“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(During her mid-morning exercise-and-rest break today, I asked Jane if she had any idea why Seth had come through with the material he’d given us in last Monday evening’s session. At first she said no, rather matter-of-factly. Then: “Well, I don’t tell you everything, but for some time now I’ve known Seth gives what I call ‘fill-in’ sessions, or ‘floating material’— stuff he could give any time. It isn’t private, really, or book work either. They’re like ‘maintenance sessions.’ It’s good material, all right, but. …”

(In spite of her protestations, however, Jane felt Seth near as we talked —then when he came through he did discuss the subjects we were concerned about at the moment.)

Our friend is now feeling somewhat more ambitious of late. A few weeks ago, he could hardly wait to lie down at the appointed times, like it otherwise or no, simply because he was so uncomfortable.

Now, things have changed somewhat. The sharp discomfort has gone. A few weeks ago he barely considered taking two steps in the kitchen, much less walking twice the length of the living room, or considering walking after dinner.

The fact that he is now thinking of walking after dinner is an obvious advance. His irritability is somewhat natural — but also based on the idea, still, that when he is laying down that is dead time (with amusement), or useless time, enforced inactivity. It would help, of course, if he reminded himself that his creative mind is at work whether or not he is aware of it, and regardless of what he is doing, and that such periods have the potential, at least, of accelerating creativity, if he allows his intellect to go into a kind of free drive at such times. You might have him become more aware of when he actually becomes tired, or uncomfortable, so that he does lay down then.

The walking after dinner would be excellent, of course — the idea being, however, that if he became uncomfortable from sitting that he lie on the bed, perhaps before watching television for the evening.

One important point, again, is to remember that in any given day his mood is often excellent for many periods of time. He should concentrate his attention upon those periods, rather than concentrating upon the periods when he is blue or upset, and berating himself for those reactions.

In that way, the good moods become longer. They increase. They (underlined) become significant. In such ways he will discover what promotes these good moods. Later, I will have some things to say about what I will call “the daily hypothesis,” for each person has such a daily hypothesis — one that might be quite different for, say, Friday than it is for Monday. You build your daily experience partially by such working hypotheses.

(9:44 in a fast delivery.) Give us a moment… .(Long pause.) To some extent Ruburt’s dissatisfaction with laying down after dinner also means that he is learning more about his own natural rhythms, for he does feel accelerated at that time, and by the evening, as you do. This is because many of the beliefs that you have individually and jointly are somewhat relieved in the evening, in that they so often apply to the day’s activities, when the rest of the world seems to be engaged in the nine-to-five assembly-line world experience.

(Long pause.) You have settled upon a system that seems to be naturally based, the exclusive results of your historic past, one in which your main activities are daytime ones. It seems only natural that early man, for example, carried on all of his main activities in the day, hiding after dark. (Pause.) As a matter of fact, however, early man was a natural night dweller, and early developed the uses of fire for illumination, carrying on many activities after dark, when many natural predators slept. He also hunted very well in the dark, cleverly using all of his senses with high accuracy — the result of learning processes that are now quite lost.

In a fashion, the intellect goes hand-in-hand with the imagination under such conditions. It is not that man stressed physical data less, but that he put it together differently — that in the darkness he relied upon his inner and outer senses in a more unified fashion. The nightly portions of your personalities have become strangers to you — for as you identify with what you think of as your rational intellect, then you identify it further with the daytime hours, with the objective world that becomes visible in the morning, with the clearcut physical objects that are then before your view.

(10:10.) In those times, however, man identified more with his intuitive self, and with his imagination, and these to some extent more than now, directed the uses to which he put his intellect.

(10:25 P.M. Jane had no idea “… what he was going to say, or anything.” And note that she did manage to have a session tonight about her own challenges, even though she was quite upset because of them at the same time. Her delivery had, in fact, often been fast and forceful.