“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now the origin of the universe that you know, as I have described it, was of course a master event. The initial action did not occur in space or time, but formed space and time.

Your universe cannot be its own source. Its inner mysteries—which are indeed the mysteries of consciousness, not matter—cannot be explained, and must remain incomprehensible, if you try to study them from the viewpoint of your objective experience alone. You must look to the source of that experience. You must look not to space but to the source of space, not to time but to the source of time—and most of all, you must look to the kind of consciousness that experiences space and time. You must look, therefore, to events that show themselves through historical action, but whose origins are elsewhere. None of this is really beyond your capabilities, as long as you try to enlarge your framework.

(9:46.) In that regard, it is true that in the other species innate knowledge is more clearly, brilliantly, and directly translated into action. I am not speaking of some dumb instinct, but instead of an intuitive knowing, a high intelligence different from your own, but amazingly complex, with which other species are equipped.²

In a fashion man also is equipped with the ability to initiate actions on a nonphysical level that then become physical and continue to wind in and out of (pause) both realities, entwining dream events with historic ones, in such a fashion that the original nonphysical origins [are] often forgotten. Man overlays (underlined) the true reality quite spontaneously. He often reacts to dream events as if they were physical, and to physical events as if they were dreams. This applies individually and collectively, but man is often unaware of that interplay.

I am not here specifically blaming Christianity, for far before its emergence, your ideas (underlined) and beliefs about good and evil [were] far more important in all matters regarding the species than any simple questions of genetic variances, natural selection, or environmental influence. In man’s case, at least, the selection of who should live or die was often anything but natural. If you are to understand the characteristics of the species, then you cannot avoid the study of man’s consciousness.

10:06 P.M. I’d asked my question half jokingly, to see if Seth would discuss my dreams, but obviously he didn’t take the bait. I told Jane that I hadn’t really expected him to.

“He didn’t go into all the stuff I got yesterday,” she said, “but then he went into other stuff I didn’t get. I feel like he was about to lead the reader over some important material…. And very vaguely, I should say this would be about session thirty—halfway through the book.”

Neither of us had counted the sessions we have for Dreams, but when I made a quick check the next day I was surprised to discover that Jane’s estimate is only two short of the 32 sessions Seth has called book dictation. I’m still busy typing the final manuscript for Mass Events, but we’ve already planned that I’ll be adding several “nonbook” sessions, and excerpts from others, to Dreams when finally I get to concentrate on the production work for it And my own opinion, I explained to Jane, is that Seth is considerably more than halfway through this book, even if we add more extra sessions to it.)

“I got a definition of master events but forgot some of it … to the effect that master events are spectacular events whose main thrusts are outside of time, but whose actions on or in time [are] extravagant—out of proportion to their actual historical connections. The physical part of [such an] event in history is actually minimal in contrast to its effects … and something about master events touching the worlds of imagination and reason in different ways.

3. I think that Seth’s insight here—regarding “the far more dependable behavior of the other species”—is excellent indeed. In an original way he stressed the interdependence of all life forms on earth. I like to keep such penetrating remarks before me, and wish the reader would too, for I often fear they’ll become lost from conscious view within his material. (As an example, I doubt if this one will be referred to in the index for Dreams.) But I also think that intuitively we know the truth Seth so briefly expressed here, and that it never has been or ever will be really lost.