“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane has been taking something of a rest for the last month or so. She’s had but two regular sessions — one for friends, and a personal one for us — and only one for her weekly ESP class. [Class sessions aren’t numbered.] Occasionally Jane has wondered what effect, if any, the break would have on Seth’s book. However, after giving me some very astute data about my painting, Seth resumed book dictation very smoothly at 9:33 — just as though there hadn’t been any time lapse from February 11 to March 18.

My environment includes, of course, those other personalities with whom I come in contact. Communication, perception, and environment can hardly be separated. Therefore the kind of communication that is carried on by myself and my associates is extremely important in any discussion of our environment.

(9:43.) Now I have friends even as you do, though my friends may be of longer standing. You must understand that we experience our own reality in quite a different manner than you do. We are aware of what you would call our past selves, those personalities we have adopted in various other existences.

We will be quite aware that we are ourselves, however — the multidimensional personalities who shared a more or less common environment at one level of our existence. As you will see, this analogy is a rather simple one that will do only for now, because past, present, and future do not really exist in those terms.

Now, each whole self, or multidimensional personality, has its own purposes, missions, and creative endeavors that are initial and basic parts of itself and that determine those qualities that make it eternally valid and eternally seeking. We are finally free to utilize our energy in those directions. We face many challenges of quite momentous nature, and we realize that our purposes are not only important in themselves, but for the surprising offshoots that develop in our efforts to pursue them. In working for our purposes, we realize we are blazing trails that can also be used by others.

I must have a thorough knowledge of the particular system of reality in which my pupil operates, of his or her system of thought, of the symbols that are meaningful. The stability of the pupil’s personality must be correctly gauged by me. The needs of that personality cannot be ignored but must be taken into consideration.

The pupil must be encouraged, but not overly extended while development continues. My material must be presented in such a way that it makes sense in the context in which the pupil understands reality, particularly in the early stages. Great care must be utilized, even before serious learning can begin, that all levels of the personality develop at a more or less constant rate.

Often the material I present will initially be given without any sign of my presence, seemingly as a startling revelation. For no matter how carefully I present the material, it is still bound to change past ideas that are strongly a part of the pupil’s personality. What I say is one thing, but the pupil of course is thrust into psychological and psychic behavior and experience that may seem quite alien to him on a conscious level.

The personality was never consciously aware of the initial meeting. She simply experienced sudden new thoughts, and since she is a poet, these appeared as poetic inspirations. At one time some years ago, at a writers’ conference, she became involved in circumstances that could have led to her psychic development before she was ready. The psychological climate at that time, of those involved, initiated the conditions, and without realizing what she was about our friend [Jane] went into a trance.

I had known of her psychic gifts since her childhood, but the insights necessary were channeled through the poetry until the personality attained the necessary background that was needed in this particular case. In the affair just mentioned, therefore, I was informed and saw to it that the episode ended and was not pursued.

It was hardly an accidental performance, however. Quite without knowing it, the personality decided to try its wings, figuratively speaking. As a part of my work, therefore, I have been coaching the young woman in one way or another since her childhood — and all of this as a preliminary to the serious work that began with our sessions.

This is a normal part of my activity in many levels of existence. It is highly diversified work, for the personality structures vary. While within the systems in which I work there are certain basic similarities, in some dimensions I would not be equipped to be a teacher simply because the basic concepts of experience would be alien to my nature, and the learning processes themselves outside of my own experience.