, huh?  And if the group says you’re a bum and you agree with ‘em, the group is all out of ammunition – right there. 

(Well, you don’t have to say that because they’re not afraid to react, they think I’m just pullin’ their leg or –)

Well, there’s one way to find out, isn’t it?  At least if they think you’re kiddin’ ‘em they might begin to have a different attitude towards you, is that right?  No doubt they would.  But if you don’t get all rattled up and start defending yourself because you feel entitled, you can bring peace out of any situation that comes along.  We’ll take that one up in a few minutes, okay? 
Okay, another question? 

Re-evaluate the fact that you unconsciously feel “entitled”.  In other words, we make the unconscious conscious.  And when you get through, you don’t have a subconscious mind.  You know?  You really don’t even have to have one but about three minutes – all it takes is to get over this one little thing.  And you see as soon as you begin to work for the privilege of havin’ these, you don’t have to stick up for your rights anymore.  You don’t have to complain because that’s usually not the most appropriate way to get it.  However, one time I did – gettin’ the water heater hooked up, I used the motor, uh, the big cleaver. (Laughter)  This is rare cases that you complain, but when you do, you do it consciously and put on a real good show and it gets this… after you’ve tried other methods, you know, for a little while.  And you don’t have to go around tryin’ to please people.  You please them only if it fits your purpose and it aids to your privileges, right?  Huh?  Sometimes you do, but it’s not because “I ought to” – it’s because it looks like it’s to my advantage. 

How about believing and doing what you’re told by your authorities?  When it really works, jolly well use it, you know?  We don’t feel obligated to do it and we don’t feel driven to do it.  Do you think you oughta be different?  No, just conscious, that’s all.  You see, but what we like to do because we unconsciously have felt entitled all of our days – all these other little tricks get in the bag, not because we just have to do them, it’s only because we unconsciously felt entitled. 

And when we re-evaluate that and see that I’m not entitled even to breath – I have the privilege of breathin’, but I’m not entitled to it.  And I’m not entitled to be alive because any joker with a gun or a pistol or a sling shot and a rock can get rid of it, you know?  [Snaps fingers:]…like that.  So, it’s all a privilege and when we re-evaluate it and see it, it comes about that way.  Did you have a question?  No?  How about you, dear, you got a question, comment, discussion?  You feel entitled to anything?

(No, I was just feelin’ kind of empty because I don’t feel entitled to anything.)

Right, and only empty cups can be filled so that’s a nice way to be, okay?  We’ve been so full of anxiety all of our life that the moment we feel it gone, we feel we must have lost something – we feel so empty and worthless.  “I’m not full of anxiety, what’s happened to me?!  Somethin’ terrible’s gone – must have lost my heart, maybe my stomach, too!”  (Laughter)  Huh?  Another question?

(I found out my middle name.)

Huh?  Did you?

(Yeah – my name’s “useless.”)

Well, that’s fun, have fun doin’ it, you know.  I don’t know as how you have to feel useful – I said if it don’t take too much work, I’ll feel useful, but if it takes a lot of effort, forget it – be a fat cat on a satin pillow, you know? 

(I think I have felt entitled.)

Entitled to it.

(I would have thought that I was useless.)

So you’re entitled to be useless.

(I got entitled to feeling that.)

Why sure, you go ahead and have it freely – won’t nobody bother you.  You have the privilege of being as useless as…

(I’ve accepted it.)

Lynn said you made a nice fat cat sittin’ on a satin pillow so it’s all right.  They’re pretty too, aren’t they?  And they’re good ornaments.

(But he can’t get me off of it.)  (Laughter)

Well, he’ll wire it for sound one of these days – “shock-er” you a little bit.

(It’ll be like that one you told about the four sticks of dynamite – “what do you think he means?”)

Right!  Think he was tryin’ to tell me somethin’ with this?  (Lots of laughter)  Think maybe this has a meaning of some sort or other?  (Laughter)  Somethin’ like that.  Okay, let’s take about five minutes break – we’ll start precisely at eight o’clock so we will get goin’ here again in a little bit.

[Pause in the tape; then resuming after the break]

We – we’ll discuss at the moment the second one of these things – we looked at being entitled and re-evaluating it a little bit.  Now, let’s consider the one that when once we make anything important, I am anxious.  Now, anxiety is possibly the most common feeling that most people have and that’s quite often when a person doesn’t feel anxious, they feel that they are – have lost ever’thing, nothin’ must have any meaning anymore.  They’re just – what is the word – empty?

(Blah.)

Blah, don’t have any anxiety so the whole purpose of living is “anxiety.”  You know, it makes me feel real.  But, nevertheless, it’s continually wears the body down – sets off all manner of illnesses, sets off all manner of unusual behaviors in order to adapt to it.  So most of the physical degeneration and the society degeneration we find all comes from the sense of anxiety and the adaptation to it in people.  If you don’t feel anxious, you know, you’re pretty easy to get along with.  And if you get anxious, why you may need to fight or you’ll get sick and you will need lots of hospitals and doctors and drugs and all these things.  Or you may get full of anxiety and decide to try LSD trip or you may get, try a little booze – you know, like five gallons or somethin’ like that.  You may try a number of other means of attempting to avoid this gnawing, constant anxiety. 

Now, when once a person sets up a goal, they obviously have made it important; and they haven’t got it because the goal is over there and I’m over here, huh?  And as soon as we have a goal, we become anxious.  Now, we are a goal-orientated society.  We have been taught this since we were an inch high, if such, when we were tiniest of babies.  We have been taught “goals.” 

The first goal was to get to school; the second goal was to get out of school; the next goal was to get married; the next one’s to get “unmarried” or whatever the situation may be.  We hear people say, “Well, as soon as I get the family raised,” you know?  And they got some this long – “just as soon as I get the family raised – then I’m going to feel fine,” huh, Virginia?  And as soon as I get all the bills paid.  Well now, that’s a good one because there’s bills come in every month, you know – ever’ week, if you live where we do.  They’re continually comin’ in all the time – well, you get ‘em all paid – when you get this one paid, there’s another one come in the same mail, you know, so there’s no end to that.  But we have all manners of ways of setting up goals.  We’re taught to chase rainbows from the day we’re born.  So we make things important.

Now, of course, these Basic Urges we talked about – to achieve the non-disturbed state is a goal.  If I have the least bit of non-disturbance then I immediately want to be sure and keep it – that becomes the goal, huh?  And so there’s always the future; and as long as we struggle towards that, we have ourselves very anxious. 

Now, it is necessary for a human to survive – more than a few days – to either have a goal, which is a counterfeit, or to have a purpose.  Now, we have never heard of having a “purpose,” you know? 

We’ve had causes, you know, we’re going to fight for dear old alma mater or we’re gonna fight for the country, or we got this cause or that cause to stick up for and run, which gives us a little sense of being; but they are only a form of a goal.  You know, end poverty in the world – that’s a good one, you know?  Did you ever try that one, Carl?  [He chuckles.]  Go out and get all the poor people rich, you know?  And to end all illness in the world – I tried that game one time, I was gonna get ‘em all well. 

So, you always have a goal and you always, of course, never have the goal and then it’s nothin’ but anxiety.  Now, this anxiety is what most of us feel is our source of energy so we have to have it in order to live.  But let’s see if tonight we could possibly eliminate goals for a little bit and have a purpose. 

Now, a Purpose is generally so far from what most of us have thought about because
Purpose is concerned with right now.  And a goal is always with the future.

[Referencing something he’s just written on the chalk board:]  I don’t know whether that belongs there or not; don’t think it does, we’ll leave it out. 

So with the future there is something out there to struggle toward.  With a purpose, it’s what I’m doing this moment.  Now, if we begin to work with purpose, we will find that all the anxiety disappears.  Now, you do feel empty and you feel kind of lost without it and you wonder what’s gone.  You feel like your diaphragm’s suddenly disappeared, you know, your whole solar plexus relaxed for once in your life – which is kinda the way it’s supposed to operate; it’s the way we are designed. 

Now, I have no way of saying what your purpose could be.  And inasmuch as most people have never used a purpose, I will put up some that I have experimented with and found very useful.  You may borrow them a day or two if you like until you can devise some of your own – if you wish to keep them, you may do so.  I have no objections – they have served me well and the fact that you’d use ‘em wouldn’t decrease ‘em a bit for me, okay?  The first one that I prefer to use as my purpose – and now this is not a goal for tomorrow, for later tonight, it’s for this moment – right now.  My purpose at this moment is to be peaceful.

Now, to be peaceful doesn’t mean that I’m gonna live in peace – you know, you’re gonna be peaceful around me and you’re gonna be peaceful and Ralph’s gonna be peaceful around me – he may be screaming meemies, I don’t know.  I don’t care.  I’m gonna be peaceful at this moment.  This is my purpose.  At this moment, I can be peaceful ‘cause I don’t have to fight with him if he’s all upset and I don’t have to buy your worries, you know?  I can just be peaceful.

Now, to be peaceful first is at peace with myself.  Now, in order to be peaceful with myself, it’s necessary to know something about how the human brain operates.  We have three brains.  One of ‘em is under the solar plexus – one is the solar plexus.  [Belly Brain]  It’s sittin’ under the diaphragm, and that’s the one you…that its whole nature is to coordinate sensations.  You’ve all felt it a million different ways – it coordinates sensations and makes you have a feeling.  You know, you see something very desirable, you have a nice feeling.  But that was only coordinated the sensation if you touched the pretty automobile and you looked at it and you admired it and all this is coordinated and you have a feeling.  So, that is the nature of the solar plexus. 

In the back portion of the cranial cavity back here in its head is called the cerebellum, and its job is to coordinate Function, basically – may as well do it simply, not all complicated.  It coordinates Function.  When you pick up a bite of food, the mouth flies open, you know?  Stuff it in there and it goes “click, click, click, click” and pretty soon it goes “poof” and it’s gone; and there’s no way you know anything about it but that’s its whole nature – is to coordinate Function.  You pick up one foot and it leans the body all around and moves it.  You do something else and it does all these little coordinated movements so that the body moves smoothly, gracefully, and all as a unit. 

And then we have the cerebrum up front.  That’s the one that really is the newest thing in the universe is the cerebrum.  Hasn’t been here too many thousands of years – as best that can be discerned – it’s a new gadget, a new invention.  And it’s the… man has the only one that’s fairly well developed and he just doesn’t know what to do with it because he doesn’t know the nature of it. 

The nature of it is to form images – that’s all it does all day long is form images; and all night long, in case you’re interested.  And we’re told that less than 12 minutes out of 24 hours that it is not formin’ images.  And this has been devised by brainwave machines – that there’s 12 minutes that it really goes at rest, and the rest of the time it’s formin’ images. 

So the first thing that an image does is maybe it’s very, very useful.  You want to build a house, you form an image of it.  You wanna build some technique of some kind, do a detail piece of work – you form an image and then you carry it out; and it always starts with something you do know about.  But now when you are not directing it, it just goes clickin’ its little pointers together and makes all sorts of images.  And so the first thing a person has tried to do with this cerebrum’s Function is to make it into a fortune teller.  Somethin’ pops in your head – a little picture, you know, and the first thing you say is, “What does that mean?  Where did that come from?”  You have a dream at night, which is just flip, flip, flip, and you remember it when you wake up.  “What did that mean?”  It means only that that cerebrum is performing its nature – making images. 

And if left to itself, it makes all sorts of images.  You know, if you’re not directing it, it just plays.  I think my dear old mother told me “the idle mind was the devil’s workshop.”  And so it just goes flittin’ around in there and makes all sorts of pictures.  Now, some of ‘em are rather horrible if you want to judge things.  Maybe if you’re sitting down bein’ quiet and not keepin’ up with…       [END OF CD #1 OF 9]

OBSTRUCTIONS TO ABUNDANCE – Scottsdale, AZ 1969
CD #2 OF 9

…now some of ‘em are rather horrible if you want to judge things.  Maybe if you’re sittin’ down, being quiet and not keepin’ up with it very well and all of a sudden you have a vision in your mind of a snake pit full of writhing serpents – "What does that mean?"  You know?  It means nothing; it just flipped over that way.  Maybe the next one comes across that you see a beautiful light shining up somewheres and maybe a circle with a couple of crosses in it or a “V” or something and, "What does that mean?"  It means nothin’ – it’s just flippin’.  A thought runs through your head and it don’t mean anything either, it’s just another little thought.  What is it doing?  Its nature is to make images.  Now, once we can be at peace with that image-making device and knowing that it’s going to make all sorts of images. 

Now, if certain images popped in your mind, you’d feel real evil – “What kind of world has happened to me?  Oooh, I’ve gotta get rid of ‘em!”  And you start all this repression, is that right?  And all you do is make more images pop up.  And if you’ll recognize that you have an image-makin’ device in you – and it’s gonna make jillions of ‘em of every conceivable variety.  It will make pretty ones to you, it will make ugly ones to you, it will make religiously-orientated ones, and it will make hellish ones.  It just makes images, that’s its whole nature. 

Now, if you’re directing it, it will make the kind you kinda got on tap order.  But if sometime you’re tired and you just sit down or you’re washin’ dishes or you’re hoein’ the garden or something that you can do mechanically like drivin’ a car down the road, you know?  You’ve  learned how to do it and the cerebrum has got it all picked out and it’s doin’ it – or the cerebellum is drivin’ the car, and the cerebrum is just havin’ a party – you know, it’s just flippin’.  (Laughter)  And you’re gonna have all sorts of crazy things flip through your head, okay?

(Well, is this – when your attention is directed – is this when you’re using it?)

Yeah, when you’re usin’ it, then it makes coordinated images of kinds you want.  In other words, you want to design a piece of jewelry…

(It depends on where you direct it?)

Right, you’re startin’ it off and you can put it in direction.  But we’ll say that you’re operatin’ on the cerebellum here.  You know, you’re drivin’ the car down the road and the cerebrum isn’t havin’ anything to do, so it’s gonna just go flip, flip, flip, flip, you know; and you’re liable to see all sorts of things in there, okay?  And then you begin to think you’ve been “attack-ted” by demons or all sorts of things and you aren’t at peace with yourself anymore, you got to repress ‘em. 

Once you know the nature of the cerebrum is to make images – that’s all – it just makes ‘em. 
They mean nothing unless you are consciously directing it.

Then it will devise computers; it will build bridges; it will make house plans for you.  It will develop a most “intricit” [intricate] designs for anything you want – prints of cloth, design dresses, build all sorts of scientific instruments, and make inventions of the unbelievable. 

But when you just let it alone and turn on either the solar plexus or the cerebellum over here and just leave it floatin’ around, it will give you some beauts, you know?  Some of ‘em will be sound reasonable, "Oh I had an idea."  And you run carry it out and lose your shirt, you know, because you thought that thing was a fortune teller.  It’s not a fortune teller, it’s an image maker.  It’s like this thing that the kids use called a “kaleidoscope.”  You know, it just makes pictures in there. 

So, when you can accept that it is an image-making device and don’t care what it makes and say, “Hi, that was a beaut,” you know, hmm?  You might see yourself being a queen of a harem somewheres over in the Orient, you know, flittin’ around.  So what?  You know, you just flip, flip, flip – made one.  Don’t mean you want to, don’t mean anything – it just means it’s the nature of the cerebrum is to make images, all right? 

So you don’t pay any attention to it, then you’re peaceful with yourself.  The second person I want to be peaceful with is you.  You know, I don’t care what you do.  I can be peaceful with you.  I can accept that you’re probably operatin’ on some images you don’t know about or whatever you’re doin’, you feel it’s appropriate and so I can agree with you.  I don’t have to defend myself.  I don’t have to stick up for any rights and I have the privilege of gettin’ along with you.  So, I’m gonna be peaceful with you, hmm?  And then I’m gonna be peaceful with all mankind because I’m not gonna try to save the world, straighten it out, make it all see things – the last set of images I had, you know?  You know, that’s really what we do when we’re goin’ out and save the world, is to make ‘em all have the last set of images I had.  Right?

(The last one, right?)

So, I’m gonna be at peace with the world – all people in the world, this moment, because I don’t have to straighten out your ideas.  Thank goodness.

And most people have only got second-hand images – you know, I had a good one and I coulda sold it to you, and you sold it to Joyce, and she sold it to Frank, and pretty soon we got a good “reality”.  You know, we’re all agreein’ on somebody else’s images.  “But they’re real, aren’t they?”  Phooey! 

So I can be at peace with you, I can be at peace with the people in the world and I’m at peace with the Earth – it don’t have to be any different than what it is.  It’s a fine thing if you wanna work with it and you can use your imaging in directing it and you can find all sorts of ways to make the desert bloom and the mountains support homes and produce foods and shelter and fiber or whatever you want it to do.  You can enjoy the beauty of it without trying to change it.  You know, we’re all so busy – gotta change the world, change the Earth, change the whole bit. 

So, if we’re at peace with myself because I know how the brain works – the cerebrum just makes pictures.  Aw, it does ‘em all day long.  And I don’t have to carry out a one of ‘em.  I have the privilege of using it but also when I’m not usin’ it, it has the privilege of just makin’ images.  And it does a beaut, you know?  And it makes some wild ones.  And I can be at peace with you because I don’t have to straighten you out, huh?  I can like you like you are and if you want to be gritchy, fine – I enjoy gritchy people sometimes, okay?  Don’t have to change it a bit and I don’t have to change the world. 

I read a newspaper and somebody’s put his image in there that flipped through his brain last night when he wasn’t lookin’ and so he’s all out to save the world of this – I don’t have to fight with it.  So what, hmm?  And maybe he’s sold it to a hundred other people or a thousand or a million – I still don’t have to argue with it because you know what images do?  Somebody else will have one before long and he’ll sell it to more people and that’ll cancel that one anyway.  You know, it’ll get cancelled in due time – it only comes to get rid of ‘em.  And we can get along with the Earth.  Now that is one portion of my purpose – is to be peaceful this moment.

The second one is be earning a livelihood.  [He writes this on the board.]  Now, how we earn that livelihood this moment is rather unimportant.  I find people that have gone hungry for years tryin’ to find the “right” thing to do – to earn a livelihood, you know, huh?  Really!  I’ve seen this, haven’t you? 

(Yes.)

I’ve known people that set for years tryin’ to find the right thing to do.  Well, what difference does it make if you walk down the street and collect coins where people have missed ‘em in the parking meters or whether you raise corn or whether you raise pigs or whether you sell beans or whether you fix headaches or you fix teeth or you cut hair?  What difference does it make – you’re earning a livelihood.  You do something that somebody wants more than you are willing to let him have it for.  That’s what it amounts to, isn’t it.  Huh?  I’m willing to let them have an hour of my time for a given sum of money so my time don’t mean as much to me as their money does and their money means less to them than an hour of my time does.  So I can earn a livelihood – that it?  Simple, right? 

What difference does it make what you do?  Everything is – one things as useful or as useless as another, right?  So if I like to make dresses, I’ll make dresses this week.  And I heard about a man one time found himself a little hard up and so he found that the people around was lookin’ for canaries and there wasn’t any canaries in that area.  So, he caught a bunch of sparrows, clipped their wings, dyed ‘em yellow and sold ‘em.  You know, you gotta earn a livelihood.  [He chuckles.]  I don’t know what happened when the next rain came, but by that time he was long gone.  So, you know, it really doesn’t matter what happened.  So, be earning a livelihood not sittin around worryin’ what is the right thing to do.  

In a given week, I kept a little note a few weeks ago – about three weeks ago – of what I did to be earning a livelihood at each moment through the week.  You know, each moment I made a little mark – when I found to myself doin’ somethin’ quite different.  And in a week there was over 15 of ‘em – but we all eat well and I had a lot of fun doin’ all those things – what difference does it make, you know?  The one’s as interesting as another.  So, be earning a livelihood.

The third one is, is to be healthy this moment – [writes it on the board] – a physically healthy body at this moment.  That’s fairly easy if I know I’m workin’ at it.  I don’t overstuff this thing here just for gettin’ a little pleasurable sensations – that’s the first thing out.  Second thing is that I don’t overdo or underdo anything.  I think everything’s here to be used in moderation, you know –  just a little bit of it, but not too much – no matter what it might be.  So, once you become overly bounced in one direction, you get lopsided and it’ll make you sick, hmm?  Like Robert was gonna row across the Pacific Ocean and I decided that was a little too much rowing, you know?  Out to Channel Islands, out in front of Malibu woulda been all right – Pacific Ocean’s too much of one thing.  So we decided we wouldn’t do that, didn’t we, Robert?  (Laughter)  Anyway, we’re not rowin’ across the Pacific Ocean today. 

(See if we stop!)  (Laughter)

See if we quit!  So, being healthy and the fourth one is gaining privileges – man, I just love to gain privileges this minute.  [Writes it on the board.]  And that’s all that really I have as a “purpose” but I’m working at every one of ‘em every minute and they’re all the same, really.  You know, if you’re doin’ one you’re doin’ ‘em all four – that’s the beautiful part of it.  If you’re doin’ one, you’re doin’ all four.  ‘Bout right?

(Yes.)

Every one of ‘em is part of the other ones.  So it’s really one purpose, but it has four aspects.  One is to be peaceful with everybody around you.  Well, that ended most of the static in your life, wouldn’t it?  Be earning a livelihood, that’s another thing, you know, we worry about if I’m doin’ the right job.  If I got the thing that “really fits me” – you know, so what?  What difference does it make whether you’re grindin’ a rock or whether you’re throwin’ a rock, you know, it really makes not very much difference.  People pay dollars for anything that they want more than what you’re willing to take for it, is that right?  And “X-change” [he pronounces “exchange” as “X-change” throughout this talk] makes the whole thing go around and, really, exchange is what earning a living is. 

So, we’re being exchanging all the time – I’ll let you have something that I’d rather be having your money more than what I have, is that right?  And you would rather have what I have than to have the money in your pocket.  So, as long as we are exchanging, we are earning a livelihood.  Once I sit down to worry about what should I do – I quit exchanging, right? 

So, you would rather let somebody sleep in your room and take your dollars for it.  They would rather let you have the dollars than sleep on the street, is that right?  So, it’s really that simple.  You go down to the restaurant, you’d rather pay five dollars and have a steak to eat.  I’d rather have the steak than the five dollars and you’d rather have the five dollars than the steak.  So we’re exchangin’.  And that’s all there is to earning a livelihood.  What difference does it make as long as we’re exchangin’, hmm?  Is that right?  Does it make all this big production that I’ve got to do something?  

Now, as long as we see the basis of it, you have a joy in exchanging.  I read somewheres that if a man doesn’t have joy out of his work, he’s not gonna have much; but I have a great joy out of exchangin’.  It doesn’t really matter too much what you’re exchangin’ – even if that old boy that exchanged these English sparrows that was made yellow and looked like canaries for dollars.  They wanted a canary, they had one for two or three days and the first rain came.  (Lots of laughter)  So, they was willing to change, what difference – as long as you have an exchange goin’.

Now, when we quit exchange, tell me what happens in the country?  When we quit exchangin’ tell me what happens.  We have a depression – you remember one, huh?  And wasn’t it all started because people quit exchangin’?  They got to worryin’ about exchangin’, is that right?  And as long as we exchange somethin’ – it doesn’t matter what – we’re earning a livelihood this moment, huh?  If you’re exchangin’ a smile for groceries in the house, so what, you know, hmm, right?  (Laughter)  It’s a fair exchange.  He’d rather have your smile and you’d rather have the groceries now, okay?  What’s the difference? 

So, as long as we’re exchanging, we are living well, earning a livelihood this moment.  If we cease to exchange because we get scared, really – the only reason we quit exchanging, isn’t it?  Or we get to huntin’ the ideal again – we want the ideal thing to do.  So I’m not gonna exchange anything until I find the ideal thing to exchange. 

(Oww!)  (Laughter)

Oww, that hit your solar plexus, didn’t it, honey?  What difference does it make what you’re exchangin’, you know?  You got somethin’.  The other guy’s got somethin’, you exchange.  And that’s joy, you know – that’s this interrelationship with your fellow human beings, isn’t it, huh?  Do you have to wait until you find the right thing to exchange, huh?  There’s no reason for all that – and this is where we all bog down. 

Now, here is our big set of worries – we got a goal over here to do the right thing – that keeps us from exchangin’ ‘cause I haven’t got anything to exchange now – ‘cause I haven’t found the right thing to work with yet.  And I have a goal to be at peace but I want everybody else to do it – not me, hmm?  I want you to behave and you to behave and you to behave and then I’ll be all right, I think – but I won’t because I begin to wonder about you, huh?  I’ll begin to wonder about you.  So if I want to be peaceful, it don’t take any effort this moment just to be conscious, that’s all it requires is to be conscious. 

And I can certainly be working with my privileges.  I’m conscious every moment I’m workin’ for a privilege – right?  Part of the privilege is exchangin’ isn’t it?  Part of the privilege is being peaceful.  Part of the privilege is being healthy at this moment – I have the privilege of, you know, bein’ healthy.  I’ll exchange a dollar for a steak as long as it’s not too large a one, you know.  And I’ll exchange something else for some potatoes or whatever it may be that I want in accordance.  I’ll exchange it for a place of shelter.  I’ll exchange it for clothing, for protection from the environment.  And so all in all, what are we doin’?  We are living and the highest form of existence is really living. 

Did I ever tell you folks about the guy who was really livin’ over in Texas, hmm?  I told you about that, didn’t I?  The guy’s really livin’...well, Chuck, I’ll tell it just for you.

(Thank you, sir.)

There was a guy over in Texas that lived in a very poor little hill farm over there – dry land farm.  The best car he ever had was an old Dodge pickup – was about 8-years old, the fenders was flippin’ on it.  And lived in a little two-room shack – a room with a side room and had an old wood stove in the kitchen and etcetera – they lived pretty hard.  Here come these boys through with a seismograph crew and they decided they better drill for oil on his little farm. 

And they drilled and they just hit oil all over the place.  Pretty soon he had over a thousand dollars a day royalty coming in.  And about the first thing he really got was a nice big new Cadillac.  And every afternoon he and Mama got in this Cadillac and ride around over the country and they’d go to fine restaurants and all this stuff.  And one day they was ridin’ down the road and old Pop said to Mama – he said, “You know, I enjoy this Cadillac more’n anything I’ve ever had in my life and when I die, I just wanna be buried in it.” 

Well, it didn’t take long of this high livin’ that he wasn’t used to until he had requirements to be buried.  So, Mama remembered and so she called the undertaker and she said she wanted him all fixed up and set in this Cadillac at the wheel and then they’d bury it.  So, they got him all put in there and they got a big back hoe and dug a big hole in the ground and they got a crane that was lettin’ this Cadillac down.  And one of his old neighbors was standin’ there and watchin’ this performance – and that didn’t get any oil well and he’s still drivin’ an old pickup and still livin’ in a two-room shack and still eatin’ cornbread and chitlins – and he said to his wife, "You know, that’s what I call really livin’." 

So, that kind of livin’ we can get along without; but when we’re talkin’ about being peaceful with all – first with ourselves – that we recognize that no matter what thought goes through my head, what picture goes through – so what, you know?  It’s just the image-makin’ device doin’ its nature. 

You’re not gonna change the nature of your brain regardless of all your affirmations and all your new things you – what do you do at New Years, you know, you make what – resolutions.  And all these things won’t change the nature of that thing – it’s just still goin’ on makin’ images.  And there’s some of ‘em that’s not gonna be the kind you like, but they’re gonna be there and it’s just gonna make ‘em – regardless of all your efforts and contentions and tryin’. 

So when you’re peaceful with yourself, with the next person, and with all people and with the Earth in itself, and you’re peaceful, then you don’t really matter – you have most of your problems whipped out.  You’re healthy, you’re pretty at peace with the old body, you know, usin’ it as a good valid instrument and not abusing it – that’s really about all health is, is not abusin’ it by overdoing anything or underdoing anything.  And the business of earning a livelihood is just be exchangin’ whatever you’ve got whether it’s words, smiles, merchandise, skill, ability – whatever it may be – just exchanging and that keeps the whole thing goin’ along and keeps peace in the world, too.  And you can be gainin’ privileges. 

And I just love privileges, don’t you?  I like the privilege of being able to come to Phoenix and stay at Miss Rachel’s hotel.  I like the privilege of going in California and stayin’ in Max’s big house out at Malibu.  And I like the privilege of goin’ most anywheres and havin’ transportation and having food and having facilities.  The other day Bill and Kaye Lynn, Rosemary and I went to Mexico and we were treated with royal things all the day down.  Now, we had no business down there, you know, as far as those people was concerned.  But we took the privilege of being kinda congenial.  And they said, “They’s pretty good bunch of gringos come down there.”  And they treated us wonderful. 

So, I like those kind but, you know, that requires just a little bit of effort of being working for privileges – all the time – and I’m always workin’ for privileges.  How ‘bout you?  Sometimes we forget it and start stickin’ up for our rights, don’t we?  Yeah.  And then the fight’s on and we wonder why “life is such a tedious mess for me;” and “why do I have to be associated with these people of all people – why couldn’t I have had somewheres else in the world?”  But they’ll be the same way.  Okay, let’s take a few questions for a little while – comments, discussion.  Yes, Jean?

(What is the function of the pineal gland?)

You better ask some physiologist and he don’t know.

(It doesn’t fit into this?)

No, it’s another gadget – it’s supposed to be the leftover of your reptilian eye was the last thing I read and I didn’t buy that either.  (Laughter)  Okay?  It says you used to be a reptile and had three eyes and that’s the vestige of it. 

(I was just reading in Kahn’s book and he says it’s dual –)

He ain’t don’t find nothin’, right?  So, anybody tells you that they do know is makin’ it up and I don’t know.  I’ve never....

(It seems if there was any work on it, you’d know it.)

Right.  I’ve never found any valid scientist that found any function of the pineal gland, have you?  I’ve never read one anywhere.  So, I don’t know.  Anyway, it’s seemingly doin’ whatever it’s doin’ and I’m gettin’ along all right.  It has nothin’ to do with the three brains.  The brain is the cerebellum, which is the old brain that hooks on to the brain stem in the back.  The cerebrum is up front and your solar plexus is under your diaphragm.  Those are big nerve centers, okay?  And they do hook on in the last analysis – cerebrum…er, cerebellum hooks on to the pituitary gland so that it kinda has both kinds of tissue.  But it doesn’t have the pineal gland in it – it’s in there but don’t know the purpose.

(What is the Medulla?)

Medulla Oblongata is a brain stem that starts off from the cerebellum to start down and make your spinal cord and go down through the business.  It’s the big brain stem – it looks like it sits on a mushroom sittin’ on a post and that’s the post of the mushroom, okay? 

(Is there any relationship between the images and past associations?)

Some.  

(Unconscious?)

Some, they may be conscious, they may be unconscious, but it may make one it never made before – it just flipped together two things that’s been recorded in there that’s never been hooked together before and you see somethin’ you’ve never seen.  The whole point is that it is… the whole nature of this cerebrum is an image-making device.  Now, under direction, it will make coordinated and valuable ones.  Otherwise it just makes flip, flip, flip.  Kaye Lynn? 

(What is it that’s doing the direction?)

You!  And what are you?  You’re an invisible being.  It can get itself a form of direction – an Awareness which is a combination of all three brains – leaves an Awareness and the Awareness can begin to direct.  It is a Function of all three.  No one by itself could direct the cerebrum; but all three of ‘em together can start it in a given direction and it will make reasonable sense.  But if the other two are busy doin’ somethin’ else and the Awareness is gone for root beer somewheres, why then it takes off and just goes flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, you see.  And you get all sorts of weird pictures in there.  And then you liable to wake up the Awareness and it comes back from the root beer and says, "What does that mean?"  "I don’t know why, but it came into my mind," so and so – did you ever hear that, you know?  You know?  And somebody had a great picture and they put a meaning on it – some of ‘em know what it means, you know – “I had a picture and it means so and so.”  Yes, Brother Neil?

(What affect does the image-makin’ under X have to do with energy levels and Function?  Or is it more of a –)

It would not particularly destroy unless all of a sudden the Awareness jumps up and makes it important what this was goin’ on.  You see, if you sittin’ here it’s just flippin’ around, makin’ some little images and all of a sudden you saw one that you thought was – shouldn’t be there, you know, we’ll say – terrible.  Then you would bind a lot of energy by trying to resist it being there, okay?  You know, resist having this kind of thing.  You’re going to make a whole resolution never to think that kind of a thought again – but one of these days when you least expect it, one very similar will go “pop” through there, you see?  If it is not a decided waste of energy – if it is not – if it’s just workin’. 

Now, in sleep – physical sleep there’s still dreams goin’ on – it’s still makin images.  Now, we’re told by competent physiologists with their brain wave machines that if you are prevented from dreaming, that you will wind up across the street over here.  Because it seemingly has something to do – that dream charges off – that, otherwise, will destroy the whole continuity of it, okay?

(Bob, behind the question was that some nights you’ll have very good spirits –)

Dreams.

(Dreams and rest.  And other times it’s frantic, goin on and you’re –)

And you wake up and realize somethin’ been goin’ on but don’t know what it is, right.  My mama said that was because of eatin’ dill pickles and sauerkraut before I went to bed, but I don’t know.  Yes, I do know that it can be if the body is getting many sensations from the solar plexus and so forth – if you’re chilly or if you have gas in your stomach or you have eaten something that’s very indigestible or you are overly fatigued or you have...

(Pushing towards a goal.)

Pushin’ towards your goal and all these things, which have been overexcitement and got the body full of adrenalin, thyroxin and so forth.  Then you will have very weird anxious dreams and very vivid ones – sometimes very horrifying ones – they call those “nightmares.”  And then, of course, then you can have “day-mares,” too, you know.  You know how to have those, don’t you, Faith?  You have “day-mares” as well as nightmares?

(Yes.)

All those wild things.  Yes? 

(Will you discuss cause and effect?)

No ma’am, there is no such phenomena in the world.

(What?)

There is no such phenomena as cause/effect in this world.

(Hmmm… –)

So I couldn’t discuss something that doesn’t exist.

(Do you not believe causes at sometimes do affect?)

No, ma’am.  No, ma’am, there are relationships goin’ on.  If you only look at it in a very limited viewpoint, you would say cause/effect.  You could either look at it in a circle or we’ll put it as a sawhorse and two kids on the end of a teeter board, okay?  So, we got a sawhorse and we got a board and we got little Susie and little Joe.  Now we got a game called teeter board, huh?  Take away any one of ‘em and tell me what happens to the game? 

(What does this do to cause?)

We’re talkin’ about things that we can check up on, Miss, not on theories that are unable to check on.  These are images that have popped through somebody’s head and there is no way to check on them.  And these bring about tremendous amounts of anxiety, worries, and concerns and they’re a bunch of explanations.  We would prefer to remain with that which we can work with, okay? 

(Yes.)

Okay, and with Karma we’re saying that I will blame – which was this sixth decision we can find what to blame it on back here.  Well, “I did something back in my third reincarnation back down the road,” which we don’t know that there was a reincarnation or such, and we don’t know that it did happen.  But that is an explanation and it’s a wonderful way to keep from lookin’ and seein’ what am I doin’ now, okay?  So we try to only express and discuss in these discussions things that we can work with now.  Reincarnation, Karma, all these things takes us out of present time, takes us into pasts, futures, unknown realms, theories and somebody can say it is true and another one we can say it isn’t.  I do not know; and I believe I can say that the next person don’t know either.  (laughter) 

(That’s true.)

But you can theorize on it from now on and I could say, “Well, it’s true” and you could say, “No, it’s not true.  We do find that we can see what’s going on now without all these theories as long as we know ourself.  But if we have a preconceived opinion – start with ideas, which are somebody’s images, and then I can sell you that image.  You see, that’s a second-handed image, isn’t it?  Because very few of us would have ever come up with the idea of Karma, reincarnation and etcetera unless we had gotten it from somebody else’s image, right? 

So we live through a bunch of second-handed images year in and year out – talk about ‘em as though they were real and we really can’t check up on them.  So we try to stay away from all material that cannot be verified here and now because we got enough here and now to work on to keep us busy, okay?  Lynn?

 (I don’t know this may be too technical – if it is just tell me –)

Well, if it’s technical, I’ll try it.

(If the energy that we have works through our day and we don’t waste it on anxiety and so on –we have a certain amount of energy we come up with through the day –) 

Well, I think you can continually generate energy every minute, do you not – on demand.  It’s not that we have four dollars worth every mornin’ when we get up and if we use four dollars and ten cents worth we are out of business before night.  It continually regenerates because the source of energy is Life and as long as you’re alive you have sources of energy.

(It would seem like energy is granule –)

Right, you can break ‘em down and...

(And it’s an evidence of the amount of the energy that is available –)

At that moment…

(At that moment.)

…but you can regenerate those cells very quickly if you’re feelin’ fine.  Those little bodies will regenerate very quickly if you’re feelin’ fine.  If you’re in a bunch of anxiety, they’re very slow to come back.

(In other words, they won’t necessarily appear in a completed state at anytime if you’re functioning at –)

...anywheres near optimum if you was goin’ along without all this anxieties and goals and struggles that we ordinarily are workin’ with.

(The reason they are picked up then during the night is because you –)

...you turn off some of it.

(You’re not spinning the wheel quite as hard.)

Right.  You’re not strugglin’ as hard towards your goal – thank goodness, you go to sleep and forget about it a little while.  ‘Course, sometimes you don’t.

(If not applied, it’s wasted by anxiety.)

It’s really bound.

(– bottled up in you.)

Right, and it’s really bound – by the anxiety.  It is transformed into kinetic energy and then is bound.  Now, it’s “potential” when it’s in the little cell; and then when you mobilize it – remember we have a “pre-ception” [perception] of something, then we have a true feeling about it, then we mobilize the energy.  That comes from the little cells and then you have an activity – a creative activity.  Now, that’ll immediately rebuild.  But if you have a misconception, then you have a false feeling of emergency, then you mobilize the energy and there’s no place to release it.  Now the cell is depleted for a long time until the adaptation takes place and by that time you got another anxiety about what was makin’ the adaptation.  And this is why people die when they’re of old age – when they’re 65, 70 years old.  Yeah?

(Basically, we have the potential –)

Accordin’ to their inner feeling and to your activity and so forth and also nobody knows...

(How ‘bout instinct?)

No, we don’t know.  That’s one of those things like the pineal gland.  We all just know you have 100% for you and Lynn has 100% for him; but whether that’s the same or not, nobody knows.  So does a mouse have 100%, but is it the same for you?  We don’t know.

(Can we store up energy?)

We can store up fat.

(I know that.)  (Laughter)

And that can be converted into energy.

(I’m aware of that.)

It can be converted into energy.  We really do not need to “store” energy, as like a storage battery, because you are constantly available to all the energy you need every moment.

(Are there different kinds of energy?)

What do you mean?  There’s what kinds of energy?  There is…energy “is” and whether it is in the form of light or whether it’s in the form of mass or whether it’s in the form of heat or whether it’s in the form of something else would not make any difference – it’s energy “is,” okay?

(Whether we’re asleep or not – when we go to sleep?)

Anxiety – the conscious mind – the attention be…kinda lets down and all the things let off to an extent, but the cerebrum keeps on making images, the cerebellum keeps on coordinating the bodily functions but at a greater reduced rate.  So you might say everything is just reduced in speed and activity.

(How can a person tell the difference now between these images produced by the cerebrum and the non-verbal communications that just pop up?)

Well, that’ll take a minute, little longer to do but you can tell whether you are gettin’ it or not.  It really don’t make too much difference if you buy it.  If you don’t put any value on it, it wouldn’t make any difference anyway, would it, Bob? 

(No, but I thought about it –)

I know, but I said would it make any difference?

(If you didn’t buy it?)

Yeah.

(No, but what I’m talking about is like – say, you get hit by somebody’s telephone number –)

Yeah, and he thinks of it – so he can either turn it off or he could call the number, right?  If he had his head on, he wouldn’t get it because he would not be layin’ around there open, you know?  You say, if you see a hundred dollar bill layin’ on the street, you pick it up, wouldn’t you?  If I see a human mind laying around and nothin’ goin’ on, I’m liable to pick it up and use it.

(You’d be in trouble then!)  (Laughter)

Might be fun, it’s more valuable than a hundred dollar bill sometimes, okay?  But if he’s usin’ it, why I couldn’t have anything to do with it so long as you got the hundred dollar bill in your pocket, I can’t pick it up you see – off the street. 

(Why does someone think they have the desire to do something but does not have the energy to do it?  Is this being “bound?”  What’s going on?)  (Laughter)

Well, first off, it would be interesting if it didn’t take any work.  As we said while ago, “I would like to feel useful if it didn’t take any effort,” you know?  So, that’s about the way it was – “If this would all materialize for me it would be fine, I would enjoy it but I don’t wanna put any effort in it.”  So, it’s accordin’ to if you’re very, very interested in something, you’ll find you’ll do it.  You generate the energy.  See, interest is the greatest amount of… enthusiasm is the greatest energy mobilizer; interest is next; and anxiety is next.  Without one of those, you’re not gonna do anything.

(Could you tell me the difference really between enthusiasm and anxiety?)

Oh, experiment with it.  (Laughter)

(I have and I get sick every time –)  (More laughter)

Every time you get which one – the anxiety?

(Yeah, no doubt.  But I mean, well –)

So, you start off with a little enthusiasm and you immediately make it into a goal and get all excited.  So excitement is “anxiety” and many people call excitement “enthusiasm,” Robert.

(I know, I mean, including me.)

Including Robert.  I just was talking to you, sir.  (Laughter)  Many people, including Robert, misconstrue excitement for enthusiasm.  It’s not.  It’s a form of anxiety, isn’t it?

(Has no effect on the brain, so that’s good.)

Isn’t it?  Enthusiasm is when you’re really interested in doin’ somethin’ now.  Excitement is when you get all worked up – I’m gonna do it tomorrow.  (laughter)  Manana, see?  Excitement is a form of anxiety.  Now, it sometimes is a pleasant one and you enjoy it for a little while, but it always winds up makin’ you ill.  Because you generate tremendous energies for all these great activities you’ve dreamed up…

(Oh, boy!)  (Laughter)

And you don’t use it up doin’ the activity and so you must adapt by unusual cellular activity, unusual sensation, tissue cell alteration or breakdown in order to restore homeostasis in the body or else indulge in unusual behavior and pick on Jeannie, you know?  Sometimes you do both.  When he does that, hit him on a stick and that’ll cause a sudden recoil and uses up that mobilized energy, gets him hard.  (Laughter)  

(Once in a while, if you have a creative idea and it’s –)

...when you just got images flippin’ around in there – if it’s saleable, it’s creative.  Can you sell it right now?  Or is it one of these things you dream about – you know – I can do when I get enough money and “when” is one of those things you can do “when” or is it somethin’ you can do “now?”  Which is it?

(It gets emotionally involved –)

It does, it does.  Well, most of the time they say it’s a fantasy unless you can sell it – right now.  If you can get a dollar for it now, it’s not a fantasy.  If it’s something that’s gonna have to wait until you get enough money or until the kids get grown up or until you can move to Alaska or until you can move to Australia if you did, then it’s probably a fantasy, okay?  And just say, “Well, that’s a good flip image,” and let it be and see if you can direct it a little bit to one that’ll work now.  You see, we’re always “out of time”.  We’re always trying to do somethin’ tomorrow.  Did you ever try to drive a car that the sparks come out and they fired the gasoline when the piston was at the bottom of the stroke instead of the top, hmm?  Did you ever try that?

(Yeah.)

Runs pretty horrible – pretty lumpy.  So if you have energy, why the piston better be at the top – see, it’s somethin’ you can do now, okay?  Can you sell it?  Can you trade it?  Can you exchange it now for somebody or can you use it now?  Can you eat it now?  You see – can you cook it now, okay?

(Well, explains then “there’s a time and place for everything.”)  (Now!)  (Laughter)

Now!  It’s always now.  Well, then those are not for here, so they’re for somewheres else – they’re “thenly”-made things and you don’t’ bother with ‘em.  Because somebody said that, we decided, “Well, I gotta hold onto this.”  But at any moment it may be the time for this.  Let’s see what we can do this moment – you see, we’re always concerned with the past and the future; and there isn’t anything you can do in the past or the future is there?

(No.)

The only thing that’s real is now.  And if you can use it now, fine; otherwise you filed it in a drawer called “then-ly" and leave it there.  (Laughter)  Yes?

(This is a concept that I tried to get a hold of – this “now” thing.  I have a mother that suffered, as you know, and she goes out – I go out and she recognizes me, talks to me perfectly normally, for now –)

...for now.

(For now, and my sister comes in tomorrow and I may have been Joe Doe or somebody else.)

Yeah, or her doctor, right?

(And, well, I wonder sometimes if this “now” – how adequate that is because, you know, when you go back, I can see some advantages to her in her condition –)

...in her condition it’d be better...

(It’d be almost impossible for her to live as peacefully as she’s livin’ now if she had to worry about other than right now –)

So do you see that what happens –

(She has disturbed my –)

Oh, I’m not worried about yours, but do you see that the cerebrum is not being directed too much in this lady’s position?  So, it goes flippin off and so it throws in what you would call “error” or somethin’ but it’s just not bein’ directed.  And so it says, “That guy come by here yesterday was a horse trader I used to know.”  And, “Has Lynn been by?”  “I don’t know.  Who’s Lynn?”  You know?  And those little things haven’t been in there today.  It’s just when there is a place that the cerebrum is not being directed by an outside interest anymore, that’s all.

(It’s just a further indication of what happens if we –)

...let it alone.

(– perfect example of if what happens if we don’t pay attention –)

...or if you do – don’t pay attention to it – recognize what it is and don’t be concerned with it.  When you just leave it alone, it’s goin’ a-flippin just like hers is; and if you use it and direct it, but there’s no use in fightin’ it all the time.  Let the thing play once in a while.  You might find somethin’ interesting in there, you know?  (Laughter)  In other words, no overdoin’ anything.  Don’t work it day and night and don’t let it just float around day and night because it’ll either way – but, you know, it’s just “it” – that’s its nature.  So, all the cerebrum is doing is doing its nature in her and she is not directing it and we can easily see why.

(You mentioned how it always rests at night, you said the brain rests.  And sometimes you wake up in the morning very tired and you can remember images, you can remember going through terrible things and you feel like you’ve really suffered physically for it.)

Right.  You’re really tied up because in your sleep you probably took ‘em pretty seriously, you know?  And the best way in the world to take ‘em seriously at night is to take ‘em seriously in the daytime.  You get so you just live peacefully with ‘em in the daytime, you can live peacefully with ‘em at night, you see?  But you have to start while you’re awake.  So, you just let all images that flip in your head, just be – you know, really, don’t pay attention to ‘em, say “hi” and let it go on.  And it don’t mean anything and then you’ll find it does that at night. 

But if you stop to wonder “Where did this thought come from” in the daytime and you get images in there and get all concerned with ‘em, you know, as to what people’s gonna do and you say, “What’ll people think?”  And it goes out here and gets you a bunch of images of all sayin’ nasty things about you and you get all worked up in the daytime, huh?  Then tonight they’ll do the same thing, you see? 

So, when you start with the daytime of seeing that they’re just the nature of the cerebrum is to make images, then at night it gets that way, too.  Because you usually carry over on a lesser degree in sleep what you do in the daytime.  It really is not a terribly different state, it’s just slowed down a little bit – thank goodness, that’s all, okay?  So burn it in the daytime and at night it’ll follow.  Yes, sir?

(What does the solar plexus coordinate?)

Sensations - from all over into a feeling – it coordinates many individual sensations into an overall feeling.  In other words, you as consciously are not aware of the pressure of your foot on the floor until I mentioned it, the pressure of your leg across your knee, the pressure of the body against the chair and against the back and the various digestive things that’s goin’ on…

[END OF CD #2 OF 9]

Continued............

Scottsdale Part 2

Scottsdale Part 3

Scottsdale Part 4