“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Seth explains exactly how we translate thoughts into physical reality. To our knowledge, this explanation is original with the Seth Material To say the least, the supposition that we actually create matter gives rise to all kinds of questions, and Rob and I have considered many of them at one time or another. Was Seth saying that we created tables and chairs as well as events? [...]

I’m dealing with this subject, the nature of physical matter, first, because it is basic to any understanding of Seth’s theories. Seth says that we form the physical universe as unselfconsciously as we breathe. [...] Our bodies are the materialization of what we think we are. [...]

Seth answers these questions and many we hadn’t even considered. [...] Seth was describing the intimate connection between expectation and perception—what we see and observe—to Bill Macdonnel, when the incident took place. [...] Before I give you the high points of that episode, however, here are a few excerpts from immediately previous material:

This material was given while we were still having the Instream tests. Later, when we had dispensed with these, Seth had more time to answer our questions. Rob wanted to know what other parts of the body were responsible for this creation of material—if any. [...]

Every so often Jane hears from a female reader who wants to know why Seth often uses the male gender in his books, especially in passages like those in tonight’s 696th session. A little reflection will show that in spite of the “sexist” implications it would be quite difficult to present such material in other ways, so common is the use of “man,” “he,” “his,” and “him.” [...] We also don’t want to become involved with rewriting Seth’s material: We’re sure that when he produces passages cast in the male gender, his intentions are anything but prejudiced in favor of that sex.

[...] When Seth came through again in a few minutes he said, humorously: “Tell Ruburt I said ‘Happy Birthday’” — then gave a page of material for Jane on another subject. [...]

2. Seth talked very briefly about such blueprints in Chapter 20 of Personal Reality — see the 672nd session after the end of break at 10:28. He concluded his material by stating: “A system of checks and balances exists, however, so that in certain dreams you are made aware of these blueprints. [...]

3. Seth’s material here reminded me of what Jane had told me last week about her own objectified perception of information; see her quoted notes prefacing the 694th session for May 1.

(Seth repeated several times that he felt in fine form, and Jane’s voice and manner so indicated. I asked some questions designed to keep the material on the level of reincarnational data, since our guests had done some reading on the subject. Seth said I had not known Lee Wright before, but that I had been “involved” with Judy in a past life. [...] This reminded me that Seth had given similar data for our friend Bill Macdonnel; he too had been a sailor in a Denmark contemporary existence, but as I recall I did not ask Seth whether Judy and Bill had known each other in that life. [...]

(Prior to this evening Jane and I had not mentioned the Seth material to them, although the four of us have tried a few ESP experiments on weekends. [...] Tonight’s experiment began rather spontaneously and ended with Seth making an entrance, although I for one had not particularly planned it that way.

(Seth expressed much pleasure at being able to speak in a natural manner, without dealing with the usual philosophical and complicated subjects that make up most of the sessions. [...] Seth reinforced this by saying that in the future I should be careful if I did not want it to happen again. Jane and I now like to prepare witnesses beforehand, since the material has become so lengthy and complicated that it is increasingly difficult to explain briefly.

There should be an extra dimension added to the material, and now and then the freedom for some informal discussion. With your recorder we may be able to arrange a more comfortable conversation, although as you realize as far as the material itself is concerned, it is rather weighty material and I must sort of hit you over the head with it. [...]

[...] The end of the Seth material — or is it? [...]

[...] Although one can say that her life is over in this reality, her lifework isn’t. Many have written that her books are new each time they read them — that they’re constantly finding new material in them. [...] It also happens with the audio tapes from Jane’s ESP class, as she speaks for Seth, or as herself in exchanges with students, or as she speaks and sings in her trance language, Sumari. [...]

[...] The 15 three-ring binders containing her poems, all neatly typed, for example; her essays and journals; other blocks of unpublished Seth material, one of which I mentioned in the Introduction; an unfinished autobiography that perhaps I could put into publishable shape; likewise, passages from an unfinished fourth Oversoul Seven novel, in which Jane dealt with Seven’s childhood; a book of her paintings, with commentary; several early novels that I still believe merit publishing. [...]

When Jane published The Seth Material in 1970, we were quite unprepared for the impact her work would have. [...]

[...] If Seth comes through with material for “Unknown” Reality, Tam will be the first “outsider” to sit in on a session for this work. Almost always Jane dictates book material without witnesses other than myself and uses the framework of ESP class for emotional interactions involving herself, Seth, and others. [...]

1. For those who are interested in publishing matters: Like counterpoint endeavors, Jane’s Dialogues and Adventures have become interwound with her Seth books. She discussed her “own” works in her Introduction to Personal Reality. I mention them in various notes in that book, and selections of poetry from Dialogues itself are presented in chapters 10 and 11; in the latter chapter Seth used one of those excerpts in connection with his own material. Then in Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, Seth refers to Adventures on occasion, while I give information about it in Note 3 for his Preface, and Note 5 for Session 680, among others.

[...] In it Seth gave the heading for Section 4, just before finishing his evening’s work with a few minutes of personal information for Jane and me. [...] But I’d say his procedure also helps satisfy Jane’s spontaneous impatience about learning what’s coming next in the material.

[...] A young man had finished reading The Seth Material this evening. [...]

2. A note added later: The Seth Material and Seth Speaks contain some references to the reincarnational connections that Seth postulates involving himself, Jane, and me. Such personal data is outside the scope of this book; but in Chapter Nineteen, Seth does go into his ideas on reincarnation, time, etc., in a more objective way.

[...] “I’m glad Seth’s working on his book again,” she said. [...] And so, like Seth Speaks, this is really two books in one: It’s not only about the nature of personal reality, but the circumstances surrounding Jane’s production of the material and the many ideas she has concerning it.

[...] We’d lost our car, but we had a place to live and had all of our paintings, manuscripts and records, including the fifty-three volumes of the Seth material, intact. [...]

[...] Occasionally a footnote like this will be included in order to point up Seth’s own material. [...]

Today I received scientific corroboration by mail from James Beal, a NASA scientist, for some of Seth’s data on the units that Seth says underlie all physical particles. This information, given to us in sessions, was published in the appendix of The Seth Material. The paper Jim sent was so professionally oriented that I could hardly understand it, couched as it was in specialized mathematical language. Yet through Seth, we had received the same data. Someone — my own unconscious or Seth — had access to it; that much is certain. [...]

In The Seth Material, I told the story of my psychic initiation and introduction to Seth as I understood it at that time, and gave a sampling of his ideas on a wide variety of subjects. I also emphasized the “evidential” material we had received — spontaneous clairvoyant demonstrations given in sessions and in the envelope tests that we conducted for over a year. Seth has given correct clairvoyant descriptions of people and events in other parts of this country and Puerto Rico.

[...] It was 10 A.M. on the last day of our first tour to promote my book, The Seth Material. This was our fifth television show. I tried to look composed and confident, though I still found it difficult to face strangers so early in the day, much less the world at large — particularly when I was expected to explain my own psychic experiences and the philosophical concepts of The Seth Material.

Even without a physical form, Seth is highly effective in our world. Through me, he is producing the Seth Material, a continuing manuscript dealing with the nature of reality, consciousness and identity that now totals over fifty notebooks. He is also dictating his own book: Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. To date, we have held nearly six hundred sessions. [...]

Our guests, with others who didn’t make the trip to Sayre, had been visiting the collection of the Seth material in the archives of Yale University Library in New Haven, CT. The archives contain a complete copy of my original typed pages of the Seth material in its 46 three-ring binders; many editions of the Seth books and Jane’s “own” books in English and in translations; her published and unpublished novels; her journals and poetry; her notes and papers, and mine; various published Seth journals; treatises and websites on the Internet (some nice, some not so nice); plus other relevant, indeed very evocative material like the reader correspondence from this country and abroad. [...]

Jane and I were very surprised at the initial reception of The Seth Material, then Seth Speaks and Personal Reality (our shortened terminology for those first two Seth-dictated books.) Since we had no experience with “fan mail,” for example, we had no expectations, but as the Seth titles and Jane’s own books were published she came to spend many a weekend answering that most welcome mail. [...] Time travels for sure; travels not only through the psyche but through time—even if Seth did call that quality we were so used to “camouflage time!”

The Seth material, as Jane and Rob spoke and wrote it between 1963 and 1984 has brought insights and inspiration to millions of people, including myself. [...] The Seth material was magical to me as soon as I started reading the first book I found in a used bookstore, Seth Speaks, in 1979. [...] Rob and Jane and Seth’s magic has brought new interest and purpose into the lives of many different kinds of people. [...]

[...] Once in a while Seth would come through—though usually only by invitation—but that wasn’t the norm by any means. [...] Sue Watkins, a dear friend who was to write several books about Jane’s work with the Seth material, lived just down the street for a while before moving to the country. (Sue’s latest, Speaking of Jane Roberts, is crowded with much frank and loving information about Jane and me that I have no room to go into here.) Peggy Gallagher and her husband Bill worked for the Elmira Star-Gazette; as a reporter Peg wrote several well-received articles about Jane and the Seth material. [...]

(At first John said Seth’s material meant little or nothing to him. This is just about a standard first reaction from witnesses for whom Seth has given such material; offhand Jane and I can think of no one who has reacted differently. [...] As usual I read Seth’s data back to John, and as he has in past sessions he then began to make connections. See the 135th, 166th, 190th, 199th, 200th, and 204th sessions for material re. [...] A fair amount of the material is telepathic and/or clairvoyant, especially that of the 204th session. Seth expands on this last session in the 205th and 206th sessions, and deals with John’s experience in hearing Seth speak to him when he was alone.

(Just before first break Seth had mentioned a 12th St. in connection with John Bradley. [...] Jane said she received this bit of data quite strongly while giving Seth’s other material, and that at first she wasn’t going to give voice to it because she wasn’t sure if it was from Seth or herself. [...]

(John was interested in whether Seth could add anything to the long range material he has given concerning Searle Drug over the past year and a half. This material is somewhat long and complicated, and is covered in the sessions John has witnessed: 37, 54, 63, 70, 95, 135, 166, 190, 204. [...]

(Seth said a little on the above ideas when he began to give us the material on the electrical field and on moment points, several months ago. [...]

[...] Rooney, incidentally, can be seen in a photograph with Jane on the jacket of The Seth Material, hard cover edition.

[...] In retrospect, Jane and I had been wondering if Monday’s session should have consisted of book dictation — yet Seth was putting that material to use tonight….)

2. Seth notes in part, in Chapter Three of Seth Speaks: “Root assumptions are those built-in ideas of reality … those agreements upon which you base your ideas of existence. [...]

[...] According to Seth, Emerson is one of the “Speakers” — personalities who, both in the physical state and out of it, speak to man through the ages, reminding him of inner knowledge so that it is never really forgotten. [...] Also see Chapter Twenty in Seth Speaks.

[...] It contained a few excerpts of the Seth Material, and a reproduction of Rob’s painting of Seth. Mrs. Brian had a terrific headache while reading the article; suddenly she thought she felt Seth’s presence. An inner voice, presumably Seth’s, told her that she had been feeling sorry for herself, that she must stop brooding over her health at once, get up, and go out for a walk. [...]

Our Monday and Wednesday sessions, where Seth develops the theoretical material, are still private, although a guest may drop in occasionally. Seth sometimes does hold a session for my ESP students on class night, and in class he deals with the practical application of the material.

Several people have told me that Seth communicated with them through automatic writing, but Seth denies any such contacts, saying that his communications will be limited to his work with me, in order that the integrity of the Seth Material be preserved. [...]

Demonstrations of ESP in sessions have always had a purpose: either to help increase my confidence or train my abilities, to illustrate a point made in the material, or to offer information to someone in need. It’s easy for me to forget my earlier feelings that Seth should prove himself; easy for me to forget that I, too, insisted on my “wonders,” and on several occasions even denied the evidence of my own senses out of the mistaken belief that I was somehow being more scientific that way. I will say that I always highly respected the Seth Material, and recognized the scope and daring of some of the concepts it contains.

We were most eager to get this particular material to the public, since many correspondents write requesting Seth’s views on sexuality. This desire, coupled with Seth’s seemingly endless creativity, led us to a decision: From now on, the Seth books will carry far fewer notes. In the two volumes of The “Unknown” Reality, Rob tried to correlate Seth’s views on various subjects, tracing them backward to his earlier books (and often to unpublished material), showing the context in which the books were written. Now we will include usual session notes, but the reader will have to keep track of the development of the theories or correlate them with previous Seth books at his or her leisure.

I know very well that there were evenings when I “should” have held our regular Seth session, but didn’t, for reasons also forgotten. [...] During the period that Seth was dictating this book, Rob was typing the two volumes of Seth’s previous work, The “Unknown” Reality, and adding innumerable notes that correlated Seth’s material with that of his earlier books. [...] Turn into Seth.

Unless I “turn into Seth,” go the whole way, alter my very psychological alignment — unless Seth smiles and speaks — there is no Seth material. [...]

I’d been producing my own books during this time, and getting them ready for publication, so surely Seth wasn’t taking up any creative slack of my own. Still, I stared at Psyche when Seth finished it, wishing that he could type, too! [...] And I wondered: What must I look like to Rob as I leaned forward as Seth, smiling, (my glasses off, Seth’s eyes darker than mine), joking as Seth, gesturing, waiting while Rob got me (Jane), a beer? [...]

(Finally, and perhaps prematurely: Left untapped so far in all of this is any material from Seth on whether the counterpart and family-of-consciousness mechanisms apply to other species. If they do, I remarked to Jane as I typed this session the next day, then Seth must have a great amount of extremely interesting information on those concepts in relation to animals, say, or birds, insects, and marine life — not to mention bacteria and viruses; perhaps, also, submicroscopic entities down to the molecular and atomic levels, or even “below,” are involved. I added that I hoped we’d soon begin to get the material we wanted on all of those categories, and others, and that Seth’s flow of information on such topics would continue as the years passed. [...]

(I told her I’d been rather surprised when Seth had so baldly stated that there were only nine families of [human] consciousness upon our planet. [...] I also remarked upon my understanding that usually neither she nor Seth liked to categorize new information so definitely. [...] Strangely, neither of us had ever asked Seth to name any of the other families of consciousness, following Jane’s Sumari breakthrough some three years ago — but at the end of this session see the material about the family of consciousness Sue Watkins had tuned in to back then.

6. Seth’s line about the dislike that can exist among counterparts is hilarious, nor am I being facetious in so commenting. [...] The interesting thing about Seth’s statement is that with counterpart theory in mind one can gain a fresh appreciation of how underlying emotions and motives flow among certain individuals, sometimes surfacing in feelings of dislike, for instance, to whatever degree. And, of course, my thinking here is in line with material Seth himself soon gives in this session.

1. It will be remembered that Seth first mentioned his concept of counterparts in the ESP class session for Tuesday evening, November 18, 1974, rather than in dictation for “Unknown” Reality; see the opening notes for Session 721. [...] Then see all of Seth’s material on counterparts in the 721st session itself.

[...] “No” Actually I was, but Jane was doing so well as Seth that I hated to interrupt her delivery of the material.)

(As break neared its end, Jane said that Seth was going to give the material available through one of the other channels open from him tonight. [...]

(Returning at 10:54, then, Seth not only came through with the material Jane wanted,^,8 but devoted considerable time to some other information for her. [...]

1. Appendix 12 contains much material on conventional theories of evolution, as well as on Seth’s and my own often countering views.

“As I was getting ready for bed after our last Seth session, I suddenly wondered about Atlantis. Then from Seth, mentally, I thought, I got the information that Atlantis, as it’s come down to us in myth and story, was actually a composite of three civilizations. [...] Next I got that Plato picked up the Atlantis material himself, psychically — he didn’t get it the way he said he did. I never ask Seth about Atlantis; I’m afraid the cultish ideas connected with it turned me off long ago.”

(A note added later: Seth himself had some things to say about Atlantis in the 742nd session for Section 6; the session also contains excerpts from the Atlantis material he delivered a month or so after finishing Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality. Without giving away any “secrets,” I can write that on both occasions Seth discussed the subject in conjunction with his postulates about ideals, myths, religion, probabilities, and the simultaneous nature of time.)

[...] We were left thinking that the general tone of Seth’s material early in the session, especially in his references to such ideas as “historical sequences” and “alternate realities,” might have served as a trigger.

(Some of the material obtained is verbatim, some is not because of Seth’s rapid delivery. [...] The very beginning of the session is not recorded because I was working in the studio in the back of the apartment when Seth came through as Jane, Eve and Tam sat in the living room.

[...] When I returned Jane and Tam informed me that Seth had come through again. This time the material concerned, among other things, plants and thoughts; Tam being very interested in plants and related subjects. Since we have no notes on this material, Tam said he would send us a brief resume of this last delivery, to include with these notes.

[...] In this session were perhaps a page and a half of Seth’s clairvoyant data re Tam and Miss Carr. [...] The last name of Cecile Grossman, an editor at Prentice-Hall, was mentioned by Seth, for instance. Tam noted the correct data in the 418th session, so this material has now been checked at least once.

[...] I will never speak through anyone other than Ruburt, simply because there must never be any doubt of the origin of the Seth material.

1. Seth is right, of course. [...] My stomach has been knotting up because I’m stewing over the reactions of those in charge at Prentice-Hall to Seth’s material in Mass Events about medical matters.

(We laughed again when we considered that Seth had tempered some of his material for Mass Events. [...]

(See the session for September 22 for our own ideas and feelings, and more of Seth’s material, on the medical/disclaimer situation with Prentice-Hall.)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

[...] Since in all of these experiments Seth was helping us through actual suggestions and explanations as to how we perceive such information, I simply couldn’t minimize his importance just to get the ESP book published. To us, Seth and the Seth Material was making everything else possible.

While I hesitated trying the experiment, Rob sent Dr. Osis some more of the material. Dr. Osis wrote that he wasn’t interested in the material itself, since it didn’t fall within his field of empirical psychology. [...] Even though he expressed interest in “testing” Seth for ESP, and suggested again that we try the clairvoyant experiment, I was put off by the letter. So I sulked: If he didn’t express interest in the material, which I thought was terrific, then he could just go find someone else to go looking through his walls!

[...] By the time this first change happened in my trance states, I’d already had my first out-of-body experience, and following Seth’s instructions I was having clairvoyant experiences during daily exercise periods. But I felt in control of these, while Seth was in control of sessions, and to me this made a difference. [...] The trance was a deeper one, though, and the material launched into more complicated subjects. It was also during this time that Seth started removing my glasses just before he began to speak.

[...] As a result, I played around with the idea of publishing some of Seth’s ideas as my own and hiding their origin. [...] Besides, I felt that the very fact of the sessions was psychologically fascinating, and brought up questions that were answered in the material itself. [...]

[...] A scientist there wondered if Seth could describe him or one of his associates. Jane and I both felt that Seth would not comply, at least at this time. We based this opinion on material already received.

[...] By 8:45 she said she had no idea of Seth’s material for tonight, and that this made her nervous. [...]

[...] This material is included here because it is dealt with briefly by Seth in the following session, the 39th.

(We were back home by 8 PM; at 8:15 Jane lay down for half an hour, in preparation for the session, while I prepared papers for the notes I would be taking, and read over some previous material from Seth.

[...] The article also included information about the Seth material. See the 618th session in Chapter Three for an account of Seth’s meeting with Dick and the latter’s editor, Eleanor Friede.

(Monday night, Jane had another vivid dream involving the Seth material, herself, and a certain kind of magazine story. [...]

If all of your beliefs, not just your “fortunate” ones, were not materialized, you would never thoroughly understand on a physical level that your ideas create reality. If only your “positive” beliefs were materialized then you would never clearly comprehend the power of your thought, for you would not completely experience its physical results.

2. Seth tells us in Chapter Nineteen of Seth Speaks: “Molecular structures send out their own messages, and unless you are tuned in to perceive them, they may be interpreted as meaningless noise.”