“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

2. As far as possible, without pressing the point, make an effort to do what he would do if he were physically satisfactory. That is, write normal hours without taking time out as today, unless he is hit by inspiration to do so.

[...] He need not take a walk every day for example, but on faith perform some kind of physical activity that he would if he were physically satisfactory. [...]

[...] Ruburt’s exercise today however represented exactly what I spoke of, and in that way should be avoided—the paper that you read this afternoon, that he wrote—and when each of you review your joint past, do so looking for your accomplishments. [...]

[...] (Pause.) He is becoming fairly proficient now in the use of the trance state, and in its controls. However, so slowly did he slip into a semitrance state that he did not realize what had happened. [...]

[...] The situation began as he completed his psychological time experiment this morning, and has continued. He was neither wholly oriented to the inner world nor to the outer, and therefore was not efficient in either.

[...] He has been used to the trance, and of course with what you call the normal waking state, and has not happened to become acquainted with this transition phase. He passes through it so quickly as a rule. [...]

[...] He was beginning to wonder himself, and since it is his first real experience with it as an isolated state, it is understandable that he did not recognize it for what it is.

Ruburt has been reading old poetry of his own, and he was appalled to find such beliefs in rather brutal, concentrated form. Until our sessions began, he followed the official line of consciousness, and though he railed against those precepts he could find no other solution. [...]

[...] Why did he not love her as much as she loved him? She could say it was because she was overweight, after all, for he was always remarking adversely about her fleshy opulence — though he did not use such a sympathetic phrase.

He could not express his love for her in the terms she wished for he believed that women would, if allowed to, destroy the man’s freedom, and he interpreted the natural need for love as an unfortunate emotional demand. [...]

[...] She went to the doctor, who told her he did not believe there was anything wrong. He suggested X-rays, however, “just to be on the safe side,” and so her body was treated to a basically unnecessary dose of radiation in the name of preventative medicine.

[...] He was indeed a lawyer, but also was involved involved in psychic studies with a group in Cleveland called the Brothers of the Fourth Order, and he is particularly interested in the manipulation of physical matter. He had a scientific turn of mind and will, I believe, help you in your experiments.

(Later talking to Bill Gallagher: He and Pat Norelli stood at one side of the table, exerting strong pressure to force third leg to floor. Never did get it down. [...] Tabletop didn’t break beneath Bill’s hands, he said, but, he believes, when table fell over to floor & struck edge of table top against floor, away from Bill and Pat.

(A question from Dick to the effect that he was not born in 1938; he was born in 1939.)

He protects his children and dies in so doing, and is born again in France in 1826, Bordeaux, a merchant. He has not discovered his paramount ability as yet in this life. [...]

He said that he was here to take Carl and me on our second trip. He promised three some time ago, and we’d been on one. [...] Then I shouted at him until he began to project, grabbed his astral arm and helped him to his feet. [...] He gave us a lecture that I swore to remember. [...]

[...] Seth stood in the doorway, looking as he does in Rob’s painting of him. He was short, rather stout, dressed in light shirt and pants. I realized that he took this form because it is reassuring to me.

[...] His abilities have developed along the lines of psychic-vision, as explained in The Seth Material. His projections have been infrequent, and he never gained conscious awareness of any from the sleep state until this one. [...] How will I know its not a dream or hallucination?” he used to ask. After this experience he told me that the subjective feeling is its own proof — and of course, it is.

[...] He came to bed with me, and we made love. I was surprised he was home, knowing it was Friday when he was out of his body also, and so was I. I told Rob and we discussed it, plus our amazement over out-of-body love-making. [...]

He heard tomorrow’s weather report (yesterday), groaned, thought of a very uncomfortable 90-degree temperature tomorrow [and] imagined himself miserable with the heat. Indeed, he began to feel warmer. In a flash he remembered previous days of discomfort, and in the next moment he projected those into the weekend. He felt trapped. Midway through this process he tried to catch himself, but he believed that his body could not handle the heat — and that belief outweighed his intent to change his thoughts, so they kept returning for perhaps ten minutes.

He continued, however, to remind himself that he was not going to worry about tomorrow today, regardless. He told himself that the prediction might be wrong, and he began with his intellect to pile up evidence that could in one way or another bring about a different, more beneficial experience. He did this by recognizing the way he had earlier been building up the picture in the old manner, by collecting all the evidence that fitted it. He used the same process, only for a more beneficial picture, and the process works. [...]

[...] He began the session very quietly, and took many pauses, including a number of long ones, as the session progressed.)

[...] He used it beautifully, even though the results were not pleasing at first. [...]

The book he is writing now is merely a beginning, and an excellent one, the act of faith from which other developments in your own psychic lives will grow. [...] In fiction and poetry he allowed himself this intuitive freedom, but he was afraid to apply it to the real physical universe. [...]

Ruburt sensed that he had a particular destiny since birth. In his own way he has tried to be true to this, but his own critical faculties threatened to disunite him. Now alone he would not have been able to proceed. [...]

[...] He will learn to operate within this new trance state quickly. [...] (Jane gestured, amused.) He will not turn into me. [...] (Partial laugh.) He is not going to give up fun, and become a long-faced spiritual fogy. [...]

He finally is more aware of my presence. [...] Your own lingering symptoms will disappear as Ruburt’s lingering symptoms disappear, and he has made great strides, as I think you must now, my dear friend, agree.

After eight o’clock on the night of a session, Ruburt should take steps so that he is not concerned over the question of whether or not particular visitors will arrive. I cannot get through to him as well when he is so concerned; nor, when he is so concerned, can I let him know ahead of time whether or not witnesses will arrive.

He once, and not purposely, broke a man’s back in an accident involving horses. [...] Nevertheless in the woman’s existence he passed by a feeling of guilt. This time he mends people’s backs, but this is not the only connection.

Nevertheless, Norman has twice before been a man, and the time immediately preceding this existence he was a woman. There were two children then, and he is in this life closely acquainted with three individuals who were close to him in the past existence.

He was an alchemist. He has been in past existences concerned with matters that lie beneath matter, if you will excuse a pun; and for this reason the interest has grown. [...]

[...] Ruburt feels free enough to go to Florida, if he feels he does not have to face what he thinks of as your idea of absolute freedom, in which he is performing as normally as anyone else, or nearly so. If that is expected of him in line with both of your current beliefs in the body’s poor performance then he does not feel free to go at all.

Now he is frightened to some extent of making the trip (on vacation). At the same time he uses the challenge to activate his imagination constructively and to arouse his enthusiasm. Then in his way, with his reactions he tries to fire you with that enthusiasm, so hard won, and meets of course with your own kind of reaction.

The fact that he plans a trip means to him that he is free to go, and that there are some gradations of freedom physically in which he can operate and use as a vehicle. [...]

[...] Both of you believe quite effectively that he cannot perform in certain areas. [...]

[...] All of this, however, is but a beginning for our dream-art scientist, for he or she then begins to recognize the fact of involvement with many different levels and kinds of reality and activity. He must learn to isolate these, separate one from the other, and then try to understand the laws that govern them. As he does so, he learns that some of these realities nearly coincide with the physical one, that on certain levels events become physical in the future, for example, while others do not. He is then beginning to glimpse the blueprints for the world that you know.

(10:35.) Give us a moment … The true scientist understands that he must probe the interior and not the exterior universe; he will comprehend that he cannot isolate himself from a reality of which he is necessarily a part, and that to do so presents at best a distorted picture. [...]

[...] “Ruburt,” Seth commented, “is just beginning his own dream endeavors, which could not seriously start until he learned to have faith in his own being.” [...] In my notes for The Wonderworks I described her own recent dream series — which still continues, by the way.] And: “In our case,” Seth said a bit later, “Ruburt almost ‘becomes’ the material he receives from me. If certain other beneficial alterations occur, and further understanding on Ruburt’s part, we may be able to meet at other levels of consciousness — in the dream state, when he is not cooperating in the production of our book material.” [...]

[...] Then he² becomes sensitive to the different subjective alterations that occur when dreams begin, happen, and end. He familiarizes himself with the symbolism of his own dreams, and sees how these do or do not correlate with the exterior symbols that appear in the waking life that he shares with others. [...]

Ruburt wanted to make sure that he was right. (Long pause.) He tried to go ahead and not go ahead at the same time. He tried to be daring and cautious, brave and safe. [...]

[...] Gus was on the other side of the door, on the screened-in back porch, as he should be — only then I saw to my amazement that he was starting to walk through the glass panel in his eagerness to get to the food. [...] I had my hands on Gus’s head as he sought to enter the kitchen through the glass.

[...] He was older, graying, impeccably dressed in the dark blue uniform of an officer of the Navy. He was handsome and tall and slim. He looked something like the blue male I’m painting from a recent dream, although that one is in civilian clothes. [...]

“The Navy man never came through the door like Gus had, though, nor did he speak to me or move. He simply stood at attention on the porch, symbolizing I don’t know what. He was an officer of considerable rank, with a number of stripes on his cuffs. [...]

[...] He reacts to the emotional atmosphere, and his abilities will operate best if he feels that he is investigating these matters along with interested parties, than if he feels that he is being skeptically observed.

A meeting with Dr. Instream will build up Ruburt’s confidence, in that he will feel that he knows with whom he is dealing. [...]

Now, for ourselves: Ruburt must work some things through on his own, as he knows. There is no doubt that the whole affair still seems strange to him, and he is acclimating himself to new conditions as they arise.

It is understandable that he becomes uneasy at times under such circumstances. It is an excellent idea that he has taken up his painting again, for this turns his awareness to other matters. [...]

He has inhibited physical aspects in terms of decorating, etc., going out— those areas, out of a sense of duty. But his own rhythm can now assert itself, and when he is puttering he is also psychically thinking and creating.

[...] He is beginning to utilize important knowledge physically. He needs your enthusiasm, and you need to work on your beliefs concerning his condition. [...]

Ruburt accepted some beliefs from you because he looked up to you. [...] They tempered others, but now he should become aware of his own natural flow, and follow it.

He still feels freer alone physically, and more self-conscious getting up for example when you are there. [...]

(10:05.) He will feel, therefore, less isolated and less set apart. He will not regard himself as being above others because of the experience. On the contrary he will be swept along in a gestalt of comprehension in which he realizes his own oneness with All That Is.

[...] Now: Work he does with impressions is an entirely different thing. He is not pulling in the same kind of energy. [...] It is a matter of tuning into the kind of energy that he does in our sessions, and simply because of present circumstances and development, three times a week is sufficient.

[...] They will not, therefore, isolate the individual involved, but instead will enlarge his perceptions until he will experience the reality and uniqueness of as many other aspects of reality of which he is capable.

[...] He feels he will be interrupted, but is not consciously aware of this, you see.

At Ruburt’s stage of development however, he reacts as a result of emotional impetus, which is picked up rather directly, and which acts as additional energy in transmission. It is for this reason that he now and then does enjoy visitors to sessions, because he instinctively feels that he is thereby learning to manipulate and use these abilities oftentimes, and thereby learn the various subjective feelings that accompany valid perceptions, and to distinguish these from subjective feelings that turn out to be based upon invalid perceptions.

He put himself back in time, seeing three photographs of himself, progressively further away from the present, in order to separate himself from the sort of information that he heard himself giving earlier this evening. So all in all he was not working at his best, and it can hardly be expected that he do so constantly.

In other words, he enjoys the practice, whether or not he knows it. [...]

(In the 185th session Seth dealt to some extent with what he called Jane’s healing ability; one point he made was that the desire to help others would aid the development of this ability. [...]

He died in 1863, fat, widowed, and fairly prosperous. He choked to death on a prune pit. Since he was short of breath and fairly portly and filled with gout, this isn’t as silly as it sounds. He was 82 or 83. He should watch his drinking habits closely in this life as he has a predisposition toward gout, and drinking to excess can lead in this direction. [...]

[...] We asked John if he could come back later, explaining that we were doing some research on ESP for Jane’s book. John thanked us but said it would be too late and that he would see us next time. He said he believed in ESP. [...]

[...] He actually had a small pharmacy which he ran himself, in Boston. On the side he sold whatever merchandise idiotic men and women would buy to secure lovers. [...]

[...] I saw very clearly the front upstairs bedroom in which he slept, and the bed in which he died as a boy of 9. I made a very quick sketch of this mental picture with a ballpoint pen. [...]

He believed in the specific nature of the creative self, so that it could only be trusted in certain areas. He believed he needed strong mental barriers as well as physical ones, set up against his own spontaneity. He is beginning to understand that the spontaneous and creative aspects of personality are the life-giving ones. [...] He knows now he does not have to slow down, and that relaxation leads to motion. [...]

Now: When Ruburt begins to trust himself, as he has, the physical (arthritic) armor loosens. The creative abilities become even more available, hence his new creativity, and the new physical steps he has taken. [...]

He should—meaning predictive, he will. [...]

[...] It seemed at different times since our sessions began that there were disruptive conflicts, for example: was Ruburt a writer or was he a psychic? [...]

He tries at times to use a schedule, a disciplined schedule as a fence against the subconscious, and becomes panic-stricken imagining himself without it. This is not to say that a schedule in itself is not good, it is to say that he can and sometimes does misuse one. [...] He has been afraid to simply sit and think, for fear of letting the spontaneous self show without the symbolized writing mechanism.

[...] A point here involving Ruburt’s hands and his mother’s sweaters: he knew that knitting was a therapeutic measure suggested in the past to exercise his mother’s hands. When he became sensitized to the sweaters, then he had difficulty with his own hands, you see.

He is allergic, so to speak, to perfumes or colognes that come in a particular shaped bottle, rather than to their contents. [...] He does not like your room heater. [...]

[...] Seth’s entity name for Jane is Ruburt—he, him, his.)

[...] His personality is so constructed that he cannot give time, without conflict, to any matter to which he is not totally committed, or to any matter about which he has any serious doubt.

[...] Of late he has to some extent freed himself. He has taken definite steps, and made positive gestures that he would not have made in the past.

[...] John said that nothing in the impressions meant anything to him; he could see no connections—so much so, he said, that as Seth gave the impressions John wondered if they were really directed to him. [...]

[...] He has not been totally committed, however, and as you know, wholeheartedly accepted my august presence. [...]

[...] His job was not in jeopardy, but John was restless and needed changes; at the same time he felt he was not the stereotype personality his company demanded for district managers, which position would be the next step up for John in the drug company for which he worked. [...]

If he takes a stand as an individual, despite the pressure against him, he will get most of what he desires, and compromises will be worked out to his satisfaction. [...]

He should point out frankly the fact that he has been more valuable to his firm than others who have slavishly followed conventional policy. [...]

[...] This is not intended specifically to apply to Ruburt; that is, he is not to get a big head, nor is he to feel offended either. [...]