“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now: with your permission, and Ruburt’s, I have a few comments about the publishing business.

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.

(Pause at 9:49.) It would have been highly impractical, then, to expect Prentice to advertise the book. Times are changing. There is a so-called occult climate, yet we do not fall precisely into that category for them, the publishers, either; and Ruburt refuses to take advantage of “the trappings.” At least then they could say they had an occult personality who played the new part. It might be farce, from the publisher’s viewpoint, but they could sell it, and they would know how to advertise it.

No other publishing house would have treated you any better to this point. They would have tried, most of them, to have turned Ruburt into a performing circus. Advertising men cannot handle that kind of copy. You would have been put through experiences most difficult to cope with, that would have so disrupted your peace of mind that the work might well have not progressed to this stage.

Fiction, again, puts a lovely distance between the reader and experience. Publishers can handle it. But Ruburt is saying “This experience of mine means that this other kind of mental and spiritual world-view is natural—not alien, not a part of another culture.”

Grace’s (Bechtold) visit was highly important from that viewpoint. If you were, or if Ruburt was, a conventional Philip Roth, a novelist, safely within that framework, or if he were willing to set himself up as an “occult” mistress of the spirit, then you would have publicity galore.

Ruburt has read your letter. So has Joseph. I am aware of its contents. We have no organization yet of an exterior kind, so there are no secretaries to take dictation, no middlemen—or—women to write flowery, prepackaged replies.

Ruburt and Joseph, or Jane and Rob if you prefer, are private people. They also have a kind of one-to-one relationship with the universe. This particular quality means that they resist forming any kind of organization, even though such an organization might help in answering the mail. I am, therefore, dictating this letter, while it will be sent to many of you, it is written to each of you, and I only regret that I cannot go into your aspirations, challenges and problems on a more individual basis.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is important then that you take a firm stand, both of you, in that regard. Your own fear, Joseph, sometimes—but not always—pushes you to exaggerate what you think of as Ruburt’s suggestibility on the phone. For a while, simply to aid in Ruburt’s recovery, and for present operational procedure, I suggest that you have the final word—that if you feel a firm “no” is not given, you give it.

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.

I suggest no more than 15 people at the most. They come here as a touchstone. What they learn they can tell others. There should be a group of ten who come regularly. Ruburt will know who they are.

I have some things in mind myself, but the atmosphere is to be relaxed, a more intelligent version of Friday night, in which Ruburt feels he can be at ease, and does not need to make a great production. That is when we are all freest.