“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I’m proud to publish this book under my own name, though I don’t fully understand the mechanics of its production or the nature of the personality I assume in delivering it. I had no conscious work to do on the book at all. I simply went into trance twice a week, spoke in a “mediumistic” capacity for Seth, or as Seth, and dictated the words to my husband, Robert Butts, who wrote them down.

I consider the book “mine” in that I don’t believe it could have been written without me and my particular abilities. On the other hand, I realize that far more is involved. I had to read the manuscript to find out what was in it, for example; and to that extent the book doesn’t seem mine. But what does that mean?

Seth’s books may be the product of another dimensional aspect of my own consciousness not focused in this reality, plus something else that is untranslatable in our terms, with Seth a great psychic creation more real than any “fact.” His existence may simply lie in a different order of events than the one we’re used to.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t apply what we learn to the ordinary world. Certainly I’m trying to do that, and Seth wrote this book to help people deal more effectively with their daily lives. I am insisting that we must be very careful about making literal interpretations, lest we limit a multidimensional phenomenon by tying it down to a three-dimensional fact system.

The funny thing is that a personality not focused in our reality can help people live in that world more effectively and joyfully by showing them that other realities also exist. In this book Seth is saying that you can change your experience by altering your beliefs about yourself and physical existence.

While Seth was producing this book, my own life was immeasurably enriched in unforeseen ways. Frequent psychedelic-type experiences paralleled Seth’s dictated material, and my own creative and psychic abilities developed into some entirely new areas.

Just before Seth began The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book, for instance, I found myself embarked on a new venture I call the Sumari development. Sumari refers to a “family” of consciousnesses who share certain overall characteristics. There is a language involved that isn’t a language in usual terms. I think that it operates as a psychological and psychic framework that frees me from normal verbal reference, letting me express and communicate inner feelings and data that lie just beneath formalized word patterns.

The Sumari development constantly expanded as Seth produced this book. Now various altered states of consciousness are involved. In one I write Sumari poetry and in another I translate what I’ve written. At a different level I sing Sumari songs, showing musical knowledge and accomplishment far beyond my normal talents or background. The songs can also be translated, but they communicate emotionally whether or not the words are understood. In yet another state of consciousness, material is received that is supposed to represent remnants of ancient Speaker manuscripts. (These are also translated later.) Seth defines the Speakers as teachers, both physical and nonphysical, who constantly interpret and communicate inner knowledge through the ages. My husband has also written Sumari, but I have to translate it for him.

As Seth continued dictating The Nature of Personal Reality, I wrote a complete poetry manuscript, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time, in which I worked out many of my own beliefs as per suggestions Seth was giving in his book. This led to another group of poems, The Speakers. To me this all means that there is a rich vein of creativity and knowledge available to each according to his abilities, just beneath the surface of usual consciousness. I believe that it is a part of our human heritage, accessible to some extent to any person who explores the inner dimensions of the mind.

Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time, The Speakers, and some Sumari poetry are being combined into a book that will be published soon by Prentice-Hall. I consider it a companion book to this one. It shows what was happening in my personal reality while Seth was writing his book on the subject, and reveals how the creative impetus splashes out into all areas of the personality. Seth often refers to the poems and to the experiences that initiated them. Many of those events occurred as I tried to understand the relationship between his world and mine, and the connection between inner and outer experience.

But beside this, as Seth was dictating this present book, I also found myself suddenly writing a novel, The Education of Oversoul 7, which was produced more or less automatically. Oversoul Seven, the main character, achieved his own kind of reality. I’d say mentally, “Okay, Seven, let’s have the next chapter,” and there it was as quickly as I could write it down. Portions of the book also came in the dream state.

The Sumari development, along with the experiences connected with The Education of Oversoul 7 and The Nature of Personal Reality, brought up so many questions that I was forced to seek a larger framework in which to understand what was happening. As a result I’m working on a book called Aspect Psychology, which I hope will present a theory of personality large enough to contain man’s psychic nature and activities. Seth refers to Aspects, as we call it, in this present book, and it should be published sometime in 1975.

The Nature of Personal Reality not only enriched my creative life but challenged my ideas and beliefs. I agree wholeheartedly with the concepts Seth presents here, while realizing that they run counter to many accepted religious, social, and scientific dogmas. Certainly this book is an answer to all those who have written for help in applying Seth’s ideas to ordinary living, and I am certain that it will assist many people in dealing with the varied events and problems of daily life.

Seth first mentioned The Nature of Personal Reality in Session 608, April 5, 1972, only shortly after Rob and I had finished reading proofs for his previous book, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. He actually began dictation on April 10, 1972, but our personal reality was suddenly disturbed when we were caught in the flood caused by Tropical Storm Agnes. As a result, as you’ll see in Rob’s notes, further work on the book was delayed for some time.

Since the early days of our sessions, which began in late 1963, Seth has consistently called me Ruburt, and Rob, Joseph, saying that these names refer to the greater selves from which our present identities spring. He continues that practice in this book.

This book should help each reader understand the nature of private experience and use that knowledge to make daily living more creative and enjoyable.