“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Much has taken place since then. Jane has withdrawn Emir from consideration at Prentice-Hall, and in back of that decision lies a story too complicated to recite in detail here. Tam’s letter of today catalyzed her action, however, when he told her that Prentice-Hall had decided to publish Emir through the children’s department. Jane feared the book, which she regards as the beginning of Oversoul Seven, would be lost in a tiny printing. The advance would also be very low.

Ruburt is not an extremist—nor, on the whole, is he given to extremes. He has at times taken some comparatively extreme measures, and they were taken to some degree because he felt he could be an extremist.

His early background was relatively different: an invalid mother, no father, on welfare, et cetera, so his environment alone to some extent placed him in a different light in the eyes of his contemporaries. Added to this, from the beginning he did indeed –relatively, now—stand out. His unusual vitality, abilities, and intelligence were apparent, but they were not conventional abilities. The ability alone did not win friends and influence people.

By then, however, Ruburt began to fear that he was headed for trouble—that he was too impetuous, headstrong and impulsive. Leaving Walt for you on a moment’s notice, so to speak, was not extremist behavior either, for he had spent three years in that relationship, and gave it indeed all the trial period it deserved. And though he loved you, he did not “plunge” into marriage with you either. In not wanting children, a good amount of discipline was used by both of you—the kind of discipline that simply would not be possible for people “driven” by impulsive desires. Ruburt finally did put an end to his menstrual cycles a good deal earlier than might have happened otherwise. It is easy enough to say that that was extreme, but many women have hysterectomies for the same purpose.

I want to make these points because Ruburt’s physical condition in part was the result of his feelings that left alone, in good condition, he might resort to “extreme behavior.”

Now, what would that extreme behavior consist of “at its worst?” He felt that if he were a person given to extremes, then to use his abilities he must apply due discipline so that his head was not turned, so that he did not become a victim of fame, as many other writers and artists did—or so it seemed. It certainly should be obvious to Ruburt now that his personality contains some quite conservative aspects—a marriage going into two decades and more does not exactly make one worry about promiscuity. So many old fears were based upon misconceptions on the part of the personality that in younger years found itself to be quite different than its contemporaries, and gradually began to set up defenses against them.

When the psychic development began, Ruburt was triumphant, for his abilities were flowering, and intuitively he sensed that direction, but the part of him that also dealt with the world was somewhat appalled, for again, such behavior was not conventional, and it was not particularly “the way to make friends and influence people.”

He wrote poetry as a child because he is a poet. He never consciously asked himself why he did something for which there was so little practical reward in the childish world. As he grew older it did put him in the papers, as he won poetry awards, but it was not a thing that others understood.

In the past, Ruburt didn’t realize fully that his nature was both flamboyant and conservative—that his nature was protected by a natural inner caution that would make the path for his flamboyancy clear. He did not need disciplinary methods that led to physical restrictions of the body.

(9:15.) Now. Give us a moment.... Ruburt is definitely building up a good and dependable sense of trust with the body, and under conditions that were admittedly not of the best. Your own attitude has been excellent—I congratulate you on it, and I congratulate Ruburt on the mental changes of attitude that he is now in the process of setting up.

The feelings of trust are definitely taking hold. There will be no problem with the walking, and in a short time these complete processes will be at a point where he will consistently want to do more walking on a day-by-day basis. Thus far, his impulses have been correct, and forcing the walking at certain times would not be advantageous.

Your own attitudes, however, have changed more than you realize, and the inner changes in Ruburt’s body will begin to show themselves in exterior improvements in performance. Ruburt knows he stands easier in the bathroom, for example, but did not realize that was significant.

The soreness that he does experience sometimes at night is of less intensity than before, and it happens when the body is in the middle of one of those overall processes, so that a large number of muscles and joints are being exercised at one time.

The personality is always pleased with its abilities. If those abilities are extraordinary, or if they do not fit into the social structure, a personality can approve and disapprove, use the abilities, and yet feel the need for protection. I want to erase, however, any ideas that either of you might have that Ruburt is an extremist. He is far too tolerant, for one thing. Extraordinary ability may seem extreme behavior when compared to the mundane lives of many people. A mountain-climber is not necessarily an extremist; an extremist goes from one kind of extreme behavior to another.

He interpreted it thusly. It was a statement of fear, and fear’s resolution. Your father was the symbol of yourself. You were afraid that you were doing everything backward—specifically with “Unknown” Reality, and that the affair would be a disaster—or the car would crash.

Mixed into this were feelings about your age, and that you were spending too much time on the project. Instead, you discover the car does not crash—and not only that, but your father is much more vigorous at the end of the dream than he was in the beginning. You still had not quite recovered from your fear, however. Your father was used as the main character, of course, because he is referred to in your notes, because you planned photographs of him in the beginning, and because in the dream he represented the disapproving portions of your own personality.