“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(By his own definition Seth is no longer a physical being, although he’s told us he’s lived a number of previous lives; thus, ideas of reincarnation enter into his material. Mass Events is the sixth¹ book that Seth has produced — all of them with Jane’s active cooperation, obviously, as well as my own, since I write down his material verbatim, then add my own notes. Often Jane has little memory of the information she delivers as, or for, Seth. She began speaking for him in December 1963, and shows no signs of slackening her output. At times her Seth voice can be very powerful indeed, with an accent I have yet to succeed in describing. When she’s really into her trance state, her blue-gray eyes become much darker, much more luminous and penetrating. Seth calls Jane “Ruburt” and me “Joseph.” According to him, these “entity names” mean only that in our present lives we identify more with the male aspects of our entities, or whole selves — which in themselves are neither male or female, but contain within them a number of other selves [of both sexes] to whom we’re related, or a part of, reincarnationally and otherwise.

(We usually hold two “sessions,” or meetings with Seth each week, totaling three or four hours, but we think that actually Seth could talk 24 hours a day for the rest of our lives, and still not cover all of the material he’s capable of tuning in to for us. [The only trouble is that Jane and I wouldn’t last long!] That astonishing creativity and energy in the sessions beckon us on constantly, then, regardless of what we think about Seth’s “reality or nonreality,” and even regardless of what he tells us about himself.

(Yet even producing the Seth books — along with a great amount of unpublished Seth material — doesn’t call upon all of Jane’s abilities, for she’s also written 10 books “on her own.” These include works of poetry, fiction, and psychic matters as experienced from her own conscious viewpoint. She has several more books in progress. It’s safe to note, however, that now all of her work bears upon that unique, still-growing view of consciousness expressed by Seth and herself. And so does mine.

(That’s saying a lot, really. We do intend to spend the rest of our lives studying the ramifications of that “unique, still-growing view of consciousness.” We still have a host of questions about Seth’s reality, his concepts, and Jane’s role [and my own] in all of this — that is, questions about consciousness itself, basically: consciousness getting to know itself in endless variations, as I’ve written before, and whether or not it’s couched in physical form.

(For now, let’s postulate that Jane and I think we understand better than we used to that our consciousnesses have no limitations except those we’ve imposed upon them through our individual perceptions and understandings. Consciousness creates all, or all that we know reflects the particularized creations of consciousness, then, and potentially those sublime mental and physical achievements are without end. The idea of infinity is implied here — a concept whose implications make us uneasy, for although Seth’s material can be said to imply infinities of creation upon the part of each of us, still we realize the conscious mind’s inability to truly grasp all of the qualities inherent within such a notion.

(At the same time, Jane and I are extremely grateful that we have the opportunity to study ideas about consciousness with Seth, and this opening up of our individual realities is something we couldn’t have conceived of before 1963. Our appreciation of life has expanded greatly — and if the Seth material did nothing but help us grow in that respect, it would perform a very valuable service. We hope others feel they’ve gained something from the material too. [Actually, I think that what I’ve learned has saved me from bitterness and disillusionment in later life. Jane has also been helped a great deal.] So our aim with the Seth books is to let Seth have his say, to add some thoughts of our own, and to trust that the feelings and meanings in all of this will evoke beneficial responses in each reader. It’s all we can do. I for one think that my own words are pretty inadequate tools of expression to convey the deeper, unspoken meanings within life that I sense but cannot really verbalize.

(I also think that Seth himself could have some pretty funny things to say here to Jane and me — some day I’ll ask him — words with which he’d humorously caution us not to take the whole affair too seriously, to leave room in our daily lives for the simple, uninhibited joy of creative expression and living even while we study his unending outpouring of material. But maintaining such a balance isn’t always easy. Seth has already offered Jane encouragement twice since he finished his part of the work for Mass Events in August 1979. He came through with the following quotations when Jane began to express a renewed concern about her responsibility for his material, and for the reactions of others to it. Her feelings had arisen in large part because of the ever-increasing mail response the Seth books have generated. Interesting, then, the way the Seth portion of Jane’s personality structure [whatever Seth’s reality may be] reinforces those other portions that are meeting all of the challenges embodied in her current mental and physical existence — and we are continually seeking to learn more about how Seth is able to do this. In these excerpts Seth also touches upon certain other points that we think of often.

(“Think of yourselves, in important ways, as almost having been born in 1963 [when these sessions began]. The two of you — for you are both involved — have not only initiated a new framework from which you and others can view the nature of reality more clearly, but you also had to start from scratch, so to speak, to get the material, learn to trust it, and then to apply it to your own lives — even while ‘the facts were not all in yet.’ At no point did you have all of the material to draw upon, as for example, your readers do at any given point. So tell Ruburt not to judge himself too harshly, and in all of this have him try to remember his sense of play….”

(“All creativity is basically joyful. It is play in the highest sense of the term, and it is always alive with motion. The sessions and our work can help bring about a new mental species of men and women. Ideas change the chromosomes, but the sessions and Ruburt’s books, and so forth, must first and foremost be joyful expressions of creativity, spontaneous expressions that fall into their own order…. You paint because you love to paint, and forget what an artist is supposed to be or not to be. Have Ruburt forget what a writer or a psychic is supposed to be or not to be. Ruburt’s spontaneity lets all of his creative abilities emerge. It is foolhardy to try and apply discipline, or secondary order to a spontaneous creativity that automatically gives you the finest order that nature could ever provide.”

(We gave up our regularly scheduled sessions last week, and spent a great deal of time correcting the proofs for Volume 1 of “Unknown.”³ In fact, I didn’t finish my part of the job until midnight Sunday; then early this morning I mailed the whole thing to Tam Mossman, Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall. By now both of us were bleary from all of those days and nights of concentrated labor, but still we wanted to hold the session. I sat opposite Jane in our quiet, softly-lit living room, working on these notes while I waited for her to take off her glasses and go easily into trance. I felt a familiar sense of anticipation as I thought of recording the excellent session to come. And that’s when Seth surprised us.)

All of the issues form together to make a trellis of behavior. Thorns or roses may grow therein. That is, the individual will grow outward toward the world, encountering and forming a practical experience, traveling outward from his center in almost vinelike fashion, forming from the fabric of physical reality a conglomeration of pleasant or aesthetic, and unpleasant or prickly events.

The vine of experience in this analogy is formed in quite a natural fashion from “psychic” elements that are as necessary to psychological experience as sun, air, and water are to plants. (Loudly and humorously:) I do not want to get too entwined (underlined) in this analogy, however; but as the individual’s personal experience must be seen in the light of all of these issues, so mass events cannot be understood unless they are considered in a far greater context than usual.

I have thus far stayed clear of many important and vital subjects, involving mass realities, because first of all the importance of the individual was to be stressed, and his power to form his private events. Only when the private nature of reality was emphasized sufficiently would I be ready to show how the magnification of individual reality combines and enlarges to form vast mass reactions — such as, say, the initiation of an obviously new historical and cultural period; the rise or overthrow of governments; the birth of a new religion that sweeps all others before it; mass conversions; mass murders in the form of wars; the sudden sweep of deadly epidemics; the scourge of earthquakes, floods, or other disasters; the inexplicable appearance of periods of great art or architecture or technology.

(Pause at 9:57, one of many.) I said there are no closed systems. This also means that in world terms, events spin like electrons, affecting all psychological and psychic systems as well as biological ones. It is true to say that each individual dies alone, for no one else can die that death. It is also true that part of the species dies with each death, and is reborn with each birth, and that each private death takes place within the greater context of the existence of the entire species. The death serves a purpose species-wise while it also serves the purposes of the individual, for no death comes unbidden.

Give us a moment… Inner reality and private experience give birth to all mass events. Man cannot disentangle himself from the natural context of his physical life. His culture, his religion, his psychologies, and his psychological nature together form the context within which both private and mass events occur. (Loudly, then whispering so softly that I could barely hear:) This book will, then, be devoted to the nature of the great sweeping emotional, religious, or biological events that often seem to engulf the individual, or to lift him or her willy-nilly in their power.

(Jane had started doing some typing on the final manuscript for Seth’s The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression a couple of days ago. She was also working on her own The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James. Yet I thought she needed the stimulus of Seth having something underway. There was more than a little irony in the situation, for I was the one who’d told her flat out, back in July 1975, that she was going to start Psyche, just so that she’d have a Seth book to play with. [I’d also wanted to see what she and Seth would come up with on demand.] But this time Seth fooled me and started Mass Events only a couple of weeks after finishing Psyche. I was all for it, though, I told Jane enthusiastically. It’s always a pleasure to work on a Seth book, to explore with him his unique view of reality, and to try to put at least a few of his ideas to use in our everyday, “practical” world. I repeated my thought that it didn’t matter how many Seth books she piled up ahead of contract, or publication: That was certainly a more creative and exciting position to be in than if one didn’t have anything ahead. Jane agreed, while still worrying about what we were going to do with all of the material as it accumulated year after year. At this time there’s no way we’re going to see it all published.

An automobile accident, suicide, or another kind of accident might result. The person might fall prey to an epidemic, but the smoothness of biological motion or psychological motion has been lost. I am not here condoning suicide, for too often in your society it is the unfortunate result of conflicting beliefs — and yet it is true to say that all deaths are suicide, and all births deliberate on the part of child and parent. To that extent, you cannot separate issues like a population explosion on the part of certain portions of the world, from epidemics, earthquakes, and other disasters.

(Long pause.) In wars, people automatically reproduce their kind to make up for those that are killed, and when the race overproduces there will be automatic controls set upon the population. Yet these will in all ways fit the intents and purposes of the individuals involved.

(I don’t know yet how I’ll go about producing my part of Mass Events, of course, but the reader, picking up the finished work, will be able to tell at a glance all the decisions I made: whether the session notes are long or short, numerous or scarce, how often I referred to the other Seth books, and whether or not I added any appendix material.

(“Well,” I told Jane as we went to bed, “right now my idea is that we’ll have only short notes and no appendixes. Doing things that way will speed up the publication date.” I’m all too conscious of the great amount of physical time I’m spending on the two volumes of “Unknown” Reality; I often feel responsible for holding up publication of Volume 2 especially, since Seth finished dictating it almost exactly two years ago. See the chronology of our activities in Note 2.)

1. In the order of their publication the five previous Seth books are: Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul; The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book; Volumes 1 and 2 of the “Unknown” Reality: A Seth Book; and The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. All of Jane’s books, whether produced with or without Seth, are listed in the frontmatter of Mass Events, with publication dates.

In physical terms, three years is an important portion of one’s life span. What were Jane and I each doing all that time? We were involved in a whole group of endeavors. I’ll recap the major ones in order to place the beginning of Seth’s latest book, Mass Events, in context. I do this for my own sake as well as the reader’s, since I like to know exactly where I am in time, and what I mean and feel when writing even a short note for one of the Seth books.

This reconstruction of the past can be both fascinating and frustrating as I compare dates, session numbers, and our daily activities. Somehow, immersed in all of that minutiae of the past, I revive it so that it becomes part of the present once more — and that coexistence then reminds me of Seth’s idea of simultaneous time; perhaps, outside of dreaming, it’s the best approximation I can make of the paradoxical notion that all exists at once, and that all changes together, for each time I regard one of my past moments from the present, I change both that past and the present.

Beginning in June 1974, then, while writing notes and appendixes for Volume 1 of “Unknown”, and taking Seth’s dictation for Volume 2, I spent eight months producing the art work for Jane’s Adventures in Consciousness and for her book of poetry, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time; I finished all of those drawings in January 1975. In the meantime Jane completed Adventures in August 1974, and started Psychic Politics that October. In March 1975 we took time out to move from the apartment house in downtown Elmira to our “hill house” just outside the city. Jane finished dictating Volume 2 of “Unknown” for Seth in April 1975, and I started my notes and appendixes for it. In July 1975 Seth began The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression, and in December of that year Jane initiated work on her own The World View of Paul Cézanne: A Psychic Interpretation. She finished Politics in February 1976, and Cézanne in September; Politics was published that September also. I completed my own writing for Volume 1 of “Unknown” in October. Our 16-year-old cat, Willy, died early in November, and two days later we obtained a kitten, Willy Two (or Billy, as we soon came to call him), from an area humane society. I finished typing the manuscript for Volume 1 late in November, spent December checking it, and mailed it to Prentice-Hall early in January 1977.

In January we obtained an unlisted telephone number, because we could no longer handle the 600-or-so calls a month that were coming in. Later in the month, Jane started writing James. In February 1977 we received from Prentice-Hall the copyedited manuscript for Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality. (Copyediting is one of the earlier editorial stages a book goes through on its way to publication, and is meant to study all of the work that Jane and I and her editor, Tam Mossman, have already done on the manuscript: Before it’s set into type, a reader who works independently of the publishing firm carefully checks the manuscript for grammar, contradictions, facts, consistency, and so forth, and makes suggestions for whatever changes he or she thinks are desirable. Jane and I are free, of course, to reject any alterations we don’t agree with.) In March we checked the copyedited manuscript for Cézanne. Seth finished dictating Psyche early in April. A few days later we began correcting page proofs for Volume 1 of “Unknown.”

Through all of this, we’ve usually kept the sessions going, to get both book work and other, often private material, seen a number of scheduled visitors — and some who weren’t scheduled — and participated in a few radio and newspaper interviews.

At this time, I’m still working on the notes and appendixes for Volume 2 of “Unknown,” even while Seth has begun Mass Events. Jane and I have already planned our approach to Psyche (which Seth has just finished), and it’s to be published shortly after Volume 2 is. To top off our activities of the moment, we’re having the front porch of the hill house rebuilt — with a new raised floor and screening all around, so that Jane can write there in the summertime. The workmen swarming around all day, and the noise involved, are both exciting and distracting. But I have a feeling that the front porch affair isn’t the end of our construction odyssey: Jane has a certain speculative look when she notes that we have but one car — she doesn’t drive — to occupy the large two-car garage attached to the rear of the house. What better idea than to convert half of the garage into a writing room, with sliding glass doors, and add a screened-in porch there also? After all, she commented recently, the porch would protect our back door, too, especially from all of that winter weather….

3. Seth’s delivery is remarkably clear and unambiguous, but once in a while he’ll come through with an awkward sentence (as we all do), or one that combines the singular and the plural when one or the other should be used throughout, or he’ll repeat a certain word too often. On such occasions Jane and I may recast the sentence slightly while maintaining the syntax, or add a clarifying word or phrase in brackets [like this].

If I catch anything amiss in Seth’s delivery I’ll ask him about it. He may omit a word, or I may misinterpret what he says while I’m concentrating on my notetaking. In these cases Jane always spots the error at once when she reads my typed session transcript. But except for such minor alterations, or in the case of personal information, which we may delete, Seth’s material is presented as received, and we never arbitrarily eliminate any of it — occasionally to the pain of others, I’m afraid. We think it important that these sessions be given just as Jane delivers them, for after all the manner of that presentation, and its organization, are vital parts of the whole Seth phenomenon. So is the speed of delivery, for that matter. I want to remind the reader that the Seth books are spoken books rather than written ones, and that ordinarily Seth has no chance to revise his copy.