“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.

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.

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.

I do not mean daily social hours. Now and then experiments with guests are fine. However, his energies on weekends as a rule should be more outgoing, and I am sorry that it has been necessary to curtail your dancing activities. Going out is an excellent way of recharging energies, by contrast. Spontaneous short humorous plays, such as you sometimes do with your recorder, is an enjoyable relaxation.

I am not saying that you should not talk about our sessions or allied subjects with friends, only that one night or sometimes two, of social discourse should certainly contain some more outward enjoyments. It would do Ruburt no harm either to resume his painting. His time as a rule is very busily engaged, and usually with mental work. It is all the more important therefore that his leisure have some outward aspect to it, and when possible of an active nature.

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.

I am not saying you should always go dancing, but this is an excellent relaxation for you both, and leaving the house or visiting at someone else’s home is also good for you both. I would not take so much time this evening with this material if I did not feel that it was important enough to warrant it. Surely you and your friends could go dancing together when you can afford it. Surely, you can for example go with Mark to one of his jolly haunts. Even though no physical activity such as dancing is available the change is still good.

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.

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.

These energies now will, I believe, go into our sessions, and into his own work. And some arrangements for physical outlets will help also.

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.)

(I am not sure exactly what happened, much less what caused it. I’m writing a prose sketch of Father Trainor. I thought that if I tried reading G. K. Chesterton’s Lepanto, and Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard the way Father Trainor used to, my memory would be refreshed. I wanted to describe his poetry readings for the sketch.

(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.

(This performance was as good as the first one. I felt carried away by the voice, almost outside of myself, very light and disconnected from this voice. But I do recall that the book itself, which I held as I paced, was heavy. I grew cold and tingled as I read. My hands perspired quite a bit, perhaps from holding the book. Rob came out of his studio to listen to me. When I discovered that I had recorded nothing this time I felt cheated, because to me this reading had been most unusual.

(Rob suggested another possibility: that as a medium I am starting to learn to let others in contact with me speak out. Perhaps, because I knew Father Trainor, I let his voice come through as a starter.

(As a check I suggested later that Jane try reading a different poem, one not read by Father Trainor, to see if she could summon this powerful new voice at will. I wanted to see if something Jane had no emotional involvement with, via memory, could also be used to summon voice changes. Nothing happened. To begin with Jane could not consciously summon nearly the volume of voice, and within a few lines she was so hoarse she had to rest. She said Father Trainor always read the Lepanto and the Elegy on his Sunday visits, and that she could not remember his reading anything else.

(This voice was not the Seth voice by any means. Even at its strongest Seth’s voice is a dry and intellectual one. The Father Trainor voice was very emotional by contrast. I do not believe that the Father Trainor voice at its best exceeded Seth at his best, and vice versa.