“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.)

(Pause.) Some years ago, Ruburt had an experience in which he glimpsed in the center of the living room a strange form. He sensed that the form was composed of energy that was definitely predisposed to come to his assistance, or to do his bidding.

He also realized that at least to some extent this energy had accumulated as a result of his own good intentions, and his desire to help others. He called this “Helper,”¹ and he never saw the form clearly again. The form represented (long pause) the personified, accumulated positive energies that were working to his advantage at that time, that provided him protection, but that also automatically worked to the benefit of his life and projects.

The very idea of protection, however, as you know, implies a threat—so if you believe in threats you had better have protection. It was not necessary for Ruburt to see the form again—merely to sense the reality of that powerful energy, and realize that it worked on his behalf. In a fashion the form also represented the innocent and powerful inner self, or spontaneous self, or naturally magical self—the terms are synonymous.

Then somehow our conversation led me to wonder whether our cat, Billy, is color-blind, as we’ve heard most animals are. So far Billy had spent the session beside me on the couch, alternately napping and preening himself. I’d been admiring the loving care with which he’d addressed himself to each portion of his body. In the light from the lamp above and behind my right shoulder on the room divider, his greenish eyes were so beautifully colored, yet mysterious, that I found it hard to believe he can’t see color. I also asked Jane about what use the gorgeous colors of Billy’s luxurious fur are to him if he can’t appreciate those patches and stripes of sienna, black, warm gray, and pure white. Or do his colors serve other purposes for him that we’re unaware of? Intuitively, I felt that more is involved here than questions of camouflage and protection—that at the very least there must be connections between Billy and his colors in this reality and his source in a nonphysical one.⁴

Dreams have always served as such a connective. You know more about your life than you think you do—and far more about your life and society than you are intellectually aware of. Early man was in that same position, and his inventions—his tools, his artistry, and so forth—came into being from the inner, ever-present realm of the mind, triggered by his unconscious but quite real estimation of his position within the universe at large, and in regard to his own environment.

A fond good evening. Tell Ruburt to change his pillows more frequently.

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.

4. Checking after the session, I learned that cats are believed to have weak color vision. That is more than I’d expected, I told Jane, yet I still find it hard to believe that Billy, for example, doesn’t have a much keener sense than that of his own colors.