“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Even your father’s originality was of the most practical variety. You had that kind of background to work with and against, then, and this well before the sessions started. They did add an important new link, though. The framework was loosely set up back in that time, however, when for a while, again, you toyed with the idea, for such symptoms would “justify” your staying home even part- time to paint.

Ruburt took on the bargain later, where the symptoms could be used as a backup system, preventing him from going out and working, so adjustments were made along the way. Later they prevented TV tours and so forth, keeping you both oriented at your joint works. This is apart from Ruburt’s worries about revelatory material. The entire framework is indeed based upon a distorted idea of the nature of true responsibility.

Your idea of looking at events as you did the other evening (re Tom D’Orio) is excellent, and can be most illuminating. There will also be days when it is quite obvious that the framework provides only for your own inconvenience and discomfort—but the fact that it is a framework, created and maintained, is important.

(Long pause.) I do not want you to concentrate upon the situation any more, certainly, than you are doing, however. The idea is to keep the material as much as you can at a conscious level, then more or less drop it before picking it up again—without the steady bombardment. I mention this periodically. The idea of identifying with your pleasure, identifying yourselves with your pleasurable feelings and emotions, is highly vital. Small changes in your lives or habits can also be extremely helpful, because small as they are they break down habitual habits.

If you could manage it, working nights for a temporary period will also have the same kind of value, again, while automatically adding its own elements —that is, of providing relative isolation in a different way. I realize the difficulty that involves both because of practical living, and the question of light for painting. The focus upon the idea of pleasure will further alter the situation for the better, however, for again it inserts a different kind of focus.

The last group of sessions should be read over. The idea of continuing with my book at your own pace is also excellent (as Jane suggested), so that it is kept current, even if we also have many sessions on other matters.

I bid you then a fond good evening. Read this session with the last one—but read the last group together so you can see the development of ideas.