“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You show a certain picture of yourself to the world. You stress certain characteristics, and show them to others. There are habitual patterns of behavior that operate, as you more or less stabilize your picture of yourself in relationship with families and friends. Sometimes that picture is a fairly faithful representation, and sometimes people make artificial portraits of themselves, and instead of speaking for themselves to others, they let their artificial portraits do it for them.

Many illnesses are physically experienced facades that are meant to alter the person’s relationship with the world. They act often like barriers, or coats of armor, and according to the situation another person must first confront this condition or coat of armor, if he ever hopes to establish contact with the personality. I hope that is clear.

(10:35.) Such dreams on Ruburt’s part bring one vital message: that he can walk normally, and that this can be easily (underlined) brought about. In some of the dreams he is surprised that he can perform so well. In others he takes it for granted, as in your (Boy Scout) dream. In waking life, however, you have both been literally hypnotized by the idea that such a recovery is one of the hardest things in the world to achieve (intently). In the waking state Ruburt believes that he cannot walk properly. In the dream state he holds no such beliefs.

(Long pause.) Now he wanted to hold such beliefs because he felt he needed that quite painful facade to protect himself from his own spontaneity, and then to protect himself against the world because he felt he was too spontaneous. The answer was to cut down on physical spontaneity. Spontaneity is easy, so we will make it hard. We believe it is the most difficult thing in the world. I have given endless material on that. Privately and through your dreams and Sue’s, Ruburt with your help in the dream state sees that motion can be and is easy. He responds telepathically to your dreams.

Psychocybernetics (underlined) is a good handbook, very simplified, with some distortions, but its premise is quite correct: you do hypnotize yourself into such situations. I want to make a point that Ruburt can often interpret relaxation as depression, because the loss of tension can still be frightening. You have actually helped in that regard. The dreams show your activity in Framework 2 —and again, may I recommend on Ruburt’s part some sense of creativity in his physical situation? Even suggestions should be given playfully, not heavy-handedly. For his point-of-power exercises have him just playfully for five minutes pretend—knowing that it is a game—that he feels perfectly normal and relaxed. Let him consider impulses also playfully, not looking at each one as if it were as important as the ending of the world.