“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You will have your tales, but tonight is not the night of telling. Now. I have been here and I have not intruded, because you are learning to collect and use energy on your own. I did indeed however stand in front of each one of you and looked into your faces and you did not see me. It is some experience to stand before another and see no comprehension in his face—but I am used to it. Now. You (Jane and Sue) used your energy like a ball that a child plays with, both you and Ruburt. And you tossed it back and forth, but you did not collect and direct it properly, and we shall have to give you lessons. But you shall do the work.

(To Brad:) Now I am sitting here for my portrait. You may indeed get only our friend Ruburt. But then you may get more than your friend Ruburt. The camera may be comprehending or it may not be comprehending.

I do not like to interrupt you in the beginning of your summer... (unintelligible)... however... Far be it from me to interrupt when you are not working; when you are not looking within yourselves. The summer season within yourselves is far more enjoyable than the summer streets down which you walk. But far be it from me to mention that you have not been working.

Now your friend has been here this evening as a student, but not exactly the same kind of a student as you are—he is a practice teacher.

(To Sue and Ned:) I do have one point to make. The child (Sean) was a girl—1432—France—and at one time your sister—strong literary abilities—some interest in music—should not be pampered for the personality is already given to indulgence. There may be an allergy to wheat—early in life—was also known to this one here in Spain—the country now called Spain—in 801 as an uncle—then a warrior-type personality—but again given to indulgence.

An entity on a par with the parents. A mole or mark on one of the feet—a possible weak point in the right elbow—given to high exuberance, quick moods—but not forgiving. The personality should not be indulged, but it should not be shown dissonance—and discipline should be fair, for it will hold grudges otherwise.

I had meant to mention earlier that your daughter and sister were brothers in a previous life in Afghanistan. You (Sally), I believe, 1541-1583, a rug-maker, their father—that is, you were their father. There was also another child—and that child will be G’s husband in this life. There will be a close connection, then, between the two of you—but also a sense of rivalry. Your mother was a very heavy-handed father to you in that existence. Your father has now strong feminine traits because in Boston in an immediately past life there was a woman—give us a moment—the first name was also Lillian. The last name—your vice-president to the contrary—was Agnew. There are records of this particular existence twenty-five miles, approximately, west of Boston—at that time, a small town... three children who died before the age of three, and records, I believe, attesting to this fact—couched in one of the historical societies—or in land grant information.

Now, I will tell you (Theodore) something. Bega is there and I will let you tell me which portrait is his. You may ask Bega or tell me. But you did not pick the correct portrait. (Theodore commented that one was “too much Hebrew.”)

Now. There has been energy present in this room, and strong energy, this evening. But you have not been serious enough about using it, nor have you been playful enough to use it without serious note. You may use it in two ways, you see. You may play with it and use it marvelously—or you may use it seriously—but in between you will not use it at all, for you cannot harness it. And in your own daily activities, in your playful moments, you can almost achieve the freedoms that the inner self knows. And in your most serious moments, you can almost achieve the freedom that the inner self knows. But in your mundane moments, you will not achieve it. And when you half try, you will not achieve it.

But how will you get Ruburt to drink it? I always liked a warm brandy even on a summer’s night.

That is because it is the portrait of Bega. But you did not pick it out as your first choice. Now, Bega has been here as I have been here and he was calling you to look toward the corner of the room—and you were too intellectually smug to do so as Ruburt is often too intellectually smug to do what I ask him to do. And your own intellectual ideas prevented you from first picking out your intuitive choice, as far as the portraits were concerned.

Now. There is someone else who has been here and who is connected with our new student. But our new student does not know this person—it is no one with whom she has previously communicated. Because she was not ready. This personality is also a student of mine and a practice teacher.

Now, you see what you are willing to see, and it is stupidity to consider suggestion as the result or the cause of what you see. It is stupidity in class to worry that suggestion would cause a given result—for suggestion causes whatever you see. You form your physical reality through suggestion and expectation. You experience what you expect to experience at a subconscious and a conscious level. And therefore, as Ruburt is very careful that suggestion is not involved, so he has also had you be overly cautious, and there have been many opportunities in class that you have missed for this reason—and these are the bets that I have spoken about earlier this evening. You have the ability to see more than you saw and you have the ability. You enjoyed your passivity (to Ned) to the point of an enjoyous giving-up; and instead, you see, there is a point within passivity where you are passively alert. And you went beyond the point and lost what you might have seen. As our friend here went beyond the point (referring to Theodore), looked at the portraits and consciously—for you did not make an original, intuitive, judgment—but consciously looked at these portraits in terms of nationality, age and all the requirements that you thought of.

Now again, let me tell you, though the hour be late (quite loudly) and though Ruburt thinks that such demonstrations as these are hardly worth the effort (quite softly) and childish endeavors at best, I still want you to know, as I always want you to know, that my vitality is your own and that the energy that swings through this small frame is but an echo of the energy that swings through your own personality.

I have said before that you have lived many lives and that you can know these existences within yourself. I am not afraid that we shall be kicked out of our apartment. And I also am quite sure that as you grow to know Ruburt and as you grow to know me you will realize that there is a difference in our personalities and that indeed when I tell you that my vitality spans both space and time, then you will know that I know whereof I am speaking. And that this vitality is your own—then feel it within yourselves—now it is being used simply to let you know of its existence, but realize that it is within you for you to use as you will—for your own good—and you (Brad) are not powerless. I have no body and I am not powerless, how, therefore, can you feel helpless, or you, or any of you?

My vitality is no more—no more than your own. I come to you from a long way. But the essence of yourself is not of this place nor of this time. Now, I could keep up a demonstration such as this for hours, if only to let you realize that this is your own energy—that the energy that I show is your own—you have this energy and this vitality.

(Very loud.) Now, in your terms, I am dead! How can you then be less lively? Why is it that I must tell you what vitality is when, in your terms, I am a gray ghost that flits through the darkness of the night—a face that peers through second story windows (in reference to Sue’s being frightened by a face that appeared at her window recently) and meets with no response but a sigh of horror. I visit my friends and they nearly faint. (Sue apologized.) Apologies always come later.

What I want you to know is this: I come here, I hope, as an endearing personality with characteristics that you understand. Now these characteristics have been mine and they are mine, and I am who I say I am. And yet, the Seth that you know and that you find so endearing and understandable, is but a small portion of my reality—the portion that can relate with you most easily.

And this part that you see and that appears in this room and can show joy, and show its existence and reality; that can call to you beyond space and time; that shows such energy; that shows you what energy can blow through such a small and slight frame—that self is a small part of my reality. For some time yet, you will need its familiarity. And you will need the human characteristics that you know—and that were mine—and they are still mine, for this self of mine that I show to you does still exist and grow. But beyond that self, there is another self, and still another self of which I am fully aware. And that self can see through physical reality. And to that self, physical reality is like a breath of smoke in the air and that self does not need the characteristics that you know and find so endearing. And yet, it is not an unemotional self; it is a self that has condensed emotions and it is not distant.

Know that within your physical atoms now the origins of all consciousness still sings and that all the human characteristics by which you know yourselves, still exist within the eye of all our consciousness, never diminished, but always present. Your individualities never diminished, not only never diminished but gaining in experience.

So I am the Seth that is beyond the Seth that you know. And in me the knowledge and vitality of that Seth still rings. In your terms, I am a future Seth. But the terms are meaningless to me, for he is what I was, in your terms.