“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

It is difficult sometimes to untangle beliefs because you do not get hold of the proper strands.... To some degree Ruburt believed that artists and writers, pioneers, or revolutionary thinkers, were somehow punished—despised even—for their genius; ostracized. To some extent he had the feeling that as long as you kept your mouth shut about what you believed, you were safe, and that idea drew great strength from your own similar belief. Think what you want but don’t make the mistake of telling the rest of the world. Keep your mouth shut.

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.

Give us a moment.... Again, you cannot be afraid of the opinions of the world unless you value its opinions above your own. This is a difficult lesson to learn, and many live lives in which the entire question is never encountered. Ruburt suddenly realizes that in basic ways he does not respect the opinions of the world. Therefore those opinions no longer have the power to frighten him. When you are not challenging the world’s concepts there is hardly any problem.

None of this ever had to do with Ruburt privately, but with Ruburt and his contact with the world. None of our sessions, or his own natural development would ever bother him. The question was how these could be related to the world, how people would interpret or misinterpret, or how he would be regarded—for he took it for granted that anyone offering revolutionary ideas would be punished or ostracized.

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.

Now, dear friend, you have also shared some of these ideas, and to some extent seen Ruburt’s physical condition as a symbolic statement of how the so-called authorities viewed our joint work. Ruburt is striking. In his physical condition he is still striking. People still notice him. They notice him even more now because of the eccentricity of walk. This bothers you. It bothers Ruburt. You do not like to be out with him, on a certain level now, because he is so noticeable, so obvious. It offends your idea of secrecy, privacy, and being anonymous. I do not mean that you are not sympathetic. You follow me.

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.

Ruburt’s New York Times ad is delightful, but he no longer needs to depend upon that kind of prestige. You are not better than other people, either of you. You certainly are not worse. You are, in your terms, in their reality while being “ahead” of them in terms of certain kinds of development. You chose this experience for a reason. You do have equal contemporaries, unknown to you, but you are working at a different level. You are not involved in a specific kind of emotional reality others are pursuing. Those realities are not beneath your own in any way. They do need people like you who are not so involved, who work in other areas, to help them.

In those terms you are “out of your time.” You have been through the same kind of encounters, however, enmeshed in them like anyone else, so you have no right to feel superior. The implied sense of superiority is what made Ruburt so angry at authorities, so defiant. They seemed to have power over him that he resented. You cannot speak to your age, your time, unless you understand it, and you cannot understand it unless at one time or another you feel the weight of its authoritative beliefs. So Ruburt grew up where they were important.

You did also, though this is not as clear to you. Ruburt’s experience is specifically more obvious, yet your mother and father each reacted in their own ways to the authority of the world as they understood it. Your mother tried desperately to fit into that framework, and your father as desperately combated it.

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.

Further library experiences will help Ruburt. Again, do not become impatient, tell him. You choose books rather than television appearances, because of your feelings of secrecy and safety. Your house should have a foyer for the same reasons, and some definite stated area between private and public land. This will make a big difference to each of you.

You can definitely expect better walking shortly. Your participation in class is important because it represents an opening of your secrecy. Ruburt felt you wanted him to go ahead but not go ahead in that regard. Do you follow me?

Some work will be done on Ruburt’s gums this evening. I am not telling you what to do. You can safely afford $30,000, with what I know of money that will come in, and with plenty to spare. If you cannot accept that statement practically, however, then do not spend that amount.

Ruburt is correct: you would not have been happy in your mother’s old home, with beliefs and situations as they are; but on your part as well as Ruburt’s. The people who moved there did so for a reason, and they will bring “new blood” to the neighborhood.

The book Ruburt ordered can be helpful if he ignores some of the suggestions, and you help him with the adjustments that will operate simply as aids.

Encourage Ruburt to go out with you more. Each of you cop out in that regard, using time as an excuse. He will, however, feel freer, there is no doubt of it, when he does not think of the hallway as the place where the public world begins. He uses that surely in line with the beliefs given—but the private area will still help him along the way. I am not excusing the belief.

Your change of environment will be effected, again, far more easily than you think—because you have already made the inner changes necessary. The exterior alterations always follow the inner ones. Ruburt is tired of tending the same old house, so he seeks a new one. Meaning that he is tired of the same old beliefs, and ready to move out of them. But both of you together agree, which is of the greatest importance. Literally, you are no longer afraid to move, and that includes many areas.

If it is possible the two of you should have a garden of fresh vegetables—not only for the obvious values, but because of the implied contact with the growing earth, regardless of how small the garden might be. Some of the concepts that will come in The “Unknown” Reality will help Ruburt understand the nature of healing, for that is highly important. People are healed who come here, in ways not visible. All shrines are basically shrines to the authority of the self, regardless of the personifications or deifications involved. In certain terms each person is God, and each person is utterly anonymous, for God is completely personal and completely anonymous.