“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Part of the session grew out of our recent reactions to the televised newscasts, as well as what we’ve been reading lately, concerning the mass suicide in Guyana, the shooting of the mayor of San Francisco, problems with inflation, the Middle East —any of what seemed to be an infinite number of ills the species has created for itself. I must remember that my own caustic reactions pass rather quickly—even if they do return—but that they have a considerable effect on Jane. In some fashion, in order to maintain sanity, I end up laughing at what goes on in the world—probably a last resort. But I’m afraid some of my responses affect Jane more deeply, aside from her problems with her own reactions.

The selected newscasts shown in theatres in the Second World War were quite censored, but the aggressive press and its corps do now indeed serve in their own way as an invisible “police force.” No country can really keep them out. There will be a television camera somewhere, and the most secret atrocities will find their way into the public eye. There is no longer any assurance of secrecy in the broadest terms, for nefarious acts of politics or government. Man’s inventiveness, often a partner to his duplicity, has also invented, then, a method to insure that no crimes can be hidden, and has taken steps to shine a spotlight upon those areas of life that blot man’s experience.

Those for example at Jonestown become symbols of social, religious, and political unrest. They died, quite simply, knowing beneath it all that they were not annihilating their consciousnesses, but bringing a given life to a conclusion in protest against certain conditions that exist to some extent among many others.

But no: it seems that worrying will get you someplace. It provides impetus, and so it does—by promoting further problems.

(9:42.) Now: I can’t—nor would I want to—turn you into children again, but you have a natural optimism, both of you—a creature optimism, with which all are innately equipped. That natural optimism is a power in the individual and in the world. It believes in triumph, in pleasant, unpredictable surprises, in unexpected solutions, joyful occurrences. It is like the child’s anticipation of Christmas Eve, and it is biologically ingrained.

I have said, again, much of this before—but this is an update. Neither of you do yourselves service by worrying about Ruburt’s condition, worrying that it might worsen in the future, or in your old ages, or by stressing its negative aspects.

You might each secretly believe that such worrying will frighten Ruburt enough “to make him do something,” and that is hardly the case—for worrying always increases stress. Whenever possible, minimize the impediments in your minds. Now Ruburt has started doing that. At least keep in mind what I have said, for it is true. To the extent that you forget the problem, it will vanish. Physically, Ruburt is improving, as you can see—but he used a stimulus of fear —the fear that otherwise he might be bedridden.

Now you remember his ribs hurt him for ten days or so, and that then that discomfort largely vanished. For a while he had trouble in the morning getting the chair out of the bathroom because of the difficulty with the left leg, and that vanished. This is since the exercises began. The left arm for some time was considerably “tied in knots” from the elbow down. It was one hard mass, say, that has largely broken up, leaving you with only the two lumps that change sizes. They are knotted into masses, loose and disintegrating, but presently aggravated by strain as Ruburt’s weight on the walking table “bruises” those ligaments and muscles.

He will shortly be able to add other exercises in straightening out the knees further, and though he did not tell you, he has now and then tried and felt new loosening. He places his weight often upon his hands, increasing circulation there, bringing about the flush of color, but this only occurs with certain arm motions that suddenly release blood to the hands—that is, that release it more suddenly than he is accustomed to.

(10:02.) The attitudes I am recommending this evening will greatly help (amused), for the neck area is extremely important, both in the eye condition and the walking. As soon as Ruburt cut down on his worrying for a day or so, he was crowded with creative ideas. He needs your help there—not in ignoring, say, the condition of the world, but by putting that in perspective, and by balancing it out by a determined effort to enjoy each day and to not let your worries minimize simple pleasures. Enjoyments are health-promoting.