“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Seth:) You have tales, but tonight is not the night of telling. Now. I have been here and I have not intruded, because you are learning to collect and use energy on your own. I did, indeed, however stand in front of each one of you and looked into your faces and you did not see me. It is some experience to stand before another and see no comprehension in his face ... but I am used to it. Now. You (JB and SW) used your energy like a ball that a child plays with, both you and Ruburt. And you tossed it back and forth, but you did not collect and direct it properly, and we shall have to give you lessons. But you shall do the work.

(To WL) Now I am sitting here for my portrait. You may indeed get only our friend Ruburt. But then you may get more than your friend Ruburt. The camera may be comprehending, or it may not be comprehending.

Now. You must realize that within this room, and within any room, at any time there are other personalities that you do not perceive. There are ways of perceiving them if they choose to be perceived. Possibly, with some help from certain directions, we shall see what we can do in other classes. And our friend Ruburt is quite correct, you (WL) learn the nature of the inner self first....and then we shall help you in the development of your own abilities. And before too long, we will have a message for you to take to heart.

Now, I will let my friend... (laugh from CW)... you, as Ruburt would say you are looking for it! And those who look for it in this room, get it. The portrait is a portrait of Ruburt as a woman in one of the past lives mentioned... and in that particular instance, as a grandmother of twelve children. Strongly gifted psychically... given to hovering in dark forests... and a midwife. Now, he does not know this, so I will give you the honor of telling him. I will now let our friend take a rest. And you may rest if you are up to it.

([TM:] “The one I thought was Bega was actually Ruburt.”)

We are sorry about that! I never liked wine... I always liked brandy... and no one brings it to me... and Ruburt does not drink it.

But how will you get Ruburt to drink it? I always liked a warm brandy even on a summer’s night.

That is because it is the portrait of Bega. But you did not pick it out as your first choice. Now, Bega has been here as I have been here and he was calling you to look toward the corner of the room... and you were too intellectually smug to do so as Ruburt is often too intellectually smug to do what I ask him to do. And your own intellectual ideas prevented you from first picking out your intuitive choice, as far as the portraits were concerned.

Now, you see what you are willing to see, and it is stupidity to consider suggestion as the result or the cause of what you see. It is stupidity in class to worry that suggestion would cause a given result... for suggestion causes whatever you see. You form your physical reality through suggestion and expectation. You experience what you expect to experience at a subconscious and a conscious level. And therefore as Ruburt is very careful that suggestion is not involved, so he has also had you be overly cautious, and there have been many opportunities in class that you have missed for this reason... and these are the bets that I have spoken about earlier this evening. You have the ability to see more than you saw, and you have the ability. You enjoyed your passivity (to CW) to the point of a joyous giving-up; and instead, you see, there is a point within passivity where you are passively alert. And you went beyond the point and lost what you might have seen. As our friend here went beyond the point (referring to TM), looked at the portraits and consciously... for you did not make an original intuitive judgment...but consciously looked at those portraits in terms of nationality, age, and all the requirements that you thought of.

Now again let me tell you, though the hour be late(quite loudly) and though Ruburt thinks that such demonstrations as these are hardly worth the effort (quite softly) and childish endeavors at best, I still want you to know, as I always want you to know, that my vitality is your own and that the energy that swings through this small frame is but an echo of the energy that swings through your own personality.

I have said before that you have lived many lives and that you can know these existences within yourself. I am not afraid that we shall be kicked out of our apartment. And I also am quite sure that as you grow to know Ruburt and as you grow to know me you will realize that there is a difference in our personalities and that indeed... when I tell you that my vitality spans both space and time, then you will know that I know whereof I am speaking... and that this vitality is your own... Then feel it within yourselves... Now it is being used simply to let you know of its existence... but realize that it is within you for you to use as you will... for your own good... and you (WL) are not powerless. I have no body... and I am not powerless... How, therefore, can you feel helpless... or you... or any of you?

Now. Ruburt’s abilities were so strong since childhood that he feared using them, and so I am quite used to that development. On the other hand, I wanted someone with a strong-enough ego structure to contain what will amount to... 40 years of mediumistic experience. I needed a personality who would be able to maintain psychological stability.

Now, I have maintained psychological stability for centuries so I find it not too much to ask that our friend Ruburt maintain it for a mere 40 years. And we expect you to maintain it. We expect you(CW) to maintain it ... and before you get the idea, again, of leaving physical reality before your chores are done, I will give you the boot from the other end.

Now, there are two simple requests that I have made. One: I have been asking Ruburt to stop smoking cigarettes, a dirty habit, and smoke cigars... and he will not do so.