“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

A third point came up this morning, one we’ve talked about often lately. It concerned the other “Seths” who are revealing themselves around the country these days. Later tonight I want to offer a little more about this overall development—but people speak for their Seths entirely without Jane’s permission. Jane is most concerned that she and I protect the integrity of the Seth material in its unique and original form.

I have no idea, of course, what physical state I’d be in if the Seth phenomenon hadn’t appeared in my life (in late 1963), or if I hadn’t had those sessions to rely upon. And even in the most private-type sessions Seth always wound his material into more public areas, so that we have reams of unpublished (and very controversial) material dealing with the connections between one’s illness and other members of the family, community relationships, and with the very belief systems that underlie all of human activity. The kinds of beliefs we have about people bring about the kinds of illnesses we encounter. That is certainly one of Seth’s clearest messages. The individual is always in a state of change. To name and dignify a group of symptoms only brings them further into prominence, and offers them another framework for permanency.

Since the later 1960s, when my own troubles began, I stubbornly resisted medical assistance. If I had broken a leg I would have gone to a doctor to get it set. I felt that I could handle my particular kind of difficulty alone. (Long pause.) The symptoms were obvious enough: stiffness, slowing down of motion, and general lack of mobility. I could keep track easily enough, I thought, of my own progress as I worked directly with my body, without drugs to confuse the issue, and with no one else between me and the reality I had so cunningly created. How else could I really learn anything? The more middlemen that I entertained between my physical condition and my personal beliefs, the more confused I thought I’d be.

Now let’s see…. Okay: I hope sometime to tell the entire story of my physical and creative challenges, which as of now of course is unfinished. Much of this present manuscript, Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, deals with the development of the individual as it is primarily concerned with the development of the universe: The two are one. (Long pause.) In man’s desire to make creative adjustments, it often seems that instead he adds unfortunate blemishes to life’s vitality. Yet in the long run even these become, finally, constructive manipulations whose purposes, perhaps, we did not understand at the time.

This whole miniature tempest is almost enough to make one wonder: How come those other people made their “Seths” known after Jane began to speak for her Seth, and to publish the Jane-Seth material? Being inspired to use one’s own abilities is a perfectly understandable development that we can be very happy about. But to claim to speak for Jane’s Seth per se, as a means of expression, is quite another thing….