“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane surprised me at supper time by saying she felt Seth around and wanted to have a session. “Sometimes when we’re supposed to have a session I don’t feel him at all,” she said. “Other times, like now, I do, so....”

Now, we will begin with some material with a slightly new slant or cast this evening.

I now want to put the Sinful Self material in a larger spectrum. Ideally, infants “bond” with their parents, particularly with the mother but with the father also—and then they “bond” with the general ideas of their society. This offers the sense of safety and security in which the youngster can then feel free and curious enough to explore its world and the nature of reality.

Now Ruburt had only one parent available most of the time (long pause), and he did not feel secure in that relationship—a situation chosen ahead of time, now. There is greater leeway in the nature of such bondings. There are also periods in people’s lives, rhythmic times, when the self seeks to cast off certain such bindings for the pursuit and acceptance of still further data and knowledge.

The point at which such a situation happens is of course internal, and it may or may not have anything to do with the quality of material, but with its nature. Each society—or each system of knowledge, for that matter—has its own taboos built in, and most of these imply abandonment by the community. A firm bonding with the parent ideally implies however that the child will not be abandoned, despite for example parental anger at any given time. Now remember that Ruburt’s mother used words like “I hereby disown you,” or “You are hereby disinherited,” or “I consider you no longer my daughter.” Such a situation increased Ruburt’s sense of not being safe, of course, and yet also reinforced feelings of independence, for he did not have to feel as dependent upon Marie as he might otherwise.

The time would come, however, when the old bondings had to be encountered, for they simply could not hold the newer frameworks of understanding which were larger than they were. The ideas presented by the so-called Sinful Self represent several layers of activity, then, that should be understood as represented. Some of the most troublesome aspects of one’s belief structures are shared by millions in your society, and by certain levels of Ruburt’s own personality, where they exist with varying strengths. The personality is now trying to assimilate a greater framework to become bonded to a higher sequence of knowledge.

(9:01.) This is like a kind of backup system, biologically pertinent, that always operates of course to an important degree, but that can now come more to the forefront of Ruburt’s experience. It is very important that you understand what I am saying in this session. For it puts Ruburt on top of those old bondings, while still giving them their recognition as issues that can indeed be creatively reconciled.

His idea of a project on the magical approach now is excellent, for it suggests a new concentration or focus in which the natural and magical aspects of existence are courted, and the characteristics of the natural magical person encouraged to show themselves. In such a way the old fears do not go underground and are not concentrated upon either—but they are taken into consideration and acknowledged, let out into the open daylight, so to speak, where they can also benefit from the personality’s newer knowledge.

Now the body has suffered its difficulties, and there is no way out of it except to understand that there are difficulties of growth, regrettable at certain levels in particular—but growing pains nevertheless, extending over a period of time, tensions resulting over a person’s natural tendencies toward value fulfillment and knowledge.

(9:20 PM. Jane had done well. It was almost dark. From the valley south of our hill house intermittent barrages of fireworks had sounded during the session, and even now crackled anew. The situation was reminiscent, I thought, of other sessions we’d held on warm summer nights with the doors and windows open, and listened to the distant sound of fireworks....)