“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I should not say this, but since I am with friends, I shall. Simple things amuse simple minds. You understand, I know, that I mean it well, for I understand the necessity for records, and I would not have it that this voice of mine should go unrecorded and seep into the walls.

My friend here (Rachel) was ready to leave. I did not think it would be dignified of me to grab her by the dress collar and to bring her back. Last week and this week I am coming through, but then there will be again a period of study. I come through to encourage you. I could have waited until our friend here was at the front door, and yelled with Ruburt’s lungs to call her back. My keeper here would not permit it, however.

I have been here, as Ruburt knows well, through your class this evening, and he has given me permission, for I would not dare peek into this class unless he told me that I could do so. For such a small and slender snip he holds his own. We do, however, have a very good relationship, as I’m sure you know by now. And you understand, I know, my humor. My energy has been silent but potent in this room, like that bottle of wine that sits upon the table. But Ruburt knew that I would be here before class was over, and I come to you with no great pronouncements. The material is my pronouncement, and I back up the material with my presence. And when you read the material, then indeed you know who it is that has given it, and if you hear a laugh behind the material as you read it, let there be no doubt in your mind that I am here. While I do not follow you, tippety-toe, behind you to your school halls and your hallowed bank corridors, nevertheless I am aware, generally, of your activities, and I know when you are reading my material.

When I come in this class I do so so that you realize the knowledge that is in the material comes through a personality, and that I am not some “ditto.” I have been here emotionally, hardly hidden in the folds of the curtains. I want you to realize that the material has been sifted through my experience. That the words are not dead, as indeed I am far from dead. A livelier spirit you have never encountered! The material, in other words, is given by me, a living personality, to you, and you are living personalities. We dwell in different dimensions but vitality and personality dwell in all dimensions. This room is saturated with my presence as if you had sprinkled it with that heady wine, aged wine. Indeed, I do not find it remarkable that you consider me a personality since, indeed that is what I am. Nor do I find it remarkable that you were not frightened. I do not consider myself a frightening phenomenon. Indeed, I find some of you much more frightening. I enjoy sitting here quietly, picking up your thoughts.

I need not spare you, spare yourself, young man. Your many individual thoughts blend for me. I know where they are coming from, but they blend into not too harmonious an orchestra. I am not musically inclined, however.

One remark, I did not mean to imply that I had any hand at all in the healing process to which I referred earlier. My methods are my methods, and I do not believe in shortcuts. However, shortcuts are taken, and I have no disagreement with the methods of others. I am aware of them, and I am pleased that the process has begun. I am aware that the process has begun and I am aware of what is being done. I am a harder teacher. I am not taking credit, you see, for another man’s abilities. I am much more interested, unfortunately, in the more painful process involved in self-realization, spiritual insight, and psychological knowledge. I would demand that your husband know why (to Rose) and rid himself of the problem that was causing the symptoms. To relieve the symptoms is indeed pleasant, and human, and understandable. And I have no quarrel with this. But it is far more important to understand why you are creating a distortion in physical reality that concerns your own image. For the problem must be solved now or later. It is possible that the relief of symptoms will lead to psychological and spiritual regeneration, in which case it is doubly and triply beneficial. But problems within a personality and [sic] itself will manifest itself in one way or another unless the problem itself is solved.

Although I speak to you rather slowly this evening and regrettably without any words of profound weight, nevertheless I am with you more closely this evening than I have been in any other session, but I shall not give you the privilege of hearing my clear, birdlike tones until you have done more work. This does not only mean reading the material. It means the work involved in looking into yourselves. I cannot do this for you, and no one can do it for you, and no one can make you do it before you yourself are ready to look into the meaning of your own existence and your own personality.

Now when I speak to you as I have this evening, my purpose, my one and main purpose, is to let you sense the endless vitality that is mine, though you, in conventional terms, would designate me by some ridiculous word—survival personality, as Ruburt says, or “spirit” or “dead.” My vitality is the same vitality that is your own. I am not here, in your terms, but I am very much here.

There is some understandable confusion there. Now, to end the suspense I will indeed shortly say good evening to you (after each previous trance we wondered if Seth would be back, since he hadn’t said good night, and he always says good night). Well, I am here, indeed I am here, and if you want to think of me as some UFO (earlier talking about someone mailing a card to Robbie, Jane and Seth, what or how would they address it), that is your privilege. When Ruburt receives my energy, often he does not know what to do with it. It radiates out from that small frame. He thinks that the energy collects about him until it could shatter the walls of the room. I can see the timbers falling upon your heads. A timberhead.

He is learning to contain and focus the energy that is mine. Would you prefer that I be as silent and solitary and quiet as a tiny pin that sits upon the blue rug? I can prick you all indeed and cut you up. Only because I make you think, do not ever believe that I would have you forget your banking [sic] intellect, for this is not the case, and if there is much I have not said to you, it is because you know already what I would say to you. I want you to realize that all personality exists beyond what you call the grave, and that what I am has been here in many guises, as indeed, so have you. And that the personal characteristics by which I have been known continue.

I should be a bishop, for the looks upon your faces, the reverence and the quiet and the awed expression. I am indeed honored. I feel, and I do indeed feel, as you with the perpetual motion leg will know, like a friend to all of you this evening and hardly like a bishop. Nor would I think of shattering a window to prove so paltry a point as the existence of my own unlimited vitality and energy. For my friend Ruburt would never allow it. However, my thoughts are strong. My only point in such unseeming [sic] and undignified, unbusinesslike and unconventional demonstration—I would make a poor bank president—my only point is to let you know that existence knows no barriers and a breeze and ease through blood and bone are born [sic]. I could and I would—and I would—enjoy speaking in such a manner until dawn, but you could never take it, and Ruburt would hide in the cellar for three days following.

I will be here, I will be silent for a change. If you miss your classes, I will know it. And I may indeed choose to speak precisely when you do not come, for I am sly. And to get my material across, and to get you to develop, I use many educational aids.