“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Long pause.) Because the book met criticism at Prentice does not mean that you or it were not protected. (Pause.) The word “protection” in this context is interesting, of course, since the disclaimer is supposed to protect Prentice from any court action. It is in its fashion an attempt at protection at that level. The level is one where every bit of preventative protection is needed in a world where people constantly need insurance, preventative medicine, and so forth – again, all issues dealt with in the book.

(Softly:) Your existence is protected, your works are protected. Those statements are self-evident to me, while you of course are still in the process of thinking them over, and trying to fit them into the context of life as you know it. To that extent, then, of course our attitudes would be different. In any case, when you were first working with Frameworks 1 and 2, you saw many examples of Framework 2’s activities, as they impinged into your reality, and you were quite pleased. Your living experiences often gave you clues one way or another that added to the thematic material.

(At 8:52: “I sort of feel him around, but I don’t think it will be very long.” Jane had been tempted to pass up the session and continue work on God of Jane, but I reminded her that I could use Seth’s information on the disclaimer in our reply to the legal department at Prentice-Hall. We knew by now that we were resigned to having the disclaimer inserted into Mass Events, but we wanted to have our say—partially out of anger and partially out of self-protection, since we didn’t believe all the legal department had told us; we wanted them to know we understood the subterfuges involved.

When you realize that you are indeed protected, such issues are absorbed along the way. They are actually changed in character, so that they work for your benefit rather than against it. It is extremely difficult for me, however, to make you understand quite clearly the role that your own attitudes play—for when issues hit close to home you have both the old tendency to blame the other party or parties for what is involved.

—you are protected. Your work is protected.

The very idea of protection, however, as you know, implies a threat—so if you believe in threats you had better have protection. [...]

[...] If you feel threatened by certain situations, and lacking protection, then you will take certain steps that might not be taken otherwise, so your actions are vastly different according to whether or not you realize that you are indeed being protected.

[...] [That total includes Mass Events, God of Jane, and the poetry book, all of which are yet to be issued.] In the private session for September 22—one of his series on the magical approach to life—Seth had told us that our work is “protected.” [...]

[...] This morning, we’d asked a series of pendulum questions about material in Monday’s session, concerning work, inspiration, protection, and so forth, and obtained some illuminating answers.

Now: some people who are very wealthy cannot truly enjoy their wealth in their need to protect it.

[...] The greater their wealth, the more some such people struggle to protect it.

Now, to some extent, you and Ruburt felt enough the same way to make the analogy feasible, only Ruburt was the one who constructed the edifice that would protect his own abilities, first of all, and yours as well. [...]

(At 4:40, she was near tears when I asked why her psyche hadn’t risen up to protect her when it became obvious that she was heading for deep trouble with the symptoms. She said her psyche did rise up to protect her many times — otherwise she’d have died, of course. [...] She agreed with me that she now has the ultimate protection of the hospital.

[...] She agreed that she is protected from life in the hospital. [...]

(The symptoms — and now the hospital — protected her from criticism, eliminated book tours, the whole bit. [...]

[...] A strange, protective way to behave.

You believed the painting self had to be protected. For one reason, you identified your painting creative self with your father, and you felt that he had had to protect his creative self in the household from your mother. As these ideas became entrenched, you actually became more concerned with protecting your ability than with using it. You spent more mental energy setting up barriers to protect it, so that any one instance, say, of interruption or conflict, would immediately arouse the power of the buried fear, and become a symbol for it. [...]

[...] The old framework was so restrictive that your ideas of secrecy, protection and privacy made you want to protect yourself to such a degree that you did not want your paintings to sell, to share them with others. You wanted to protect them—the products of your ability, as well as your ability, from the world.

[...] While you smile at me, you still think that you must protect yourself against distractions, as if they are purposely lined up like enemies against you. This has nothing to do with consciously deciding how you want to spend your time, but with those inner fears that make you think of your time as something that must be protected—that considers your talent so fragile that it will wither if you do not make great effort to protect it.

Ruburt felt he had to protect his writing abilities in the same manner, except that he is by nature more gregarious. [...]

You felt that you must to some extent at least protect yourselves against your neighbors—who as both of you said often “Would take up all of your time without a qualm”—neighbors or friends who you felt would not understand your goals, however good their intent. You must then jointly protect your time.

Before, you did not believe those abilities could protect themselves, but needed you as stern parents to protect them from the world, and even from their own spontaneity.

You both felt that the development of those abilities must be protected, lest the need for financial security lead you into full-time work on a long-term basis. [...]

Your other attitudes, mentioned earlier, continued, and the more the world seemed to knock at your door, however gently, and the more the mail came, the more convinced you both became that your solitude must be protected. [...]

[...] Are laws made to protect life, to protect property, to establish order, to punish transgressors? Are laws made to protect man from his own cunning and chicanery? In short, are laws made to protect man from his own “basically criminal nature”?

Are laws made to protect man from the self as it is generally outlined by Freud and Darwin? [...] Are laws made then to protect man from his “sinful nature”? [...]

[...] They use portions of themselves as hostages—or as in Ruburt’s case they use a portion of themselves not so much as hostages, but they take a part of the self under “protective custody.” [...]

Ruburt took a portion of himself into protective custody—not wishing to do that portion any damage, but simply to restrain it, to teach it discipline. [...]

[...] In the case of hostages and those in protective custody, a certain kind of enforced isolation is also bound to happen —and to some degree or another, the individual involved will display in certain areas the same kind of exaggerated postures between various portions of the self, as the Americans and the Iranians display in their behavior together. [...]

(Long pause.) By the very fact that a portion of the self is kept, say, in a sort of protective custody, it is kept in isolation, which means that it is not kept up on current events. [...]

[...] In that framework of belief, Ruburt felt justified in using physical symptoms as protection on both levels. They gave some protection even from inner spontaneity, so that the inner abilities would be regulated, and they protected him also from any derogatory behavior on the part of his fellow men in the world. [...]

[...] When you leave that framework of belief, such self-protecting defensive mechanisms are no longer necessary. [...]

As a child is physically protected from some diseases for a while after he emerges from his mother’s womb, so for a brief period is the child cushioned against some psychic disasters for a short period after birth, and carries within him, still for his comfort, memories of past existences and places. [...] They had protected themselves against violence but not against fear.

(10:41.) Their god symbol was a male one — a strong, physically powerful male figure who would therefore protect them since they could not protect themselves. [...]

He was much later to appear as the old Jehovah, the God of Wrath who protected the Chosen People. [...] They could not trust the earth, since they were not allowed to protect themselves against violent forces within it.

[...] Caves were not just places of protection in which unskilled natives squatted. [...]

[...] When I started doing this, I aroused the protective elements—the conservative elements—of my personality... [...] If you confuse the issues you try to temper your creativity (to gain approval, etc.) which can dilute the work; or you set up protective measures to protect yourself against the worlds disapproval or scorn.

[...] At the same time he is afraid of feedback, and he has learned to minimize his hearing to protect himself from criticism. [...]

[...] 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.

[...] It does not help, and it definitely hinders his creativity, that he so misguidedly tries to protect. [...]

[...] In an unsafe universe as given protection is necessary, and certain attitudes are accepted, coloring many areas of life, spreading out to assure that protection.

[...] If you are convinced that your world is not safe then it seems sensible to protect yourself in questionable areas by expecting the worst so that you will be prepared. [...]

The more unsafe the world is felt to be, then the more important protection is, and the more threatening, expression. [...]

[...] Each era set up various methods meant to protect man against the environment itself, or against the gods. [...]

Ruburt’s symptoms were largely protective in nature, providing a defense he felt he needed to protect himself against an unsafe universe from without, and against a suspicious self within.

[...] He long ago decided to take issue with those beliefs, yet in case they were true, he felt he needed protection. [...]

[...] He felt he needed protection while he learned, and until he attained enough wisdom. [...]

[...] They were to be protected at all costs. Ruburt expected her husband, the man, to show spontaneous love and affection, and to supply emotional richness, which she was willing to nurture—but she expected the artist—who happened to be her husband—to protect himself from any emotional response that might interfere with his work.

[...] The abilities were put to the purpose of protecting him from the hostile world, serving as economic sustenance. [...]

[...] Ruburt carries his protection and safety wherever he goes. [...] Its protection and validity are always honored. [...]

[...] This energy is a protection of your own personality and your own will and of your own spirit. Every man and woman has protection. Your astro-body [sic] is to some extent a projection and a protection. [...] Others are protected from your own feeling, as you are protected to a large extent from theirs. [...]

Concerning Jane’s understandable desire to protect her work, long ago she published some very clear statements about that. [...] And in her introduction to Seth Speaks (1972), she quoted Seth from the 510th session for January 19, 1970: “While my communications will come exclusively through Ruburt (Jane) at all times, to protect the integrity of the material, I will invite the reader to become aware of me as a personality….”

[...] Jane is most concerned that she and I protect the integrity of the Seth material in its unique and original form.

[...] As he has said so many times, Seth speaks only through me, to protect the integrity of the material. [...]

Because of the personal material given in late sessions, Ruburt has the habit of worrying—protecting the idea of time and ability as described, so that in one day he will worry about what distractions may arise the next day, and this puts him on guard. [...]

[...] This is, on your part, a reflection of those ideas in which time is something to be protected first of all. [...]

[...] You can do the same thing without realizing it by projecting into the idea of violence, all powers, and then it seems to you that life itself has no ability to protect itself and that any stray thought of violence or disaster will immediately zoom home and that the recipient has no way to protect himself. [...]

[...] When you say the lilies of the field may, lose a leaf or two, but still have a great deal of protection, I was wondering had Ned’s fish, perhaps. [...] Now what kind of protection would that fish have had against my violent acts?”)

[...] You have much more protection than you realize. [...]

They were so on the outlook for violence that their entire system of communication was built upon fear, for they could not protect themselves, they could only run. [...]