“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The condition itself, then, and his attitude toward it, have complicated issues. There are a variety actually of methods that can help him—various ones at different times, according to his circumstances.

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.”

The purposes were there. The methods were left open. You were correct in assuming that Ruburt would not let the situation go beyond a certain point. I said that the methods were left open, and at one time you contemplated for yourself the same kind of situation, but turned aside from it after a taste of what it meant, or could mean.

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.

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.