“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This afternoon, as Seth suggested I do in the last session, I gave Jane beneficial suggestions for 15 minutes or so at naptime, until my voice became tired. I didn’t try outright to hypnotize her, although certainly hypnotic factors must have been involved. I stressed her general relaxation, mentioning each part of her body often. I used the word “heavy” several times also, meaning that she could be aware of the normal weight of her body, but later wondered if it was a good word to use. Jane enjoyed the experience; she lay on her right side with her face covered, and I sat beside the bed. After I’d finished Jane said that although the experience was enjoyable she didn’t feel “anything great.” Then we slept.

(I was really pleased. As we talked Jane said Seth was around, and she gave me a capsule summary of what he’d have said had we held a session. It had to do with the power of suggestion, our reluctance to use it, and so forth. It’s explored more fully in the session below, yet I also feel, from the description Jane gave me at the time, that Seth explores the whole thing from a different angle, too.

In your daily lives, then, you use words so easily that you often overlook their power. You do not understand their implications, or the great inner organization that is behind the most simple utterance.

(9:30. The telephone began to ring.) Do as you wish.

(9:56.) You did not exactly change roles, you modified them. It would be Ruburt who would stay home. He would accept the financial burden gladly, if he could combine it with his writing, and in return you would do much of the household chores. You would have financial security at least so that you could paint without money worries.

Yet, in those areas in which you are so proficient such issues would never arise. I do not need to tell you not to tell Ruburt that he is an untalented dumb ox. I do not need to tell Ruburt not to tell you that you are an untalented painter. Such things do not enter your heads. You do not have to watch yourselves every moment, so that you do not give negative suggestions in those areas.

Now, you take a person gifted as a writer and constantly apply the suggestion that to the contrary the person cannot write. That person will soon stop his efforts. He will do no writing at all after a while. He may write his name on a check, or scrawl an inadequate letter to a relative, and his very handwriting might even deteriorate. The writing ability is still there, though his performance is as impeded as Ruburt’s is in his walking.