“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Nothing would make Ruburt comply, of course, to the suggestion unless it met with his own acceptance, because of his own fears.

Your daily conversation over the years has carried a steady stream of suggestion, in which your time must be protected almost at any cost. You have tempered many of those ideas. Suggestion has served you both well in many ways. Years ago you learned how potent suggestion could be when Ruburt used hypnosis with you, and you promptly dropped it. You did not use it with Ruburt, nor did Ruburt make any serious attempts to use it himself. You tried on a role for size, and did not like the fit. Moreover, Ruburt would simply not go to work, and lose writing time to support you so you could paint.

(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.

As you learned, you went through periods where you tried out alterations. Sometimes you did this together, but as explained some time ago, one or the other would cut the affair short because you were not jointly ready. The suggestions you were each using were invisible to you, while in your creative lives suggestion was quite apparent. Many people have such invisible areas, because it suits their purposes.

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.

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.

Your growing understanding, however, began to threaten that framework, for you saw that life itself was an art. In a way, much of what I told you threatened your framework, for my ideas of spontaneity clashed with your beliefs and the need for discipline above all. Your beliefs about time would prevent taking time out for relaxation exercises or for suggestion, as of this evening. You knew how well hypnosis worked, though the term is meaningless.

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.

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.