“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

First of all, Ruburt may continue with his daily psychological time experiments. But these are to be carried on but once daily, and if he tries any other sort of experiment, such as he tried with the Father Trainor poetry session last week, then he is not to attempt his regular psychological time experiment for that day.

One half-hour a day is more than sufficient, considering these sessions. And also, I am at present against these fairly frequent sessions where, on the one hand, Ruburt pretends that he is merely resting; that is, he pretends to himself, but actually he is expanding his energies, and expending them just as quickly, for this amounts to more than one psychological time experiment daily.

You were quite correct, Joseph, in cautioning Ruburt against the poetry session the other evening. He knew this but was obstinate. It is not only a case of being obstinate, however. I have told you that it is extremely limiting to regard the ego as the complete self or personality, or to think that the ego makes up the entire identity.

The identity, indeed, is as much and more the inner self as it is the ego. This has been mentioned in the past, but Ruburt became so fearful of his own spontaneity in early life that he was more or less forced, out of fear, to deny the validity of his identity with the inner self. On some occasions, as the other evening, he spontaneously accepts this identification, particularly when alcohol acts as a depressant.

Then he dares to go forward, only then he must rush. The spontaneity is good, the lack of caution is not. The experience concerning the poetry was a legitimate one. All in all however, Ruburt did entirely too much last week.

(It will be noted that in the 12th session, January 2,1964, Seth, without being asked by us, stated that he “knows” Jane’s old friend, Father Trainor. Father Trainor was an Irish Catholic priest who visited Jane and her ill mother regularly, for years, during Jane’s grade and high school days. He has been dead for some time. Jane has a photograph of him.

I quite understand Ruburt’s curiosity when Father Trainor’s voice did indeed come through, although far from perfectly. And it did represent another phase of Ruburt’s developing abilities. But these abilities must be trained. I do believe that Ruburt has learned an important lesson. As his abilities do develop, it is even more important that he take walks, and that some frequency in daily contact with others is maintained.

His Saturday housecleaning, believe it or not, is excellent for him. The short story work is a very good balance actually, for both his poetry and the book of mine that he is working on. I had meant to mention this earlier. The people, the young people with whom you work, Joseph, are very good guests for you to have. Mark is good for you both, and in many instances his impulse to get you both out of the house has been a good one.

Surely you can have enjoyable evenings at home without experiments, though again at times these have their place. Our sessions themselves are always in a state of becoming. We hope to become more proficient. I do not want Ruburt to become overinvolved. I would prefer that he channels his new abilities mainly, though not exclusively, in our sessions.

The fear of failure is insidious, and it is this which must be combated. All in all he does very well. I suggest your break.

You have both done very well during the winter season. Your uneasy period, Joseph, or the period in which you have a tendency to become so, has passed. Our friend’s, our dear Ruburt’s, has not yet passed, which is why I am giving the suggestions now. His overall condition, however, is very good, indeed, and if my suggestions are followed I anticipate no difficulty for him. It is important he get sufficient rest, particularly now through early spring.

If possible, also vitamins from now till early spring. This for you both, incidentally. Ruburt’s uneasy period usually begins in middle January. However this year he has avoided it largely. His energies quicken however from then until early spring, and I did not want him to get into the habit of channeling them inwardly to any overbalanced degree. I think this will now be avoided.

One small note. Upon another occasion I would like to speak about Mark’s recent seizure. He is very loyal, particularly to you, Joseph, and is indeed in his own way as trustworthy a friend as you have ever had; this having to do with past experiences also.

(While visiting us on a recent weekday evening, Bill Macdonnel ruptured a blood vessel in his nose. It bled to such an extent that after half an hour we called the emergency room at one of the local hospitals. Bill lost much blood and became quite ill. Just as the hospital instructed us to take him there, the bleeding stopped. Being afraid to move very much Bill spent the night with us. He was better in the morning, although the bleeding resumed briefly. It developed that Bill has been troubled by this ailment since childhood. Jane and I did not know about it, however, and this was his first such seizure in over a year.)

(After lunch I decided to try again. At lunch I played the tape for Rob, then while posing for him I suggested to myself that I would go into a trance as soon as I began to read, and that Father Trainor would indeed use his voice to speak through me, if he was available. I then started all over again with the readings. Except, for what reason I do not know, I turned the recorder on but forgot to depress the “record” button.