“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Before the session Jane read her summary of the week’s events, including her continuing improvements. Her knees especially have shown many signs of loosening. Tam called her Friday; he’d received the James presentation, and was most enthusiastic, which cheered Jane a great deal. Then Saturday we learned by mail that Bantam is about to contract for the paperback edition of Politics. We are also waiting for the September royalty payment from Prentice-Hall, due probably next week. Tonight Jane remarked: “If only I could get my physical condition to work as well as the money one.” But she’s making progress. And last night we had a congenial group of friends in.

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.

The two of you have been working much closer together, however. Your remark therefore instantly alerted him, and in spite of company coming almost immediately, and in spite of his worries generated by the projections, he did immediately use your remark in such a way that he was challenged creatively to change his approach at once.

It served to remind him what he was doing—but more, it allowed him to recognize the situation, which you saw clearly while for a time it was invisible to him.

The affair was important because it showed him that such techniques do work, and it is an excellent example of one of the most important ways you have of helping him. You did not lecture him, for example—simply stated your recognition of behavior that you knew he would not want to continue, and was trying to break.

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.

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.

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.