“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.

Listen to your own conversation. When your friend Leonard comes and speaks of taking time out, you say “I wish I could afford such luxury,” or some such. You think of yourself as virtuous. The idea of not having enough time becomes your badge of virtue, showing that you are hard-working and not “an indolent artist.”

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.

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.

If you are with friends, either of you, and someone, for example Bill Gallagher, says that he envies you for being able to work at home and be free, neither of you ever say “It’s terrific—just what we wanted,” or some such.

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.

You form your private and joint reality. Those beliefs of your own that went underground, so to speak, must be altered. I have mentioned the important ones this evening. Time works with you, not against you. Underline 4 times.

The symptoms are really minimal. To some extent however they represent the weight of your own beliefs that Ruburt added to his own symptoms. He refuses to bear that weight any longer. There is no doubt that he worries about them. Yet he is determined to be free. Your work with the pendulum, again, is important, for it assures him that you believe enough in a safe universe to encourage his freedom, and your own.

The nervous system is being regenerated and strengthened. Certain psychic connections will be made easier, and entire “new” aspects of his work will appear. The body’s rate of progress is such that it allows him an intimate awareness of the healing process, and brings about a companionship with the body that he needed.