“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

His discipline is improving and has improved this life, especially since the ending of the adolescent period. His smoking, dear Joseph, is indulged in for entirely different reasons than those reasons which impelled you to smoke, and the habit is difficult for him to break, though he is breaking it and he has made strides that are important during the past year.

His smoking represents the tail end of a characteristic greediness that besieged him in past lives, with smoking this time as a remnant. The greediness in the past involved many more areas. It included a strong appetite toward stuffing himself with food and drink, and an overall greediness of appetite, even of intellectual and emotional greediness which he has largely overcome.

This time and particularly since adolescence ended he was able to let go the other types of greediness, letting the cigarette take place of all the rest. There is here also what I may call a sort of air panic, an insatiable taking in of air that the nervous puffing of a cigarette sometimes satisfies, even a basis in claustrophobia where the personality feels it is not getting enough air or is closed in.

Ruburt even has a latent gluttonous desire for rich foods that he has conquered. Nevertheless although the cigarette habit satisfies these basic old habits, he will be able to let it go. He is a gobbler, that is all. A gobbler of ideas, of emotions, of atmosphere, in some ways a veritable sponge soaking up whatever he can, but he has learned discipline and he is learning a certain amount of patience, which is difficult for him.

As I said it also has to do with a panicky gobbling up of air as if he could never get enough. As a child at one time he died from suffocation, and this also has its bearings here in the present, the panicky gulping of air being a mechanism of subconscious memory. I do hope that this helps him.

I did not intend to go into this any more deeply tonight but it is rather interesting. And he thought he had a foolproof method of gratification, a gratification that seemed to bring no penalties as with overeating and so forth.

It aggravates a certain amount of nervousness however and is not beneficial. In this also a definite but not bullying attitude is important. The panicky feeling is already lessening and Ruburt’s discipline is catching up with and conquering his emotional attitudes so that the problem will be worked out, that is he will stop smoking.

No. It is his tendency to gobble here that is important. He has given up in this life gobbling food and drink. In past lives he was never temperate, neither in a physical sense, emotionally or intellectually. This was not in many ways bad. However when the intemperate personality does not discriminate then the basic characteristic can cause unpleasantness. He was always very generous for example and kind, even overly kind. On the other hand he ate and drank too much. He was just overeager as a rule.

In the present personality we have abilities developed in past lives, and ability to paint for example that should be made more use of now. What you call Ruburt’s sales ability is also a result of past experiences, and certain other latent abilities such as a facility with growing plants. He was at one time an excellent farmer.

There has been here a willingness to experience, to experiment and to give as well as a ferocious capacity to take in. The trouble in the past has been a lack of discretion and self-discipline. He was always a pleasure-loving personality however and avoided anything unpleasant. His early circumstances in this life were chosen by him as a needed experience. In other lives he was able to exist without too much adversity and this time he chose troublesome and truly tragic circumstances as a needed challenge.

His temper when aroused was very great however and he retaliated instantly. He had never known hatred however. This time he has had to deal with it in a most intimate manner. The old stormy temper is now seen in Ruburt’s deep grudges. The personality of Ruburt’s mother was not close to him in any other life. The circumstances of birth were chosen at the last minute on his part and was made for two reasons.

One, the personality of the mother offered needed experience for Ruburt; and two, the paganistic personality of the father was in some degree like his own past personalities though in a much more vague and watered-down way. A miscarriage later on the part of Ruburt’s mother represented an entity who changed his mind so to speak. He was at one time a brother. Ruburt’s present shape is something he has been working for. He was often tall, hardy and stout.

There are whole areas of material here that we have not discussed so that this is spotty, but we will go into it more deeply. There are no laws to force personalities to use all their abilities. A personality will not choose unfavorable circumstances of rebirth until he himself sees that necessary discipline can be achieved in no other manner. Therefore extremely hot and extremely cold countries go largely undeveloped. But once development begins to occur it is swift.

There is a very practical reason for a reverence for all life, and very practical reasons why man must learn certain facts that up to this point he has considered impractical. He has usually managed to separate his ethical conceptions from his daily business life, but this shall be increasingly difficult for him to manage.

This should be of benefit. Also the slow breathing habits you began to acquire with your yoga exercises will be beneficial. Giving up the smoking habit will also help you in this respect. You are strongly intuitive and very quick, but you can learn to have a more relaxed body. A fear has been developed by the present personality resulting directly from early circumstances. Ruburt is afraid that if he does not operate quickly he will be symbolically caught and crippled as is the case with his present mother.

Incidentally Ruburt always felt a strong bond with every living thing, and even as a man was not cruel. He was only a Christian once, the last time, and otherwise was paganistic but always in ways that enabled him to feel close to the earth. This is of course one of the main reasons for his particular reaction with the starling incident, and this quality has been a saving one in the past.

Later I will go into the creation of other planes, and remember also that as man creates his own camouflage pattern he also works out his problems on the stage of history, which is also his creation. This is a point worth remembering.