“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(A hassle began developing last Thursday, involving Pat Golbitz at Pocket Books, Grace Bechtold at Bantam, and Tam, John Nelson, and Jane at Prentice-Hall. Nothing serious, but still somewhat upsetting. Also educational. There’s no need to go into all the complicated details here; it’s enough to say that the photos Bantam used in Seth Speaks were involved, especially the cover shot of Jane; as well as bids for Oversoul Seven between Pocket Books and Bantam; Jane’s fears that she’d end up committed for two more Seven books she hasn’t written yet; and various misunderstandings concerning ethics, expired option, and an offer to Jane to go to work for Simon & Schuster-Pocket Books, and to take Tam with her.

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.

(9:40.) You have built up the idea of free time being wrong, sinful, no matter what you tell yourself about wanting more of it. That is one thing. Deeper, however, is the fact that the belief in an unsafe universe sets up certain habits of resistance, and more practically, of self-protection. The resistance is protective. It shows itself in fears that seem perfectly realistic, and indeed highly practical—the feeling itself is not let go of easily, for you and others rely upon it. It is a state of alarm and readiness. You are so used to feeling unsafe that you consider alarm of one kind or another as a realistic approach to life.

(To me:) Your symptoms have been reassuring to the portion of you that habitually followed the old line of thinking. The reasoning falls thusly: “Everything is going well. The books are selling. Ruburt is definitely improving. With so much right, something must go wrong, or things would not go right,” meaning realistic. Beside this the dis-ease serves to protect you from the frightening “fear” that if everything goes well something must be wrong, because in an unsafe universe that is a belief. So you provide a “little” wrong to preserve the larger good.