“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In order to fear the opinions of others, however, particularly the opinion of those in authority, you must first to some extent respect those in authority, and hold some faith in their ideas. You are taught to respect such authorities, and as mentioned earlier, while Ruburt defied authority as a child he was still dependent upon authority’s welfare.

Their ideas ruled the world. Their ideas carry the weight of mass acceptance. He has done his thing, but fearfully. Only lately has he realized that he has no respect for any of the authorities, as they call him or write him, or approach him. As with today’s psychologist, he sees that in many ways they know far less than he, and are looking to him for help and direction. These are the people, he suddenly sees, that so frightened him.

He has been on guard, and only now is realizing that there is nothing to be on guard against. Fear of the spontaneous self is meaningless unless the spontaneous self is set up against the idea of an authority which is not spontaneous. The spontaneous self is feared only because it might break down the authority of a rigid structure. It might be creative. It might come up with something new. It might shatter rigid barriers.

Each of you felt, however, that there was great value in being anonymous, yet you put yourselves in a position where you could not be. You tell Ruburt to keep it a secret from Leonard that your rent was raised, or you might move—good God!—while your most intimate personal beliefs and inspirations are given to the world. The idea however has been, the more secret you were, each of you, the better off you were, while at the same time your individual and joint creativity would be known. But the habits of secrecy continued, and there is no reason for secrecy but fear.

Fear of what? Of people, who have the power to hurt you. But I say to you that literally no one has such a power. You can only hurt yourself. When others seem to hurt you, you use them in a way as weapons against yourself; and of course they so allow themselves to be used for their own reasons. But Ruburt has a highly symbolic mind as well as a highly literal one, so he has hidden behind closed doors.

You had each thought, however, that there was something extremely uncomfortable about the truly creative person in society, that he or she had to protect himself or herself, and the symptoms have been Ruburt’s way of protecting himself—yet also his way of saying, “I am different. Do not fear me, look at me. I am obviously flawed, so you cannot attack me.” So he feigns illness. When the opinions of others are no longer so valued, there is no need for such protection, such playing dead.

There will be some extraordinary library experiences. Because of such fears as I have spoken about this evening, many people never use their true creative abilities at all. But they do not remain “healthy” either. They suffer. Their abilities yearn for release, and overall their lives are, in your terms, incredibly dim. Ruburt can make no new bargain that says “Now I change my mind. I will be physically flexible, but I will no longer use my creative abilities in the ways natural to me.” That is simply the other side of the same limiting bargain. But that is not where he is going.

Give us a moment.... He is free to use all his abilities physically, psychically, creatively, and spiritually. One need not be expressed at the expense of another. Instead each complements the others. When you realize quite literally and practically that you have no other person or authority to fear, then you are free to be yourself to the best of our “ability.”

Ruburt need not fear becoming a new authority. People do their own thing, and point to others as authorities to take their responsibility for them. He need not fear others as authority, for the same applies. You do not need to protect yourselves against the world. It needs what help it can get, and you can only help it by being yourselves.

Ruburt then is now realizing there is no authority to fear, no need for the defense, and no one he need hide from. The improvement then is just beginning. You will find a house you like. You need to buy, not rent; there are further financial developments, windfalls.