“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There is often at his end a final tug and pull, so that the vocal mechanism will finally speak the correct interpretation. Of course Ruburt’s own associations are used by me, with his consent, up to a certain point, to enable me to lead him to the proper subject or image.

Then when we are successful there is a divergence from his associations so that he says the correct word, even though the correct word, for him personally, would be the wrong word as far as his personal associations are concerned.

This point is fairly important, for it shows how the personal associations are utilized up to a certain point, and then sometimes quite suddenly dispensed with, for they have served our purposes.

On Ruburt’s part this can sometimes be disconcerting. We must always work with psychological organizations however. The emotions always follow associative lines in this regard.

The trick is to allow Ruburt’s associations free reign to a certain point, and then expertly insert the correct data. This is sometimes difficult. Ruburt’s associations may go for example from C, D, E, and F, but precisely where he would say G, we must insert X or Y, and do it so smoothly that he is quite unaware.

He consents for me, he consents to let me use his associations in such a manner. Nevertheless there is a small sense of alienation when the associations do not follow through, but are diverted to the desired end.

Here is a very brief example. Suppose I am trying to give him the impression of a glass of water. It is fairly easy to insert the idea of water, but this may lead him personally to think of the Gulf of Mexico, or the ocean off of Marathon, or even of the Atlantic at York Beach. I will use his associations until I am certain that he has the concept of the word water, but precisely where he is about to say the ocean for example, and after having made use of his associations to get him to this point, I must suddenly make him say a glass of water.

(“A connection with something deep. A hole underground, as a mine or grave.” Seth had been talking about association regarding envelope data in the earlier part of the session, and I thought this data a good example of it. My idea was that this data referred to my place of employment, from where I obtained the object, by calling upon the death of a friend, Ezra Havens, in 1964. Ezra had worked at my place of employment, Artistic Card Co., for many years.)

The initial grave association was meant to lead Ruburt to your place of work, since in another experiment the test item was connected with a man who had died.