“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane had been having trouble writing her book on the Seth material with her old spontaneity, and both of us were concerned. This evening we worked with the pendulum and began to appreciate the reasons involved.

(A one minute pause.) We have mentioned this earlier. In his mind religion was connected with self-mortification. On the one hand it set itself against spontaneity. The organized church feared it. On the other hand Ruburt was spontaneously religious.

Even the nuns to whom he read poetry distrusted his fervency, and took him to task. They distrusted the dramatic quality. The spontaneous elements of his nature, as you know, frightened him, since others gave him dire warnings as to possible consequences.

He tried to slow down. The pent-up spontaneity helped make our sessions possible, and in one way or another will always erupt. Then, as you know, the opposite tendency began to show.

The daily working methods allow for the natural and periodic use and release of both aspects of the personality. The overcensuring, when it appears, shows itself, of course, in all spontaneous areas of his life—physical, psychic, creative and spiritual.

He looks to you to look out for him in psychic matters. He allows his spontaneity freedom in sessions because he knows that you will carry on for him those usual sensory characteristics that he temporarily dispenses with.

This is hardly unusual in such situations. Give us a moment. (Pause.) He distrusts the spontaneous which is so a part of his nature. As he worries occasionally about going too far when he is dancing, so he worries the same about the sessions—how far is spontaneity to be trusted, you see. Yet he must trust it, and when he does not do so the difficulties build.

Now in the past he felt that you also did not trust his spontaneity. The spontaneity has its own strength that will sustain him if he lets it. Your early (underlined) concern over spontaneous sessions frightened him.

He tried to be spontaneous and not spontaneous at the same time. Spontaneity itself has its own rhythm, with needed periods of rest that follow naturally. These natural rhythms are disrupted when such tampering occurs.

The Prentice letter caused him to react with a burst of spontaneous pleasure. It was highly therapeutic in that regard, and swept before the spontaneity were symptoms and problems. The system cleansed itself. The personality appeared briefly as it should be. A day or so following, the clamps were again applied however, and the old situation returned.

It was, then, the burst of spontaneity caused by the letter that also freed him for the next natural development in our sessions. You can do much by using very simple words to reassure him. The words are these: “You are safe, and I am here. I am looking out for you.” It is the fear for safety behind this. (Pause.)

The pent-up spontaneity, too long restrained, then latches upon normal low periods when the personality is tired, and comes out as strong discouragement, feelings of desolation, aggravating normal low periods. It can turn a minor annoyance into anger for example; a rainy day into a creative disaster.

Give us a moment. (Pause.) The shortage of sessions is a symptom of the fear of spontaneity. The fear of the unknown, mentioned earlier, is not a fear of psychic phenomena, nor of psychic endeavor. It is a mask, for a fear of his own spontaneity.

Now he was told under emotionally charged conditions, as you know, by his mother, that he could or would lose his mind. He tied this in with any strong spontaneous actions on his part, regardless of their nature. An example: once he found it thrilling to ride in an automobile at fast speeds. Now they frighten him. But to him any spontaneity carried the same danger that, say, speeding definitely does.

When he found himself so spontaneously involved he slowed down, literally. He is solving these problems at his own rate. That is the only way they will be solved.

Earlier the symptoms themselves masked the lack of spontaneity in writing. Now the symptoms are not so pronounced and the other problem, which was there, shows. His mother, for all her emotionalism, stressed intellectual control, contrasting it with the father’s lack of control. Ruburt is at the tail end of these inner problems that have been there in this life since childhood.

His problem is precisely this: the need and ability to throw himself whole-heartedly and spontaneously into a creative endeavor, and the fear of doing so.

(10:45. Jane came out of trance easily, though it had been a fairly good one, she said. Break time found me very discouraged. I was angry and disappointed; I was fearful that Jane and I would never be able to rise above our problems and fulfill our potentialities, which I knew to be excellent. I was especially concerned that Jane wouldn’t be able to surmount the problems, so explicitly delineated by Seth, above, and so eliminate the symptoms. I couldn’t see how she would be able to really give her great creative spontaneity full reign, to accomplish the things I felt she had in her.

You could have chosen not to develop these latent abilities at all. You could have developed other latent abilities in their stead. You settled upon your particular life situation with certain problems and challenges in mind. In helping Ruburt free and use his own strong spontaneous nature, you also free your own spontaneous self. That particular problem then is also a challenge and a way of development for you both.

(Jane, as Seth, smiled, eyes closed.) Now. The personality stresses and strains. The personal problems here have led to an increase of spontaneity in the dream state, and to added evidence of clairvoyance. The spontaneous portions of the self have come to the aid of other portions. The nervous reactions have actually resulted in more specific and detailed use of clairvoyance.