(A week has passed, and I’m still surprised: Not only has Jane helped me considerably in planning the notes for Psyche, but the other day she switched over to my Introductory Notes for Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality and began organizing them in the same loose way.

(Not long ago I reached an impasse with both the Introductory Notes and the Epilogue for Volume 2, as I tried to give order to the mass of notes, excerpts, and jotted-down ideas that I’ve assembled for them since finishing work on Volume 1 in September 1976. That was some 18 months ago, but actually to one degree or another I’ve been involved with “Unknown” Reality for four years now; I think that temporarily I’ve simply grown tired and overly concerned about the whole project, even while I still have a considerable way to go to finish certain notes and appendixes for Volume 2. Not that I haven’t worked on a number of other things at the same time, of course — but my labors on those two books represent the prolonged, intense focus I always search for in my creative life, and without which I feel incomplete. Jane knows all too well what I mean, for her own attitudes here follow mine very closely.

(So in one day Jane was able to mentally sort out my material and start to delineate the flow necessary to make the Introductory Notes successful, and she intends to do the same thing with the Epilogue. It’ll still be up to me to add my kind of detail to each of those works, but there’s no doubt that she’s enjoying the challenge of playing with the Seth books from the “other side” — my viewpoint — for a change. I told her that I’d never envisioned her showing that kind of interest in my approach to the sessions and books.)

I began this piece soon after finishing the Introductory Notes for Volume 1 in the summer of 1976.

[...] Those who are interested in the more detailed mechanics of Seth-Jane’s production of “Unknown” Reality, especially where qualities of time are involved, should review my Introductory Notes. [...]

(Being individualists, then, as I wrote in the Introductory Notes for Volume 1, we don’t concentrate upon whatever parallels exist between Seth’s concepts on the one hand and those of Eastern religious, philosophical, and mystical doctrines on the other; while we know of such similarities, we’re just as aware of how different from them Seth’s viewpoint can be, too. [...]

1. In Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, see the material on Jane, mysticism, and religion in the Introductory Notes, the 679th session, and Appendix 1 for that session. [...]

[...] I wrote in the Introductory Notes for Volume 1 that Jane began delivering “Unknown” Reality (as we soon came to call it) in the 679th session for February 4, 1974, and finished it with the 744th session for April 23, 1975. [...]

It isn’t necessary to repeat many more of the Introductory Notes for Volume 1 here, although I’ll ask the reader to review them in connection with the material presented below. [...]

[...] (See Seth’s material on “ideals set in the heart of man” in sessions 696–97 for Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality.) Apropos of such concepts, I’ll close these introductory notes by quoting from a personal session Seth gave for Jane and me, in which he reiterates the importance of the individual and the pursuit of the ideal. [...]

I hope these Introductory Notes have prepared the reader to take up “Unknown” Reality in the middle, more or less, with the 705th session. [...]

[...] Over the weekend Jane began typing my Introductory Notes as she’s put them together for the book. [...]

(“What do you think of Jane helping me with the Introductory Notes for Volume 2 of ‘Unknown’?”

1. Some of Jane’s confrontations with reality are explored in various parts of my Introductory Notes, and in Appendix 1.

I will give you that material later, with other introductory passages.

(“With this book: you would see to it that you introduced yourself to the uninitiated reader, giving the necessary background and introductory material from the very start.”)

The introductory book is still an excellent idea, and a challenge to Ruburt’s own ability.

[...] He did go into your thing about matter, didn’t he?” She added that the poem Seth had referred to is the one I used to conclude the introductory essays for Dreams. [...]

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
BY ROBERT F. BUTTS

Ruburt was correct in his introductory notes today (for Mass Events)—about the poet’s original, long-forgotten abilities, and his role. [...]

[...] See my Introductory Notes.

(9:03 A.M. Last night Jane had pronounced her work finished on the introductory material for Dreams. [...]

Jane also wrote three introductory essays for the book. [...]

[...] As I explain in the Introductory Notes for his book, we decided to publish Seth’s very long manuscript for “Unknown” in two volumes. [...]

[...] Instead, as explained in my Introductory Notes, Jane and I decided to publish the first three sections as Volume 1.

[...] (His comments in the 750th session as to why “Unknown” Reality was written, are quoted in the Introductory Notes for Volume 1.)

[...] [And added later: The eventual resolution of this little dilemma is given early in my Introductory Notes.])

(In my Introductory Notes for Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, I explained how Jane acknowledges the mail we get from our readers by sending them copies of letters from Seth and herself; to the latter she adds a few personal lines for each correspondent. [...]

[...] I quoted a few lines from the same session midway through the Introductory Notes for Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality (as well as after the 724th session in Volume 2), and considered some thoughts about our attempts to grasp Seth’s concept of simultaneous time. [...]