“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I’m personally intrigued, of course, that this book was written through me, without my conscious mind there at every point, anxiously checking, organizing, and criticizing, as it does in my own work. Then, while my creative and intuitional abilities are given a good deal of freedom, the conscious mind is definitely in control. Yet this book was not written “by itself,” in the same way that some poems seem to be. Often a writer will say that a certain book “wrote itself,” and I know what that means. In this case, however, the book came from a specific source, not just from “out there,” and it is colored by the author’s personality, which is not mine.

Seth began dictating the book in our next Session 511, January 21, 1970, and finished it in Session 591, August 11, 1971. The intervening sessions did not all involve book dictation, however. Some were devoted to personal matters, some given for specific people who needed help, and some were in answer to philosophical questions not connected with the book. I also took several “little vacations.” Despite such layoffs, Seth always picked right up, precisely where he left off dictation.

Because of my own writing experience, I’m also well aware of the process involved in translating unconscious material into conscious reality. It’s particularly obvious when I’m working on poetry. Whatever else is involved in Seth’s book, certainly some kind of unconscious activity is operating at high gear. It was only natural, then, that I found myself comparing my own conscious creative experience with the trance procedure involved in Seth’s book. I wanted to discover why I felt that Seth’s book was his, as divorced from mine. If both were coming from the same unconscious, then why the subjective differences in my feelings?

I was not connected in this way with Seth’s book, and had no awareness of the creative processes involved. I went into trance as I do for our regular sessions. Seth dictated the book through me, speaking through my lips. The creative work was so distant from me, that in this respect I could not call the product my own. I am, instead, given a complete product in Seth’s book — an excellent one — for which I am, of course, exceedingly grateful.

[...] Jane and I had grown very used to living with Seth’s production of his book; we had come to look forward to each development. [...] I can feel — I know — that Seth’s going to end his book soon now, probably tonight, and I don’t want it to happen, I guess.” [...]

You will not find yourself by running from teacher to teacher, from book to book. [...]

[...] The very nature of this book, the method of its creation and delivery, in themselves should clearly point out the fact that human personality has far more abilities than those usually ascribed to it. [...] As this book was conceived and written by a nonphysical personality, and then made physical, so do each of you have access to greater abilities and methods of communication than those usually accepted.

[...] The end of the book seemed to come abruptly even though we were prepared for it. Once out of trance, Jane again expressed her peculiar regret that Seth’s book was done, even though this was what we’d been working for. [...]

(Seth Two is dealt with at length in Chapter Seventeen of Jane’s book The Seth Material. [...] In the outline Seth gave for this book before dictation began, we were told that Seth Two would be explained. [...]

In a book on reincarnation, I hope to have each of my previous personalities speak for themselves, for they should tell their own story. [...]

[...] I hope to illustrate the function of consciousness and personality through writing this book and enlarging your concepts.

[...] Seth did analyze the dream at the end of the session, so that material is deleted from the dictation on his book.

The same applies to each reader of this book. [...]