I wasn’t about to close off the Seth material until I made up my mind, though. [...] Suppose I stopped having the sessions while I tried to figure things out, then decided that Seth was right on all counts — and found I just couldn’t have sessions again? [...]

One night Rob asked Seth about it, and Seth said,

Both of us had been wondering about the crisis Seth had mentioned for Miss Cunningham on April 15. As it happened a regular session night fell on that date, and, having heard nothing, Rob asked Seth if there had been any distortion in the message.

[...] I didn’t have to take everything Seth said on faith alone. [...] And almost immediately after this, Seth began his discussions on the nature of dream reality and the methods that would let us explore it for ourselves. [...]

(In the 54th session Seth went into considerable detail in explaining the construction of entities. [...] To quote Seth: “Ruburt is not myself now, in his present life; he is nevertheless an extension and materialization of the Seth that I was at one time... [...] He is now an actual gestalt, a personality that was one of the probable personalities into which Seth could grow. [...]

(Seth then continued to explain how I am also an offshoot of that early Seth entity. Thus Jane, myself, and our present communicator, Seth, are related psychically; it is this that makes our sessions possible, according to Seth.)

(During the session Seth gave an accurate psychological account of Bill Gallagher’s mother, according to Bill. [...] Seth stated that his mother “was fascinated by numbers,” loved the color blue, and was inordinately fond of flowers. [...]

[...] I came across the calendar beneath a stack of books and on the spur of the moment decided to use it for the test, wondering whether this type of cut and dried subject matter would have as much emotional pull for Seth/Jane as the subject matter of the first two tests. [...]

Last Thursday a letter from Prentice-Hall, suggesting that the Dream Manuscript be converted, sort of, into a book dealing with The Seth Material. [...] The Seth Material is my unique source and a literally fabulous one; that I really did not truly appreciate and to which I was not really directed. [...] In a session that night, Seth emphasized the new direction I should follow.

Believe this all has to do with the above, plus with a strange session held the night before last, in which through me the voice said it was sort of ‘beyond Seth’; the message coming from a higher portion of that personality; tremendous energy seemed to flow through me and the definite, thank God, certainty, that this came from beyond me, and was automatically translated into words at my end. Subjectively I feel this was as significant a development—almost—as the original Seth session. [...]

[...] Realized yesterday also, going over old notes, that my original ‘cosmic consciousness’ (borrowed phrases again) experience was with The Physical Universe as Idea Construction which turned into and developed into the sessions and Seth Material; the natural, intuitive, and logical development; which to a large extent I relegated to the background and sometimes even distrusted. [...]

2. This reminded me that before Seth Speaks was even contracted for, Seth told Tam that it would be published.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

[...] Note, though, that Seth’s statements here refer only to LSD, used under certain conditions. [...]

These sessions also show Seth as he relates to others in personal contact. [...] The sixth presentation is from a session held for a student in which Seth mentioned the Speakers for the first time.

Seth devoted three full sessions and portions of two others to this Appendix. [...]

[...] In the remaining class excerpts, Seth answers questions that readers might also have in mind.

(Bill’s drawings of Seth show an extremely high cranium—according to Seth Bill’s graphic translation of Bill’s feeling of high intelligence on Seth’s part—and a pointed chin. [...]

(I then remembered that in the 232nd session Seth had said I was in a light trance myself during sessions, as I made “certain automatic adjustments in order to perceive what little of my presence that you do perceive. [...] Recalling this, I wondered if I was not making a strong effort to perceive Seth, perhaps in apparition form, this evening; which meant that possibly he was present to a stronger degree than usual.

[...] Seth gives her the information visually; it is then up to a part of Jane to correctly interpret this. Jane believes that in the early experiments her failure to appreciate this, to interpret correctly, led to many errors in the material; that actually, through Seth, she had received the correct data to begin with, but needed the practice in fine discrimination to even be aware that the problem existed. [...]

(The 39th envelope experiment was held during the session; see the tracing of the AAA membership card used as the object on page 1. Some interesting and hilarious results were obtained in the connections made by Seth/Jane.

(The circumstances surrounding Jane’s delivery of Seth’s Preface, while she was in trance, are given in the 685th session for February 25, 1974, in Section 1. After a break midway through the session, Seth began the material below at 10:57 P.M. He always indicates each word, phrase, or sentence to be underlined. This time he also called out each paragraph as he went along, and some of the other punctuation; to show Seth’s own sense of organization on such occasions, I’ve left a few of his instructions in place in the first three paragraphs.)

2. Seth’s two previous books are Seth Speaks and Personal Reality — but they’re also Jane’s too, of course. [...] Then in 1976 it was issued in paperback by Pocket Books, New York, N.Y., 10020, under a new title: The Coming of Seth.)

1. Seth first announced his presence by name to Jane and me in the 4th session, held on December 8, 1963. See Chapter 1 of The Seth Material.

NOTES: PREFACE BY SETH

(Jane had some other insights into Seth’s multiple channels as she continued dictating Personal Reality after that session,¹ yet we continued to think of the new development as one of mostly theoretical interest. [...] Then on the morning of March 10 — the Sunday before last — we learned that we may have to rethink the idea of Seth-Jane producing more than one major work at a time; for on that day Jane received the outline for another book, along with the knowledge that she’d need Seth’s help in producing it. [...] She added that her experience in “getting it” was related not only to her ability to sense that sometimes more than one stream of material was available from Seth, but to the way that she herself had tuned into the information on neurological speeds late last month. [...]

(The following material is, in part, an outgrowth of certain effects described in Personal Reality; see my notes for the 616th session, bridging chapters 2 and 3. That session was held on September 20, 1972, and the notes I’m referring to concern a new development in Jane’s abilities: her initial realization that on at least some occasions she would have more than one channel of information available from Seth. I quoted her as saying she believed that “Seth could do three books at once, a chapter at a time on each, and with no confusion among them.”

[...] Went to my study, got chapter headings and outline, more or less, but I don’t know yet how to get the rest of it; I feel almost that it’s a Seth book, that I need him to bring it in. But Seth’s doing a book! [...]

[...] I do believe it possible for Jane to deliver “Unknown” Reality and The Way Toward Health concurrently through Seth, and to carry on her “regular” writing, for I think we have yet to learn the limits of her abilities [although as she continues to develop them she increases our knowledge of human potential]. [...]

(On Wednesday, March 27, we received from Jane’s publisher the page proofs for Seth’s second book, The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book.¹ No session was held that night. [...] Ordinarily Seth would have used those sessions to deliver work on “Unknown” Reality. We disliked interrupting our creative rhythms in that fashion, although in the meantime Jane kept ESP class going as usual, coming through as Seth and as Sumari within that context. And we told ourselves that Seth was perfectly capable of resuming work on “Unknown” Reality whenever we were ready to do so, whether the time lapse involved one week or six months.

[...] I wrote an account of the phenomenon while wondering if I’d distorted some quite ordinary dream happening — and while knowing at the same time that I hadn’t. I decided to ask Seth to discuss the two dreams when we went back to having sessions again, then forgot about them until I got around to rereading my first rough version of these notes last week. [When Seth discusses my “dreams” in this session, however, it turns out that from his perspective he’s able to be more accurate about labeling them than I was.]

I wrote in the Introductory Notes that I thought Jane’s speed in producing the Seth material was “a close physical approach to, or translation of, Seth’s idea that basically all exists at once — that really there is no time …” I’ll add here that the phenomenon of double dreaming can be another way of approximating the idea of simultaneous time (or lives), about which we as physical creatures always have so many questions.

5. Seth’s first use of “species of consciousness” came after 11:38 in the last session. [...] In the 715th session, Seth also lets fall some rather humorous comments on Jane’s own mixed reactions when she first encountered such hints of the “multidimensionality of your beings.”

(First, during that 10-week break Seth-Jane held a series of 18 sessions — excellent ones — that once again did not constitute dictation for Mass Events. Second, if one keeps in mind Seth’s ideas about simultaneous time, that basically all happens at once [even considering Seth’s own acknowledgment that time “…is therefore still a reality of some kind to me”], then it hardly matters how long a break transpires between particular sessions; there is no real separation; dictation on any subject or project can be resumed whenever all involved — Jane, Seth, and myself — choose, and it will be as though the break never existed. For in trance, Jane will once again be in accord with Seth in that nearly “timeless” environment in which he has a large portion of his being.¹

1. The basic simultaneity of time is the most fascinating of all of Seth’s ideas, I think. [...] Also see the material on Seth and his simultaneous time in the opening notes for the 806th session.

3. Although this is the first session for Mass Events in which Seth had discussed Framework 1 and Framework 2, at the moment Jane and I are a good deal more familiar with his ideas concerning those fields of action than the reader is; see the opening notes for the last (814th) session. Since introducing them in the deleted, or nonbook session for September 17, Seth has at least mentioned the two frameworks in 17 of the 23 deleted sessions he’s given us since then.

[...] Another long period — 10 weeks this time — has passed following Seth’s last session for Mass Events. [...]

[...] Now you can if you want to—and without any kind of coercion—look up and see Seth’s face. [...]

[...] I’m not getting to see faces, but I can see Seth.”)

(Seth:) Now cheer up! [...]

(Seth:) First of all you will not leave this group because you do not want to. [...]

(Last night, Jane told her students in ESP class that Seth had started a new book. Seth had a few things to say about the book, too. [...]

[...] Seth hasn’t given any, of course. I told her that the book might not have chapters, that Seth might have something else planned. [...]

5. See Seth’s material in Personal Reality on reprogramming the past sessions 654 and 657 in chapters 14 and 15, respectively. Some of his earlier information on the fetus can be found in sessions 503–4 in the Appendix of The Seth Material.

6. Seth discusses a multidimensional god in Chapter 14 of Seth Speaks, and Jane does so from her viewpoint in Chapter 17 of Adventures in Consciousness.

[...] I anticipated hearing what Seth would say about some of the probable paths since taken by the photograph’s three subjects. I’ve had the question in mind ever since Seth discussed separate, childhood snapshots of Jane and me in the same terms during the first session for “Unknown” Reality. [...] In that session, Seth told us that the 12 year old Jane in the photo under discussion was to become probable to the one I eventually met and married.] Beside whatever Seth could tell us about her parents, I was curious to know whether the Jane who was shown at the age of 3 might be — or was destined to become — another probable Jane.⁶)

[...] She said that Seth’s last remark came about because at the supper table this evening she’d told me, as she has before, that she still hasn’t read this book straight through, and has little idea of its organization. [See the appropriate note at 10:34 in the 694th session.] Then, as we ate, Jane had asked me once again if “Unknown” Reality had any organization — or purpose: “Where’s Seth going with it?” I suggested she forget such worries and let the work come out in its own way, explaining that portions of these notes were concerned with recording the circumstances surrounding just that procedure.

[...] I reminded Jane of the two questions I’d put off from Monday’s abbreviated session, but Seth made only a brief reference to them at the end of tonight’s material.)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

[...] I hadn’t suggested that Seth come through, so we could see what she’d produce otherwise. [...] It seems Seth-like, but also really strange. [...] Maybe I’m opening up now so that I can get part of the information this way, as well as through Seth. [...]

[...] Her material, however, wasn’t influenced by the news story, for just about a year ago Seth-Jane delivered a session for Personal Reality on the mixing of animal and man: the 648th for March 14, 1973, in Chapter 12. [...] But then, for some years Seth has been reiterating that even in our terms there is no well-defined evolutionary path leading from our ancient state to our present one.)

[...] Aside from the question of whether “evolution” in ordinary linear terms has been scientifically proven [concerning which point Jane and I have many reservations], we were drawn to the article because we thought its “factual” information might eventually supplement some of Seth’s material for “Unknown” Reality. [...]

[...] Then, as we made ready to retire, Jane announced that she was “getting” information on the subject of ancient man — but not necessarily from Seth. [...]

(The balance of the session was material Seth delivered to be played for Pat’s high-school class of exceptional students, and is, we think, excellent. The students are acquainted with Seth through Pat’s efforts, and this enables Seth to get to the point concerning the idea of the material.

(Seth’s pace was very fast in here, and I missed some material. I did not ask Seth to slow down, both in the interests of spontaneity for Jane, and because Pat was recording the session. Seth now told Pat she had writing ability, especially for historical works, and that she would do well in writing and history connected with the Tudor period.)

[...] Seth spoke to Pat about such questions as love and marriage, feeling alone, etc. At about 10 PM, Seth spoke to Claire.)

[...] As will be seen, Seth handled this material very well, bluntly and to the point in no uncertain terms.

(As we sat waiting for the session to begin at 9:20, Jane told me she’d just “picked up” the heading for Chapter Three of Seth’s book: “Telepathy and Belief Gathering” — or “Idea Gathering”; she wasn’t sure which. [...] She lit a cigarette and looked off to one side and down, her attention already turned inward as she prepared to psychically join a very familiar “energy personality essence,” as Seth calls himself.)

(I asked that Seth comment upon Willy’s behavior, if he cared to, after dictation. [...] It’s like I’ve got three channels from Seth going at once….

[...] “Seth comes through on his book from here, on this channel.” [...] “Then over here, immediately available, is Seth on you and me and Willy. [...]

(“Over here now,” Jane said, designating her upper left, “is Seth on what you were just saying about peer groups — how young people feel it’s so important to fit in with their own kind, and why. [...] I was really confused for a while, yet now I see that each thing’s separate, already prepared by Seth. [...]

Whether or not Seth actually spoke to Sue in the dream is beside the point here. [...] It’s possible, of course, that Sue’s unconscious adapted an authority figure to get the information about aggression through with greater impact, using Seth as a figurehead. (If you want to believe that Seth is an unconscious production of mine, then you must admit he lends himself rather well to the unconscious purposes of others and possesses a reality to them quite independent of his relationship to me. [...]

Seth on Therapeutic Dreams
Seth Has a Dream Talk with a Friend
How to Use Dreams to Promote Health

I came into Rob and Jane’s apartment and walked into a Seth session. [...] Seth (as Jane) turned toward me at once. [...]

Seth then sat in front of my dream self, feeding it something that looked like cereal. [...] Then Seth said to the critical self, ‘This is symbolism … food for thought … far more complicated than you know and beyond any part of you that you understand.’ At once the dream self became soothed, almost hypnotically. [...]

[...] “The Seth Material will be published, and you’ll help the world — it’s too much! [...] And Malba didn’t sound terribly bright; at least Seth is intelligent and knows what he’s talking about. [...] This way I’m trying to figure out if Seth is independent or not … [and] worrying about a Malba, too.”

Following Seth’s suggestions, Rob began doing a few simple yoga exercises, and the night before the eighteenth session he used self-hypnosis to relax his muscles. [...] Seth began to comment on this in the beginning of the next session. [...]

[...] Almost at once, Jane began to hear Seth mentally. After taking a few words through the board, she set it aside, stood up and began to speak for Seth as she paced about the room. [...]

[...] She told Rob that our work with Seth was a lifetime project, that we would publish his manuscripts, and help spread his ideas. [...]

(For the record: In the 227th and 228th sessions Seth discussed the book of poetry Jane produced so quickly by using suggestions for abundant energy, and told us the book would be published. Jane had also finished the first third of her book on the Seth material itself, and felt it ready to send out.

[...] Mr. Fell also asked to see the manuscript on the Seth material,and told Jane some of the plans he had for publicizing her ESP book, due to be published this May. [...] Summing up, the publisher told Jane that once the ESP book is on the market and her name begins to be known through publicity, it will help the sales of future books considerably—namely the Seth material.

[...] Jane and I could make connections with the object and Seth’s data, and these are noted below as usual. Seth later adds to our interpretations.

[...] As we sat talking I told Jane that Seth had discussed some of the points mentioned in the envelope data, but that since he said good night I didn’t press for more information. Yet I had the feeling Seth would continue, if Jane were willing. [...]

[...] That was my first thought when Seth told us that in ancient times certain people had “lived for several centuries.” [...] Jane wasn’t upset by Seth’s remark, and I could appreciate the humorous aspects of my own initial reactions—yet in all of the years he’s been giving us material, Seth has never before made a reference to what seems like impossible longevities.

Both of us thought that the long-lived individuals postulated by Seth had existed outside of the Biblical framework, however, and in truth far earlier historically. “Seth saying that makes perfect sense to me. It doesn’t bother me,” Jane said when I asked her what she thought of Seth’s material. [...]

(Four months ago I wrote in Note 1 for Session 885 that through a series of misunderstandings the people at Ankh-Hermes, a publishing company in Holland, had violated their contract with Prentice-Hall by issuing a condensed translation of Seth Speaks. [...] Now Tam has just forwarded to us correspondence showing that Ankh-Hermes will do this—the new publishing date for Seth Spreekt is still uncertain, however.

[...] Did Adam really live for 930 years, or Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, for 912? (Why isn’t Eve’s age given in the Bible?) Enoch, the fifth elder listed after Seth, lived for a mere 365 years, but sired Methuselah, who at 969 years is the oldest individual recorded in the Bible. [...]