“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Castaneda’s books, for all their seeming unconventionality, had a niche to fall into, for here was the quite conventional scholar exploring a culture, even of the mind; not his own—but safely, within an academic framework to which he then returned, and to which academic readers could identify. Castaneda had his society’s credentials ahead of time. That society could then accept his journeys, and the individuals could allow themselves to follow his adventures, and forgive him for his cultural transgression because he brought home goodies.

Castaneda could report. Other so-called psychic books of current nature are reported also, but usually by someone even further removed from the original experiences. A writer, free-lance, will do the life story of so-and-so, because the “psychic” himself is considered too erratic, too out of it, and too untrustworthy to honestly record his own experience.

Both varieties of books allow the reader a built-in distance that provides a cushion against cultural shock: the story is, after all, secondhand. Castaneda told his own story, but it was still secondhand, because his own opaqueness added the necessary distance that protected the reader.

Our books, and I am including Ruburt’s, fall into no such neat category—presenting publishers with problems. In the beginning, particularly, and for that matter now, Ruburt has no accepted credentials. He is not a doctor of anything, for there is no one alive who could give him a degree in his particular line of research, or in yours.

Tam instantly saw the quality in our work, and Ruburt’s. In the beginning only his enthusiasm sold our first book. Prentice would have taken it had you allowed another writer to report the experience. Tam’s boss did go along with him, however. It was Tam who saw in Ruburt’s original manuscript the importance of his work, and the way in which Ruburt was trying to hide it by playing down his relationship with me.

I would rather make some remarks about Ruburt, his condition, and about his beliefs and frameworks.

Give us a moment.... Ruburt’s muscles know their own abilities. They do not need to be convinced, basically. They know they can move easily and quickly. They are not weak, though they may appear so. It is Ruburt who must be convinced that his muscles can move correctly. When Frank moves Ruburt’s arms thus-and-so (with gestures), the beneficial results occur because Ruburt recognizes that his arms can move. It is no surprise to the joints and muscles involved.

The body is willing, itself, to move—and anxious to do so. Your beliefs however tell you that reluctance is involved, and such a condition will result according to beliefs. By physically manipulating the body however in a given framework, Frank shows Ruburt that the body can move better. The stages involved are largely artificial. Whatever mechanisms or methods are used in any illness, they are efficient and productive only to the extent that they convince the patient of his or her power to overcome the condition.

(11:15.) The healer’s purpose and function, however he or she operates, is to convince the patient that healing is not only possible but inevitable. Few doctors, chiropractors, or healers of any kind can effectively feel or portray such faith. Faith is required because healer and patient alike are directly encountering a set of circumstances evident to the senses. The healer is usually equipped with his or her own beliefs, to which the patient is highly suggestible, because this is the area of conflict.

The healthy man or woman, in excellent condition, may be quite as blind in other areas, but the healer and the patient are united in a strange fashion by their belief in the existence of dis-ease as far as personal experience is concerned. The doctor is usually as obsessed with dis-ease as his patient, though from a different viewpoint.

Now Ruburt is moving more since you moved here, and to a greater degree than either of you realize. The original reasons behind the condition have largely been taken care of, but he is left with physical beliefs about his body. Habits have an important function in your lives. They enable you to act in a certain fashion that you consider necessary, without involving you in constant decisions. At one time Ruburt thought he should restrain himself. He learned to do this habitually. The reasons for such behavior are now leaving him. He set up a bodily behavior pattern, however, and it had to be based on body beliefs.

In the old frame of reference he had to convince himself that his body could not move well, or fast. Then he did not need to deal with what he thought of as distracting elements—to leave his desk. Also, he could not travel too far inward without being drawn back to the body’s discomfort. This gave him a feeling of safety. He found, in time, that the symptoms however were far more limiting than he had counted upon, and as his experience grew he found he needed less so-called “safeguards.”

(11:31.) The feeling of hopelessness resulted when he felt that perhaps he could not alter the pattern, that he had made his bed, as his mother used to say, and he must lie in it. A quite literal remark that was when his mother made it, for that is what she did.

So it seems, even to you at times, easier to go along with the old pattern than to break it. You can shop faster alone than with Ruburt, so that “chores” take less time. It is easier for you to comb Ruburt’s hair in the back. It looks better, and you are helping him. It would help him more if you actively and lovingly encouraged him to comb his own hair, and told him that he could do it better each time.

It is good of you to make the bed, and at this state at least the condition of his arms makes it difficult. But when you take over the responsibility for washing his clothes you are denying him acts that he did do—and can do, and adding to a sense of powerlessness in that regard. Help him wring out his slacks, for example, when he has trouble doing so, but do not automatically wash his things for him.

To Ruburt now: he began to know this, and some results have shown: but as you realize, his body can perform better. As he understands this, it will do so. There is nothing basically wrong with the muscles or the joints. They will respond to this understanding. They know they can move.

Now. Some of this is related to organizations, and served as a method of protection. Ruburt wondered how far he should go in publicizing his work. Ads would mean requests to speak. He discovered that he was a good speaker. He could go out into the world, but he didn’t want to. Your remarks about his telephone behavior often reinforce his feelings that he could not say “no” without the symptoms to back him up.

Ruburt’s body can move normally now. This does not mean that he need feel like an idiot, but that he set up a body habit for reasons that he once considered valid, and that to change it requires some conscious effort. It requires patience, and loving understanding on his part, and on yours.

From his group of 40 the other five can be chosen, and invited on any kind of schedule he chooses. Some may come only once a month. But 15 for the entire number.