“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This is more or less what I was getting, and told Rob, though I’ve probably forgotten some things. That Rob was having a “body vacation” or that his body was taking a vacation, a rest; and that the contrast between his floppy state and his usual one would let him know how tight he’d been.... Something about us not taking vacations….and even not wanting to rest between mental creative projects; that Rob had his stomach troubles when he needed a rest....a vacation of some sort could have prevented that....but since we prefer to do things differently, we should frequently arrange changes in our lives....that we control....changes in the house, routine, hours....or even a week off to do the house or yard or whatever.... The mind wears the body out sometimes....and then the body sends signals of distress....

(We should consider such changes as a part of our working life, to provide refreshment; otherwise we just stew because we’re not “creative or working” or whatever....even furniture rearranging or changing whole rooms to different functions can be considered a vacation of a sort, and while I’ve always felt guilty at involving Rob in changing furniture—but do, anyhow. Seth said this was good sense and impulse on my part....

(Soon I didn’t care, though. My condition became so totally relaxed that any conscious and deliberate movement was forgotten unless I made a strong effort to exert myself—to pick up a piece of paper, to lay this notebook on the coffee table, say. Fortunately I’d put the cats in the cellar before the session so I wouldn’t have to do it later. Jane was obviously concerned. “Are you all right?” she kept asking, and I hardly replied. This was easily the most complete experience of its kind I’d ever known, and it was deepening.

(I slept at once. although Jane lay awake until about 2 AM. I felt many reminders and remnants of the experience throughout the next day—Tuesday—especially in the arms and legs: They were often loose and floppy, with a peculiar lightness and ease of motion in the joints particularly. At my request Jane wrote her account of the non-session events of last night, and it’s attached. I noticed more signs of the same sort of relaxation before tonight’s session was due, and wondered if I could focus upon Seth clearly enough, or write fast enough. After a number of hesitations, which only confused Jane as to what I really wanted to do, I sat for the session.

(9:47.) The two of you do not have children, yet you do indeed not only have mental children, but you are—if you will forgive the term—psychic or mental parents to many thousands of people. All of this cut directly across some of your ideas about success in usual terms, and your abilities fit together in different ways than you originally planned.

(Long pause.) The two of you mixed and matched your characteristics, and put them together in such a fashion that they would jointly form a completely new kind of creation, in terms of art and psychology, and this was bound to produce expansions of your consciousnesses, and stresses and strains, when you came across portions of your ideas that had not grown along with the rest of you. The sessions, as they exist, exist as they do because of your actions and Ruburt’s.

Now: Ruburt’s rendition of my absentee session last evening was basically correct. When you believe that relaxation means that you are limp, that you can do nothing, that you have let go (with humor), then, of course, you experience it as such. Your body was activated so that it was naturally sedated. To both of you, however, relaxation means somehow to be lax, to shuffle (louder) rather than to be resolute and determined and forever at it; and so then natural relaxation can seem overwhelming, for you are afraid, both of you, that if you relax you will do nothing.

At a certain point your body does not care. It relaxes you anyway. Now Ruburt has much slighter versions, in which, say, daily or weekly tensions no longer collect as they did, which allows him some physical improvement—but he also feels that if he really relaxed he would only do the dishes or whatever. The world would hardly fall in if neither of you did anything for several days. The relaxed body, however, the truly relaxed body, can physically perform of course far better than the tense one.

Thoughts of the will and your approaching 50th and 60th birthdays have led you, Joseph, to look over you life, to ask, “What have I done? Am I a success or a failure?” But when you do so, you often ask the question through the cast of old conventional beliefs. If you ask “Is the world a better place to live because I live?” or “Have I helped the people in the world in any way?” or “Have I lifted men’s hearts or minds in any way?” or “Have I affected others for the better?” then those answers must be yes, and there is no better measure of true success.

You have been a good and true partner to Ruburt – and indeed you have. Though you do not have children, the two of you do indeed possess a unique relationship, and that in itself is an achievement. You have each given meaning to each other’s lives, because you have each sought for it separately also. You are an accomplished person in painting and in writing, and the characteristics that also give you those abilities merge together to form the framework of the sessions, and the excellent quality of the notes—in which, by the way, you communicate to others very clearly those ideas of excellence, and those visions, that sustain many readers.

A note: I do want you to remember Ruburt’s version of last night’s session, and follow my suggestions concerning changes that can serve as variations—working variations—to allow you some rest and refreshment.