“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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.

His method of dealing with the affair was also good in this way. He gave himself a time period that he knew he could reasonably handle. There is no use in telling yourself in absolute terms that you will never project negatively. To expect any kind of commitment to an invisible future is too much in that regard. Ruburt can, however, each day tell himself that for that day he will try to avoid such negative projection. That kind of method gives you something to work with, and a time period you can handle.

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.

This is a way of encouraging Ruburt’s physical spontaneity, for his emotions and body each together want to move at such times. It is a way of assuring your own physical selves that you have a right to physical pleasure, as any animal does, whether or not you succeed in the world, or reach work goals, or meet any of the other issues that may concern you. Such periods also provide definite regeneration of the spirit, body, and mind. Carried to the extreme in the past, Ruburt would not even want to take time for a decent shower, unless his other goals for the week were met.

The belief that he could not walk properly is the result of all the issues we’ve mentioned. It is indeed a side effect. You saw how well your remark last evening worked. It was hardly a momentous affair, yet it meant that Ruburt could forget his physical problems to a considerable extent, stop worrying about whether he would have to go to the bathroom, or how to get there, or when people would leave so he could get there, and so the evening was effectively altered for the better.

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.

For example, you can see this operate in terms of creativity: money comes to you now without new work involved, in terms, say, of paperback sales. Those paperback sales were latent, so to speak, when the hardcover books were sold. In the same way highly significant improvements not yet visible, are in the offing in Ruburt’s condition, that will, say, seemingly require no effort when in your terms they do appear. All of this applies in the terms in which you are now working—that is, in your present framework.

In that framework the rules are different. In that framework the truth is that Ruburt can indeed walk normally now, and that nothing prevents it except for the belief that it is not so. Now I would like the truth of this higher framework at least to affect the framework in which you are now operating in this other framework, and I will have to use your points of reference (with almost a laugh.)

Saying all this, I want to make certain things plain, however. You are still largely in Framework 1, so I do not want you to think in terms of absolutes. I do not want you to suddenly expect in Framework 1 sudden, normal activity on Ruburt’s part, or to compare his present behavior against that standard. That operates detrimentally.

(10:21.) Give us a moment.... In terms of creativity, however, Ruburt has long been operating in Framework 2, and this session should help him make certain correlations so that he can automatically begin to use such methods in regard to his physical condition.

Your introduction of intimate moments, Joseph, is a small example. You have been afraid of dreaming of physical success, for fear you would not succeed, but the dreams are what makes Ruburt’s improvements possible.

Plan for a vacation. Dream about where you would go. Open your minds to such dreams, for when you do you do not close your imaginations. You need not set a time schedule, but at least in your minds gives yourselves freedom. You do not even have to decide that Ruburt is completely recovered—but the very plans for motion will definitely have beneficial effects on his condition and on the shape of your daily life.

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.

Ruburt begins with the large philosophical issues, and somewhat purposefully adopted a thinking pattern at least, or a method of operation, that to some extent ignored details, lest he become too involved in them—in, say, slaying a multitudinous number of detailed paper dragons. He does not deal with generalities, however, but he does not think in terms of specific questions, allowing specifics to emerge in a fresh way from the larger subjects of his interest.

The two of you often misunderstand your patterns of behavior in that regard, for they operate at many levels of your lives. Ruburt is pragmatic, however, in that he insists upon relating philosophy to daily life—but, again, by providing overall models for behavior, rather than, say, specific detailed method.

This balance is to a large extent responsible for the fact that the material reaches so many people, and your own joint characteristics in that regard are more obvious to your readers than to yourselves. The entire scope of the material of course reflects your joint questions—but Ruburt’s are often unformed, dealing with intuitive issues that he does not trust to verbalization.