“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The spirit of Island One says: “I quite enjoyed my venture, and I’ve learned that the great explosive thrusts of creativity are good — but, oh, I yearn for my own quiet, undisturbed shores; and so if you don’t care I think I’ll return there.” And so it does — to find a land in some ways transformed. The sands still lie glittering, but the fog and mists are gone. The beloved birds have multiplied, and there is in the old familiar sameness a new, muted, but delightful refrain, colon: new species in keeping with the old, but more vigorous. The spirit of Island One realizes that it would find the old conditions quite boring now, and the new alterations fill it with pleasing excitement and challenge. What a delightful interchange. For the spirit is convinced that it definitely improved the condition of Island Two, and there is no doubt that the spirit of the second island improved Island One beyond degree.

One day a bird flies out further from that first island than ever before, to another one, and comes back with a strange seed that falls from its beak. The seed grows. From it springs a completely new and unknown species of plant, as far as the island is concerned; and the plant in turn brings forth flowers with pollen, fruits, and scents (spelled) that have a different kind of creativity that is still its own. The spirit of the second island, then, brings forth elements in the first island that were not active earlier, but it becomes homesick, and so it finally returns to its own land.

Then, however, you begin to wonder about the other islands that you know exist beyond your vision. Are they like you? Your wondering forms a tiny window in the fog, and you look through. Astonished, you discover that a small coral path unites you with the next island that is glimpsed, shimmering now through the ever-growing window in the mist. Who is to say where you end and the other island begins?

In the meantime, the spirit of the desert island is almost overwhelmed by the teeming life forms on Island Three, so next it visits the volcanic one; and when the volcano becomes frightened of its own energy the spirit of the desert island says: “Peace. It is all right to sleep, all right to dream. You do not need to be so worried for your energy. It can flow swiftly, or slowly, in surges of dreams that take ages. Do as you will.”

There is a plane down or a ship in difficulty in their locality and resulting activity in a port at the far tip end of the island furthest down in this particular group of islands (voice slurred and slow). [...] The port at this island seems to be the only main town. [...]

[...] They can stand and look out over the ocean and sight two or three other islands, one they have visited. They plan to see three other islands. [...]

[...] This spot is on the third island and this island itself will be involved in a disaster within a short time. [...]

[...] They pass three islands and land on the fourth. [...]

There is a plane down, or a ship in difficulty in their locality, and resulting activity in a port at the far tip end of the island furthest down in this particular group of islands. [...] The port at this island seems to be the only main town. [...]

[...] They can stand and look out over the ocean and sight two or three other islands, one they have visited. They plan to see three other islands.

[...] This spot is on the third island and this island itself will be involved in a disaster within a short time. [...]

[...] They pass three islands and land on the fourth. [...]

(Early last Wednesday an ominous development began unfolding at Three Mile Island, the nuclear-power-plant located on an island in the Susquehanna River below Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. [...]

[...] Jonestown was far away, remote in another land, I said to Jane, but the potential mass tragedy of Three Mile Island hovers at the edges of our personal worlds. [...] It would hardly be a coincidence, I added, that the mass events at Jonestown and Three Mile Island took place within less than six months of each other, and that they represented the two poles, or extremes, of mankind’s present main belief systems: religion and science.

[...] Seth will comment extensively on Three Mile Island, just as he’s in the process of doing about Jonestown. In fact, material on Three Mile Island developed in the session this afternoon—which is the main reason we decided to give these excerpts here.

(Now there’s talk of evacuating up to a million people who live in the counties surrounding Three Mile Island. [...]

(“Did go to a nearby island [tour] by boat and vehicle referred to as bus, but it is to the north.”)

(“Discussed Caribbean with an English woman and asked her her favorite island. [...]

(“Could be Paradise Island, where Bill went snorkeling. [...]

[...] On Friday we went to Paradise Island which is northeast of Nassau, and we hadn’t planned to go there.”)

(Early last Wednesday an ominous development began unfolding at Three Mile Island, the nuclear power generating plant located on an island in the Susquehanna River below Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. [...]

[...] Jonestown was far away, remote in another land, I said to Jane, but the potential mass tragedy at Three Mile Island hovers at the edges of our personal worlds. [...] It would be hardly a coincidence, I added, that the mass events at Jonestown and Three Mile Island took place within less than six months of each other, and that they represented the two poles, or extremes, of mankind’s present main belief systems: religion and science.

(Certainly we hope that as he continues with Mass Events Seth will comment extensively on Three Mile Island, just as he’s in the process of doing about Jonestown. In fact, material on Three Mile Island developed in the session held this afternoon, which is the main reason we decided to give these excerpts here.

(Now there’s talk of evacuating up to a million people who live in the counties surrounding Three Mile Island. [...]

[...] Federal nuclear safety advisors call the dilemma “stable,” and today the President visited Three Mile Island in an effort to reassure people — yet the chance of a meltdown of the overheated reactor core of Unit No. [...] On March 31, children and pregnant women were advised to evacuate an area within five miles of the plant, and today city and county civil defense directors in eastern Pennsylvania were given plans for a precautionary evacuation of everyone within a 25-mile radius of Three Mile Island. [...] And so the entire country — indeed, the whole world — waits to see what will happen at Three Mile Island,² a place not far at all south of where I comfortably sit writing these notes.

[...] 2. We want to offer his comments on Jonestown and Three Mile Island in the order received, even if they don’t always come through within the context of “official” book sessions. [...]

(“I haven’t had too much time to think of questions, but today we were talking about the relationships between Jonestown and Three Mile Island — how those two events stand for the extremes of religion and science.” [...]

[...] At the moment we’re sure of but one thing: A nuclear reactor meltdown, like that threatened at Three Mile Island, is just not acceptable in our society under any circumstances. [...]

[...] Somehow, after supper, we got on the subject of Seth doing a “quick book” about Jonestown and Three Mile Island, something that could be offered to the public very soon, instead of material that would show up in a regular Seth book a couple of years from now. We already had the perfect title for the book, one we’d jokingly originated following last Monday night’s session: Seth on Jonestown and Three Mile Island: Religious and Scientific Cults.

[...] The crisis at Three Mile Island has passed — or so the governor of Pennsylvania announced on television this morning. [...]

(The challenges — and fears — created at Three Mile Island will last for years, however. [...]

(Regardless of whether the events at Three Mile Island have resulted in any significant radioactive fallout so far, they have generated some disquieting fallout as far as Jane and I are personally concerned. [...]

[...] Three Mile Island, with both of its nuclear reactors off line, or inoperative, sprawls on its island in the Susquehanna River like a wounded behemoth. [...]

The severity of the “event” at Three Mile Island has spurred antinuclear protesters into action in many areas of the country; and the proliferating state, federal, and industry investigations into the accident promise to generate a collective fallout of a kind that’s bound to have far more impact on the nuclear power industry, and society, than anything that’s come from the crippled plant itself so far. [...] We’re following the whole affair involving Three Mile Island with the greatest interest, and my clipping file on it grows daily.

(See Note 1 for my comments on TMI, or Three Mile Island.

[...] (Long pause.) When can the search for the good have catastrophic results, and how can the idealism of science be equated with the near-disaster at Three Mile Island, and with the potential disasters that in your terms exist in the storage of nuclear wastes, or in the production of nuclear bombs?

[...] She thought the statue might have been on an “island” in the center of the road. [...]

(I tried to pin her down on details of the hill, since this would be somewhat unusual on an island like Nassau, which as far as I know is quite low-lying. [...]

[...] The best we can say is that this geography sounds possible for those islands.

(Jane emphasized that she knows nothing of the history of the Caribbean islands, or their geography. [...]

There’s plenty of action outside the Three Mile Island, however, with all of the investigations into the accident underway or planned. [...] And in all of this concern for safety there’s much irony: for Three Mile Island, and the people of eastern Pennsylvania, were saved not by the plant’s emergency cooling systems, but by nonsafety-related equipment that plant operators finally used to improvise cooling of the reactor’s overheated core.

(Once again, see Note 1 on Three Mile Island.

[...] 2, one the two reactors at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power generating plant, overheated and came close to a catastrophic meltdown of its uranium fuel. [...]

(Pause.) So the islands that I spoke about in our last session rose up from beneath the sea. Even as the dialogue of those islands took place, the islands themselves were changing. [...]

[...] Mountains and islands arise, then disappear, to reemerge in new form. [...]

(Pause at 9:43.) In the physical world, islands, valleys, plateaus, continents and oceans all have their place, and serve to form the physical basis of your reality. [...]

[...] Venice said that Martha had lived on Grand Island in Buffalo. [...]

I have a connection with Martha and water, perhaps because you told me she lived on Grand Island, or perhaps this is an indication of a street name such as Lake Avenue, Water Street, etc.

[...] Florence said that Martha had lived on Grand Island in Buffalo. [...]

I have a connection with Martha and water, perhaps because you told me she lived on Grand Island, or perhaps this is an indication of a street name such as Lake Ave, Water St., etc. [...]

[...] The short story referred to above was reported on a TV program about Three Mile Island: Jane and I caught a glimpse of, I believe, a local newspaper or magazine in the Harrisburg area that had printed a short story about a nuclear accident at that plant, on the same day that the troubles began at Three Mile Island. [...]

Look at your nuclear reactor troubles at the plant by Harrisburg (Three Mile Island). [...]

(I might as well use this opportunity to point up what I think is an obvious connection between the nuclear mishaps at Three Mile Island, and the mass suicide at Guyana [Jonestown] earlier this year. [...]

[...] Either a partial projection was made to places which were not visited by the Gallaghers on the islands, or these were distortions, highly dramatized.

[...] In the 358th session for August 2, 1967, Seth stated, after mentioning Jane’s speaking engagement at Star Island, off Portsmouth, NH, scheduled for Saturday, August 12: “A meeting on Ruburt’s part with an old forgotten acquaintance;” and “The possibility of an unusual Seth session.”

(Jane met no old acquaintances at Star Island or in Boston, nor was any unusual session held. [...]

[...] B.C.] described how the fabled island continent of Atlantis sank beneath the ocean west of the Pillars of Hercules — the Strait of Gibraltar — some 12,000 years previously. [...]

[...] Right now, we’re very much aware of all of the good things the people of our world are providing for us and for millions of others, every minute of every day — yet a certain portion of our joint interest in that “outside” world is also directed toward the situation at Three Mile Island, the nuclear power generating plant located some 130 airline miles south of us. [...]

(The latest, Jane and I gather from a variety of reports, is that Three Mile Island’s damaged reactor, Unit No. [...]

(I left my thoughts about Three Mile Island, and began to consider a closing statement about Seth finishing Mass Events as summer passed its zenith and prepared to blend into fall. [...]

While Seth was dictating The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, for example, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred; and had the affair turned into a disaster, our Chemung County would have been used to house refugees. [...] For that reason he examines the public arena, and devotes a good deal of material to Three Mile Island and to the Jonestown mass suicides as well. [...]

[...] Seth was discussing the Three Mile Island accident, but he left off book dictation for a while because we felt so badly, and gave us some excellent material on animal consciousness before and after death — because “tragedies” come in all shapes and sizes, and the most domestic events of our days offer Seth opportunities to comment on life itself.