“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Late last week Tam Mossman called Jane to tell her that he’s begun work on her contract for the publication of If We Live Again. I wrote Tam this morning, asking questions about what long-range plans Prentice-Hall may have for the 15 books Jane and I have sold to the company. [That total includes Mass Events, God of Jane, and the poetry book, all of which are yet to be issued.] In the private session for September 22—one of his series on the magical approach to life—Seth had told us that our work is “protected.” I’ve been curious about that statement ever since, and mentioned it to Jane today in connection with my letter to Tam.

She was quite upset after our nap this afternoon because we’d overslept; she regretted the lost time. We had to eat supper later than usual. This evening, however, Seth used my interest in the question of protection beautifully as he discussed a facet of Jane’s abilities that’s strongly related to his concept of value fulfillment. Because of that relationship, this session fits very well into Dreams even though it’s not book dictation.)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(9:50. I was surprised that Seth suggested a break—a rarity in the sessions these days. Then Jane said that she had called for the break because she was out of cigarettes. She was giving the session while sitting in her wheeled office chair. At that time of night she wasn’t about to use her typing table as a support while she “walked” from the living room, where we were having the session, around the room divider and out into the kitchen to get her smokes; instead she remained in her chair and maneuvered herself along with her feet. I told her the session is excellent. “I see it led to something after all,” she called out.

All of our discourses were related to tonight’s material, if only intuitively. Jane got herself back into position across the coffee table from me while I described what I’d learned lately about Cro-Magnon man, who had lived in Europe some 35,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon are of the same species, Homo sapiens, as modern man. They displayed an exquisite artistry in their toolmaking, painting, and religion—indeed, in their whole culutre. Next we talked about early man in Palestine, before 3000 B.C.

Jane was interested in our talk—mine, mostly—but finally she revealed that it was better for her when Seth didn’t take a break: “I like it when he zooms right through to the end.” I replied that my questions carried no hints for material from Seth. “Yes,” she said, “I guess if no one had anything to say, we’d sit here like dummies.”

And yet, my talk did bring about a change in the session’s material. Resume at 10:09.)

Memory was so perfected that men at one time were indeed living histories, and carried within their minds their genealogies and backgrounds and the knowledge of their peoples, which were then passed on to their children. It is true that reading and writing have certain advantages over such procedures, but it is also true that knowledge possessed in that old fashion became a part of a man, and a society, in a much more personal, meaningful manner. It was, of course, a different kind of knowing. At its best it did not lead to rote renditions of remembered material, but to dramatic renderings of it through music, poetry, dancing. In other words, its rendition was accompanied by creative physical expression. It is true that, practically speaking, a man’s mind, or a woman’s, could not hold all of the information available now in your world—but much of that information does not deal with basic knowledge about the universe or man’s place within it. It is a kind of secondary information—interesting, but not life-giving.

(“Okay. Good night, Seth.”

I told her the material is fascinating in its implications. It’s an excellent point, I said, that in her ability to tap into a seemingly endless amount of Seth material, she strikes a parallel with early man and his capacity to carry all personal, cultural, and historical information within himself. As early man functioned on his own, without writing or any of the other modern conveniences of communication that we have, so does Jane function through Seth. I speculated about what reincarnational connections might exist involving Jane and ancient men and women. Seth has never discussed the subject, nor have we asked him to. His potential for oral history appears to be unlimited.

Seth didn’t return to the material on reincarnation, schizophrenia, and possession that he began discussing last Wednesday evening in the 921st session.)

3. Among others in The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book, see Chapter 9: Seth discusses the state of grace, natural guilt, artificial guilt, and related subjects.