“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(As Jane and I worked with the pendulum on Thursday morning, May 8, I thought of two questions for Seth that we’d never asked him before. 1. Since he is presumably dead by now, what does Dr. Instream think about psychic phenomena? Does he remember Jane, etc? 2. What about the young psychologist we met at Oswego during our visit to see Instream? What does that individual now think about psychic phenomena: Does he remember Jane, etc? Has he heard of her? Why did I get to talking with him in the conference room on campus, then take him to our room, where he proceeded to so upset Jane?

(This morning Jane and I worked with the pendulum on the question of inspiration, and discovered that there was much there to be learned and clarified in her attitudes, and mine too, for that matter. The three pages of questions we devised are on file. We learned among other things that Jane felt she had to hold off on new inspiration while we fulfilled existing commitments—schedules and contracts, etc., and that she wanted to help type “Unknown” Reality, Volume 2, presumably, I thought so that she could get it out of the way so she’d be free to go on to other things. I hadn’t anticipated her doing that kind of “work,” though. This afternoon she did type on the first session for the book, though, and said she felt much better. We asked that Seth comment on the whole idea of inspiration for her, beyond material he’s already given.

An excellent discussion—and quite apropos—for it shows how your working methods differ. It also shows considerable misunderstandings on both of your parts.

Ruburt “works” intuitively. The results appear quickly sometimes effortlessly. He uses a different kind of organization. That organization is holistic, so that it deals with large issues. He begins there, and the details necessary fall into place. You might quite properly say that much “work” is involved, but it is of an interior, concentrated, intent and largely invisible nature. Often only the results show.

I have given information on this before, but you settled upon the idea of work, as you think of it, because it was the only way at the time that you could justify art to yourself. Naturally, however, your working method is different, and is built up of an intricate series of quite complicated logical judgements involving spatial relationships—in for example particular kinds of immaculate gradations. I am speaking of your painting now.

Ruburt has always rather envied your approach. His, relatively speaking, is a fiery approach. He is quite unaware, consciously, of doing any work for these sessions. He does, of course, for our communications do not just happen, and my voice (much louder, briefly) like his, is an inspired one.

The world thinks that inspiration is impractical, and you have both made unfortunate distinctions between inspiration and work. You can afford to do so more than Ruburt, since your natural working method falls more easily into that kind of context, where the effort shows in time. Ruburt cannot afford such distinctions.

The dream initiated your pendulum work on inspiration, for to Ruburt to deaden yourself is to deaden inspiration, which to him is the quickness of life. Now he did this because of his ideas of work, and of jobs to be done, and effort.

When he thinks of work in that fashion, then feelings of responsibility, respectability, scorn or criticism emerge, to thicken the picture. He felt that inspiration was providing so much material that it could not be handled in time. He also felt that his inspiration threatened you with more work, which, it seemed to him, was not particularly pleasant for you, since you often spoke about your difficulties in doing the notes, and only lately have you begun to say when you are doing well.

You must free your own rhythms so that they work together smoothly, as indeed they can, for they complement each other. As I have said before, Ruburt can indeed handle details quite well, and is an excellent logical thinker.

You underplay your own intuitional abilities and spontaneity. The lines are not all that finely drawn. You are both coming along quite well now, but yes, you should cut Frank’s visits to every other week, for you need to concentrate now upon your own approaches. Many of Frank’s ideas are appallingly shortsided, and while you are working with your own beliefs a visit every other week is enough for now—without courting Frank’s opinions, as can happen when Ruburt wants Frank, in conventional terms, to acknowledge improvements that are definitely occurring, but that Frank is too slow to perceive.

You thought that if the Instream affair did not work out, this might be another point of contact. That desire led you to disregard conflicting feelings, urging you to leave the man alone.