“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Over the weekend I had devoted some time to trying to sort out the contradictory Frank Watts material given by FW in the first two sessions. I had meant to try this for some time, knowing part of it was contradictory, before asking Seth to straighten it out. Jane and I had been talking about trying to check out some of this material, since presumably records concerning Frank Watts would exist locally; and possibly people who knew him, other than Miss Callahan, and a co-worker of Jane’s at the gallery when the sessions began, Mrs. Borst, might be found who would help us verify any data Seth gave. [See Volume 1 of The Early Sessions.]

(Just before the session was due, Jane remarked that she hoped Seth would discuss the Frank Watts material, thus saving me the trouble of asking the question during the session. She had no idea beforehand of the material the session would cover. She began dictating on time in a voice a bit stronger than usual, at a fairly fast rate. Her pacing was also rather fast, her eyes dark as usual.)

I would like to preface my remarks by mentioning that you are both in excellent psychic and physical condition at this point, and at your best level of achievement, indeed maintaining a balance that neither of you had been able to achieve earlier.

His personal subconscious, to my relief and I hope to yours, takes care of itself quite adequately through the sublimating fabrications of fantasy into creative prose and poetry, in which I am in no way involved. I make no attempt, for example, to inspire Ruburt in his own creative work. However if he did not have such an outlet, and if you did not have such an outlet in your own work, then indeed we would have had much more trouble, because this layer of personal subconscious would then be not merely a receptive channel but one that also radioed its own noisy and demanding stations.

This would have presented a great difficulty, as indeed it does when individuals with no adequate transference system for the subconscious, attempt investigations such as these.

(Jane had suspected the above would be Seth’s answer, and had told me so over the weekend. This means that Seth first actually announced his presence, by name, on page 23 of the material and during the 4th session. However, the character of the answers we had been receiving for some little while before this point had been reached, had changed from the type of answer Frank Watts had been giving; I recall that even then we had wondered whether some other entity than Frank Watts had become involved.

He was a personality from my entity, entirely independent from me and from my control, as I have explained that such personalities are. Ruburt’s abilities were only beginning to show themselves, and had what we may refer to as a low-range frequency. There was an affinity to begin with, but Ruburt simply could not reach far enough, or within and through the inner senses enough, to contact me directly; and there are what you may call for simplicity’s sake, conventions of conduct which I would not break.

Had I attempted myself to contact Ruburt then, the contact would have amounted to a sort of psychic invasion, which I would find most unethical on my part.

You both suspected all sorts of tricky subconscious motives on Ruburt’s part. The fact is, had he followed my suggestion then, affairs for him would have been much simpler. As it is, on his own with your help, because of quite practical events, he has chosen to leave, after having accepted the assistant directorship. Had he taken my suggestion when I gave it, affairs would have gone smoother. As it is there will be misunderstandings that could have been avoided.

Now. He blocked some of that material. However the urgency was apparent; since it was given in a sudden unscheduled session that much came through. I knew he would leave in any case. I wanted him to leave before he was offered the position. It may not, the position may not really mean much to him, but its acceptance by him was taken as a sign of his willingness to accept conditions at the gallery, and his resignation will not be as understandable to those there as it would have been earlier.

He tried to scream, could not for a frozen moment, then he screamed and ran. The door represented what seemed to be a new opportunity. The figure inside represented the actuality; that is, what seemed to be an opportunity would instead end up as a dead end, a threatening and stagnant position. The male figure represented the director, who offered the new position. The interval during which Ruburt could not scream represented the frozen interval of indecision, in which he could not act.

The final culmination of the dream, when he did scream and run away, represented his subconscious giving him its solution. The position was threatening because it represented a possible dilution of his energies from his main objective of writing, into a superficial ego satisfaction, which would have left him basically not only unsatisfied but personally betrayed.

He would, believe it or not, have ended up with a higher title within five years, though not of director, and it would have so soothed his inner ego that it would have settled for this. But his inner drives would never have let him settle. However, I wanted him to make the adjustments necessary to maintain balance and outward cordiality with the director, to aid his own understanding, and so that his resignation, which I hopefully foresaw, would be relatively painless.

The material dealing with the house was undistorted. I expected too much, and that is my fault. Notice, however, the difference in urgency given in the various suggestions. I know this is difficult to take. The fact is that had you moved, the traffic simply would not have bothered you, in your enjoyment of other features.