“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane was so wrought up that at first she thought a session might not develop. Both of us were angry. “Boy, Seth, you better come up with some answers,” she said. Much more talk followed; we speculated about ramifications stemming from the idea that the house was involved. Seth finally interrupted us.)

You always regarded this place as a place of transition. It was thought of in terms of social transition, or your place in society, and transition in terms of your work, particularly here on Ruburt’s side—on his part. Money for example through books would allow you to move.

He is in a state of frozen waiting, and all of the elements given in the past have applied. The environment has gone down; the garden apartment here that he once thought of no longer exists. He thought of this place as highly desirable once in social terms—the best place you had ever lived in together. As the neighborhood deteriorated he became more and more irate, as did you.

Any thoughts of moving were always put off, until a tomorrow that has not come. Beyond the early years he did little improving. He is highly sensitive to environment, and needs—(suddenly louder:) and do not frown, and keep writing. I am angry at both of you this evening. More at Ruburt, but I cannot yell at him—

(This was a real reaction from Seth. I felt the force of his momentary anger, I felt personally involved. I also thought that this might stem from Jane’s expressed feelings of anger and resentment before the session, and her demands that Seth help. Perhaps this method had its merits?)

In the past many of you here were of the same age group. Now with younger people about the thoughts are stronger that this is a place of transition. The fact that you have not moved does reflect a lack of initiative on both of your parts.

These tendencies have been almost completely repressed. But, again, they are not unconscious. Ruburt felt disloyal thinking of them because such thoughts seemed to him to criticize your joint life style and purposes.

The question, however brings up all of your attitudes—and you also have social attitudes—another apartment is no answer in that context. The thought of buying a house brings up strong feelings of inadequacy on your part. You feel that you should have been able to provide one for Ruburt by now.

(True. I always thought that my work made up for the lack of success in obtaining a dwelling we liked. I counted on the success of the work, so when the work seemed to be failing also I was caught.)

In many ways you are as stubborn as he is—and regardless of what you thought, you complained quite constantly, both about the job, your own work, and your dwelling. But once set upon a course, you would not change it either, and Ruburt would have done anything to see you happy in that (underlined) regard.

You particularly felt threatened. It would be foolish to the extreme to stay here when you are both consciously and unconsciously waiting for the bridge to be built. You felt your territory threatened as soon as the parking lot was thought of, and earlier when Spaziani first thought of selling the place.

(Rather, I thought at least that my expression was one of rueful recollection and regret....)

It seemed to him that you were always going to leave your job one day and paint, but that day never came and the two of you were going to move one day, but that day never came, so he forced the one issue. In Florida he thought seriously of living there to make a move, but nothing came of it. Your discussion this evening at the table about finances led him deeper into those feelings he tries so hard to avoid. Here he was doing better than ever, with more money in the offing, and to what purpose? Nothing would ever change. He could not keep up financially, much less think of moving, so put it ahead in the future again.

Then he becomes angry when you say “Why don’t you make a decision?” He felt you were afraid to, and if he made one and it was wrong, he did not want to take the blame. So he felt in an impossible situation: and quite consciously, when he allowed himself to become aware of his thoughts. He is afraid of hurting you, of making you move, or making you cry.

You (me) (underlined) have a tendency to think in terms of obstacles. Ruburt allowed this to add to latent (underlined) characteristics of his own. Your joint ideas then prevented you from ever thinking creatively. You never thought that moving could be fun—and that is your reality. No one else created it.