“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You took one small but important area—one that bothered him deeply, and frightened him; narrowed it down, so to speak, pointed out a simple but effective method of operation to be followed. You clearly made it known that you expected him to behave in that one regard in a different manner. That one habit and no other was to be changed. It was difficult for him. He struggled, for example, against the old ingrained pattern, to get himself up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, or to stop what he was doing in the day, to go every hour, yet he did so. You checked up on him in the beginning. This was important, and helped strengthen the entire affair.

You checked up on him in the middle of the night in the beginning, or you would question him in the morning. Now, though you no longer do so, the new habit has largely replaced the old, though in times of nervousness he might forget.

This was important, because it showed that he could change, and removed physical fears he had, for example about his kidneys—but more important, because you zeroed in on an area in which change was possible.

You also avoided some issues to your advantage, though it may not seem so. Ruburt was to go to the bathroom, period. He did not have to walk straighter or faster—the getting there, or the destination, regardless of the method, was stressed.

Actually, many times he walks to the bathroom faster at night, since he is not worried about how he looks. The larger point is that you believed, each of you, that change in that particular area was possible. Ruburt moves about faster at night because the patterned behavior of the day is not present.

Physically the body is still responding. Certain body beliefs operate. I will have more to say but tonight is not the time. He has been lately working with inner ideas of spontaneity, hence the Cézanne material, and the initial speaker’s manuscript. Your encouragement with the bathroom issue was concentrated in that area, and hence effective. Often you are each blind, or shortsighted, in the same areas.

Now Ruburt does walk more around the house than he did, but he should extend this to your ground. It would help if you walked with him in the beginning, though this is not necessarily a prerequisite. Show the body what you want and it will respond. Then, however, in the meantime forget it.

He did well in other areas when you were concentrating only upon the bathroom, for he ceased worrying, concentrating upon one area where he could and did improve.