“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

CHAPTER
FIVE:

A Psychologist’s Letter
Gives Me the Jitters—
Seth’s Reassurance

“Oh, great,” I said to Rob. “Do I act any nuttier than usual?” Rob solemnly assured me that there had been no change in my behavior. Actually he had been watching for such signs, and so had I. But Dr. Stevenson’s well-meaning warning did throw me for somewhat of a loop, even though we had read the same cautions ourselves in some of our psychic books.

“As far as Ruburt is concerned, there is no danger. For one thing I am a sensitive but disciplined and sensible—if somewhat irascible—gentleman. None of the communications from me are in any way conducive to instability. I may make bold to remark that I am more stable than you or Ruburt or the fine psychologist.

“The slight evidence of telepathy I gave you had a purpose. I wanted to show you that telepathy did exist, and I wanted to show Ruburt that more than his own subconscious as he knows it was involved. … Now Ruburt assembles me or allows me to assemble myself in a way that will be recognizable to you, but regardless of this, I exist in an independent manner.”

I used to envy Rob his viewpoint of the sessions. He could see and hear me as Seth and I couldn’t. Now during break I questioned him again. I hated to have to depend on someone else to tell me what was going on, but I had learned one thing: I couldn’t be Jane and Seth at once. For Seth to come through I had to stop such mental quibbling—at least temporarily.

After break Seth said, “Again, I am not Ruburt’s subconscious, though I speak through it. It is the atmosphere through which I can come to you, as the air is the atmosphere through which a bird flies. … A certain reassembly of myself is necessary. This is done partially by me and partially by the combined subconscious efforts of you and Ruburt. Will this satisfy you for now?”

For a while I think I spent half the time trying to psychoanalyze Seth and the other half trying to analyze myself. Caution is one thing, but sometimes I went overboard. Even so, Seth said that my strong ego was an asset to our work when I didn’t overdo it, since it kept my whole personality on an even keel and allowed me the psychological strength to handle and develop my abilities.

“No control personality or whatever is going to tell me how to run the house,” I said. “This is one of those suspicious signs that we’ve read about. The control personality starts throwing its weight around and trying to dominate the medium’s normal personality. Remember what Dr. Stevenson said? Besides, there’s no room in the kitchen for the big refrigerator.”

When I’m reacting emotionally and Rob gives me a reasonable reply, it always puts me on the defensive. So I agreed.

About a year and a half ago, Seth suggested that I leave my job at the art gallery and give psychic classes. He even told me how many students I would have within three months’ time. I followed his advice, though I didn’t really think there would be much response in this area. Seth was correct: I’ve enjoyed the classes, learned a great deal from them, and enlarged my own abilities as a result, in ways I didn’t know were possible.