“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You both grew up under certain authorities—the personal authority of the parents, and the greater authority—or Ruburt at least—of the church and state. For you, the church had little authority, but the state is vested with authority that must uphold the composite idea of reality generally held.

Ruburt dislikes authority. He lived under the authority of Welfare, as well as the church. That dislike was to serve as an impetus, as it did, but the adult should see—the adult Ruburt—that there is no authority in those terms. There is nothing to fight in those terms. The authorities are simply people doing their best to preserve a status quo—with which many are already dissatisfied. Their authority becomes a trap for them, for to preserve it they must keep themselves in ignorance.

Authority, generally speaking, is necessary for society’s survival—but it does not exist of itself. Authority is always vested in a person, organization, or whatever, by other people for a variety of reasons. But overall authority is meant to insure continuity, the status quo. It will always be “undermined” by creativity, and the search for another, newer version of reality.

Academic people do like structures, and to some extent mass learning experiences of course require them. At certain times universities are avant-garde, and in other periods of history they are instead highly conservative. Contacts with so-called authorities are good for both of you, so that you can see that such authorities are simply people. You expect more of them than you do others, because you are still blinded by the ideas of authority.

In order to fear the opinions of others, however, particularly the opinion of those in authority, you must first to some extent respect those in authority, and hold some faith in their ideas. You are taught to respect such authorities, and as mentioned earlier, while Ruburt defied authority as a child he was still dependent upon authority’s welfare.

Ruburt need not fear becoming a new authority. People do their own thing, and point to others as authorities to take their responsibility for them. He need not fear others as authority, for the same applies. [...]

Until lately he idealized authority on the one hand, and was frightened of it on the other. Only when he realized that there was no authority in those terms could he begin to let down his guard.

Now because of these feelings he was afraid of setting himself up as a new authority for people to follow blindly. This problem also vanishes when he realizes, as he does, that there literally are no authorities. [...]

[...] He fears authority. This fear of authority is one of the reasons for his admirable independence of mind and spirit.

[...] His mother, representing authority to him as a child, was frightening, threatening, sometimes cruel, and capricious. [...]

[...] The new director is a figure of authority, and insists in fact upon being considered in such a light.

[...] The fact that Ruburt considers the man an ass, helped, because Ruburt could then justify his own conditioned reflex toward authority; and keep in mind other material I have given you concerning Ruburt and the gallery.

[...] In the past Ruburt fought to trust in his own authority, while still holding the belief that the world’s authorities must know what they were doing. [...]

[...] As mentioned, only lately has he realized fully that the authorities, so-called, are failing. [...]

Ruburt turned aside from his book for a while, doubting his own authority, and so to some extent slowed his progress physically—but he did not stop it, and is returned to it. [...]

Your original purpose was the purpose of the creative artist or of the mystic, and that kind of purpose automatically brings you in rebellion against official authority. Your original purpose did not involve gaining the respect of those authorities, and it is, if you will forgive me, overall shortsighted to worry about the approval of such people in your time. It can make you bitter for no reason, for this kind of creative work exists outside of its time, and will still be read when the old authorities no longer exist, in your terms.

[...] You are reaching tomorrow’s “authorities.”

To reach today’s authorities you must make too many concessions, and that is true of anyone who hopes to produce great work in any area. [...]

You must do what you want because you want to do it, and if the authorities listen, well and good, and if not it is their loss. [...]

[...] When there are no cures, or patients do not respond, or they slide back into old ways, the doctor-author simply says they are not ready to take the steps necessary, or they have taken them half-heartedly. And many who are cured, of course, come down with other conditions if they have not succeeded in identifying their own fears sufficiently with the author’s.

[...] When they visited the author, however, he was optimistic and brusque. [...]

[...] The author gives such people a specific enemy, or evil: no more must they be battered with formless fears, but these become gathered together and focused into the dietary area. [...]

[...] Those who are cured are at a certain state when they approach the author, as mentioned earlier, feeling helpless after medical treatments that did not work—feeling that there is something wrong with them. [...]

[...] The author does not realize how much is necessary before his methods will have the effect that he expects. [...] This is the point missed by the author.

[...] This means obviously that you must be at a particular stage of development before the author’s suggested techniques will be of any great benefit.

[...] This also means of course that the author does not realize much that must go on underneath before his suggested techniques will work.

[...] The author you see does not completely understand the work that must be done in this respect before his methods will have great value. [...]

[...] Given Seth’s concept of simultaneous time, the best connection I’ve made so far between the two soldiers is that as counterparts of mine they explore questions having to do with authority. As I rebel against authority now — a characteristic remarked upon by Seth in the 721st session — so do my Roman selves in their times.

[...] I see my two Romans physically undergoing an exploration of the opposite sides of rebellion or subversion, within the context of a much closer, more oppressive military authority: For whatever reasons, the Roman officer is turned upon and thrown into the Mediterranean to drown (as described in Note 1 for the 715th session)⁷; my Roman soldier, a man of lesser rank, has evidently betrayed his sworn position of trust, and is caught in authority’s vice. [...]

[...] (See Note 6.) I’ve also written about the conflicts involving authority that I believe my two Roman soldiers are expressing. [...] Just as I do, Peter rebels in his own peaceful ways against conventional authority, preferring to go his individual route in the arts, no matter how dubious his rewards may be.

[...] Seth referred to Nebene in the 721st session also.⁹ Here too, through that individual, the ramifications of authority are confronted again; if in a way less drastic than one involving death, still certainly in a very dogmatic manner, as expressed through Nebene’s rigid personality. [...]

[...] They have been brought up to believe in authority, yet they realize that the authorities know far less than they originally supposed. [...]

[...] They want to endow me with an authority that will make up for the authority they are trying to be free of. [...]

[...] They use my position as a substitute for the authority they are trying to give up. [...]

[...] They yearn for an authority they can trust. [...]

[...] When the condition is set up or the situation in which giving in, in your terms, is expected of you, and when the hypnotist is set up as an authority—you instantly rebel, and in your own way, you reinforce your ideas of spontaneity by refusing to go along with the authority. Going along with the authority is not being spontaneous to your way of thinking—it is conforming.

In refusing to have an orgasm you are showing your rebellion against authority. [...]

[...] You are the authority.

(Author: Susan M. Watkins)

[...] It took me a while to realize that the author had said nothing at all about the idea of life as we know it being latently present all the while in the primordial cloud before it began to expand. Then I thought that in the perfectly expanding, uniform hydrogen cloud, nothing would be needed, in those terms [the author’s]—not even life itself. [...]

[...] However, I doubt if the author, a professional philosopher, had any idea of backing up Seth; pardon my skepticism. [...]

Now it will help if you take it for granted that under some circumstances, dealing with Ruburt’s idea of authority, he has difficulty expressing dissatisfaction, or any normal impatience... [...]

The authors made several excellent points, without however carrying the main point in any actuality. [...]

[...] They do mention, the authors, that this can sometimes be the result of necessity. [...]

[...] For if the authors say that oftentimes a subordinate or potential ego will take over control when necessary in order to insure the survival of the whole, then this implies a decision that has been made; and who has made it?

The authors ignore this question. [...]

[...] You will feel your own authority individually, and therefore be far freer to act with authority and assurance. [...]

[...] If you realize you can’t trust authority of the psyche, your own psychic experiences will accelerate. [...]

[...] Not to substitute one authority for another, but to allow yourselves the freedom to recognize that the prime authority is All That Is that resides within you and that speaks with your own voice. [...]

[...] Do not feel you need to go to others but acknowledge the authority that resides within yourselves and in that way you develop and use your own abilities. [...]

[...] In dream, he stands for authority; he was also quite a drunk. [...]

(I told Jane that I didn’t think I’d figured out very much of it, beyond that I seemed to be remaking the past, and that all of the figures in it except her seemed to be figures of authority from that past. I also felt that the idea of authority was somehow connected with my shaky right hand, and since this aspect of the dream wasn’t discussed today, I’d like Seth to comment on it tomorrow if he has a session. [...]

[...] Probably another general reference to the object, in that the object’s author, Caroline Keck, was associated with both the Brooklyn Museum and the Arnot Art Gallery. [...]

[...] We believe it refers to the book by Louis Pomerantz; the author himself; Paula Gerard, the illustrator; and the Artists Equity Association, discussed in the book’s forward.

[...] A reference to Caroline Keck, author of the object, and her husband, Jane said. [...]

[...] A fence can also enter in, in a more literal way: The Arnot Art Gallery, where Caroline Keck, the author of the object worked, is surrounded by a black iron fence.

And now, dear author—I bid you a fond good evening. [...]