“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Jane’s worsening situation through June and July, then, prepared her to accept my suggestion that Seth could help her. She put aside the first session for Chapter 9 of Dreams, and began Seth’s sessions on the magical approach to reality. As Seth remarked on August 6, when he gave his first session on the subject: “When Ruburt finished his project [God of Jane], he found himself with all of that time that was supposed to be used. [...]

[...] It’s not contradictory to note that during August and September, following his regular schedule of twice-weekly sessions, Seth methodically presented some very exciting concepts. So closely do those 13 sessions fit together that it’s most difficult to give excerpts.⁵ Seth’s magical-approach material represents one of his best efforts to help us, as well as others. [...] The title of the new book would be automatic: The Magical Approach to Reality: A Seth Book.

[...] Yet it is, of course, since in it Seth illuminates from still another perspective his concept of value fulfillment.⁸ The session grew out of the encounter we had yesterday afternoon with an unexpected visitor from out of state. Seth hardly mentions the individual involved, however, but instead goes into the subject of mental illness in more inclusive terms. I see many correlations between this evening’s material and that in Session 917 for Chapter 8; there, among other things, Seth had discussed the reasoning mind, the imaginative mind, and schizophrenia. [...]

[...] He was very well dressed and very well spoken, and I didn’t pay enough attention to the doubts I sensed when he told me about hearing voices in his head, and asked if Jane did the same thing with Seth. [...] He described how he’s relating the Seth material to his sexual fantasies involving young girls, and detailed other instances in which he’d been strongly rebuffed when trying to physically actualize some of Seth’s ideas. [...]

[...] She said Seth felt affectionate at the end of the session. [...] She had confidence that if she really shouldn’t have a session Seth would either call it off entirely or make it very short.)

[...] Notes pertaining to the object will be found along with Seth’s data given during the experiment.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(Seth first mentioned this in the early sessions, shortly after January 1964.)

[...] I’d say that I could use my abilities far more fully even in those areas already being explored—Seth, the library, Sumari, etc., even if I wanted to leave other areas alone (seances, etc.). [...] His suggestion I try to go into the library—(yesterday) probably was responsible for the Seth-in-library thing tonight. This was I think the first time I’ve seen Seth’s image that clearly; though once in a session I think I did.

I’m a great double-thinker; that is I vaguely recall some of Seth’s remarks in last night’s session about the heroic dimension and then I think: is this to be taken literally? Is it a view of reality from Seth’s part of the psyche? If so—that in itself is quite legitimate and important; yet I feel, felt, Seth’s personality in a way super-straddle my own as I know it; and that is what the heroic dimensions would do....

“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. [...] 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.

(At 8:30 tonight Jane and I discussed Seth’s progress on his book. [...] She wasn’t reading the book now, but she realized Seth wasn’t following, literally, the outline he’d given for it before he began dictating it chapter by chapter. I told her I thought Seth was presenting it just as he wanted it done; she agreed that she might as well relax and just let it come out.

(In considerable surprise I asked Seth to wait once more. [...] Jane, as Seth, sat waiting rather noncommittally, eyes open.)

(According to Seth, the three of us were involved in Denmark in the 1600’s. I was a landowner, Jane was my son, and Seth was a spice merchant. [...]

[...] Subsequent notes, and Seth himself, explain what transpired as the session progressed. [...]

[...] He could see the change that came over me while I was speaking for Seth, and Seth inspires confidence. Rob liked Seth immediately. [...] Through me, Seth related to Rob. [...]

We didn’t realize it at the time, but in these early sessions, Seth was gently leading us down the “garden path” — it became more difficult to think of the world in the usual terms, for example. Even though I had come to no conclusions as to what Seth was or wasn’t, the Seth material itself fascinated me. Its source in Seth made it only too clear that other channels of information and experience were open to us beside those we had known earlier.

Rob was intrigued not only by the material but by Seth himself as he began to manifest his own personality more clearly. My voice had been undergoing changes, becoming more similar to what we now call the Seth voice — deeper, lower, richer in tone than mine and more masculine. But on this particular night, Rob watched, amused, while Seth told him in no uncertain terms what he thought of my experiment — using my own lips to do it! [...]

In the next session the following night, Seth launched into the nature of my last trance experience and used it as a stepping stone for his first real discussion of the nature of human personality. As the session shows, Seth apparently decided that it was time to take me in hand. [...]

[...] The use of the word fragments here, by Seth, led us to think that reincarnational motives might be involved in the marriage; but I did not think to quiz Seth about this when he resumed. In the very early sessions Seth began to use fragment as a reference to each physical personality manifested by the entity.

(We are not sure whether Seth refers to the publication of Jane’s ESP book, or perhaps the start of another in some fashion. The ESP book is due May 16; Jane’s birthday is May 8. Also, Seth and I are mentioned often in the book. Jane was speaking rather rapidly now, and I did not think to interrupt and ask Seth to clear up this point. [...]

(On the evening of February 2, during the 229th session, Seth said: “You will get no appreciable amount of snow, I believe for ten days or so...” [...] Seth was correct. [...]

(“A connection with something twice” is another quite accurate reference by Seth to personal matters involving Linda, and data on this are withheld here for the same reason announced above. The three pieces of data that are not explained in this experiment are the best, incidentally, that Seth gave in connection with the object.

[...] Jane had begun delivering the Seth material late in 1963, and soon afterwards Seth started developing his ideas on probabilities.¹ Many times while looking at the snapshots since then I’d found myself speculating about the probable realities surrounding their two young subjects. [...] Maybe I just wanted Seth to comment on probabilities in a more personal way. [And added later: At the time, I had no idea that my questioning would trigger a new Seth book.²]

Idea Construction did serve as a psychic trigger, however; it led Jane to her outline for How to Develop Your ESP Power (see Note 2 for Seth’s Preface in this book), then to the beginning of the Seth sessions two months later. “Enough energy was generated in that evening to change the direction of my life and my husband’s,” she wrote in Chapter 1 of The Seth Material. [...] In Seth Speaks, see her Introduction and Session 596 in the Appendix for further references to that original manuscript.

(The outward signs of Jane’s trance performances as Seth are very interesting in themselves, and I don’t intend to minimize them: indeed, I describe them every so often. [...] I thought of this as Jane sat quietly in her Kennedy rocker, waiting for Seth to come through. [...] Seth was there, staring at me.)

2. Indeed, Jane was to hold several sessions before we realized that Seth had begun a new book — see the 683rd session in this section. Seth had finished Personal Reality over six months ago. [...] She also gave a number of private Seth sessions for the two of us on a variety of subjects. [...]

(Seth repeated several times that he felt in fine form, and Jane’s voice and manner so indicated. [...] 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.

[...] I did not try to bring Seth into the experiment. I had been speaking for perhaps ten minutes, however, when Jane abruptly began to speak for Seth from her prone position. [...]

(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. [...]

(As the three of us sat at the table sipping wine and discussing Seth, Jane began to get nudges from Seth every so often. It will be remembered that during the 21st session Seth had wanted John to stay as a witness. [...]

(In this session Seth spoke of my past life and attributed my current patterns of life to the lessons learned by my previous existences. [...] Seth answered my questions and while he was giving his general answer, other related questions would creep into my mind and these would immediately be answered by Seth. [...]

[...] John Bradley reported that Seth as he went along began to answer each question he—John—thought of as soon as it came to mind. [...] Break ended just as John, trying to get entity names versus personality names straightened out, was wondering how to address Seth in his statement. [...]

(I am afraid I did some half-humorous complaining about Seth’s reactions to my attempting to put off the session tonight; that is, I did not think I had been that impolite about it. I agreed with Seth’s interpretation of my seizure of cramps, though, and remarked that I would probably get the devil from him on Wednesday night also.

[...] Seth ‘never promised us a rose garden,’ and we have our good days and our bad days as we encounter life’s daily challenges, joys, adventures, and misadventures. In this large group of sessions, Seth addressed himself to several of our individual problems: Rob’s occasional bouts of indisposition when he felt ‘under the weather’ generally, or was bothered by a variety of minor but annoying symptoms; and my own long-standing troubles with severe stiffness. If Seth didn’t give us a rose garden, he certainly did — and does — try to tell us where the weeds come from! [...] Like anyone else, we have to put Seth’s material to use for ourselves. [...] Perhaps Seth was trying to compensate for that in those private sessions, by taking time out from dictation to help us put the material to greater personal use.”

[...] Some of those sessions were devoted to our private beliefs, but usually Seth put such beliefs into the larger social context. [...] Since then, we’ve voiced our hopes often that Seth will go into the entire Jonestown affair in Mass Events; he can’t but help be aware of our wishes! [...] It was as though Seth were trying to help us break up old associations for once and for all. [...]

[...] During it Seth remarked that he’d “begin book sessions again next Wednesday,” but that didn’t quite work out; he still had a few more nonbook sessions to go. [...] And then, on the very night when she told me that she thought Seth would resume book dictation, Sue Watkins called with news that it was all official now: Today she’d signed her contract with Prentice-Hall for the publication of Conversations With Seth.)

[...] It’s to be called Conversations With Seth. [...] Even assuming that Seth will finish dictating Mass Events later this year [1979], Jane and I will still have too much work to do on it for publication in 1980.

[...] At the same time, Tam Mossman, Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall, is trying to find out whether the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks has been published. [...] The German-language edition of Seth Speaks was published in Switzerland four months ago [in May], and just three weeks ago we received our first fan letter from that country. [...] We expect the same kind of response from those who will seek out the Dutch Seth Speaks. We know the mail from European readers will very gradually increase, just as it did after Jane published The Seth Material in the United States in 1970.)

Later in these notes I also plan to include, as a partial answer to many who have written us on the subject, material Seth gave on animal consciousness; this information came through just three days ago, in the 878th session for September 10. In the meantime I want to tie together Dreams and the last Seth-Jane book, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. Seth completed his work on Mass Events about a month ago [on August 15], and a week later I began finishing my notes for it. [...]

[...] Jane yawned, then laughed as we waited for Seth to come through. [...] After a prolonged juggling of titles and themes on her own, she’d finally acquired the book’s title directly from Seth some seven weeks ago, or shortly before July 30, 1979; see the closing note for Session 869 in Chapter 10 of Mass Events. [...] I keep thinking of something simpler, like Dreams and Evolution: A Seth Book. [...]

(Seth actually began his Preface for this book, Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, with the next, 881st session, which Jane delivered for him 12 days later [on September 25]. I chose to present this private session first because in it Seth offers certain information about Jane and me that I think applies to all of our work with him, through the session and books, and to our own separate creative lives as well. [...]

[...] After winding up some very interesting material concerning that situation, Seth launched into the Speaker data at about 11:15. [...] The term “Speaker,” as Seth uses it, was as unknown to Jane and me then as it was to Ron and his family.)

[...] He elaborated upon some of Seth’s data; later, I checked portions through various reference works. Jane, since she knows practically nothing about the historical periods in question, was very pleased that Seth’s data was so evocative.

(Seth-Jane spelled the god’s name Bael. [...] This date is very interesting, in light of the 1200 B.C. Seth mentions for Ron, and the conflict within his group over Baal. [...]

(This excerpt from the session contains Seth’s first mention of the Speakers and their functions in the reincarnational process, and supplements the Speaker data in Chapter Seventeen.

(4:56 p.m. Jane said that as soon as she gave the last sentence from Seth she thought the title of the book would be The Way Toward Health. She didn’t actually pick that up from Seth, it just came to her. And I told her that her statement reminded me that the same thought had come to me a couple of times previously after I’d been pretty sure that Seth was giving book work.

[...] As I discussed the events of today with Jane, and watched them on TV, it came to me that they might signal at least a beginning of those very beneficial world events Seth had referred to for the coming year in the session for December 28, 1983. [...] Seth had referred to “many countries changing their alliances,” however. [...]

(“Good afternoon, Seth.”)

(“That first line of the session is an entertaining one,” I said, and read her Seth’s statement about the insurance matter. [...]

[...] Sue is used to hearing Seth speak more rapidly in ESP class, where tape recorders are used. I don’t record Seth usually but make direct verbatim notes, using my own kind of shorthand; this saves much time later when I type up the material. Still, Seth often speaks fast enough in our own sessions to keep me writing at top speed.

(Sue sat just opposite Jane, and I gestured for her to number the symbols when Jane lay the pen down and began to describe them for Seth. [...] Tracings of the symbols are shown below, numbered in the sequence in which Seth-Jane produced them.

(11:20 P.M. Seth’s reference to reincarnational material of my own concerned the “reincarnational dramas” that Jane, Sue, myself and a few others have undertaken on our own, usually at our Friday night gatherings. [...] It’s been both surprising and very rewarding, and is an outgrowth of experiments Seth initiated in ESP class.)

[...] But we certainly didn’t expect Seth to continue the material he’d begun in his book relating to biblical times.)

[...] With the arrival of warmer weather we did take an occasional break from psychic work, but for the most part the sessions were held regularly even though Seth was through with “Unknown” Reality. Some of them were private, but Seth also covered a number of interesting topics of a more general nature — material we’d like to see published eventually. [...]

[...] She still habitually referred to “Unknown” Reality as a one-volume work — even as Seth himself did in the session this evening — despite the decision made 10 days ago to publish it in two volumes. [...]

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

[...] As Seth, Jane paused during an intent delivery.)

[...] At break Lydia commented that she thought Jane’s delivery as Seth sounded Germanic. She also said that when speaking as Seth, Jane tended to use the same gestures and facial wrinkles shown in the portrait I have painted of Seth.

(“Thanks, Seth.” [...] Jane, as Seth, had delivered the last material, on time, rapidly and in an impassioned manner.

[...] As would be expected of a gathering, class sessions were full of energy and repartee and questions and serious thinking both with and without Seth.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(Seth gave us a little help after break, and although this was brief it filled in a good deal on some of the data we had been unsure of. For convenience’s sake it is better to include Seth’s later data along with our own interpretations, made during break, since emotional charges explain much concerning the material. For more detailed information on how the emotional charges influence Seth’s envelope data, see the 286th session.

(Seth desired to come through Friday evening, since we had obviously set the stage through our conversation. [...] Jane denied Seth permission to speak, and he agreed. [...]

[...] But also we think the autumn data here grows out of the swirling data on page 55, and Seth’s attempt to get Jane to give voice to frosting. The autumn data here could have grown out of the interpretation on Jane’s part of Seth’s frosting impression.

(Jane had no idea of what Seth would talk about during the session, although both of us hoped he would discuss the events of last Friday evening, September 23, at home. [...]

^* In Jane/Seth’s The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, which was published in 1981, I wrote: “Seth maintains that Framework 2, or inner reality, contains the creative source from which we form all events, and that by the proper focusing of attention we can draw from that vast subjective medium everything we need for a constructive, positive life in Framework 1, or physical reality.” Seth has a lot to say about Frameworks 1 and 2 in Mass Events. [...]

(“Good afternoon, Seth.”)

(“Good afternoon, Seth. [...]

[...] “It’s surprising,” I said, meaning Seth’s comments about our doing well in Framework 2, including the publishing angle. [...]

(Jane and I have met Joanie a few times before, without any knowledge of her lettuce-eating habit, and can attest that Seth’s data here was as much a surprise to us as to Joanie or Bill. We regard this one line of data as a direct hit on Seth’s part.

[...] Jane spoke rather rapidly and Bill couldn’t keep up verbatim-wise, but did get down most of the gist of what Seth was saying.

(Seth here refers to the psychic experiences Joanie had been describing to us, and doesn’t go into any detail re the lettuce.

([Bill:] “Seth…”)