“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Give us a moment.... It might be helpful to clear some issues that have not been discussed in this manner particularly. Ruburt wants to write the bulk of the day, yet he now believes it is unhealthy to do that.... Give us a moment with this.... He believes he should be working, yet also that he should be more physically active. The symptoms then become intensified at times. As you have told him, there is nothing wrong with working all day, and all night, as long as he is physically free, and is not working under enforced conditions.

If he did, freely now, work as long and often as he wanted to, without worrying about going out, or housework, then naturally the period of intense mental activity would bring about a desire to go out, and be physically active.

Riding the creative energies in that manner, you see, would allow him to recognize his own rhythm, flow and ebb. When his mind was tired it would automatically signal the body to physical activity, walks, changed environment, and so forth. The point of such a suggestion however rests in writing freely. When he is writing and also thinking that he should go for a walk then the conflicts arise more strongly. He knows that he wants to be writing. The conflict itself then prevents the follow-through thrust, so that he does not feel the natural relaxation that would follow, or the natural resulting desire for activity.

Give us a moment.... It is important however to realize that to some extent he feels that long hours of writing are now wrong, because of the physical condition in which he finds himself. Now for a moment, tell him to imagine himself, generally speaking, well. If he wrote, steadily even, and did not go out for two or three days he would not think that there was anything wrong in that—nor would there be. When the stint was over he would feel perhaps a strong burst of physically directed energy, and want to clean the house or go for walks.

Give us time.... The earlier he begins writing, as of now, the better off he is. Part of the conflict has arisen however also because he feels that what he often wants to do—write many hours—is physically wrong.

Some of this has to do with current mass beliefs, based on the idea of the mechanics of the body being more important than the thoughts behind the body’s working. You have been told that sitting down for hours is unhealthy, that stiffness results, and so forth. To some extent Ruburt believes it, and believes that the body must suffer if it sits for long periods, and so forth. The body is quite equipped on its own to remain flexible, and left alone will perform a variety of small motions while sitting, for example, to insure its flexibility. Ruburt believes now that it is wrong not to go out each day. Certainly I have suggested in the past that he go out, but in line with the circumstances at the time, and the condition to which his beliefs had led him.

Give us a moment.... It would help when he is working, particularly whenever he is unduly bothered, to stop and say “What do I think about what I am doing in this moment? And what do I think I should be doing differently?! Have him write as much as he wants, and not to stew about housework for example, or walking outside. His natural pattern would be to do housework also, in bursts of activity.

While these suggestions may appear on the surface quite different from others I have given, if you look closely you will see that they are another method of encouraging spontaneity, and methods most suited now to his circumstances. In a weekly period, for example (rather than a daily one), these suggestions if followed will show him his own rhythms and patterns, so that he may feel like going out impulsively because he wants to, after a bout of writing, rather than feel that he “should.”

Apropos of your joint discussion on Monday: it was advantageous. One point Ruburt missed, however. He knows when he spontaneously wants to go out, or to a joint, or whatever. When he tells himself that he must go out every day, then that feeling goes directly counter to his feelings that he may know quite well he wants to write and not go out. The symptoms then are intensified because of the conflict.

On the other hand, if he is writing and spontaneously wants to move about, and realizes this, have him get up, wash a window, or go out. Have him trust his instincts. The mind needs that rest.

According to the ideas of course this can be highly advantageous, unfortunate, or fall any place between. Give us time.... Each personality would definitely translate all of this in its own way. I cannot emphasize that enough. Ruburt, however, equates winter, to some extent, with being unborn, however. Naturally, high winds or snowstorms used to exhilarate him and act as stimuli, but overall his physical being always exhibited its greatest health, flexibility and exuberance in the other seasons. With the physical condition to some extent the tendencies in winter were overemphasized. He does not naturally feel as great a rapport, then, as he does in the other seasons.

He has been telling himself that he must go out in the face of some other tendencies, then, that ordinarily, in a good state of flexibility, would be relatively unnoticed. That is not a particularly important point, but given here simply to give you an idea of other issues that operate, having to do with a personality’s natural leanings toward certain seasonal conditions.

There were many other methods. Ruburt felt that because he was younger than you he could more safely afford the particular method he chose. The solution lies of course in the method, in that it was meant as a method to an end, and not as an end in itself.

If this is understood clearly as a method, then Ruburt will realize that he is quite at liberty to change a method, particularly when he has run it into the ground. Nor should he berate himself, for a method is a learning process, and from it he has indeed learned much. He knew well, however, that the method was taken only for a time. The fears about the future are natural triggers within the method itself, that automatically prevent it from going too far, and that signal the end of the method itself.

It was not an easy road, in certain terms. On the other hand it gave Ruburt exactly what he wanted in experience. The two of you jointly also did agree, despite your own feelings in space and time, and I understand them; I know that the method will be left behind. I am well aware however of your attitudes in the time, as you experience it. Ruburt however did choose a condition which could be experienced and then conquered. It was a condition that for example would not involve destruction of organs, or reliance upon the medical profession. This would blur the issues. It did not have to be physical. It could have involved instead any of the numberless problems that people have. Ruburt rejected most of those; and so, in your relationship with Ruburt, did you.

Ruburt wanted to have a strong emotional nature in order to relate with other people, and yet also wanted to control and focus that nature so that it would also be directed toward his purpose. The symptoms also served that end. At the same time they allowed him to relate to those who were ill and unhappy in a way that he might not, he felt, have otherwise allowed.

The whole point however was to transcend the method itself, but the method could not be pretended. When this is clearly understood then you and he will see that the method is only half experienced, for the method itself includes triumph over the conditions. If this is not understood then the method seems purposeless to a large degree.

The method also, in an odd way, allows others to relate to Ruburt. When, as he will, he recovers his flexibility, then he is talking as someone who has overcome, and had something to overcome. It is easy to say that he has maligned his body, but the entire personality is body and mind and all, and the body itself has learned some comprehensions and joys also, having to do with sense appreciation, that some people never physically, now, experience. The other half of the method therefore lies in dropping it, and this was built in from the beginning.

Again, the choice was of a condition that could be overcome and that did not involve the medical profession. He chose ahead of time something, in other words, with which he knew he could cope and successfully. Someone working for their own purposes at an entirely different level might choose a physical condition that necessitated the medical profession, and might result in an important medical discovery.