“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At 8:30 tonight Jane and I discussed Seth’s progress on his book. Jane was somewhat concerned. She wasn’t reading the book now, but she realized Seth wasn’t following, literally, the outline he’d given for it before he began dictating it chapter by chapter. I told her I thought Seth was presenting it just as he wanted it done; she agreed that she might as well relax and just let it come out.

(I would now like to describe two effects, one of Jane’s and one of mine, that took place almost simultaneously some few minutes before the session began. In addition, my experience blended into another one after the session started — but more about that later.

(The effect, which always reminded me of a mirage, began with a smallish, bright sawtooth pattern of light just to the right of my direct line of vision. Now, with memory of almost-forgotten episodes returning, I knew that this brilliant, shimmering pattern could spread so that as I looked at an object it would be obliterated, even while I still had peripheral vision.

(Now, I wondered once again at my calm response to this as I grew up — to something whose origins were so completely outside any kind of knowledge I possessed. When the interference had been strong, covering most of the field of vision, I had experienced a peculiar sense of both darkness and light, with the objective world indistinguishable within what I can only describe as a field of patterned, alternating lightness and darkness that possessed a velvety depth.

(By the time I wrote the last sentence I was aware — again, without being upset — that it was taking me just a little longer than usual to come up with my abbreviations or symbols for such common words as “does,” “as,” and “even.” This action of course should have been automatic. But visual interference was now lifting considerably.

The characteristics of consciousness are the same (seme) whether you are in a body or outside of one. The peaks and valleys of consciousness that I mentioned exist to some degree in all consciousness despite the form adopted (adepted) after death (deth). The nature of your consciousness is no different basically (bascially) than it is now, though you may not be aware of many of its characteristics.

(I caught myself omitting the word “not” from the last sentence, and was quite aware by now that something was up. More and more I had to make a deliberate effort to get the notes down correctly. In the material below, I couldn’t think of some of the symbols I used and had to write the words out.)

Now your consciousness is telepathic and clairvoyant, for example, even though you may not realize it. In sleep when (whene) you often presume yourself to be unconscious (unconsious) you may be far more conscious than you are now, but simply using abilities of consciousness that you do not accept as real or valid (valed) in waking (waping) life. You therefore shut (shup) them out of your conscious experience (experiencl). Consciousness, yours and mine, is quite independent of both (poth) time and space. And after death you are simply aware of the greater powers of consciousness that exist within you all the time.

(9:21. I had a lot of trouble getting the following sentences down. Many of the words were misspelled, some so much so that I crossed them out and quickly tried again — with the humorous result that the corrections also contained errors. My vision was by now very clear.

Since they do, of course, you can discover them now and learn to use them. This will directly (dreactly) assist you in after-death (agter) experience. You will not be nearly so startled by the nature of your own reactions (reactone) if you understand beforehand for example that your consciousness not only is not imprisoned by your physical body, but (bud) can create other portions at will. Those who “overidentify” their consciousness with their body can suffer self-created torment (tortment) for no reason, lingering about the body. Indeed, quite the forlorn soul, thinking it has no other place to go.

(For “beforehand” in the paragraph above, I wrote “byeborehoune,” then crossed that out and tried twice more. I now made a determined effort to spell correctly and write clearly. It helped. It was something like coming out of a deep sleep and immediately making a strong effort to focus in physical reality.)

You are, as I said earlier, a spirit now; and that spirit has a consciousness. The consciousness belongs to the spirit then, but the two are not the same. The spirit may turn its consciousness off and on. By its nature consciousness may flicker and fluctuate, but the spirit does not.

(9:28. The difficulty I had been experiencing with my spelling abruptly returned to an even greater degree. Along with the misspellings and the crossing out of words, I now had to worry about simply keeping up with Seth’s rather slow pace. For the first time I thought of asking for a break, yet I still wasn’t alarmed. I had trouble with the whole paragraph.)

(By now I was sitting tensely on the edge of our couch, bending over the notebook as it lay on the coffee table before me. This is a position I seldom use — perhaps I thought it would help me really grapple with this experience. I asked Seth to wait a minute.)

(Slowly I resumed work on my notes. I was most anxious that Seth explain all. And he was right: by 10:30 I was much better. I caught up on the notes finally and told Jane I was ready for the session to continue. Now we received the most interesting data of all — that pertaining to my curious lack of alarm at the events of the evening. Resume at a faster pace at 10:47.)

Now: In the demonstration in which Joseph so kindly assisted us, several points were made to implement the material just given.

(Now, I was having no trouble taking notes.)

We will be dealing now, after what I hope is suitable background material, with some chapters on the nature of existence after physical death, at the point of death, and involving the final physical death at the end of the reincarnational cycle. It was important that you understand something about the nature and behavior of your own consciousness before we could begin.

Now: You also drew upon some knowledge, Joseph, from past experience in our demonstration, when in your final illness motor function was impaired. This was in Denmark. The last note is an aside, rather than strict dictation.

Now I am ending this chapter, and with it I am ending Part One of my book. Give us a moment now — and end of dictation.

Now you acquiesced in our experiment earlier this evening, when Ruburt and you spoke at the [supper] table. Ruburt was telepathically aware of the arrangement, though not at a conscious level. The smiling portrait that Jane saw was your work in a way. Ruburt was aware of the arrangement for the demonstration, but was also somewhat alarmed at the particular way you would choose to interpret the experience. The smiling portrait was to reassure her — Jane now rather than Ruburt. You sent the reassurance. Ruburt picked it up from Joseph. Do you follow me?

Now: I will close for this evening.