“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We will later discuss the nature of mass reality, but for now we are dwelling upon the personal aspects. The main point I wanted to make in this chapter was that your conscious beliefs are extremely important, and that you are not at the mercy of events or causes that dwell far beneath your awareness.

(While we had a quick snack I asked her if she thought the recent strange behavior of our cat, Willy, could stem from his reactions to our own psychic states. We’d seen this happen before, although not recently. Early this month Willy had picked up a case of fleas that was stubbornly resisting treatment. He’d taken to staying outside all night as well as most of the day. He was also losing weight. Our other cat, Rooney, had always seemed to be immune to us in such matters, and even now was conducting himself in his usual leisurely fashion.

(Willy was outside now, in a light rain that had begun a couple of hours ago. At supper time he’d actually seemed to feel that the inside of the house was forbidden territory, and had refused to come in. Now I went down the back stairs and called for him as I circled the house. No Willy. I met Jane in the front hall. Here the music was even louder, thundering out from the first floor apartment.

(I asked that Seth comment upon Willy’s behavior, if he cared to, after dictation. Then Jane said, “I knew I was feeling funny tonight. Now l get it. It’s like I’ve got three channels from Seth going at once….

(“Over here now,” Jane said, designating her upper left, “is Seth on what you were just saying about peer groups — how young people feel it’s so important to fit in with their own kind, and why. And why I felt that way, but you didn’t. Hey, I’ve even got a bunch of history about that, all ready to deliver — a lot of material on each idea…. I was really confused for a while, yet now I see that each thing’s separate, already prepared by Seth. You’re not going to get two sentences about one subject, then switch to another one….” Jane laughed. “Which channel do you want?”

(10:51. Jane’s delivery was very intent.)

Now we have been speaking of the conscious mind, for it is the director of your activities physically. I told you (at the beginning of this chapter) that it was important to realize the ego’s position as the most “exterior” portion of the inner self, not alienated but looking outward to physical reality. Using this analogy, portions of the self on the other side of the conscious mind constantly receive telepathic data. Remember, there are no divisions, so the terms used are simply to make the discussion easier.

(11:37. Again Jane had really been under. She didn’t remember the material, and was amazed that an hour had passed. I told her I’d taken the break because I was still worried about Willy.

(“Not since the sessions started [in 1963] have I felt that Seth’s material was so richly available. I wasn’t able to be that open before this — I couldn’t accept a lot that was right there because it didn’t fit in with my beliefs.” Jane pointed to her left. “Hmmm. Now I could get stuff on archaeology, of all things. Wild….”

(She had doubts, though, about her ability to come through with the very technical data for the young scientist who had called her before the last session. She felt somewhat “remote” from his questions while she was so involved in producing this book. Resume at 11:55.)

Willy was always the house cat, you see, and Jane stayed in the house all day, writing. So it is the house cat who changes habits, rather than Rooney (our other cat).

(End at 12:07 a.m. After coming out of trance Jane attempted to describe a manifestation which, though invisible, was “hovering before us now like a big oval type of thing.” It was made up of a group of energies that could represent a personality like Seth, she said, yet it was nameless. It was just there, and gave her no feeling particularly that it was going to be of assistance. Jane had trouble being precise about the effect and her feelings in connection with it, and I had difficulty translating her narrative into written words. I mention it here in case something develops. She’s had similar perceptions occasionally before.

(A note added a few days later: This session was held on Wednesday. We had guests the following Friday evening, and as Jane described the multiple-channel effects to them, she realized that she was tuning into some of Seth’s backlog of data about peer groups and the need to conform. Seth hadn’t actually given us the material during Wednesday’s session, nor did he now — instead Jane verbalized it on her own to some extent. The next morning I asked her to note down what she remembered of it.