“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

While I was trying to define Seth that way and questioning whether or not he was a spirit guide, I was closed off to some extent from his greater reality, which exists in terms of vast imaginative and creative power that is bigger than the world of facts and can’t be contained in it. Seth’s personality is quite observable in our sessions, for example, but the source of that personality isn’t. For that matter, the origin of any personality is mysterious and not apparent in the objective world. My job is to enlarge the dimensions of that world and people’s concepts of it.

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.

As usual, Rob methodically records each session in his own version of shorthand and then types it. This is much easier and faster than taping each session, replaying it, and then typing. Periodically Rob notes the passage of time, to show how long it takes Seth to get through a particular passage. Seth himself dictates the words to be underlined or put in quotes or parentheses. Often he indicates the placement of colons and other punctuation as well.