“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Some very old religions understood the hallucinatory nature of the devil concept, but even in Egyptian times, the simpler and more distorted ideas became prevalent, particularly with the masses of people. In some ways, men in those times could not understand the concept of a god without the concept of a devil.

(Pause at 9:47.) The light-and-darkness contrast presents us with the same kind of picture. The good was seen as light, for men felt safer in the day. The evil was therefore assigned to nightfall. Within the mass of distortions, however, hidden beneath the dogma there was always a hint of the basic creativity of every effect.

Their message was as “pure” and undistorted as possible. It was for this reason however, through the centuries, that many who heard it translated it into parables and tales. Now, strong portions of Jewish scriptures carry traces of the message of these early Speakers, but even here, distortions have hidden the messages.

(It is of interest here to note that a current Biblical reference work, in dealing with the very early history of Israel, has much to say about the “oral traditions” which preceded — and thus helped shape — the written word by many centuries. During this long oral period many distortions, omissions, etc., took place for a variety of reasons. Recent work has shown that the early gathering and writing of traditions dates from about the twelfth century B.C. This in turn led to the biblical books. Resume at 11:02.)

(After the session I wondered if the Seth material itself could be a distorted version of the Speakers’ messages. Jane said it might be possible. Actually, she felt, the Speakers’ material was “probably more poetical.”)