“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Yet Jane is in the midst of great discomfort, whether this represents healing changes taking place within her body or not, as Seth tells us it does. Her arms are noticeably longer. Twice today we had rather short discussions about our ideas of why the symptoms linger after all these years: nothing new, I’m afraid, although she said she felt better afterward—before getting blue again. Personally, I think we have learned little—or have much still to learn. Our talks reminded Jane of a group of private sessions Seth gave in 1973, so she looked those over before I came out to see if she wanted a session tonight. That old material concerned the work ethic, she said, and our attitudes about it.

(Today I mailed to those in command at Prentice-Hall eight copies of our letter to the legal department, in response to their letter of November 24 explaining the disclaimer they want to use in Mass Events. I felt considerable relief in doing so. Then this afternoon Jack Joyce visited to help determine our estimated NY State tax payment for this year. I felt additional relief at having that taken care of.

(Jane vacillated several times between having and not having a session, before finally announcing that she felt Seth around. I told her that I thought she needed material about her own condition, that’s all I cared about.)

Therefore his relationship with Tam Mossman was quite valuable to him, for it took a good deal of the unpredictable nature out of free-lance writing; particularly where projects like books were concerned rather than short stories, and particularly in an area that was itself controversial. All in all, he felt that to be a fairly reliable and adequate framework, whether or not he might get better terms someplace else financially, or in other ways. He long ago settled upon you and his writing, however.

(Pause.) This material should be read in conjunction with the sessions just mentioned, dealing with his ideas about work and creativity. He felt threatened over the disagreements last year about contracts, about Tam’s frequent mention that he might leave. The matter of Yale led him in his own way to think of his work as if it were to be an institution, every word recorded, so that you only wrote down what you wanted other people to know—and therefore somewhat discouraged spontaneity of expression.

I am not agreeing here, necessarily, but stating his reaction. On the other hand, such an alliance seemed to bring some kind of prestige. He felt also that my ideas in Mass Events, and his ideas in God of Jane, were almost bound to bring about some controversy from the beginning—for reasons he largely worked out for himself—and they are related in his book.