“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Probabilities are not pulled in by mere whim, but through desire and intent.

The word combines all of his goals—physical and creative—into one clear focus in which there is no ambiguity. In a way then the word, with its intent and meaning, has tremendous power, to which the body is responding. Responsive: that word does not imply retreat. It also implies the ability to respond. The energy to act. The joints have all begun to move better. In some cases now this means, relatively speaking, slight enough motion, but highly important.

The circulatory system, again, is activated. This is noticeable particularly in the feet, and all of the ligaments are beginning to release. This is an overall activation because of the overall intent, and therefore more in balance than the beginning of improvements in the past. The body instantly responds to a new image by activating its entire mechanism. Ruburt does not yet know what his response to the world will be—whether he wants, for example, television shows and so forth, or not—but he is now determined to respond, to be responsive, and not to simply retreat.

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).

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.

(10:03.) Then, you must fight or retreat. Ruburt retreated, but the situation was always in basic terms, artificially formed by your joint beliefs.

The body can find no firm stance in such a situation, for the artificial conditions blot out the natural realities of any given day. It is the duty and challenge of the conscious mind to ascertain cultural reality—but cultural reality cannot supersede natural reality. Or you run into difficulty.

Constantly applied tension leads to any and all physical problems. In the face of the circumstances you did well—avoiding drugs, for example. In many cases, when people make the necessary decisions that would otherwise restore their bodies, medical drugs have so muddied body orientation that the affair is further complicated. If you continue as you are going, the overall body responsiveness will certainly continue. But do remember what I have said about applying your individual and joint feeling of creativity and inventiveness in those directions.

You can be quite happily surprised, not only by your changes of attitude, but by the quickness with which such suggestions are used and utilized.

I have nothing more to say for the evening, unless you have questions. I will add for Ruburt: as I said, the eyes will continue to improve. Copy for an hour for now. The eyes are still changing, as the ligaments in the neck do, but the muscles in and around the eyes are acclimating well.

(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.

As Ruburt’s body becomes more responsive, it means also that he is becoming more responsive not just physically but in all areas. He thinks he feels uncomfortable with other people on such occasions because he is physically uncomfortable, sitting for long periods, or because he feels in an inferior physical condition. Instead, of course, he felt in such a position before the symptoms showed—as each of you felt, and were convinced in black-and-white fashion, that creative people were misunderstood, held in inferior position in the world, and were generally considered oddballs.

I am not saying that you should refuse guests. When Ruburt is ready, and when you are ready to begin to embark upon relationships with others of any import, his condition will show it. We are not speaking simply of guests, but of a willingness on your part to begin relationships—in line with your work, and of direct contacts, planned in advance, of personal contact.

(“I’d like to go into the probability dreams, as I call them, concerning myself and my parents. But we can discuss those later.”)

(11:32 PM. I didn’t realize it at the time, but upon typing this material I’d say that Seth didn’t directly answer my question on page 298. I was more interested in information on our reactions to the books selling well, and the resulting publicity, than in the question of guests, per se. The meeting of people, of course, is a part of the question, however, so in that sense Seth did consider it.