“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This cancellation raised many questions, since Seth had said nothing about any such event; on the other hand, his forecasts had all been prefaced by the word “if,” or similar ones. We thought briefly of asking for a special session to deal with the rather surprising turn of events, but decided against it, not wanting to cultivate any such dependent habits. My personal thought was that our expectations concerning the house had been in the process of change, the loss of the loan being the natural culmination of this.

(Of course we could still have obtained the house through a bank loan, which was offered to us, but we declined, feeling our ideas had changed in some way as yet unclear to us; yet we felt it was tied up with the material, meager as yet, that Seth has been giving us concerning the power of expectation.

I will, then, begin with a short treatise concerning the importance of expectation, not only in the construction of physical objects from inner data, but also in the importance played by expectation in the actual sifting of inner data that is received, and in the importance of expectation in the interpretation of inner data after the sifting process has been carried about.

Again, expectations are not only vital in the formation of physical constructions, but they also determine what inner data of all available, will be received by the individual; and then the individual interprets the data in terms of the same expectations.

If a man wants to change his fate, desire is not enough, but expectation is. Desire may grow into expectation, but alone it is not enough. Expectation is actually the main trigger that switches inner data into the realm of physical construction. Without it, no physical construction results.

While many of your expectations are formed in childhood, no switch is really stuck in one position, and it is your prerogative to channel your emotional energy into whatever pattern for action you desire. It is extremely important, if difficult, to probe and to discover exactly what your present expectations are. Not your desires but your expectations, for you will only construct physically that environment which you believe capable of construction. It has been said that oftentimes men’s expectations are too high for their abilities, but indeed expectations form abilities; and if expectations were higher, so would abilities flourish.

As long as you believe this so will your expectations of reality become, in truth, reality. It goes without saying that if all of your energy goes into money making little will be left for painting, but this is a long stretch between this equation and the one that says that an artist must be poor.

There is much leeway here. I would, if I may, suggest a reinforcement unfortunately in this sort of expectation. I would suggest on your part a rather illogical but perhaps understandable feeling of guilt, involving your father. I would suggest, indeed, that perhaps you hesitate as the first son, to be more financially solvent than your father is, and therefore in your own eyes symbolically shame him.

(Jane’s voice had become suddenly very loud. The next word she uttered was the word “indeed,” beginning the next sentence. I wrote it down as usual; then, walking over to me, grinning but also intent, she took the pen from my hand; she herself wrote the word down at the top of the page, in letters 3/4 of an inch high, and underlined it heavily for emphasis in no uncertain terms.)

Now, what you would want to do with a seventy-two year old woman is beyond me. Forgive my humor, since the subject is serious. I couldn’t resist. But, all of these inner psychological realities color your expectations, just as Ruburt is entirely convinced that a writer of real merit cannot bear children.

You are secure as long as you put a good portion of energy into painting, but this distortive expectation of yours could end up making you bitter even against your painting; because even when you are pleased with your work, it could tend, definitely, to prevent you, in strong terms, from seeking not only financial reward from it, but other satisfactions as well by preventing you from showing it where such showing in galleries and exhibitions throughout the country is important.

Such a veto upon exhibitions for example is not part of your distortive expectation now, but could easily become part of it. All expectations evolve, valid and invalid ones.

In your field of art you could do better now than he is in science fiction, since you are more sure of how you get your effects, and he is still not. Your fear of freelance work is mainly, but not entirely, caused by your distortive expectation. On the one hand you fear making too much money, while consciously you fear not making enough, for the energy expanded; and I do mean expanded, rather than extended.

You are bending over backward not to make money, both of you, though this is somewhat more understandable on Ruburt’s part, at least since his training is not as specific. When either of you demand or request more money, you feel like thieves. Ruburt has yet to manage his abilities competently but you have except for this distortive expectation which colors your constructions.

It did not you see before you realized that you were basically an artist, because then the two elements of talent and money were not in contact. You could have made a much less painful transition between complete commercialism and painting than you did, but here at a crucial moment was starry-eyed Ruburt, with his ideas of the poverty-stricken artist; and you can carry on from there.

I do not believe it possible myself, because of your makeup, that you will ever be a millionaire, though I could be wrong. But with the same expenditure of energy, you could be much better off with a change in expectation, and the resultant change in the direction of your energy construction.

He will write a story otherwise not only excellent but saleable, and put in one or two lines and a tinge throughout the tale, to make it unsaleable.

It is not a case of coldly going after money, but rather a case of naturally expecting that ability will bring its natural physical constructions, in terms of physical satisfaction.

I have tried to build your expectations. Before our sessions you would have been satisfied with less. You would have made an excellent go of this. I admit that I tried in some ways to influence you both; but without your acceptance, and practical acceptance, of this idea of owning property and house, and I do mean practical, signature on the dotted line acceptance, you would have gotten nowhere with your desire for a home of your own.