“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I will first discuss our own particular circumstances, and then proceed to a more general discussion. There is Ruburt’s ego, and his subconscious, as you know. There are also other areas or levels that are part of his whole personality. In our case a gestalt personality or a psychological bridge

At the same time, because of the methods we use, some translation is often necessary. In many cases this translation is done by the intervening psychological framework, which is simply the psychological point closest to the meeting of Ruburt’s personality and my own, for he does not fade out as a personality. He extends himself in an expansion. The psychological expansion on his end, and the psychological expansion on my end, form the gestalt, the psychological bridge, of which I have spoken.

This psychological gestalt is a connector. I am dependent in a large measure upon Ruburt’s own knowledge, and lack of it, in that I cannot force for example from him, from his speech mechanism, concepts with which he is entirely unfamiliar. I must introduce them step by step.

(Jane has been reading G.N.M. Tyrrell’s book, Science and Psychical Phenomena & Apparitions, lately, and she now told me she had hoped that Seth might discuss his relationship with her this evening.

Ruburt is of course much more familiar with sense impressions than he is with internal data, or with impressions that do not come to him through the physical senses. Therefore in our experiments, often, I will give him an impression, and he will automatically translate it into visual terms, although his eyes are closed. And then he is tempted to interpret it literally, as he would an ordinary visual image.

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.

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.

He holds it in his hands. Nervously, I believe. At least, tossing it from one hand to the other.

Music. He meets a woman who was a close friend of a male friend of his, who has since died. I believe the initial W here.

(“A G and H.” I thought this an inverted reference to the fact that the envelope object came from my place of employment, presided over by my boss, Harry Gottesman. Harry noticed the holly leaf in particular when it was first given to me about a year ago; and like I did, he pricked his finger on the exceedingly sharp points.

(“A reference to four people.” We were not sure here, unless this was a reference to the evening Jane and I spent with my boss and his wife, after the note and the phone call, etc. We call these kind of impressions twice-removed from the actual object.

The color was correct, and the miscellaneous shapes, as you see. The initials were inverted, and applied to your Harry Gottesman, to the note from his wife. Ruburt misinterpreted here. To the four people in the Gottesman family, at your visit there.

(Since the data hadn’t been specific enough, Jane and I had thought of ourselves and Harry and his wife, as making up the four people.)