“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

None of Ruburt’s characteristics are “negative,” bad, or dangerous. All of them, recognized as a part of his nature, would basically work together in the most auspicious, satisfying, and fulfilling of fashions. When he fears his own nature, however, then the qualities are not put together as smoothly, so that one can appear contradictory to the other. Thusly, Ruburt felt that there were contradictions between spontaneity and discipline, the intuitions and the intellect. Therefore he tried to be either spontaneous or disciplined, or intellectual or intuitive, but with the implied supposition that these were somehow opposing conditions, or opposing elements of behavior.

(10:10.) Give us a moment.... He has been painting lately, quite happily anticipating the next painting period, yet at the same time worried that he is not writing instead; or when he does write on Seven, he does so because he thinks he should. So he experiences a conflict. He did give in to the impulse to paint, however. The painting is providing a mental rest, aiding in the coordination of hand and eye, and allowing him to work at certain inner challenges in a different way. His nature knows he needs the variety—the creative variety.

Because of your age difference, Ruburt felt he had to catch up, and he became more conscious of clock time. I want those sessions read again that I gave about his attitudes toward “work.” They were designed specifically for him and his nature, for when he forgets about work, with its connotations for him, then he is at his most intuitively creative, and inspiration springs naturally and quickly at his beckoning.

It will help if the two of you together discuss your feelings about time and work. Ruburt’s nature will see to it that he has time to do all the important things he wants to do in any given day. Becoming more aware of his desires will activate the body so that it performs more quickly in order to meet his goals. In the past he cut the desires down, to make sure that the most important prerogatives would be met, but his picture of reality was too small. The body and mind both need stimuli, variety, and richness, and his nature automatically seeks expression, not repression.

Ruburt has not remembered, and yet in the dream state he has been working through such issues. Physically, rooms in the house have opened to him, as with the kitchen, and the table (just delivered by Leonard) in the new room. Those represent the opening of inner rooms, of course, and will further trigger the opening of still new intuitive areas.

(I might add that today, Thursday, Jane experienced a dramatic further release in her neck and other areas of her body, so we are getting results with our program. Her new release began this morning as we worked with the pendulum, and she can attach her report to this session if she wants to. We voiced the idea that three key words seemed to symbolize her physical hassles—fears of scorn, criticism, and flamboyance. As the morning passed and we continued to exchange ideas, we saw of course that all these reflected Jane’s fear or distrust of her own nature—a situation that simply must be remedied. I made a brief note about the three words on a sheet of our pendulum questions.

(Our exploration of “flamboyance” came about through Seth’s use of “extravagant” in this session, as I scanned the original notes this morning while coming up with some new questions. I guess the realization that the basic mistrust of one’s own nature could have such dire results was what triggered our conscious realization that we could do something about the whole business of symptoms, etc. Jane began to show results as we discussed the subject; after lunch, she was so loose, including her knees, that she wondered whether she could get to the john—which she did, by the way. But she reported “new things” releasing in her head area, and the back of the neck, that had been “tight as a fist.” Very encouraging, and we plan to continue working with these thoughts.

(After lunch we discussed her own notes on the morning’s work, and stressed that she should use the word “flamboyant” as part of her own true nature, attaching only positive meanings to it, being proud of it, realizing that it gave expression to her abilities in a way that few could match. This of course meant, as we said, that she needn’t go about any longer pretending to be like the normal housewife next door, or whatever inanity—since nothing could be further from the truth: She is not like the normal housewife next door, should not want to be, should not be in alarm at their criticism, and should thank God for whatever abilities she has of her own that do inevitably make her different, superior, talented, etc., with something unique to offer the world—an opportunity few possess, and that should be used with the greatest joy and abandon. After all, I said, people come to her for help, she doesn’t go to them. To stand in fear of the criticism or scorn of others is now, we see, the worst possible behavior. This must be eliminated, and we intend to work unceasingly at the task until its accomplished. I see no reasons to prevent our succeeding.

(All of this sounds very simple in the telling, of course, but was opaque to us until we’d gone this far with the pendulum work, evidently. Seth has said the same thing many times over the years. The difference now, I told Jane, was that we were paying attention to those ideas.

(I also stressed that our changing attitudes would be sure to change our attitudes toward others—that instead of trying to act “normally” toward strangers when they came here, especially when they were unannounced, we should simply be ourselves, secure in the abilities of our own natures; if any of these actions could be taken as “flamboyant” in a negative way, then so be it. That would be their hassle, not ours, I added. Our goal now is to simply speak our minds, if in a nice way, usually, to others, and let the chips fall where they may. I added that it would be ironic and hilarious indeed that if this new behavior brought to us everything we’d always wanted for our life’s work.