“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now: you (to me) have been wondering whether or not to use family photographs in “Unknown” Reality. On the one hand you see how they fit into the book. Yet photographs are also connected in your mind with paintings to some degree. This is visual data, and as far as photographs are concerned personal data, out in the open, so to speak.

(“Well, with the pendulum I’d arrived at the idea that my stomach bothered me because of a conflict between painting and writing—the time I have for each. I want to do them both—it isn’t that I prefer one over the other. I received the answer that I felt guilty over the conflict: when I wanted to do one, I thought I should be working on the other.”)

(“I thought of the photo connection when I first bought the album, and told Jane what I had in mind. But I got off the track with the pendulum. I never got a clear idea of what bothered me. I didn’t ask the right questions; I knew this when my stomach kept bothering me. I finally got so confused I stopped trying to use it.”

(There was a short exchange between Seth and me, which I didn’t note down verbatim. He repeated that my mother would be against using photographs of her—something I’d never arrived at with the pendulum. When Seth asked if I had more questions, finally, I said no, that I’d have to think it over, and that perhaps we’d decide not to use photographs after all in “Unknown” Reality.

(This really surprised me, since for some months I’ve had the idea that my own reluctance to use photographs was a weakness on my part, when it was obvious that they’d add considerably to the books. But my reluctance was based, I thought, on my resentment at Prentice-Hall over their handling of art work; I really didn’t want to let the photos in question out of the house, for fear they’d be lost, etc. This in spite of Tam’s assurances some months ago that they’d be handled with care, etc. I still think my reaction here is valid. But I missed out on the connections involving my mother, disclosure, etc.

(And those are the ones that count, it appears. I felt much better after the session last night. I slept well, and worked well at painting this morning. But when I began typing this material after lunch, the stomach complaints returned. to some degree—proof to me that Seth’s diagnosis had been quite accurate.