“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.

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.

Animals not only enjoy the sounds that they make, they are to some extent enchanted by them. The animals’ interior world is silent. The sound of an animal’s hoof upon the ground fills it with a sense of power and affirmation. The cat’s meow (amused) is as enchanting to the cat as to its owner—meaningful sounds that communicate feeling. These are enjoyed by all such species. Man’s language, and the sound of the words, brings the greatest sense of accomplishment, biologically and psychically. The infant’s discovery that it can communicate in such a way is indeed magical to it. No matter how wasteful with words a person might seem to be, each one contains an amazing economy, and is chosen precisely because it is a perfect carrier for certain intents or feelings that are all organized by that word. There are many obvious simple examples, such as the word “home,” which can automatically organize psychic, emotional, geographical, natural, and time information.

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.

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.

The actual words you use, again, no matter how spontaneously chosen, have meanings on many levels, and speak of your own intent, Joseph, as much as Ruburt’s. Before, you see, when I brought up such issues, you would become defensive, thinking “Must I watch every word I speak?” or “How can suggestion be that important?” Ruburt would react the same.

(10:24.) An exercise such as this evening’s simply allows you to unify your will with your body, and bridge the gap of separation artificially formed, to quiet the panic, to unify the so-called conscious and unconscious, and such exercises will release energy, not only for Ruburt’s recovery, but will automatically revive your psychic lives. You are taking conscious control of the magic of words, in order to use them for new intents, and to dramatically change the old ones.

I would simply like you both, without stressing the issue overduly, to be more aware of your conversations, without monitoring them. See how you use suggestion naturally to reinforce and encourage your creative activities, and how you use it otherwise. You mean what you say. Your words are literal and symbolic at the same time.