CHANNELING

In Choosing Books to Read

Channeled Information by my Spirit Guide Seth in Bold Italics

Hi.

Good morning.

You said you wanted to talk about something?

Yes, if it would please you. This is about choosing your reading matter. Reading is like eating food. You will derive some amount of nourishment and/or sustenance from the food you consume. So, too, is it the same with what you read. This might also include the items you watch on television. I say television, though there are more than just the old square boxes upon which to watch things, including your cell phones, your computers, and in some instances, your watches.

When you are a younger person, it matters little the sweets you eat. There is an accompanying sense of you are going to live forever, so why not enjoy the ride type of attitude. As you get older, especially these days, there is the sense that you need to include healthier options in your diet and begin the process of eliminating some of your favorites, like bacon. We suggest moderation is a good policy to go by.

In the “olden days,” this was not so much an option because most people ate what was at hand. Now, unless you live in poverty-stricken circumstances, that choice to either eat with the seasons or to deliberately choose more nutritious sustenance is at hand.

So, the overall mindset of deliberately choosing aspects of your diet is there. The same goes for activities. Moving, albeit more slowly if you are in the older set, is still important. As writers, you all know that you can focus your eyes upon the corner of your room periodically to ease eyestrain, or if you wave your hands about madly to loosen the clenching that can result from many hours at your computer, hunched over and encouraging neck and back strain.

Moderation.

What you might consider is a more deliberate approach to what you read. If you are of a mind to always write detective novels, then the choice of you reading other detective novels is a given.

But bear in mind that you can still benefit from reading the ancient texts. Marcus Aurelius is one. John Tudor another. These collections would illustrate to you what it is like to live in other ages. That, during the time of David Copperfield, when he worked in poverty at a workhouse was mirrored by Charles Dicken’s own self, sold to bondage when his father had to spend time in a debtor’s prison. This is a first-hand account.

Or, the Count of Monte Cristo, (note from Pauline: by Alexander Dumas) how being a prisoner can be explained not, actually, all that much different from your own time.

Read, the classics, not that far away from your own time. We speak in terms of hundreds of years

The immediate histories you learn in school are presented by people who would explain away what they have a personal stake in preventing the word, uncomplimentary to their version of events, to get out. Witness the histories of Blacks and of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. At one time, the world was even more war-like than it is now. Would you suppose Putin would like to read a history written by a person from the West about his war?

It has always been propaganda. It will always be propaganda. Stress the points you want to make and downplay the other parts.

Use this to your advantage and try, as an exercise, to present both sides of the same coin as you write.

Why is meditation good, and why is it bad? Why is chocolate good, and why is it bad?

Become the person to read scientific treaties. Just for a month to see if there is anything there that interests you. Choose, for the sources of your news, different outlets. My channel here, on principle, refuses to listen to anything that smacks of Fox News, just because of the orange-haired one. There might indeed be valuable information coming from that news source, but the chances of it being tainted in a hateful way is too great, so she has removed herself completely from that sphere.

Me: Well, why not? It’s a hell of a way to waste half an hour.

We do not condemn you for your choices, we merely wish to have an example close to hand.

Me: Okay. So, is there a message for me in all of this too?

If you wish a message to be there, a message will be there.

Me: You’re talking in circles again.

Think of it as the classes you took in high school or in college. There is a theme. The teacher has things for you to do or to read with the hope that you will be able to experience something new. This is your opportunity to create your own class. Say, you wanted to read Ray Bradbury. This man lived in the later part of the 20th century from 1920 to 2012. Finding a biography of him would be useful. In fact, you might read more than one biography to garner what life for him might be like. That he had humble beginnings should not surprise you. Many had humble beginnings. Many, like the Vanderbilts, did not. Well, the ones who came later. Reading histories of the times, what was going on in the world? There was a war. They had just finished being in a war.

Hi everybody, Pauline back again. Regarding Ray Bradbury: I found a place from IUPUI Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis on the internet here with a timeline of his life. Something I’ve never been sure about is if the facts channeled by my Folk in Spirit are correct. When writing this, I left his birth and death dates open in the paragraph above and filled them in properly later. I knew Ray lived during the Depression. Ray Bradbury is one of my own formative writers. My favorite book is “Zen In the Art of Writing.” I’ve got a couple of copies and will occasionally open them at random to read wherever the book is opened.

I know of David Copperfield and how the part of his life when he was in a workhouse mirrored Charles Dickens’ own life when he worked in a boot blacking factory. However, I was not aware of a John Tudor. Evidently, John Tudor was a baker and a deacon in Boston and wrote a diary, “A Record of More or Less Important Events in Boston, from 1732 to 1793 by an Eye Witness” I just ordered the Kindle version. I wonder if he knew Benjamin Franklin? I also ordered the Kindle version of, “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius and the audiobook version of the same. I have found that it helps me to read and listen at the same time.

I hope you enjoyed the channeling Seth did and perhaps get some ideas for your own reading.