“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(1. We were concerned about Jane’s continuing eye-sinus condition—the protruding and drainage. We didn’t want it to become a lasting thing. What, we wondered, was necessary to bring about a reasonable remission?

All societies are different. The tenants at 458 at one time formed a kind of family, and to some extent that relationship continues, as far as the two of you are concerned, with Ann and Leonard. You remember past tenants together as people recall distant or dead family members. And in particular you chose the conditions of the flood and took part in a joint history.

Ruburt’s condition in late years would fluctuate. You would use it, the two of you, as a measuring yardstick: if he began to improve considerably enough, particularly a few years ago, you would instantly, Joseph, become negative and guarded. Instead of being thankful when he began to go out again, you became frightened, and felt that everyone noticed his condition. After all, the two of you rode horses at the head of the pack.

(10:40.) Give us a moment.... Partially it was the belief that women were more vulnerable, and the social conditions—Darwinian and Freudian concepts—that led him to accept that position, and all the material I have given fits in here. There was also the feeling that contemplation and action were self-contradictory.

Ruburt’s condition has also served as a framework in which he is the opposite of the conquering hero. It is an attempt to play down his presence, to be the absent leader—and in this, again, you heartily concurred. You also played down your own leadership role, while of course maintaining it, and the two of you operate as a team now as you did then.

You both had existences in which you combined the traits of each in medieval Europe. Sacred manuscripts were often stolen from one monastery and taken to another, where they were exchanged for the goods of this world, and for sanctuary. Some of those experiences led you both to desire a certain privacy while remaining in the midst of a community, and here again Ruburt’s condition came into service, giving you a built-in reason for not going out into the world.

He is obviously more restricted in that regard, but neither have you had a woman you had to escort, so your times were spent thinking, writing, exploring the nature of reality, and affecting society while not being infected by it, according to your concepts and beliefs. More than this, people come to you, as befits your Turkish condition. You do not go to them. Nor do you set up a school for fools—again, according to your beliefs and concepts.

To some extent, then, the situation has served you both well for years. Ruburt finally became so depressed, however, about the symptoms that his work was involved—an intolerable situation, presenting an instant dilemma. Neither of you really miss not traveling, not going on tours, or not mixing with the world. You became embarrassed at Ruburt’s condition when others saw it, and you finally became alarmed when you wondered how much the body could put up with.

Above all, neither of you wanted the condition to worsen. That is where you drew the line. No condition is stable, but ever-changing. The entire system of beliefs was based upon, again, fear of the spontaneous self on both of your parts—fear that it would lead you where you did not want to go, as if you and it were separate things, or as if its intents were by nature so divorced from your own that you must set up barriers against its expression except in certain acceptable areas.

To some extent or another you each feel that the world is insane. With his literal mind Ruburt took protection against it, and found in your apartment and home what he hoped would be a safe sanctuary in monastic terms, where each of you could learn and grow. On purposes you both agreed. Carried to extremes, however, the condition became alarming. This is why improvements are occurring, and because you each are beginning to realize that there is a natural world out there for the world of nature to which both the soul and the body relate. Your protections have been against the social world, but in the extremes you end up losing an important part of the natural world as well.

Encourage him toward physical activity of a kind that in his physical condition challenges him enough, but is not beyond his physical means. This is important. Do not think, again, in terms of absolutes, but of improvement from where he is, and use your creativity there. This is important.