“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

—and since I can choose my own topic, let us begin with suggestion.

Ruburt has made some effort to avoid negative projections, and has therefore met with some success. Last evening, however, he became involved in a round of such projections, which operate, of course, as negative suggestions. When he voiced some of these you immediately told him that he was doing so. Previously this round of projections had been almost automatic—that is, he did not catch himself at it, but accepted the worries as worries, without seeing that the situations might or might not occur.

He resolved that he would refrain from such projections for the evening, and he did. This required initially some considerable effort, but once he decided upon this a mechanism took over so that for a while he behaved almost automatically in the new manner, as before he had behaved almost automatically in the old way. Your remark therefore operated as an excellent suggestion, that he desist from such activity.

Your simple remark then was strong enough to completely alter the pattern of his thoughts and behavior last evening, and most of today, so I want you to recognize the importance of your comments. In the past Ruburt might have reacted differently, perhaps with self-pity, but now he is much more amiable to beneficial suggestions, so that one can completely turn him about, back to his course.

At your present “working level,” Ruburt goes through a series of beneficial physical changes, of posture, body alignment, release of muscles. These are all occurring. They are for that matter accelerating. The practical value, for example, of good suggestion finally does accelerate into improved behavior, though some periods of time may be involved. Finally, however, the suggestions accumulate, so to speak, in the realm or level we are speaking of.

The whole idea of the release of muscles, joints, the physical procedure, involves necessary methods and procedures while you are operating in Framework 1, and there you always are looking for the necessary quite vital evidence of improvement. You are checking to see how you are doing—again, quite necessary when you believe that there is indeed something wrong with the body. In Framework 2, there is nothing wrong with the body, again. It is responding, however, to suggestions almost automatically applied. In that framework you deal with mental patterns, beliefs, and emotions. There, you are confident enough to forget the body entirely, as you work with the nature of suggestion, and with the changing of mental patterns. There, you are so confident of the truth that your beliefs form reality that you need not check the body at every point to see how it is reacting, for you know it will respond as completely to the new suggestions as it did to the old, even though you recognize that practically speaking some time might be involved in Framework 2’s time.

The suggestion that he have heating dreams will work now, for work can indeed be done in the dream state that would otherwise take physical time.

I simply want to remind you of that other level, so that you can begin—gently, now, gently—to alter your emphasis, to begin to emphasize the use of suggestion in a new creative way. I have used the word creative before, asking you both to utilize creative methods to the physical situation. What I was actually doing was trying to point you toward Framework 2, where you do each have faith in the nature of ideas, suggestions, and achievement. You know the power of an idea, but you have not applied that to the physical problem. I hope that the session will arouse you both in that regard.

I will have more to say about suggestion, how it operates personally, and how it affects political beliefs and even economic conditions, for it causes your daily reality. In your lives you see the results of the suggestions you have given yourselves—some extraordinarily excellent, bringing about superior understanding, growth of character, achievements on both of your parts, and a comfortable living in financial terms. Others have resulted in Ruburt’s physical condition. Your small suggestion about last night—because he was ready and open—altered the evening. Because you are less affected obviously by the negative suggestion, you can catch him, and he will now respond beneficially.

In Framework 1, it does take some time for new habits to form, but even there constructive suggestions accelerate as beliefs change, so I would like you both to pay particular attention to the suggestions that operate in your lives.

(10:37. I thought since the hour wasn’t very late yet, we could get some information on other subjects. Jane had no questions. I speculated about my painting of the Italian woman, as I call her, and about a passage I read recently in Seth Speaks; in it, Seth had mentioned that he’d been a black in Ethiopia. Perhaps, I suggested to Jane, we could get some material on his life then.