“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Just before the session Jane told me that Seth could give us what she called The Christ Book at any time. In last Monday’s deleted session Seth had included a section on Jerusalem, which I’ve included in the records as the 678th session for September 3, 1973. Seth told us we could have more on Jerusalem and related events whenever we want it, or have the time, so presumably the Christ Book idea stems from that. A good title.)

He worked an hour. You had lunch, and both returned after a short trip shopping. He took a shower instead of going directly to work, put food in the oven, worked another ½ hour, and yet found himself by dinner time with nearly ten pages of new material.

From now on he should forget the word “work” in reference to his own writing. Have him think of it simply as writing. Now this morning at the table he suddenly realized why he did not want to get up this morning, and why at other times he did not want to get up: he did not want to go to work, like a child who does to want to go to school. The connotations of the word crept into all areas of his life, tinged by unfortunate beliefs connected with the word.

This is highly important material, and one of those nights where you could save time with a recorder.

Seven came precisely because it was free of all contract connotations, and so at the time did Aspects. My books so far were hidden creative goodies, inserted instead of books either contracted or to be contracted, and they were free of the work context.

Sometimes after a full writing day, without too much actual creative production, he would do his best work in his free time after supper, when he did not have to work. So then he thought “I will schedule those hours into my writing day,” and suddenly they became prosaic, and often lost their magic because then they became his working hours.

Work means conforming to Ruburt. Work meant working hours like other people have. They should be over at a certain time. You often said that other people could relax after supper. Their work was done while you and Ruburt were still busy.

Ruburt’s normal “work periods” would often involve nonconventional hours, however, precisely because they were nonconventional. Each morning he felt it his duty to get up at a decent hour to go to work. At the same time artistic work had other connotations. Everything else was unimportant by contrast, so that other pursuits became taboo. If you went out in the day people knew you were not working. You early used the word “chores” for activities in which Ruburt took a childish delight. With his literal-mindedness, and for reasons given in the past, he also began to think of them as chores. Otherwise he would want to do them and not work.

Now I suggested the definite hours, knowing his position, knowing that he would begin to see that while any activity of course takes a certain amount of time, that his creative work will be judged not according to the hours spent on it but the yield.

This is what he is on the road to understanding. Anything that increases that yield is beneficial to his nature. Any given day a creative urge might span the day. At another time that creative surge might reach its peak in two hours, and deliver nuggets of creativity. His three-hour production today gave him more with a free attitude than five or six hours of determined application to “work.”

When the work idea is carried to extremes than he is not even free in his so-called work time, because then he inhibits what he thinks of as nonwork ideas, and therefore much creativity. He has usually buried spontaneous desires to do other things, particularly in your apartment, so there were frequent dilemmas, finding of course physical expression in symptoms. There has been some improvement physically however since we began the latest group of sessions; but spasmodic.

Inspiration and creativity he felt he could trust, but never felt he could trust his working capacity in the way he thought of work. At the same time other activities became taboo as not-work, so it was “wrong” to putter about the house in his work hours, and equally wrong to work after hours, when people who worked should be free.

(“Thank you.” 11:34. I was going to read the session to Jane, but she said, several times, that she was getting more material on me. Finally Seth returned at 11:40.)

You have to some extent closed off your creativity by thinking of it in terms of the time you have to give to “your work.” Again, while a certain time is required for any activity as far as artistic inspiration is concerned, there is little correlation, for artistic inspiration is independent of time.

Your creature feelings toward night, dawn and dusk, have much more to do with inspiration, though a painting, once inspired, may then take so many hours to execute. But your idea of specific work time automatically divides that time according to your beliefs from other times when you may be shopping, or doing something else far divorced from work.

The yard at 2 or 3 in the morning might amaze you, and ideas of paintings leap up. Your whole concept of work time brings about limitations also. You personally do not think of the dream state as work time, and therefore inhibit very definite inspirations. I want you then to also examine your ideas about work and creative activity.