“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The session started late because Jane became so involved in a painting after supper. It was one in which she was attempting to follow in a still-life some of the techniques I’d showed her a few days ago, when I repainted another still-life composition she’d started, and showed her how to get more opaque effects for variety; a demonstration, then, for she’d asked for “a lesson.” Since then there have been some rather humorous episodes—I mean it kindly—as Jane tries to use those methods, with very mixed results. But interestingly, she ran into conflicts between her old method, in which she used mostly transparent color, and the new one, which, she complained in her frustration, was “muddy, and lacking vitality. And without the vitality, what good is it?”

(At 9:30 she told me Seth might go into my dream of May 27—yesterday—in which I drove an automobile down West Water St. at 90 miles per hour, without harm. I also mentioned my Boy Scout dream of May 22, in which I saw her walking normally, and my vivid dream impressions of my father, of May 15, in which I woke up crying. I’ve begun a small painting of this last subject. All dreams are on file in dream notebook #2.

(Jane was “just mad,” though, as we waited for the session to start at 10:10. Mad about it all, she said. “What good does it do for Seth to go into me? None that I can tell....” She’d been upset about her painting too, of course. She’s been trying to follow her impulses more spontaneously recently, in light of the recent session material, and I think has shown good improvement there. But she was blue earlier today, when various portions of her anatomy bothered her. Her legs have bothered a lot lately, and she’s felt down at times.

(My own physical condition has improved considerably, so in some way I’ve managed to learn something. I suspect the better results may simply be the results of the body healing itself once I removed the pressures I’d been imposing upon that basically innocent structure. I’ve been painting a lot more lately.

Let us look at his painting. He digs into it, this present one, concentrates. Forgets how much he loves to paint, and considers all the problems involved in a new technique. And considers how he can never be as good as you in that regard. He uses effort. He forgets his ease, and the same thing applies to “trying to get better.”