“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“Well, the car, then?”

When the trouble initially began, the most recent trouble, you were generally disgusted with the car, and your disgust led to the difficulties. Not in any nebulous symbolic manner, but in very literal terms.

You forgot to buy the gasoline. You had previously not noticed the small red flash indicating that oil was needed, and if the trend had continued you would have continued to ignore this warning light. If your attitude had been strong enough to affect Ruburt, he would not have noticed it either. The general and overall condition of the car was on its way to deterioration.

(A week or so ago I forgot to buy gasoline, and this led to a situation that could have been dangerous. When Jane and I were on our way to the home of the Gallaghers, who live on top of a steep and long hill outside Elmira, the car lost power, then stalled out on the hill. It was after dark, the road was slippery with snow; I had to back down the hill while Jane lighted the way with a flashlight, until I found a driveway. I did not realize I had run low on gas at the time, for the car started as we coasted down hill. We arrived home safely but the car would not start up again.

(Jane and I walked to a nearby station for gasoline but the car still wouldn’t start; consequently the garage had to tow the car in for repairs. Seth’s information on the oil warning light is also apparently correct, for when the garage checked the oil level it was quite low. I usually make a point of watching this closely, and it is interesting to speculate as to how I failed to see the warning light go on, since it is situated on the dash in front of me. I had the oil checked immediately after I became aware that the warning light was on. Nor had Jane noticed it on.

(The car operated well the day after the garage repaired it, saying the trouble was moisture in the distributor. The next day the car once again would not start. This necessitated another tow to the garage. To our surprise the second tow and repair were free, the service manager telling us there was corrosion on the coil connections, and that the mechanic should have noticed this and corrected it the first time the car was in the garage.

(The 220th session, containing Seth’s advice, was held while the car was in the garage the first time. After the session I made a conscious effort to improve my attitude about the car. By then I had the idea that psychological attitudes could affect the car, and had recalled that once before Seth had dealt with the car and our attitudes while on our way to a Maine vacation in August 1964. See the 80-81st sessions. According to Seth, Jane and I had succeeded in altering considerably the car’s oil consumption; and as evidence we had before us the fact that the car had used much less oil on the trip than we had calculated. See Volume 2.)

There was no need for your garageman to think, then, that the trouble had not been noticed, for when he examined the car last the overall condition was poor. But there was no specific physical or localized trouble. I thought that you would find this rather interesting.

Your attitude toward your faithful old car is not based upon the reasons you ascribe it to. An automobile means one thing to you and one thing to Ruburt. Obviously your backgrounds have much to do with this, but I do not believe that you realize what I am about to tell you.

(I thought Seth was going to say something about my attitudes influencing the actual physical behavior of the car.)

First of all, for Ruburt’s idea of an automobile. For his ideas are simpler and easier to explain. His mother could not leave the house. He always ran as a child to make sure that he could move at all. To him a car is an extension of that mobility.

It does not matter whether the car is old or new, as long as he has one, and it is for this reason that he fights any of your suggestions that you do without one. The car is also to him a complementary image of his father, who was always on the move, more so than most men, while his mother could not move at all. A lack of a car also makes him fear a return to poverty, since in his neighborhood any car at all was a sign of luxury.

Now your situation is not only entirely different but contrary, for to you a car represents, because of your father, an image on one hand of perfection. Your father insisted, because of his work with batteries, upon perfection. An old car hardly represents this image.

Your father would like to kick at old cars, for he felt that they defied him since they worked improperly. More than this however, both of your parents still feel that a car is a symbol of social status, and you grew up with this. When your cars were new you felt at one with them. But an old car brings back the old struggles between your parents, and it is precisely here that subconsciously you and Ruburt do not agree. He gladly settles on an old car—anything that moves will do. But to you the old car has not meant freedom, but imperfection.

(Break again at 9:51. Jane said she realized of course that she enjoyed having a car, any kind of car, available. But she hadn’t particularly associated this with the reasons Seth ascribed to a need for mobility. Nor had she made any great connection with the idea of her father being a traveling man. My idea was that Seth had mentioned these things briefly in much earlier sessions.

You may if you like have a session in which you ask me any personal questions that come to mind. I was holding the material concerning your car for such an occasion, but decided this evening that it was important enough to you to take up a regular session.

My heartiest good wishes, and I have enjoyed rides in your car.