“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(We’ve also talked over Seth’s answer in the last session about why the subconscious doesn’t back off when it’s obvious that it’s gone too far in a protective role, say. I said that I understood his answer to my question all right, but yet that I felt there were still things there to be discussed; that in individual cases, for instance, the subconscious could go too far when there was no need to, and that in such cases it seemed to ignore the wishes and desires of the conscious personality involved. I felt, then, that there should be a more intimate give-and-take between all portions of a personality. Since in numerous cases throughout the species’ history, I added, this hadn’t happened, I thought there could be important insights there that we might learn from Seth. But primarily, my original question had to do with Jane’s own case, and at this time that was the one we were still interested in gaining insight into.)

I would like you both to try a slightly different emphasis—but a highly important one, in the way in which you look at Ruburt’s situation.

Ruburt is beginning from his own position, and he is seeking the normal, free motion of his body. All of the equipment is there, and there are no disease elements. The body has not been used, however, in a normal manner. As mentioned, when bodybuilders build up certain muscles, they do indeed experience great distress at times. They understand the reason for the discomfort, for they are building muscle—but in their cases they often overdo it. Nevertheless there are others with whom they can share their discomfort.

A bodybuilder begins with certain weights that he can handle. He does not berate himself because he cannot yet achieve greater weights. As much as possible, then, think in terms of Ruburt not so much as having certain symptoms, but as being simply out of condition and trying to reestablish certain physical skills. Do not concentrate upon the lacks. This alteration of perspective can be of great help.

Now: you are working very well together, and your suggestion about the use of the chair (to get around the house) was the result of Framework 2 creativity. It took Ruburt a day or so to accept it. He was afraid of wheelchair connotations, but he triumphed over that negative idea. Your suggestion was important for several reasons. It was practical, and could be done at once. Its most important benefit, however, was that it freed Ruburt from mentally seeing himself in only one corner of one room, and immediately aroused his normal leanings toward love of whatever home you share.

Try not to use the word “symptoms” in your pendulum work from now on. There are other ways, but the word has served its purpose. “Is my body out of condition because,” for example. There are endless other ways, but the change of focus as I have suggested will automatically bring a change in your questions. Always end your pendulum sessions with the new beliefs you want to instill, reinforcing whatever you have learned from that particular session. The idea of those pendulum sessions should not be to find out what is wrong, but to discover Ruburt’s feelings and beliefs, and to ascertain how they can be changed to bring about more favorable conditions.

(10:22.) I simply want to stress that health in those terms does involve more. The “subconscious” will try to save an individual from great disappointment. This may mean the incidence of a disease, but the disease may save a person’s sanity. So the issues are not nearly as clear as it would at first seem.

He wanted to use his intuitive abilities fully, but felt that great caution must be used. He thought mainly of the health of your relationship together, and the health of his work. He became divided, seeing these as opposing tendencies in his personality, rather than as complementary ones that quite naturally met in his personality, so one was set against the other. Much of this appears in your pendulum work of late, but you both then project those ideas upon the world, so that you think of your readers as overly credulous, or of critics who are overly critical. This leads of course to people who are for you, but dumb; or against you but intellectual.

If this were not so, the subconscious would not only see to it that the body was in ordinary good health under any conditions, but it would automatically refuse to allow any individual to put its health in jeopardy.

Now there are some people who consider overall balance a prerogative, and you will usually find them in decent health, with average concerns, and you will not find them taking risks. The subconscious does not exist, of course. “It” is a highly personalized portion of the self, uniquely tuned. Some people enjoy risks. The body may be in excellent health, and die that way in an accident. But the subconscious knows that the quality of life for that individual involves such exhilaration, and such a person literally chooses that rather than, for example, what someone else might consider a well-balanced long life.

One flower may die before another. One may be blemished and the other not, but none are the less flowers for that. Ruburt was convinced he needed certain protections. His judgments, and yours to a lesser extent, can be regarded as the flower’s blemishes, though I am aware it is not easy for you to see this in that light.

It is imperative, however, that you make an effort not to think in terms of “the symptoms” any longer, but instead to think of ways that Ruburt can condition his body, realizing that he need not be at the mercy of old fears.

One was at a time when Ruburt began Rich Bed and the first draft of Adventures. He was examining beliefs, expressing aggressions naturally, and freeing his spontaneity. This led to the birth of new creative material as well. His beliefs and hopes arose again later when I gave the sessions on spontaneity and work that I want him to reread. But those probabilities did not materialize.