“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(She sat in her usual place on the couch, and I faced her in her chair across the coffee table. Behind me in the fireplace we heard once again the mysterious scratching or chucking or chirruping sounds we’ve become aware of lately, as though a family of animals or birds has young hatching our or growing in a nest on the other side of the closed damper. I’d heard the same sound a few days ago, but since it had been a windy day I’d thought the noise was caused by branches rubbing against the house or fireplace outside. We don’t know exactly what should be done about the situation, if anything. My present concern is that if there are young birds in the fireplace they may be trapped, not having room enough to learn to fly. But why would birds build a nest in such a place, assuming they could get to it to begin with? It didn’t seem natural for any creature to do that. We’ve also been under the impression since we moved in here that the fireplace had a screen sealing off the chimney from such possibilities.)

Straight-laced people have often frowned upon the use of the imagination, considering it most disruptive. (Pause.) From the beginning Ruburt has questioned whether or not our material gave a true explanation of reality—or at least presented one that was as approximately true as possible. Or were only creative hypotheses being offered? Was the material true or false?

(9:14.) The yes-or-no, true-or-false categories simply do not work when you are dealing with such issues. (Long pause.) In that regard it is important that he realize this. The entire concept of the Sinful Self can only exist at certain levels of experience. It can only seem to make sense in a very limited context. (Pause.) The creative abilities most often serve as psychological bridges, enabling man to conceive of the existence of realities outside of his own particular point of reference. They can hint at the greater diversity of being, the larger dimension of events. They can present dramatizations. They can serve as thresholds (long pause), but they cannot contain direct experience themselves with events that are intrinsically beyond those reaches.

Those feelings, again, can be accepted as belated expressions. In that way, Ruburt’s own current experience can reach back to comfort the child in the present. Such a process is relatively simple rather than complex, and can be most beneficial. The Sinful Self can be told it is a good self, it is loved, it is safe to express itself, it is free to follow its own motion and curiosity.