“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The characteristics of the ego therefore change as various situations are met. The term ego, implying one phenomena, is therefore confusing. What was ego today may belong to the subconscious tomorrow. Any attempt at rigidity is therefore defeating.

Now to some extant Ruburt’s ego wanted to stay where it was also: hence, comparatively speaking, the frozen motion.

It attempted to stop other portions of the personality from entering into the ego framework. This ego that so behaved was then simply a group of particular qualities belonging to Ruburt, that were given control for a while to meet particular circumstances, and then stubbornly refused to return to the whole personality.

There had been a tendency, as given, for a rigid personality ego framework in any case. The qualities thrown up to the surface were those in the past most capable to handle highly difficult situations, and in some of these stubbornness was, comparatively speaking, a virtue.

The situations had changed but the ego framework had grown rigid, rigid enough so that it could in a large degree dominate certain normally subconscious processes, bringing forth the physical symptoms. Now there is always an imprinting process within the personality, belonging to past experience. A previous inclination to gluttony had once led him to some slight gout, and in the present case there was a swelling of the feet.

There had been in the past overweight, and in this instance there was in some portions of the body an overextension of tissue about the joints. The morning symptoms incidentally have to do with this life however, bringing back earlier fears of facing the day, you see.

Give us a moment here. (Pause.) To some extent the symptoms did represent caution. He did not want to move until he was sure of his direction once more. It was the stubborn ego in this case that prevented him from seeing clearly the direction which had been given by other portions of the self.

Previous ego patterns can still operate under various circumstances. Ruburt was often a male, and he sometimes attempts to manhandle the feminine aspects of his present personality, to inflict upon it literally qualities that go against its grain. Force, logic over intuition, for example, or intellect over psychic awareness. The psychic abilities in his case are, among other things, aided by that balance of characteristics, and these should not be tampered with.

Egotistically he forced other aspects of his personality to accept what they feared. In times of high vitality the effects were minor. After the book’s publication however the effects multiplied. A message to this effect was given him in a dream, and he ignored it.

You see however he felt that he was learning maturity by ignoring the subconscious. This is at the base of these problems. He mistrusted the most reliable portion of his present personality. He automatically rejected the sweaters as giving warmth on a subconscious basis.

Even then, however, the subconscious would not be forced too far, and a good deal of the time the sweaters sat in his drawer. They were not his style, they were his mother’s style and in wearing them he felt further alarm that he was being cast in her world, so to speak.

Only the last one was simple. His letters of thanks protested too much. He wore the sweater night and day in a frenzied attempt to prove that it I had no harmful effects upon him. From the subconscious standpoint this was simply too much.

(“Stubble, or stumble.” Here we think Jane was trying to get across the idea of stubble meaning texture, which the canvas of course possesses. This woven texture was another reason for my buying canvas, rather than smooth boards for instance, such as Masonite.

(“And a connection with, I believe, the same number of large colored squares or rectangles. Rather brilliant. The color red among others, and yellow.” It seems here that Jane referred to the purpose for which I bought the canvas—to paint on. Some of my recent work has been in the abstract vein, also, and incorporates squares, angles, etc., some of them in brilliant primary colors. Actually I have not painted any pictures on the specific batch of linen which furnished tonight’s envelope object; but I have painted on other canvas of a comparable texture, etc., and which was prepared in the same manner. Association thus could be at work. There could be other connections also.

(“A view of water.” Another reference to the Art Shop, and through this the object. In Elmira the Art Shop is located on West Water Street, which parallels the Chemung River through the heart of the city. The river can be seen from the back door of the Art Shop, and from the second-story workroom above where Tom makes his frames, etc. It was in this large upstairs room that Tom described his car troubles to Jane.

(“Something picked at random, as from a grab bag, you see.” This could refer to the way I picked the canvas which furnished the object. On that particular visit to the Art Shop I wasn’t looking for linen canvas, never having bought any there; indeed, thinking the shop didn’t stock it to begin with. I had bought other items, and was on my way out when I saw a piece of canvas tucked in a corner, quite wrinkled and obviously a remnant.

(I pulled it out to view. It was a piece two yards long, and the proprietor of the Art Shop sold it to me for half price; it was just what I had in mind for an experiment, as will be seen. I was very pleasantly surprised to find this canvas there, for I had thought I would have to order it from New York City.

(“Connection with a fabric that somehow seems glued on. Something glued on something, perhaps paper.” This is excellent data, and very close indeed to the object. The object is trimmed from the linen canvas I bought at the Art Shop, and this piece of canvas was glued on to large sheets of Masonite so as to have a firm support—the experiment I had in mind which was referred to later.

(Jane thinks the paper reference here could refer to the object being sandwiched between the two pieces of cardboard, or Bristol, inside the double envelope; for when she opened the envelopes she at first thought the canvas was glued to one of the pieces of Bristol—probably because she had seen me working out the gluing problem in the studio in recent weeks. My experiment proved to be quite a task, but was successfully accomplished, with the use of polymer waterproof glue.

(“Your initials connected here.” I was the one who personally bought the linen canvas that furnished the object, cut the canvas up, etc.