“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now: Your documentary rather neatly shows two portions of the world’s mind operating at odds, rather than in complementary ways—almost as if they were surgically separated, or somehow functionally impaired, as in many ways they have been through misunderstandings throughout the years.

Now under many situations people, again, behave in the same manner. They use portions of themselves as hostages—or as in Ruburt’s case they use a portion of themselves not so much as hostages, but they take a part of the self under “protective custody.” This almost always occurs when there are misunderstandings in particular areas between the picture of the self or the world as painted by the intellect, and the picture of the world or of the self painted by the emotions.

One side will be unable to see or understand the behavior of the other side. Each will seem foreign to the other. The American response—generally, now, speaking—to Iranian emotionalism is to become still more self-righteously reasonable, cooler, more superior. The Iranian’s response to the Americans’ reason involves new outbursts of emotionalism and behavior that appear utterly irrational to the American view. So we are often indeed faced with a lack of communication between various portions of the self, or between various portions of the world.

We are now involved with reassuring Ruburt that it is safe to move, and ultimately that it is safe to relax. We are trying to reassure him that relaxation is indeed a part of a creative process, and that it also makes all other motion possible. (Pause.) Such a statement can be accepted by all portions of the self, but it must be emphasized time and time again. In the meantime, there can seem to be other reasons, different ones, that crop up to make his attitudes seem more rational. These are part of the modes of behavior adopted by the portion of the self held in custody, so to speak.

(Long pause at 9:55.) Because the two of you are so involved, your own position is bound to change, and in years previous—to some extent, now—you also felt that certain portions of Ruburt’s personality should indeed be held in protective custody. For some time you were alarmed only because the treatment given that portion was more severe than you thought it should be. Now you are actively acting as a trusted party, working for the release of the portion held in relative captivity, and your assurances at this point can be extremely important.

(10:01 PM. Another excellent session, I told Jane. Her delivery had been mostly fast and emphatic. At the same time she’d acted very uncomfortable, often sitting ramrod straight as she spoke for Seth; however, she didn’t remember any of that behavior now. She’d known Seth was ready to come through strongly, though, and he had.)