“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt is not fully familiarized with the material. He must be indeed fully committed to the experimentation and work in which we are all involved. He should be clear in his mind as to what I have said about myself, and what I have not said.

He is not, therefore, supposed to think of me, and I have said this often, as some sort of ghostly spirit in those terms. There is no conflict between what I am and what he thinks I am. Any conflict has been a result of his own misinterpretations.

He has the idea at times that he should accept me in conventional terms, from the books that he has read. The interpretation is his own, colored by subconscious prejudice, and largely a matter of vocabulary. This has resulted at times in a lack of conviction.

I am what I have always said that I was, and I said it in as emotionally neutral terms as possible: —an energy essence personality. It is he who adds any other coloration here, and then reacts to those. I have reincarnated, as the material mentions, and so have you both. I have tried to explain personality gestalts and the connections that exist between us.

Put it this way if you prefer, for the simplest analogy: Ruburt operates as an excellent wireless, and brings in messages from beyond those usually received. Now to distort these by coloring them with lesser ideas, ideas incidentally that he did not have when we began our sessions, is unfortunate.

Now. Ruburt’s students have helped him, strangely enough, because they helped reinforce his faith in me. He saw that I helped them. I have spoken to them in terms that they could understand. His reaction to their needs resulted in added confidence on his part as he sees them helped.

On the other hand he is too suggestible to other peoples needs, in that your point made earlier is correct; for through the material many more can be helped. The students however, and here you were wrong, will accept certain changes now, for I have already laid the groundwork by telling them of the necessity of studying the material itself.

Now often in such circumstances you can help others and not help yourself, use your abilities to help others but not yourself, simply because you erect barriers. Whenever distortions appear in the material it is indeed a tip-off of a given area that is particularly touchy to Ruburt personally, or represents an area in which he is not sure; a lack of conviction.

Now. I prefer you see the vocabulary used in our sessions. He is not Cayce nor Montgomery, nor the woman with the crystal ball. There have been segments, not necessarily distorted, but given in different terms than I would have preferred; for at times I try to accommodate the material in order to get it through.

Because Ruburt is at times so literal, he then did become bothered by thoughts of setting himself up, or thoughts of misrepresentation; and all of this because of the interpretation of the word spirit, or spiritual, and highly colored interpretations at that. Then he felt guilty because he was not living up to other people’s interpretation of the word.

His intellect is a fine one, and should have no quarrel at all with our sessions. It is only when he uses it falsely as a shield to hide behind that he is bothered, and an objective reading of the Seth material would show him that there is nothing in it of which he need be emotionally or intellectually ashamed. To the contrary, he does not have to see me as a white-gowned spirit. (Strong and emphatic.) I am not physical. But the picture of a white-robed spirit, with those connotations, is not one I have given him.

His work with the material can and should weld his emotions and intellect together in a strong powerful force, but not when he attempts to copy others, or on his own uses words that personally annoy him, to express or interpret the material to others.

(9:40—Jane sat quietly without opening her eyes, then said: “He was saying that I don’t have to use other people’s paraphernalia.” She slowly came out of trance, and briefly seemed about to cry. But this passed. Both of us, correctly it developed, attributed the crying feeling to regret at some of our past efforts that were not as successful as we had hoped they would be, regarding using the material to help others, to get it published, etc.

Now. He supposed he was being “good” in quotes, when he tried to follow the interpretation of others, and their idea of good. He felt inadequate, he felt two-faced only when he tried to squeeze the material into smaller molds that cannot hold it. This is perhaps one of the most important sentences in this evening’s session.

One of the main reasons for this was the old rigid childhood concepts, which were rearoused by his reading, not by our sessions. He began to think of himself in terms of a false priest, you see. This could water down the material considerably.

(“Which books are you referring to—recent ones that he’s been reading?”)

Many, or any of the books, Montgomery comes to mind. Any of the leading psychic books of the day that were, again in quotes, “spiritualistically inclined”, for the term itself is misleading. It means something to him (Jane)—he will know what I mean. “Many lifetimes…” (by Kelsey and Grant) does not apply here.

He was outraged by A A, because he persisted in considering him as a “spirit”, in quotes, with all the connotations the word arouses in him. A A is no longer a physical personality, and that is all. He is not a personality fully developed in those larger terms of which I speak. He is a personality however, and he is not Ruburt’s.

It is a springboard, and he needed the springboard. Unfortunately the subject was too tender. He could not allow undistorted material about it. Nor would it have been helpful had he known about it in advance. It was his problem and he worked it out in his own way. To solve it for him is never possible. Never in the long run possible.

Had I told him, had I been able to, he would have recreated the problem in other terms, and worked it out in other ways. I did tell him, strongly, to finish the book, because until it was finished he did not even perceive the problem. He had to see the book in its completed form in order to perceive the inner condition.

You know that he worked through problems, then, both physically and creatively. Now I have told you this evening, or I have told him, the direction in which to move. I can do no more. Nor at this point could I do less. The material is his guidepost.

In our sessions and in the Seth material I utilize—I must—the best that he as a personality has to offer, and that is considerable. It includes both intuitional and intellectual faculties. He must be familiar enough, open enough, to be able to accept my ideas in sessions, to be a channel for them. But he must use for a standard the Seth material itself. Do you have questions now?

(“What do you think of the book he’s been working on?”)

I suggest that he let it go. He has not properly used the experiences that he has had. These should go into this book (the letter indicated again). He will do the sort of book he had in mind, but at a later date, and it will be a far better book.

He does not have the material for what he plans, for one thing. For another he planned to use my ideas. He was getting the idea, you see, and those ideas can best be presented this way, now. (The letter again.) Other portions of the book he planned could have been written by anyone.

Frederick Fell has the book he wanted—the first one, and he will play it to the hilt, for him. (Pause.) I am trying to give you some undistorted material here. He thinks, Fell thinks, he is interested in the Seth material. He is playing around with it. He is afraid to take the plunge. He is afraid to say no also.

He is privately enthralled, but business-wise overly cautious. This is why his firm is small. The woman (editor for F.F.) has no feeling for the material, as you know, but is interested in Ruburt as a property; and as a property has no idea of how to handle him. She is afraid of me.

Fell wonders if at times he was taken as a fool. He is intuitively aware, but very frightened of his own intuitions. He is also afraid of success.

I can tell you, as you personally supposed, that this is the direction in which Ruburt should move. It is a direction now in which he wants to move, but he has been afraid that it was not a financially profitable direction, for he received no encouragement from Fell, no real encouragement, concerning the material; and he did not try elsewhere.

He took it for granted that the material would not be financially acceptable to a publisher, because he sensed this was Fell’s opinion. Do you have questions?

Take your vacation. (Pause.) Give him physical activity then. Stay away from his mother until I tell you. He does not have to prove he is all saintly yet. The time will come. (Our cat Willy jumped up into Jane’s lap.) Psycho-Cybernetics was good for him, for it stopped at least some of his conscious brooding. He must rediscover however his spontaneous self for these distorted and adopted and superficial ideas—underline superficial—of religious rules inhibited him.

He need not fear his spontaneous self. It will not betray him. The arm symptoms still hanging on represent an inhibiting factor. Telepathy does exist, but existence has a far greater vitality than he supposes. People do have a natural defense. He does not need to watch his thoughts that (underlined) closely.

You are responsible for your thoughts. However your spontaneous thoughts are not nearly as destructive as he imagines, and in overinhibiting them, he also inhibits purely spontaneous, joyful thoughts. Psycho-Cybernetics helps him not to brood, not to worry in advance, and set up negative reactions. This is important. But honest reactions within the present are legitimate.

The present simply should not be negatively projected into the future. This is all-important here. He is afraid of hurting others through his thoughts, but the fear is overly inhibiting him. Do you understand this?

He is reacting in an exaggerated manner to a truth—and the truth is that thoughts cause reality. He interprets this negatively (pause) because he is so afraid of hurting others. He takes it for granted that natural thought, left alone, will be destructive and hurt others.

He is afraid of striking out or harming others, and to some extent, still afraid of spontaneity. Therefore the arm conditions still persist.

(“Why should he be afraid of hurting others?”)

I believe I have mentioned this in past sessions. The overconscientiousness, all connected with conditioning. He understands more now, and tonight’s material should help him.