“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane did want to try the session, even though she was so content. She’s also going to write her own account for her energy notebook. Even now I’m aware of how to proceed with future episodes of suggestion, and will try to implement the ideas. I also forgot to mention anything about Jane’s eyes, which should have been done. I also didn’t ask Seth about Jane’s delayed reaction to the suggestions, so am making a note of that for next Saturday’s session, at Jane’s request. All in all, the affair was a great success, we feel, and most encouraging. We may have learned a great lesson.)

Now: you use suggestion very well. Everyone does. People use words somewhat in the way that you might use dream images. One word carries many meanings, and no matter how spontaneously it seems you speak, even the most mundane remark is carefully chosen so that it serves as the spoken symbol for many unspoken ones.

Now: you use words and their suggestive elements to reinforce and communicate your own purposes, beliefs, and intents. There are all kinds of verbal and body signs that tell you which words are to be attended to more than others, so that the quality of the words is strengthened or qualified. In a family, certain phrases are spoken over and over again through the years. The power of those communications rides upon the same kind of symbolism as dream images, in which each image is actually tightly organized.

Now look at another remark, made far more often. “You must use your abilities. I know you are highly gifted.” That meant “You are highly gifted as a writer.” Ruburt did not have to follow that suggestion either, but it also fitted in with his intents. He had his reasons for following it. The most careless remark in any situation is not careless. That is the nature of communication.

Any attempts on Ruburt’s part to help more in the kitchen or wherever, will for example now take time, in that you could perform the same chore far quicker —so you will run up against your old beliefs about the value and use of time.

Ruburt constantly tells himself he cannot walk properly. It is reasonable for him to say that now he is not walking properly. The ability to walk properly is his, however. He can walk properly. He has hypnotized himself into believing that he cannot. You have helped reinforce that suggestion, for reasons that should now be obvious.

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.

No one accepts suggestion against their will, but few people know their will. You are so used to believing that there is a conscious mind that you call the will, and an unconscious mind whose intents are unknown to you, and seemingly not yours, that you, meaning people in general, are unaware of your own will, your own desire, your own intent. You are unaware as a people of your entire consciousness, and I am speaking now in pragmatic terms, not in esoteric ones.

Unknowingly you went through the same process, when you initiated what you are now trying to get out of. There were no formal sessions, but there were impediments, for at that time you were momentarily convinced of your own physical difficulties. You had to suggest yourself out of those, with Ruburt’s help. You had to convince yourself that you were not only capable, but physically capable enough to take over for Ruburt—and this at a time when he was carrying the heavy packages up the stairs.

He was relaxed this morning to some extent, allowing his abilities to flow, and any psychic experiments he tries now will be beneficial from many standpoints. “Hypnosis” experiments, again, will free your energy flows, both of you. Suggestion operates as an organizer, bringing you from Framework 2 exactly what you want. Your purposes have changed. You now want Ruburt to be flexible physically, to be physically agile. You must alter the suggestion, then, that Ruburt primarily, and you secondarily, have been giving. I will have more to say about suggestion Saturday. For it applies in other than verbal terms, of course.

Objects have suggestive value. For example, I would like one of your badminton rackets, and a birdie, around in sight, for its suggestive value. You need not touch the items for now. I will have some remarks Saturday also about the psychic horror story in the Enquirer, stressing the power of suggestion in another area.

(10:51 PM. As soon as the session ended Jane went right back into her extremely relaxed state. During the session she had been as active and animated as usual, however, her delivery good, etc. But now as she sat on the couch she once more had trouble coordinating. She yawned repeatedly, and so forth.)