“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now—now you are on the correct issue. It was an accomplishment because you started from scratch, so to speak. Consciously the whole affair annoyed you no end. You saw it as a grumpy old machine, with its best days finished. But you put to excellent use the advice which I gave you, concerning the importance of psychological reactions.

(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.)

Now when your attitude began to change, it changed first on a subconscious level. Consciously you were not aware of the change. Now. You had already done some damage. The problem was to make it as minor as possible. It was therefore concentrated as corrosion on the coil, and this corrosion was not there when your garageman previously examined it.

This is not the adventurous spirit they told you of, and you heard every word. On the other hand you do have a rather deeply felt feeling for mechanical objects. This has some connection with your position in the service. But the conscious reasons that you have for being annoyed with your automobile, these reasons are rationalizations to hide the deeper causes.

(I was three years old when my parents made the month-long drive to California, and my brother Loren was two. I have a few vivid conscious memories of the trip. I grew up listening to my parents talk about the trip. When I was drafted during the second World War I was given aptitude tests; to my surprise I did well on mechanical subjects, and ended up as an airplane mechanic and instrument specialist in the Air Transport Command.)