“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Perhaps it’s been remiss on our parts, but Jane and I haven’t concerned ourselves with any connections her Seth may have with ancient Seths. We don’t believe such relationships exist on any kind of personalized basis, although someday we’ll ask Seth to comment here. We think the name of Jane’s Seth came about through much more pragmatic needs. In Chapter 1 of The Seth Material, Jane quoted Seth-to-be from the 4th session for December 8, 1963, as that personality came through on the Ouija board (which we’d used to initiate these sessions): “You may call me whatever you choose. I call myself Seth. [...] Once Seth gave us a name by which to call him, we simply began using it. I’m sure that at the time Jane had no conscious knowledge about Egyptian, Hebrew, or even Christian origins or uses connected with the name, Seth.

6. About Seth’s reference to the myths connected with his name: Set, or Seth, was an Egyptian god of evil (with an animal’s head) whose complicated origins could, it’s thought, reach back in antiquity to at least 7500 B.C. In Judaism, of course, Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, after Cain and Abel (Genesis 4 and 5). (As one correspondent wrote us: “Seth is also a Hebrew name meaning ‘appointed’ — i.e., the appointed one.”) However, some very early priestly genealogies omit Cain and Abel, and consider Seth as the oldest son of Adam; in the second century A.D., for instance, the Sethites, who were members of a little-known Gnostic sect, thought of Seth, the son of Adam, as the Messiah. Seth also shows up in writings of the ancient occult religious philosophy, the cabala, which was originated by certain Jewish rabbis who sought to interpret the scriptures through numerical values; the soul of Seth is seen as infusing Moses; he was to reappear as the Messiah….

[...] The 32 people crowded into  our living room enjoyed rich, active, loud, and even profane exchanges among themselves, with Jane, and with Seth. “Fuck you, Seth!” one girl screamed — which daunted that worthy not at all: Class members hardly agree with Seth or anyone else all of the time. [...] She also took time to sing very delicately in Sumari, in contrast to Seth’s powerful deliveries. [...] We’re to get a transcript of the evening’s Seth material at next week’s class.*)

[...] The book on the Seth material is not yet an actuality, but the Seth material is, and it is upon the Seth material that the book will be based. [...]

(Before the session tonight Jane and I discovered during our conversation that each of us had toyed with the idea of asking Seth to answer the letter. [...] Still, we didn’t make any formal request that Seth write such a letter. [...]

(Seth’s last words, above, really mean that in his opinion Jane had been in trance long enough at this time. [...] As often as not, Seth will suggest we continue with a session when conditions for communication are excellent.

1. According to the Seth Material, one chair is perceived by 5 people as

2. You ask Seth about life. [...]

3. Seth says the childlike self is

[...] Seth said that she had solved the challenges she had set for herself, but in so doing had damaged her physical body to such an extent that she had decided to discard it. [...] And what happens after death?” In a recent session Seth answered these questions. Many of the answers apply to death in general, so I’ll include some excerpts from this session in the next chapter, and also go into Seth’s ideas on reincarnation more thoroughly.

[...] All of these questions came into our minds when Seth began speaking about reincarnation. [...] “Besides,” I said to Rob, “Seth says that we live in the ‘Spacious Present,’ and that there really isn’t any past, present, and future. [...]

Some of the answers cropped up in readings given for others, where Seth was dealing with specific cases. [...] For that matter, Seth doesn’t give such readings unless they have bearing on the matter at hand.

(Jane and I have yet to prepare Seth’s material on the Puerto Rico experiments, for insertion into the record. We have now decided to present Seth’s hits and near misses only, plus Seth’s data on the Washington experiment, in one of the sessions falling due the week after this.

(Apropos of Peggy’s Washington trip, Seth gave predictions when asked to during Friday’s unscheduled session. [...] They accompanied her to Washington, and at Seth’s request she will also make notes while there. There follows a copy of Seth’s material on the trip, as noted down by Peggy:

(Another possibility here is that Jane and Seth can work as a team, since Seth has said often that Jane has abilities of her own. [...] Jane has now begun a book on dreams, to be done concurrently with her book on the Seth material itself.

[...] Jane asked Seth for signs of his presence; Seth had talked about giving such signs, soon, in the last session. [...] Jane spoke to Seth in a quiet voice for some little time, but no results were obtained; nothing out of the ordinary was noticed by either of us. Jane then suggested that I speak to Seth, since I was used to doing so; her hope being that by going into trance on her own she might contact a survival personality—namely, Blanche Price.

[...] Jane and I wanted Seth’s assistance in contacting Blanche, without Seth himself speaking, for we thought this would make the session too much like the regular sessions. Jane had repeatedly asked Seth for assistance, and I began by doing the same.

(At no time was Jane aware of Seth as a personality, and neither of us saw any signs of him or from him. One of my concerns when Jane asked me to speak to Seth at the beginning of the session, was whether my speaking would bring on a regular Seth session, but this didn’t develop; and the method gave us both confidence for like experiments in the future. [...]

1. In larger terms Seth’s ideas as to what the “whole self” is take in a great deal — with reincarnation and probable personalities, for instance, being only two of the concepts involved. [...] See both The Seth Material and Seth Speaks.

[...] During our drive back to Elmira this morning Jane said, “Somebody’s working on Seth’s book, I can tell you that. [...]

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

After she’d grappled with her reception of some long-sound material last night, Jane spoke a few words for Seth. It was then that we began to glimpse what we could call a “source” of the long material — for Jane told class that from our physical viewpoint “Seth’s true reality had sounded like a mountain” to her. [...] By making a strong effort she’d speeded up her reception of him so that he came through sounding like the familiar Seth. Thus she gained new insights into Seth and his home environment. And from that much larger, more encompassing reality, Seth could follow a consciousness in our camouflage world through all of its forms “within the flicker of an eye.”

(A note added after Seth had completed his dictation for “Unknown” Reality in April 1975: The 712th session was held on October 16, 1974. In her notes at the beginning of the 710th session, Jane described how she’d heard Seth’s very powerful voice in her sleep state during the night of October 5. I can write now that she has yet to have any subsequent, similar kind of encounter with Seth or his voice.)

[...] I made a verbatim record of her first encounter with slow, or long, sound in the 612th session for September 6, 1972, just about a year after she’d finished Seth Speaks. Since the material in that session wasn’t covered in Personal Reality or Adventures, we’re publishing most of it as an appendix for this volume.* Not only will it illuminate these notes; it will also link, if loosely, Seth’s reality, Seth Two, and some other “rapid” effects. [...]

[...] Seth told Rob that he’d seen only part of the room, described the rest of it and gave further details about Dick’s English life. The session lasted until 11:15 when Rob, not Seth, got tired, and suggested that we stop for the night. Seth said, Sleepy time is no crime. Now I am no poet, and you know it. Rob laughed, because Seth likes to tease me about my poetry.

[...] Was that Seth, or Jane-playing-Seth? [...]

[...] In fact, quite without knowing it, I was pacing about, talking as Seth, carrying an unlit cigarette. Finally Seth said, This is a very pleasant little session. [...]

(A note: After the session Jane told me that she knew what Seth was going to tell me when I had finished the painting under discussion. I asked Jane just how she knew this; was Seth telling me one thing, and Jane another; did Jane divine the information from Seth as he spoke through her, or what? [...] But as Seth told me about the painting Jane knew what he was to tell me.)

(Before the session tonight Jane and I discussed the excellent manner in which Seth was able to relate to the various people who have witnessed sessions. This ability escaped us for some time, until we finally realized the various approaches used by Seth to make the material given meaningful to the very different personalities involved.)

(Before the session I told Jane, half jokingly, that she should publish a Seth Reader, said volume to contain Seth material on many subjects, presented in a rather more simplified way.)

[...] For all I knew, Seth was a secondary personality himself, and at this point we could have dropped the sessions. Though we found them intriguing, we certainly weren’t convinced that Seth was someone who had survived death. [...] Seth made no demands of any kind upon either of us.

Rob knew instantly the episode to which Seth was referring. How he managed to sit there calmly taking notes while Seth went on, is more than I know.

“Maybe Seth means a symbolic creation?” I said. But soon the words started coming again, and it became obvious that Seth was insisting upon a literal materialization.

[...] Last year one of my students was taking a psychology course in the local college night sessions, and with the professor’s encouragement, she frequently discussed Seth and our ESP classes. My student wanted to do one of her required papers on the nature of personality as explained by Seth. She asked Seth if he would give a special session for this purpose. [...]

Seth agreed, and devoted one entire class to the session. [...] In a way, it is not the kind of in-depth discussion Seth would give in one of our private sessions, but it contains an excellent thumbnail description of his theories on personality, for those who have no previous knowledge of the Seth Material. [...]

Seth’s personality, of course, comes through on tape better than on the printed page, because his inflections and connotations are obvious. Also, we recorded a few moments of conversation, so that my normal voice could be compared with Seth’s. Even the most lecturelike private session is always enlivened by Seth’s gestures, and this is more marked when he is relating to a group.

(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. [...] 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.

(Seth came through briefly shortly before the Gallaghers left, at about 1 AM. [...] Seth said Peggy used rationalization in saying that she stood for Willy’s proximity because she thought Jane touched her instead of the cat. Peggy, Seth said in high good humor, had actually achieved an excellent state of deep hypnosis when Jane used the more authoritative approach; otherwise she wouldn’t have permitted the cat’s presence.

(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. [...]

[...] Seth says that he has personally assisted me in some of my own projection experiments, but that I have not been aware of his assistance. I’ve never dreamed of Seth, and I find this rather strange. I’ve often awakened, fully alert, in the middle of the night, suddenly conscious that I’ve been giving a kind of Seth session. I can hear Seth’s words going through my head like signals. [...] Later the people involved told me that they dreamed that Seth was speaking to them through me on the same nights as my experiences. [...]

Early in our sessions, Seth said that he once had a Turkish existence, but we have no information on one for us. [...] Also, I became so upset when Seth gave such data that he probably thought it best to discontinue it for a while. When Seth is involved with a block of sessions on one subject, we hate to upset the continuity of the material by asking him to go into something else, and besides, we’ve learned that Seth eventually answers as many of our questions as possible.

While all of this is of practical interest, Rob and I are even more intrigued by Seth’s explanation of dream reality. [...] Seth began his discussions on the nature of dream reality very soon after the sessions began, and they still continue. Until I learned from Seth to “monitor” my own dreams, and awaken my critical faculties, I was simply astounded by some of his statements.

(This first part of the session is verbatim as usual, until the interchange between Seth and Dr. Instream began at 1:59. Here the pace began to speed up as the two talked back and forth, and in the interests of spontaneity, and because this was a new development in the sessions, I made no attempt to slow Seth down, nor to record every word Seth or Dr. Instream spoke.

[...] Dr. Instream said that the impression he had of Seth was of a very mature and capable mind. He was interested in getting this impression on tape because the Seth voice itself reinforced this feeling. Seth, he said, possessed tremendous insight.

[...] I had written to Dr. Instream on June 1,1965 and sent him sessions 138, 141, 142, 149, 153 and 154, plus lists of the inner senses and the basic laws of the inner universe as defined by Seth. [Jane calls the good doctor Instream in The Seth Material, C1970.]

(Seth told us the Seth book which is now at Jane’s publisher would be published, and that her dream book would also. [...] After a pause Seth said the verbatim material would be published also, but gave no hint of a date.

[...] Jane first came through as Seth while sitting at ease on the couch. [...] Seth came through to say quite definitely that the material would be published verbatim—not all of it, literally, but certain large areas of it. [...]

(Seth then went on to say that the bridge personality would be dispensed with eventually, because it would no longer be needed. [...]

[...] In the opening notes for Session 855, which was held on May 21, I wrote that a few days earlier we’d received our complimentary copies of the German translation of Seth Speaks. I added that we expected the Dutch translation of the same book to be published later this year, but that we didn’t know just when this would happen — so Jane and I were understandably surprised last Thursday to receive a letter from a reader in Holland, informing us that he’d just purchased a copy of the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks! [...] Jane called her editor at Prentice-Hall, Tam Mossman, who had no knowledge of the Dutch Seth Speaks being marketed either; he’s to check with Ankh-Hermes and let us know. Jane and I are pleased, though, since if Seth isn’t available yet in two foreign languages, he soon will be.

[...] Jane reported that when Seth gave the material on onchocerciasis she “really felt that the people’s skins were trying to turn into some sort of leathery protection. I don’t know whether I got those sensations from Seth, picked them up on my own, or just created them myself to go along with the material.” [...]

(For the last five weeks Jane has been intrigued by ideas about Seth’s next book, which, she said, would concern “the therapy of value fulfillment.” Seth has also used the phrase in connection with a next work.⁴ Now it appears that he’s settled upon a formal title for his book — one that Jane has received from him several times lately: Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment.)

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.

2. The quotes are from Seth Speaks: see Chapter 1 at 9:35. In this present volume, perhaps in an appendix, I hope to add excerpts from some of Seth’s unpublished observations on the psychological bridge linking Jane and himself. Right now, however, see Jane’s essay on her relationship with Seth as given in the Introductory Notes for Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality.

[...] 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. [...]

(After Seth had answered questions from some of the others present, Jane came out of trance and we discussed what had been said … eventually getting into the question of whether or not Seth’s ideas were “old” or “new.” [...] Others thought it was new, or at least totally original with the Seth material as such.¹⁰ Then Seth returned:)

3. The session given in last Tuesday’s class (for January 29, 1974) had indeed been one of Seth’s best. [...] Seth discussed many of his basic concepts, the wedding of the intellect and the intuitions, his reality and our camouflage physical one, Seth Two, language, myth, and so forth. [...]

The question of Seth’s originality intrigues many who write. Even as I worked on this note Jane received a most enthusiastic letter of approval from a young woman who had just read Seth Speaks and Volume 1. To paraphrase a few lines: “Why isn’t the whole world reverberating with these fantastic ideas? I’m stunned by the material … I can’t understand how it took me so long to even hear of the Seth books….”

Seth is what I am, and yet I am more than Seth is. Seth is however independent (smile, eyes open), and continues to develop as I continue to develop also. [...]

[...] Jane’s voice still persisted in the light, gentle, almost lilting quality, quite different from the usual deeper Seth voice.) The Seth personality has been an intermediary, and a legitimate one. [...]

(Briefly, Jane’s voice became a little stronger.) While I was the source of the material, Seth as you think of him was at times a silent partner, helping Ruburt make the proper translations while standing aside in a personal manner. [...] Seth will always be an element in the sessions as you know him. [...]