“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt’s methods of dealing with such a situation were highly apparent, in his physical symptoms. Yours were not as easy to perceive. They did not show. In an unsafe universe you run your personal life along certain lines. This applies generally more or less, and specifically to you also. In that context you do not trust good fortune—indeed, it seems practical not to trust it. You hide good fortune for fear it will be taken away. It does not seem to belong in an unsafe universe. You do not tell people that you are doing well—you tell them that you must work from morning to night; that you do not have enough time. You have to prove that you are as hassled as they are.

What beliefs do you have to change?

You work at home. You are reacting, and have been, to some of your mother’s attitudes toward men who work at home, so you try to prove to yourself and others that this is really not only as difficult as outside work, but more so. If people might think you have little to do all day because they do not see you going to a job, then you can show that you have even less time to yourself than others.

When you begin to realize that you do indeed live in a safe universe, these patterns of reaction begin to break up. To some extent however as they do you can feel weaponless, or unprotected. Then you read the newspaper and you see that New York City is in great financial difficulty. In a certain way this is almost reassuring, because it correlates with the old habitual belief system that says “Aha, yes, there is a threat. I was right all along.” Thus the older beliefs momentarily feel their old unity, and it is, again, realistic behavior to feel yourself also threatened.

Ruburt sees, and so do you, that other publishers would be glad to take our work—and you no longer feel “trapped” by Prentice, and “Prentice’s incompetence” in certain areas. You never were. I do not mean you personally necessarily. But the climate is changed. It does become safer, and even you personally this time can see Prentice as a creative adjunct with which you can work.

Instead you immediately say something like “It would be great to work just so many hours a day and come home and be free.” Or you emphasize how busy you really are, and how little time you really have—so if it seems that you do not have enough time that is hardly surprising: you have given yourselves such suggestions for years.

Again, there is nothing wrong with you physically. Given your beliefs, the period is a “more or less natural” transitory stage that is meant to bring out those beliefs, so that they do not remain invisible, or as blocks, preventing you from entry into the safe universe.

Do you have a question?