“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt’s insights this afternoon were largely correct. Tell him that he does not need the symptoms as a set of checks and balances. This is extremely important. Behind the attitude is still the feeling that he needs to whip himself on in certain areas, and check himself in others. That spontaneously, left alone without such checks and balances, he will go to the extremes.

The symptoms have been kept therefore in case they are needed. A method of discipline that he no longer needs.

Now give us time. He is feeling more secure, and this feeling will grow as it sinks into his mind that he will not have to “worry” about his money productions for the next year, for example. He has also undergone in the past few months another level of development where he trusts his psychic abilities more than he ever did.

The symptoms are now like guards that he sets about his behavior. The spontaneous self is being given more and more freedom, yet under a cautious eye, and with the symptoms in the background, again just in case.

It is a habit of cautiousness, that is translated of course into muscular cautiousness. Remind him, for the 100th time, that he can trust his inner self implicitly, and does not need to set up guards against its spontaneity, for spontaneity is his life, and the source of his creativity; and underline that sentence.

Now, he realizes this much more than he did, but the mental and muscular habit of cautiousness carries over. Now this can be handled in several ways. The mental feelings have caused mental images that in turn hamper physical motion. The body is therefore affected physically, since certain portions of it are not normally used or exercised, and other portions are kept in a state of strain.

Some of these mental habits can be cured rather easily, comparatively speaking. When he felt joyful yesterday, the sense of release was translated, as it should be, into physical expression – he sang, for example. This automatically released, exercised and relaxed areas of the chest, shoulders and back. He felt like running, and made a halfway respectable attempt to do so.

Feelings of spontaneity therefore automatically release the body mechanisms when they are allowed expression. When this occurs and he sees himself for example running, to some extent this makes the mental image of a nonrunning self less vivid. The body and mind are so connected that the mind remembers, say, muscular spontaneity as the muscles remember mental spontaneity. And the will, now, can be used to initiate a series of actions that will be spontaneous; and the motions now, the physical motions, in turn set up mental images of spontaneity that become self-generating. Do you follow me?

I suggest therefore at this point, that you encourage Ruburt in spontaneous physical activity as divorced, say, from a discipline exercise. Often, out of habit now, though not always, the muscles are restricted. Let him try as he once suggested, running in the apartment, or outside. The motion is associated with joy and spontaneity. Do you see?

Give us a moment. When he feels mentally happy, and he does often, have him in his imagination translate the feeling into spontaneous physical motion. We are trying to initiate some small exercises that will encourage freedom, both mentally and physically.

The hands are quite improved over what they were even two weeks ago—let this not escape his notice. The last few days he forgot to put his corn pad on (smile), with no resulting difficulty—another improvement he should notice. His period is on time again.

One reason, you see, that I suggest the running is that any running at all prevents him from projecting into the future a nonrunning self. Once he runs he can improve on the running, but he can no longer consider himself someone incapable of running. This is extremely important from both a mental and physical standpoint.

Now the same applies to getting down on the floor, and up from it. He thinks of himself as someone who cannot. Doing so will prove him wrong, and break up still another annoying mental image. At the same time—I do not mean simultaneously—in spare moments, playfully and not seriously, he should see himself performing any number of activities on the floor—from painting as he used to, to talking or reading. These are simply practical but important sideline exercises that will help break down specific detrimental images that he has. Many from the past have been completely destroyed.

Now. Each time Ruburt finds himself making a movement that he thought he could not perform, then one of the blocking mental images loses strength.

Now he has been improving, but now we will work at this from both angles. Earlier we could not have done so. A sense of play must accompany this however. We do not want for example a desperate attempt to run, which is self-defeating. The same applies to what I said about getting up and down from the floor. And these should not be overdone.

We simply want to remind him again of translating the idea of motion into physical motion. These are merely techniques to help along particular lines. Now, basically, spontaneously he is sympathetic and understanding. The feeling of contempt he had for the sick or crippled has long vanished. Tell him indeed that annoyance with his own symptoms could now prevent him from helping others as well as he might, because the energy devoted to maintaining the symptoms is not being used for such constructive purposes.

He can help other people better now by being completely healthy, and with his full energy at his command. All of that should be underlined.

He has been tensed for so long that he has been afraid to let go all at once, in his terms. Much of this had to do with his career. The contract from the dream book will work a great beneficial change. (It is in the mail but hasn’t arrived, due to the postal strike.) With his literal mind, he wants to see it in black and white.

He is at a point where they are ready to break up entirely. I want to see that he takes advantage of this. The mental patterns are beginning to break up, and I want to be sure that this is translated into physical behavior, completely. The spring and the recent good news are having an effect, and the knowledge he gained this afternoon has given him a conscious understanding that he did not have before; and this will automatically minimize the symptoms, in a way that is not at once apparent.

Give us a moment. Tell him that the inner self has its own system of checks and balances. He does not need to reinforce it with physical symptoms now. He does not need to fear he will be carried away through spontaneity. Age and experience provide checks and balances of their own that he did not have earlier.

One additional note: have him plunge now into his new book—and stop concentrating on the problem of the symptoms. With his energy in the book he will have less time and energy to think of them.