“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(My mother lives with my brother and his family in a small community in upstate New York, near Rochester, and Jane and I had spent the weekend visiting one and all. During our drive back to Elmira this morning Jane said, “Somebody’s working on Seth’s book, I can tell you that. I keep getting snatches of it. It’s about imagination and beliefs, I think, and how they interact — only there’s a lot more to it. Well,” she added, pleased, “it’s nice to know the work’s being done….”)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

1. In larger terms Seth’s ideas as to what the “whole self” is take in a great deal — with reincarnation and probable personalities, for instance, being only two of the concepts involved. The safest thing to say would be that each session, even, adds to our knowledge of what a constantly expanding whole self can be. See both The Seth Material and Seth Speaks.

2. A reminder: Seth usually calls Jane by her male entity name, Ruburt — and thus “he,” “him,” etc.

3. Here Seth quotes himself exactly from an unscheduled session held on February 26, 1972, during our vacation in Marathon, Florida.

4. In this book there are many examples of various kinds of altered states of consciousness on Jane’s part. In addition to Seth’s volume, these sometimes resulted in very creative products of her “own”: Some of the psychic experiences connected with her book of poetry, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time, which she began in November, 1972, are described in the 639th session in Chapter Ten. And in the 653rd session in Chapter Thirteen, we go into those involved with the writing of her long poem, Dialogues of the Speakers, on April 2, 1973.

The brain channels the information that the mind receives to your physical structure, so that your experience is physically sifted and automatically translated into terms that the organism can understand. (Seth-Jane spoke emphatically, rapping upon the coffee table between us.) Because of this, physically speaking and in life as you think of it, the mind is to a large extent dependent upon the brain’s growth and activity. There is some information necessary to physical survival that must be taught and handed down from parent to child. There are basic assumptions of a general nature with which you are born, but because the specific conditions of your environment are so various, these must be implemented. So it is necessary that the child accept beliefs from its parents.

(I now described an effect that had started to bother me after the session had begun; it’s a good little example of the way beliefs can work. No sooner had Seth come through than I became aware of an unaccustomed tightness in my writing hand — a tension that interfered with the automatic formation of the letters and words. I kept the notes going by making an extra effort, but I found it quite distracting to keep thinking about the mechanics of writing while trying to concentrate upon what Seth was saying. The difficulty persisted through the delivery and into break.

(I told Jane I’d thought of using the pendulum after the session to get at the cause of the hand phenomenon, since I didn’t want to interrupt book dictation by asking Seth about it. [Briefly for those who have asked me: The pendulum is a very old method. I use it, with excellent results, to obtain ideomotor — “subconscious” — responses about knowledge that lies just outside my usual consciousness. I hold a small heavy object suspended by a thread so that it’s free to move. By mentally asking questions, I obtain “yes” or “no” answers according to whether the pendulum swings back and forth, or from side to side.]

(As we talked about our individual hang-ups, Jane said that we had a choice: We could get material on them or continue with book work. Both channels were available from Seth, complete. Although we wanted dictation to continue we were also interested in learning more about our personal questions. Feeling somewhat guilty, we opted for the latter course — but as the material unfolded we were glad we’d done so. Resume at 10:20.)

(Seth was quite correct. Talk about seeing the proverbial light — suddenly I saw the belief that had been right there all the time…. Remember that Jane and I had spent the weekend visiting my mother and brother, et al.)

(“No. I think it’s excellent material.” As Seth, Jane now did something rather unusual: She turned in her rocker to look at the clock that sits to her left and somewhat behind her, on our combination bookcase and room divider.)

(10:55. After Jane had come out of another “far-out trance,” as she put it, I was very pleased to tell her that my writing hand was much improved and that Seth had answered her own questions. I went over the delivery with her. Resume at 11:08.)

(“Very good, Seth.”

(The members of Jane’s ESP class have been putting the ideas in Personal Reality to good use. Strangely, this has made Jane somewhat impatient, since she can only proceed with what Seth has given so far. She finds herself in the odd position of envying future readers, who will be able to go through the finished work and make use of it as a unit.

(The next morning Jane told me that she and/or Seth “worked on the book all night. Each time I woke up, dictation, or stuff like that, was going on. It was pretty insistent — almost unpleasantly so at times….” She’s experienced such effects before in connection with the book. They aren’t a nightly occurrence by any means, but I suggested she tell herself upon retiring that she wouldn’t be aware of such activity during sleeping hours. We planned to ask Seth about it also.)