“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Just two months ago, I mentioned in the 857th session that Seth was continuing to dictate material for Mass Events on Wednesday evenings only. With one exception [involving a portion of Session 862], he’s kept to that policy, setting aside Monday nights for other regular or private information.

(Even though Seth didn’t call last Monday’s 867th session book dictation, then, Jane and I presented it because his material on viruses, disease, health, and biological experimentation obviously complemented his themes for Mass Events. The excerpts from tonight’s session continue that presentation.

(First, though, let me explain an odd development. In the opening notes for Session 855, which was held on May 21, I wrote that a few days earlier we’d received our complimentary copies of the German translation of Seth Speaks. I added that we expected the Dutch translation of the same book to be published later this year, but that we didn’t know just when this would happen — so Jane and I were understandably surprised last Thursday to receive a letter from a reader in Holland, informing us that he’d just purchased a copy of the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks! Usually we’re notified well in advance of a book’s publication, but not this time — if the event has actually taken place. Could our correspondent have meant the German edition instead? No doubt a confusion of communications has come about. We’ve had no correspondence with the Dutch publisher, Ankh-Hermes, about a publication date. Jane called her editor at Prentice-Hall, Tam Mossman, who had no knowledge of the Dutch Seth Speaks being marketed either; he’s to check with Ankh-Hermes and let us know. Jane and I are pleased, though, since if Seth isn’t available yet in two foreign languages, he soon will be.

(“Okay, Seth. Good night.”

(9:56 P.M. “Boy, how he got all that out of me, I don’t know,” Jane laughed, for she had been very relaxed before the session. Her delivery had moved right along. I’ve deleted a few portions of the session that don’t apply to disease and evolutionary experimentation. Jane reported that when Seth gave the material on onchocerciasis she “really felt that the people’s skins were trying to turn into some sort of leathery protection. I don’t know whether I got those sensations from Seth, picked them up on my own, or just created them myself to go along with the material.” She hadn’t been aware of any feelings involving her own skin.

(For the last five weeks Jane has been intrigued by ideas about Seth’s next book, which, she said, would concern “the therapy of value fulfillment.” Seth has also used the phrase in connection with a next work.⁴ Now it appears that he’s settled upon a formal title for his book — one that Jane has received from him several times lately: Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment.)

3. The disease Seth referred to is onchocerciasis, which is caused by a filarial parasite spread by the bite of the blackfly. In his passing reference to it, Seth didn’t mention that besides producing the gruesome leathery skin, onchocerciasis can cause blindness — hence its common name, river blindness. This most serious affliction appears to be centered in West Africa, and infects many millions of people there. Four centuries ago, it was carried to the Western Hemisphere by slaves, and is now found in certain areas of Mexico, south to Brazil.

Onchocerciasis doesn’t kill, and the percentage of victims who lose their sight varies according to location. We’d like to get more data from Seth on the experimental evolutionary aspects of the blindness, however, since we don’t understand how such a debilitating state could really lead to something better. (Perhaps in this particular biological experiment, the blindness represents an evolutionary dead end, in those terms.) We may ask Seth to elaborate before he finishes Mass Events.