“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.

You both have had this kind of communication through the years. I am simply stating a few examples. Years ago, when walking down the street with Ruburt, he exuberantly ahead of you, you often said “Slow down.” A simple remark. Yet it did contain indeed, at the time, sexual, social, and work implications, and it was carefully chosen. It meant “Don’t be so unconventional in public.” It meant “Don’t be ahead of me sexually,” further meaning “Don’t want sex when we are involved in other issues.” At that time, long past, you were worried and somewhat jealous of Ruburt’s work progress. You both knew what that remark meant. That is an example of the kind of remark that acts as potent suggestion on many levels.

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.

(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.

You would have a kind of isolation from the world. You did not like galleries, nor the give-and-take with the world. You waned a situation where you could each write and paint relatively undisturbed. Ruburt’s relative fame almost upset the applecart, so further measures were taken by both of you. I want it understood that I am using you both as examples here, for such conditions operate in any situation. You began to accept more physical responsibility for the house, and Ruburt let you. In a manner of speaking, you encouraged him to become more dependent in that way, while encouraging him to use his mental and psychic abilities. For these he received verbal reward. He went along, you see, for it suited his purposes also.

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.

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.

When you were discussing the letter from the young English gentleman, Ruburt was impressed with his progress. You said “But he was walking,” meaning that Ruburt was not. Ruburt is walking—as poorly as our hypothetical writer is writing. His walking is impaired, but the ability is there. Your world is a world of suggestion, for suggestion implies directions, communications to act or not act in certain directions.

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 not even making any money at his writing. In the face of that, you became the physically agile one. All of this was accomplished through suggestion. In a variety of ways, Ruburt was rewarded for mental and psychic spontaneity. You were rewarded for physical agility, and for your painting. He was discouraged from physical activity, and social spontaneity. This served for many years. Ruburt’s strong constitution is amazing. Even his overall moods remained exuberant for years. There was no need to change for some time.

It hurts Ruburt to walk. He is convinced of it, he has told himself that so often. One man who wrote you said he got sick to his stomach when he tried to write, and Ruburt could see easily the suggestion operating. Try reversing the suggestion.

About Ruburt’s predictions (about yesterday’s mail; very successful): many people feel such a performance impossible. You know everything there is to know about those issues that concern your lives. That reviewer (Donald Newlove) has connections with Ruburt in Framework 2, because of Ruburt’s old intents when he published in the male magazines.

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.