“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I had to go food shopping this afternoon, and while I was out Kenneth Wrigley called from Dr. Sonsire’s office. He asked about Jane’s condition, and said that in a month or so the ulcer on Jane’s coccyx might have to be surgically closed if it didn’t do so on its own. The last thing we needed to hear. Jane didn’t appear to be upset by the call, though—perhaps because of what we’d learned about medical methods by now. The cost of that little operation would also probably be astronomical—well over a thousand dollars, I’d say at a guess, so in light of the present bill from St. Joseph’s I doubt if we’d opt for it anyhow. We plan to make some comments on costs when next we see Dr. K., or whomever, anyhow, now that we’ve been burned a few times.

(As noted in the private session for May 22, I brought Jane home from her overnight stay at St. Joseph’s hospital the day before. Of course we had no idea of what all those tests would cost, and weren’t billed when she was discharged, since test results weren’t in. A few nights later, evidently after I’d been wondering how much the bill would be I had a dream in color, in which I was informed of the amount of the bill —$800-odd dollars. I saw the figure on a sheet of bluish paper that unfolded like a letter. I was shocked—so much so that I woke up after the brief little dream, for my best guess had been that the bill would be between $400 and $500. I told myself that the figure I’d been given in the dream was much too high.

(Jane was particularly “out of it” for most of yesterday, after sleeping well past 9 AM. She often dozed in her chair and talked to herself, indulging in various flights of imaginative activity. Once again we wondered how much more of a boost her thyroid medication needed, but we haven’t heard from Dr. Kardon about it—or anything else, for that matter, since we had the meeting with Dr. Sobel last Friday, May 28. Our ideas have changed. Jane’s finger continues to improve, and for now at least we don’t even want to hear from any medical people. We regard the overnight affair at the hospital, and the enormous cost of it and the tests, as largely a waste.

(Jane’s voice was shaky, but her finger looked better. Eleanor Maggi, the nurse, visits tomorrow, and we plan to tell her to make her visits on Tuesday and Friday next week. Or I’ll call Upjohn with our new twice-a-week schedule. We’ve been on that schedule for a couple of weeks already, actually, and it appears to be enough. It also cuts costs. But a major reason for our reducing the nurses’ visits is to get rid of the constant negative suggestions they unwittingly broadcast, all in the name of trying to be helpful.

(“A cost, and that is all on that.” [...] As stated the rifle was an initial expense, and did cost us.

The cost did refer to the cost of the gun. [...]

A cost and that is all on that.

[...] A remark that I’d made, to the effect that her illness has probably cost us at least half a dozen books over the years, elicited a response from her; she brought it up today, in fact. [...]

[...] His mother helped make him feel unlikeable, but his abilities seemed to be his saving grace — and therefore to be encouraged and protected at all costs.

[...] Cost: $25.00 per week. [...]

[...] He thought, as you did, that artistic abilities were like alien flowers in an unfriendly land, that had to be force-fed and protected at all costs.

[...] True, the amount of money required for such surgical possibilities was staggering, but insurance of one kind or another could be found to carry the cost. (We didn’t have nearly enough money, but could qualify for adequate insurance by fulfilling the terms of an 11-month waiting period.) But regardless of cost, one orthopedist saw me staying right in the hospital—now that I was there—until the entire procedure was finished. [...]

[...] We think such alternate sources should be pursued even if they cost more in economic terms than nuclear power, either initially or continually, for surely none of them could produce the horrendous results — and enormous costs — that would follow even one massive failure at a nuclear power plant.

[...] They were to be protected at all costs. [...]

Following the accident at TMI, and aside from the great fears “generated” by it, a host of problems began accumulating for the nuclear power industry—involving everything from poor plant design (as Seth commented in the 914th session for Chapter 7 of Dreams), to enormous cost overruns and the fear of default on bond issues, shoddy construction and quality control, human and mechanical error, the disposal of radioactive waste, conflicts with antinuclear and environmental groups, arguments over evacuation plans at various nuclear-plant sites, a greatly expanded list of steps (numbering in the thousands) that the NRC is compiling for utilities to take in order to increase the safety of their plants, and even governmental concern over the possible manipulation and falsification of plant safety records. [...]

[...] I even had trouble figuring out the cost of ounces of candy when I had that job in the five-and-dime store. [...]

[...] But Ruburt may as well now continue with this heroic endeavor, although I fear that it will cost us this session. [...]

[...] It is understandable enough, in your society, that you have certain feelings resulting from society’s insistence that the male in any family must be the main, primary, and clear-cut breadwinner, no matter what the cost. [...]

[...] Jane was telling me that an aide who took care of her this morning, and who is living apart from her husband and has three kids, looked at a second-hand washing machine this noon but couldn’t afford the $130 cost. [...]

[...] But still, it costs us. I view such tactics as the publisher’s way of guaranteeing their publishing costs with no risk to themselves. [...]

[...] These take it for granted that any stressful situation will worsen, that communication with others is dangerous, that self-fulfillment brings about the envy and vengeance of others, and that as individuals they live in an unsafe society, set down in the middle of a natural world that is itself savage, cruel, and caring only for its own survival at any cost.

[...] Sometimes we swapped furniture with him; sometimes he sold us at very reasonable cost pieces he’d replaced. [...]

[...] Life is to be pursued at all costs—not because it is innately meaningful, but because it is the only game going, and it is a game of chance at best. [...]

One of the beliefs then was a strong joint one that you had to protect your energy at all costs, and block out any worldly distractions. [...]

[...] The task will take lots of time—perhaps several years—and I may have to hire help; it will cost us something to copy the many thousands of papers for the library. [...]

He did not think you wanted him to be free of symptoms, because he thought that then you would be faced with problems of emotionalism that you wished to avoid at all costs.

[...] “I can’t even go home for an hour, without it costing two hundred dollars,” Jane said, and started to cry. [...]

[...] There would be publishing difficulties having to do with sheer bulk—with the cost of typesetting, with binding such a thick book, with marketing and price, and so forth. [...]