“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The circulation has increased considerably in Ruburt’s legs, knees, and feet as a direct result of the increased activity. Today the knees were activated almost constantly, relatively speaking, because he did follow his impulses. Since he is moving more, just about every portion of the body takes new positions. It is natural enough when he begins such activity if ambiguous feelings emerge. They should be accepted, for they often show conflicting beliefs that are then out in the open and more easily contended with, because a specific incident will usually be involved.

Each such incident is like, now, a small morality play, with a lesson to be learned, and therefore each such incident is a step ahead in terms of progress and understanding. Almost immediately after your chair suggestion, and with the work you are both doing, Ruburt’s mind and body began to respond. Mentally he began to think of doing things that previously he had simply put aside. The definite improvements are therefore the result of Ruburt’s determination, and your support, but also of the body’s resiliency when it is allowed to follow its natural impulses.

Ruburt’s lapses have become quite noticeable to him, in contrast with the renewed air of freedom that he has indeed felt lately. He has also, however, begun to project, in small ways, in a quite positive manner, and felt impulses that before he denied.

I have mentioned this before, but your environment is a symbol of your inner life and beliefs; one appears physical to you while the inner life does not. The physical body responds to stimulus from outside and from within. Ruburt’s newer activity enlarges the physical stimulation possible—the different view of your house and grounds, for example; or preparing one meal automatically reminds him of others that he will want to prepare.

(Long pause at 10:20.) Now give us a moment.... Ruburt is doing the point of power exercise well. I do suggest the pillow pounding, for it encourages the expression of normally aggressive feelings through bodily release, rather than repression through bodily tension.

Now many beliefs that are unfortunate, in your terms, are worked out through creativity at other levels, so that dreams, intuitions, and mental processes work together with bodily expression toward a resolution. Some of Ruburt’s exaggerated fears, for example, become minimized automatically as he realizes that he can do some activities that he had given up.

You had a period of acceptance under your belt, in comics, that you left. Ruburt did not. (An important point to remember.) He was determined to go his own way. His being demanded expression through the use of its abilities, and despite his need to be accepted by others he began to exaggerate the threat of their disapproval into scorn. When he began to sell his work, he felt to some degree, now, dependent upon the acceptance of the others in the world—for if they did not accept him at all they would not buy his books. Your own feelings about the world did not help in that regard.

The two of you exaggerated your position. You saw yourselves in opposition to the world. Ruburt was afraid his need for the world’s acceptance might lead him out into it again, where he would necessarily meet scorn, for he thought in absolutes.

It is important that he used to promise himself that he would go on tours or television if he became well. This was actually a threat he held over his own head. You must both realize that he can indeed recover completely—and you must both want him to. Do not forget Framework 2. Ruburt need not go abroad in the world to promote our ideas, nor have I ever suggested it. The ideas are best promoted through these sessions, and books—and not by hasty encounters on television, where answers must be simplified and ideas diluted, but in the reasoned writings that build in their own way, tell Ruburt, resting upon the great framework of the intuitions’ knowledge. And remind him that spontaneity knows it own order.

You might feel like applying yourself to “Unknown” Reality, and you might feel like writing steadily for many hours. Well and good. I am aware of your difficulties with time, practically, and yet freeing yourself of the ideas of work as you have begun to do lately with “Unknown” frees your creativity, and you concentrate better and more clearly. This applies in double fashion to Ruburt.

Ruburt’s way of forgetting past books is a natural and good one for him. It conflicts with your natural way. The two ways can complement each other if you understand this, as you are beginning to. In your society, with your ideas, you have paved a way for yourselves. The books sustain you financially. People do accept you, and in a way that is quite important to their pocketbooks, and in times that are not financially good. Forget the taxes. If they seem unfair to you, they are unfair to many—you are not being singled out in that regard.

The increased activity and the release of impulses with these sessions, and your pendulum work, are once again arousing Ruburt’s body and mind, and your own, so that you have an excellent chance now for Ruburt to recover. Do not let issues go underground. There are improvements, and considerable ones. You want more. Remember what I said about muscular activity, so that when Ruburt does have a sore day, say, you do not become discouraged.

The eyeglass dream portion: the old black frames of the glasses represented old beliefs. They were dropped into the water, the realm of Ruburt’s fears, by a young man who represented an earlier self who thought success was a male prerogative. The glasses came up cleansed, but together again, and the frames were updated—so that Ruburt’s fears, encountered as he is doing of late, actually allow him to see better and clear his vision. For they dissolve, and vision is restored.

This portion of the dream represents his realization that his eyes are clearing. The fears are being washed away. Before, he was afraid to go down into the fears, represented by the water. The fears dissolving, however, turn into cleansing agents. The part of the self responsible for the fears was the part that thought success a male prerogative, so that the woman had to exert extra discipline. That was also one of the reasons behind Ruburt’s fear of the world’s scorn.

That is enough for this evening. One small point: as you realize, the adolescent children did represent emotional conflicts in the dream that Ruburt managed to force his way through.