“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(In the early hours of May 29, following the last session, Jane had her most vivid experience yet involving book work during the sleep state. While this one contained elements similar to those described in earlier encounters, new ideas and questions were generated also. [See the notes for the 619th session in Chapter Four, for instance, or for the 660th session, which bridges chapters Sixteen and Seventeen.]

Dictation: Ruburt was working with alterations of consciousness this afternoon. At the same time he had the radio playing softly. The rock-music program was interrupted by an announcement having to do with the Indianapolis speed-car racing exhibition (the 57th Indianapolis 500-mile race). One driver had already been severely injured (on Monday); and the race, put off on that account, and because of inclement weather (on Tuesday), finally began today.

Some of the material in the last chapter should help to explain the reasons for frameworks in which violence is built-in, so to speak, and indeed becomes a challenging context through which reality is perceived. The situation is one of danger, yet is chosen by those involved, and is not inflicted upon them. In somewhat the same way, entire life contexts are selected that might appear to be incomprehensible, foolhardy, or even insane to an observer.

No one begins a race with a handicap, you may say, but that is obviously not the case. Individuals have often chosen such situations precisely as incentives, and many great men have done so. This does not mean that such disabilities are necessary. At any point that an individual realizes his point of power in the present, he will not need a barrier to test himself against, or to focus him in what he thinks of as the proper direction.

You live many lives simultaneously. You often think of these as reincarnational existences, one before the other. If you are severely ill and believe that the reasons for your symptoms exist in a past life, that you must “put up with it,” then you will not realize that your point of power is in the present, and you will not believe in the possibility of recovery.

(9:54.) Since all existences are simultaneous, this simply means his stressing certain aspects in this life — at the expense of others, you would say — and setting up a frame of reference that may seem to be limiting. On the other hand the personality involved may see this as a most rewarding and expansive experience, in which the emotions are allowed freedoms ordinarily denied. Characteristically, some personalities prefer lifetime experiences in which accomplishment and development follows an even course. Others demand great contrast. One of the latter may be miserably poor in one life, luxuriously rich in another, an intellectual giant in still another, a great athlete, and then a complete invalid. Individual differences operate then in the kinds of life situations chosen.

(10:15. Peculiarly, in spite of her deep trance and the mass of material she’d delivered, Jane remembered one line — Seth’s remark about her using the radio as a point of reference while she worked with states of consciousness. See the session at 9:32. This was an obvious thing that neither of us had realized before.

A nation which pursues this course is like one individual who primarily follows a strictly “objective, male,” externally oriented path in terms of your Western understanding. Certain values have been stressed in your country, particularly in the recent present. These attributes were pursued at the expense of others for individual reasons and those en masse. The rest of the world agreed to such actions, however, and various portions of it took entirely different courses, so that in your experience global society would show a kaleidoscope of varying focuses and their results.

Since all is simultaneous, your present beliefs can alter your past ones, whether from this life or a “previous” one. Existences are open-ended. Now with your ideas of progressive time and the resulting beliefs in cause and effect, I realize this is difficult for you to understand. Yet within the abilities of your creaturehood, your current beliefs can change your experience; you can restructure your “reincarnational past” in the same way that you can restructure the past in this present life (as explained in sessions 657-58 in Chapter Fifteen.

This experienced present also represents your psychic touchstone to all of your other existences. You are consciously aware of certain events, and unconsciously aware of much more that in one way or another you are learning to bring into conscious focus.