“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(9:31.) Give us a moment.... It was because I knew this that I was relatively severe in our last session—wanting to make sure that both of you made the best use of that important advantage.

That session is extremely valuable. So on your list, write “Do not think in terms of absolutes.” As far as Ruburt’s condition has been concerned, you both have habitually thought so in terms of black and white that you added a narrow, limited area in which improvements might begin, but could only go so far.

Again, his condition does represent the one area where both of you have felt cowed, often hopeless, and as if your abilities worked in all directions but that one. The important point is, that that area was the one area in which you did not use those abilities—nor should either of you spend time bemoaning what has happened, or dwelling upon “what people can do to themselves.” This is not only waste of time, but it adversely affects your creativity, and that frame of mind will never generate solutions, but only further difficulties in any area (emphatically).

The freedom that the house and the money represent is extremely important to both of you. Ruburt did not put himself in poor physical condition to get those things. His physical symptoms were the result of methods or habits of dealing with himself and the world, and of attitudes that both of you shared for the greater part of your lives.

He applied those methods of his own, but they differed from yours only in degree. You would not go so far. To a large extent, however, you agreed on retreat rather than response. To some extent now, you applied discipline in your work and lives to protect yourself against response to a world that you felt was insane, in direct conflict with artistic pursuits, and in which you felt quite alien —both of you, that is, as a unit.

Since you both held those attitudes and saw those beliefs everywhere reinforced, naturally enough in your experience, then in the overall it would be most miraculously unusual if one of you did not physically retreat. Your nature allowed you to try. You found it intolerable, and recovered. Because of Ruburt’s other characteristics personally, he tried it on for size, and found it fit with considerable chafing. But overall that way of life, to some extent has suited you both.

You wondered in the secret depths of your mind how well-suited Ruburt was for the solitude you believed necessary to produce good work. You intend, both of you, having the cat fixed, so he will not be frustrated inside. Ruburt fixed himself, and fixed it so he could not go outside—because, according to your joint overall attitudes, you believed you must isolate yourselves against the world.

I will shortly begin to divide our sessions between personal material and other kinds. I want to commend you both, however, for utilizing the material in these later sessions, and I remind you to follow your own lists in the sessions.

(Seth’s material earlier this evening, about responsiveness to the world, in whatever form one chose, reminded me of an idea I’d mentioned to Jane last week. I’d dropped it because I became unsure of the reactions on both of our parts. The idea involved our concentration for just five minutes a day—say when we lay down for our naps—on sending out suggestions to the effect that we’d hear from people we wanted to hear from, either/or by letter or in person. Obviously the people would be well-enough known for us to have heard of them. But I’d been thinking that it might be a way to break our habits of retreat. I became concerned, though, about whether our beliefs had changed enough to make such contacts possible, or welcome to us if they did materialize.

You hope to cast understanding upon man’s soul, his body, and alter his concepts of his cultural reality. At the same time you both made sure that you reinforced your own beliefs, so that the people who came did not altogether click with you. You could say “Well, that is that—we made an attempt,” and drop the entire issue (which is what we did say and do).

Your black-and-white beliefs have often led you both to either expect scorn, misunderstanding, or on the other hand to expect too much of others who come here. It is good, however, to suggest that “your definition of important people” read the books, to suggest that the books fall into the proper hands, in those terms.

(After the session I told Jane that my concern wasn’t so much with meeting important people, as that their interest in what we do would imply some sort of acceptance or understanding on the parts of those who occupy dominant positions in society, the arts, or whatever. And I think we are well aware that many of the young people we do hear from will occupy those positions of power in tomorrow’s world. I see nothing amiss with us having some fun on our own in the meantime, though—provided we’re both willing, and understand the terms of the “games.”)