“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I’ll note my question here so that it won’t be forgotten, although actually I mentioned it to Jane after tonight’s session had been held. Simply, I thought it would be a good idea if Seth would tell us about what good things we’ve managed to accomplish through the years as far as Jane’s symptoms go. It would be nice to know what hassles we’ve surmounted, that no longer apply. This would seem to imply that others had come along, or been developed by us, to take their place—at least something had been created to take their place. But surely we’ve accomplished some beneficial things too.

People are propelled to act in highly individual ways: what makes one man go forward can make another go backward. As a general rule the production of any kind of art is a private one initially. That art may add to the richness of society, to culture—but art always possesses its own secretive inner nature, and with that nature each artist of whatever kind must always relate.

There are manuals that are written primarily (underlined) as textbooks or as guides to help others, in which there is no attempt made to create an art, but to state a case. In a way these are the result of two different kinds of value systems: art for its own sake, produced out of love, or texts produced primarily for the benefit and instruction of others. In the second case the value is first of all to help others by stating as clearly as possible known facts about particular subject matters such as health or what have you.

He had always enjoyed being somewhat disreputable—had seen himself and you prowling around the edges of society (as Jane had said earlier today)—not simply observers of it but to a large extent apart from its foibles, and certainly not mired in all of its conventional misunderstandings. He enjoyed dealing with it by sending the written word out into the public arena. He insisted upon that—the publication of his work. The books were to be his public platform.

(Long pause at 10:38.) The earlier ones saw the two of you as apart from society’s inner workings—not divorced, now, from society—but you had both pursued policies of not following society’s mores. You prided yourselves on not having regular jobs, and being apart from certain portions of the culture. You recognized the importance of community without joining any of its organizations.

Ruburt made gestures of unconventionality. To go on public television, join the workshops and so forth would not be Ruburt’s way, even while he felt that such a course was expected of him. He thinks in terms of individuals. He distrusts crowds. (Long pause.) He has no use for congregations—but all of those feelings remained largely unexpressed in later years.

This was a session Ruburt enjoyed—also one he had out of a sense of responsibility—but at least with some understanding of the issues involved. I bid you then a fond good evening.