Betty:   About eight months ago I had a car accident and I found myself in an unusual situation. Everything that was natural to me like talking, walking, etc, had to be relearned. And I tried to remember that this was a favourable situation for my being.

Mr. Adie:   Well, you did for a certain extent and it made an enormous difference to you. You would never have made the progress that was made if you hadn’t had that thought there, which was a big thought.

Betty:   It is a big thought, but it still felt that it was flimsy.

Mr. Adie:   Well, of course, it’s threatened all the time, I have to supply something.

Betty:   Yes.

Mr. Adie:   But then for that I have to receive something, and everything I need is provided, including suffering. So, if I don’t flinch from that, I have all the material for all I need and in me I have the seed of that possibility of transforming a low material into a finer material. Actually, the material of my being. So, that I could become a real man and not just an automaton. And your accident, no question, has confronted you with life or death.

Betty:   That’s right. So, I wanted to use this situation and not wallow in the depths of despair as I frequently did. I’m a professional singer and I found that I was most identified with that. For the loss of my musical ability caused me to become so identified, very sad, and frustrated. So, instead of just thinking of this concept of “being in favourable circumstances,” I decided to use that depression as an alarm to remind me. So, for the past week, whenever I experienced the sadness it would wake me up. And I found myself thinking, “I don’t sing as well” and I could hear the thoughts and they would stop.

Yesterday, I was reminded about my predicament by a situation out of the blue. It caught me unaware, it was so very quick, and I found myself crying, but at that time the alarm went off and immediately, almost immediately, it stopped and changed, was transformed. So, I’ll continue to use this depression to remind me. But it’s not just depression, I found today that just doubt, doubt in my vocal ability woke me up, set the alarm off. So, it must be just identification with my singing wakes me up: the identification.

Mr. Adie:   Surely you have to accept and you wish to accept your singing for what it is, higher or lower. You have to. If you don’t, you won’t even hear it and be able to tell where it is. It’s quite possible you may not be able to sing as you did before. Maybe you sing better in a different way, some other how.

Betty:   Perhaps.

Mr. Adie:   Who knows. It’s all very, very equal, and perfect. It’s up to me to find the perfection though. There’s full compensation and more if I look for it as you’ve been doing. As you’ve been doing, go on, because you’ve got the sort of principle there. You’ve used the principle. You’ve proved it. Alright, then, but that takes you to more work. You might not even be able to follow the old profession. Tree’s still growing, sun is still rising, food still tastes good when I’m hungry, snow is still marvellous if I see it. And there’s no lack of work of one kind or another.

Betty:   Do methods become stale when you frequently use a certain method?

Mr. Adie:   It’s necessary always to be examining the method that you’re using in relation to the situation as it is. But don’t get shut off by saying, “well, the methods no good.” That’s a sort of dangerous alternative. But look round and see because I come to a particular step, it’s always in steps – life. And I come to a certain stage, certain things have happened, so that I’m now in thisposition. And eventually by trying this and trying that and find that won’t work, I find something that will work. And I actually get up on that step.

I can’t expect to find exactly the same things on the next step. Everything’s going to be totally different. So, I have to again find what won’t work and … it’s like that. Until at the end, I mean at the very end of my life, I have the biggest step of all because this is what I’m working for, to be able to make that final step.

It’s very important what you said, it’s a testimony which you mustn’t on any account betray. To be almost dead and then come alive again is an enormous thing. And to recognise the principles that have allowed me to take part in that and help me, it’s a big thing. It could hardly be bigger.

So, sing for your life – innerly. This is the singing that counts.

P.S. I recall the incidents concerning Betty well. I was with him around this time, when he took a call from her. He was delighted to hear from her, and asked me to leave the room. When I returned, Mr Adie told me how her accident had caused her to see how she had not been serious in her ten years in the Work. This insight prompted a significant change in her life, and she was working with a suggestion which he had made, that whenever she had a negative emotion concerning her situation, she would say to the emotion: “You – negative emotion – remind me to remember myself.” Of course, she had then to come to herself, centrally, with all three centres. The idea can be applied to unwanted thoughts, aches and pains, external events, any recurring phenomenon. I sometimes wondered how Betty had gone with this. When the meeting was transcribed, I finally knew.