“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I wrote Eleanor Friede a letter, agreeing to purchase the film for Emir, as both she and Tam have suggested. It’s to be shipped to the house where we can store it. In the meantime Eleanor will try to place Emir with some house; she’s talked with Tam about doing this. We are grateful for their help.

(After Rusty and Hal left we napped, changed dressings, etc., and before we knew it I was hurrying to get supper and do other chores so that we’d have time for a session. Hal and I both had noticed almost a marked improvement in Jane’s condition, especially in her hands, knees and feet. I think the vitamin therapy is helping considerably here, and seems to be following the results listed in Dr. Van Fleet’s book. Jane too is quite pleased. Indeed, her hands look better than they have in probably a couple of years, I’d say; the swelling seems to be largely gone. My idea is that if Jane will continue the vitamin therapy—a term I don’t particularly like—that in a couple of months she might achieve some good results, for as I explained to her, I think the key to curing the decubiti lies in increased mobility, especially in the knees. This will give her more freedom to move in bed.

(After all our hurrying to get supper over with—rather later than usual—we seemed to run out of steam. Jane sat half-dozing at the card table, and I tried to focus on reading some of last week’s mail. She surprised me at about 9:15 by saying she might try for a session, since by then I’d thought it too late. She said she was doing the same thing she did last night before that session: getting scared, lapsing, while at the same time she tried to get comfortable on her backside. We waited and waited. Then, in a voice quite strong and firm, but with many pauses:)

Now: We will do as well as we can under the circumstances.

Ruburt is doing well under these circumstances—I am referring to the last few days—with the help from you that he did indeed so need. This is your own individual and joint expedition. (Long pause.) Hal’s therapy is very good. But you must follow your own dictates right now. Again, remember the two of you have very strong do-it-yourself qualities, exhibited long before the sessions began.

(10:09 PM. “There were long periods, weren’t there?” Jane asked as soon as she was out of it, meaning that she had been aware of the numerous long pauses in her delivery. “When I saw what time it was, I almost didn’t want to do it—but I still wanted to try, no matter what.” Now she was wide awake and alert, much more at ease and talking rapidly.

(10:13 PM.) A few further comments. Whatever the conditions, do not undervalue the nature of learning, or its importance—the nature, that is, of true learning.

Neither of you had much experience of a particular nature in dealing with the medical aspects of the world. To some extent your own do-it-yourself attitudes kept you from such experience, and as long as Ruburt lacked it, and as long as you lacked it (with much more emphasis than I’d heard Jane use as Seth in a long time), you would both still have doubts about the nature of our own work as applied to such matters—and this goes beyond the confines of our work in ways I will try to clear later.

(Once again, very forcefully:)But it was material; it was data that you needed, and did not want at the same time. You had to understand to some degree what the rest of the world had to put up with. Only by so doing could you clear the air and make your own decisions as to the course the rest of your lives would take. You are making the proper decisions now, but you needed your own complete cooperation—Ruburt in particular but you also.