“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You forget Ruburt’s literal-mindedness, and you overlook it. He can use it to advantage. His beliefs, for the reasons you are uncovering, led him to believe he was inferior in the physical arena, and so he withdrew from it.

The core beliefs and the resulting subsidiary beliefs are interrelated and work back to back, one to the other. The literal-mindedness applies. That is why the dancing is important. There is a difference between saying “we danced,” to Ruburt, regardless of how well he danced, and the belief that he could not dance at all. True, that is a subsidiary issue, but it is one where he has insisted upon keeping some physical freedom open.

The dancing then each time is a positive issue, and acts to weaken the other beliefs, and stands as a contrast. It has been very important that that arena was left clear to some extent.

Now any other physical arena of that kind, opened, is highly beneficial because of that literal-mindedness, and each time this happens the predominating beliefs are to that extent weakened. Here is something else that he can do. He has proven it to himself, therefore. He is free to move in that regard.

The dancing was left open to some extent because it was not a daytime activity that conflicted with his other beliefs so directly.

Give us a moment. Use that power that you have, and it is multiplied. Use the freedom that you have, and it is multiplied. You are, Joseph, now, able to see many of Ruburt’s negative concepts, but you are blind still to many of your own. The feeling and belief in freedom must come before its physical manifestation, and this regardless of any beliefs to the contrary.

If you act upon a belief in freedom and exert it, then it will automatically show you by contrast that the prior belief in lack of freedom was not in basic terms realistic. The prior belief will be chipped away to that extent. At the same time you must of course work at understanding the prior belief. But at the same time you must make efforts to act according to the new one that you want.

Your life is not—and I repeat—not as limited as you believe it is. You are not using the freedoms that you have. These freedoms used, particularly in view of Ruburt’s literal-mindedness, would do much to weaken the beliefs in powerlessness that exist.

As a result then of other beliefs Ruburt withdrew from the challenges of physical activity. Simply deciding on a conscious level to reenter that arena, in his present state, shows in itself a change of belief, for before he did not want to try, and considered it a threat to his work.

To some extent he still does. But he is beginning to understand, and is willing to enter that arena. He wants to enter it, and there is the important change in belief that has occurred. He is still frightened, and will be worried lest he become too involved in it, but he is willing to handle that on a conscious level now, which is another important change in beliefs.

Such structuring impedes your progress to a large degree, and prevents improvements that could occur. I have told you about the importance of imagination, both in building up and destroying beliefs, but you still do not understand completely.

You do not understand the alterations in beliefs involved that even led him for example to think of that mobility, and how cleverly the idea of work and mobility were combined, or the attempt at correlation involved. The same applies to the karate body image, its significance escaping both of you largely, where Ruburt was seeing himself with a body image combining power, agility, and weight.

It is precisely the challenge of things like dancing when he is in poor shape, but coming through when others are watching, or a trailer trip, or riding a bicycle when it seems impossible, or climbing a tree, that has the imaginative literal qualities that inspires him to change beliefs, whether or not those issues in that way make sense to you.

He went to an extreme (intently), cutting out physical distractions because he believed that he had to. He was afraid that he would go to the extreme in the other direction. Now he is ready to open up. His beliefs are changing. But in the context of that change, the challenge of extremes still appeals to him. It is this that you have not understood. For that matter neither has he.

This, you see, is connected with the trailer idea, and I am telling you because you still do not understand the importance of belief and imagination combined. He has gone ahead despite, in this case, your negative interpretation, and seen himself under certain conditions traveling in a trailer, writing, granted, but in front of strangers in a bathing suit or shorts, and he does not want to look like a bony witch. So already in his mind he is gaining weight, seeing himself fairly agile—but he felt this was in spite of your attitudes, not with your enthusiasm or understanding.

He felt that in your world and interpretation his ideas were Pollyanna, but I tell you that is practical creativity—and it can wipe out many negative beliefs, more in a moment than you can realize.

The times that Ruburt managed rather considerable improvements even in the face of strong negative beliefs, were times when he managed to convince himself against all objective evidence that there was nothing wrong with him physically but habitual stiffness. That belief minimized the seeming impediments, allowed greater physical freedom that in its turn by contrast began to lessen the preliminary negative beliefs. That was the summer of which we have spoken, and the conditions did not continue for the reasons given.

When you imagine trips or any physical activity and carry them out, you are concentrating upon freedom, not limitations, and then you have those freedoms to build upon. Now with the tooth difficulty Ruburt did this, in his literal manner, while working with the preliminary beliefs at the same time.

Give us a moment. I mentioned and suggested his rising very early for several reasons, knowing full well a challenge and resistance would result. The morning stiffness has to do now with subsidiary beliefs and expectations, and also with the natural condition of the body in its present shape.

For some time until recently he was afraid, as mentioned, that his body could not recuperate. That is why any physical achievement or normal activity is to be encouraged. The belief behind all of this is simple, and you have it—that all of his energy, concentration, and attention had to be devoted to his work. Because he is so literal-minded this was his interpretation of it.

In the nighttime or early morning there is no distraction from the outside so at that level you lessen the stress, and Ruburt is freer. As long as you are working with primary beliefs this can be an excellent method of accelerating advances while reducing stress.

It would not be any solution if the beliefs were not faced, but with that understanding it can facilitate improvements. Enough sleep is important when beginning, however, or of course he will simply want to sleep through. In the ordinary schedule he becomes tired and blue toward the end of the afternoon if he feels that he has not done enough work.

(11:30.) Give us time. A strong impeding belief is the one that the body could not any longer perform no matter what he did, and this largely was the result of a concentration upon negative aspects.

It served a purpose, showing him what his body was capable of, and raises the question of why he was not using it. In all this I must tell you however that you both do still concentrate upon the negative element, and ignore the power of anticipation and its values in changing beliefs.

Some resistance then can be expected. The method is important in that it is one alternate way, represents a conscious effort at solving the problem in a different way, and provides less stress while the preliminary beliefs are worked on. I will give you more on the preliminary beliefs. The important thing about them however is that Ruburt thought they were a proper method of achieving certain ends. He now realizes they were not; with your help other alternates can be used. Working together here (in Apartment 5) in the day is also one.

The procedure I suggested was simply meant as an intermediary, handy method that would allow him to realize he could handle the matter in other ways. The method of itself would also be illuminating enough in many areas to help release him from other beliefs. The effort required is considerable, in a way, yet the knowledge that he could make the effort would be important.