“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I still do not understand, however, why earlier Ruburt whispered and why these long serious faces as we sit about the table. You must not project your own feelings at this point upon others. The dead are not long-faced. Why should they come into such a long-faced sober group?

Someone (Theodore) over there seems too anxious. I do welcome you (Zen Dean) to this room.

Now you should feel a strong vitality here, and you should feel it touch each of you. You all have a vitality and energy that you do not realize that you possess, and it takes such an ancient, old decrepit, sorrowful spirit such as I to tell you. The energy used in this room this evening and in your talk and chatter, that energy barely touches upon the energy that you have and that you have not yet directed.

Now it is well and good for me to come here. You need not think any of this reprimand for you. It is fine and well for me to come here and talk to you, but you are not taking time from your daily activities to develop your own abilities, not to look inward, and you (Theodore) need not be included here. You will have your sessions when you take some time to look within yourselves. You must do part of your own work. I shall not do it for you. I even make Ruburt do his own work and I ride him hard. For I am also some taskmaster, but you must be your own taskmasters also.

You know you have nothing to fear, but you do not know what you have to gain. You have much to gain. The momentary fear that you have felt was nothing, and it was not symbolic of a deeper, different fear. You need concentration and focus and a strong impetus, and you can develop these and use them. You (Rachel) have also the fear, but it is a superficial one and can be overcome. But these things require that you look inward. That within your activities you find a period of peace.

Now that I have taken you all down a peg, remember, there is no grade behind that door. There is only freedom and strength and joy and vitality. I can poke your arm so that you move the knob a bit, but that is all that I can do. You can open the door and I am indeed sure that you will do so. I am also sure that a little talk like this will help you do so quicker. Now, I will cease, and whether or not I shall speak again this evening, who of you knows?

I will have more to say in your (Sally) case also. For again the fear is there. And you try. You try to tint the fears with smiles, you try to pat it as you would a dog in hopes that it will not bite (words lost) you. But you do not understand the fear, and therefore you do not know how to speak its language, and when it speaks to you, you do not understand it. You can conquer the fear, but you must understand it. Give us a moment here. The fear will not devour you. You have given it fantastic proportions. You have exaggerated its strength, and because you have exaggerated its strength, you have given it more strength than it possesses on its own. You also fear to open the door.

Do not pretend that the fear does not exist. Recognize it simply, it will then lose much of its charge. This is the first step in ridding yourself of it.

If a dark angry mongrel follows you down the street and you know it and you say to yourself, “It is a fine day and I am alone and there is no dog behind me,” and it yaps at your feet and you say, “It is a lovely day and no dog yaps at my feet,” and it growls at your ankles and you run as fast as you can saying all the time, “Nothing chases me,” and you dare not look back; then in your mind the dog springs from a dog to a tiger, to an unnamable terror. And you do not look around to see that it is merely a small dog, but in your mind you build these fears. If you stop and turn around to see what is bothering you and you find a small dog, then you take a deep breath of relief and wish you had turned around sooner. This is you (Sally) and your fear.