“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The session was held in our old bedroom, which, having been cleared out now, is an adjunct to my studio. The additional space we’ve acquired is most welcome.)

Now: Good evening.

(Smiling): And welcome back…. Now give me a moment, and we will begin by resuming our chapter on religion. (Pause.)

The third personality, mentioned many times by me, has not in your terms yet appeared, although his existence has been prophesied as the “Second Coming” (Matthew 24). Now these prophecies were given in terms of the current culture at that time, and therefore, while the stage has been set, the distortions are deplorable, for this Christ will not come at the end of your world as the prophecies have been maintaining.

Now there will be several born before that time who in various ways will rearouse man’s expectations. One such man has already been born in India, in a small province near Calcutta, but his ministry will seem to remain comparatively local for his lifetime.

Now you may take your break.

(I too had begun wondering. All along we’d been thinking the three personalities making up the Christ entity had already lived and died, but now here Seth was talking about the third personality returning in the next century. What was the explanation? We weren’t upset; yet we did feel uneasy as the session resumed at 9:57.)

Now: Let us resume.

The man, historically now, was Paul or Saul. It was given to him to set up a framework. But it was to be a framework of ideas, not of regulations; of men, not of groups. Here he fell down, and he will return as the third personality, just mentioned, in your future.

Now Saul went to great lengths to set himself as a separate identity. His characteristics, for example, were seemingly quite different from those of the historical Christ. He was “converted” in an intense personal experience — a fact that was meant to impress upon him the personal and not organizational aspects. Yet some exploits of his in his earlier life have been attributed to Christ — not as a young man, but earlier.

Now he did not create them on his own, and thrust them upon historical reality. (Jane paused, a hand to her eyes.) He created them in so far as he found himself forced to admit certain facts: In that world at that time, earthly power was needed to hold Christian ideas apart from numberless other theories and religions, to maintain them in the middle of warring factions. It was his job to form a physical framework; and even then he was afraid that the framework would strangle the ideas, but he saw no other way.

(10:27.) In the next century, the inner nature of man, with these developments, will free itself from many constraints that have bound it. A new era will indeed begin — not, now, a heaven on earth, but a far more sane and just world, in which man is far more aware of his relationship with his planet and of his freedom within time.

Now you may take a break in time.

(2. The country — with a name and dates — which would see the appearance of the third Christ in the next century, would not be given to us now, but might be in later years. Seth, she said, had deliberately refrained from being more specific. This was to prevent any overreactions to every personage born in a particular country, who might seem to fit descriptions and dates given. This would be very unfair and misleading.

Now: Let us continue.

The results will be a different kind of existence. Many of your problems now result from spiritual ignorance. No man will look down upon an individual from another race when he himself recognizes that his own existence includes such membership also.

Human personality will reap benefits that now would seem unbelievable. An open-ended consciousness will imply far greater freedom. From birth, children will be taught that basic identity is not dependent upon the body, and that time as you know it is an illusion. The child will be aware of many of its past existences, and will be able to identify with the old man or woman that in your terms it will become.

Family relationships will show perhaps the greatest changes. There will be room for emotional interactions within the family that are now impossible. The conscious mind will be more aware of unconscious material.

Now, mankind lacks such a focus. The third personality will represent that focus. There will be, incidentally, no crucifixion in that drama. That personality will indeed be multidimensional, aware of all its incarnations. It will not be oriented in terms of one sex, one color, or one race.

Events are not predestined. The framework for this emergence has already been set, however, within your system of probabilities. The emergence of this third personality will directly affect the original historical drama of Christ as it is now known. There is and must be interactions between them.

(Both of us were getting tired. We were also hungry, so we thought of ending the session and watching an old mystery or horror movie on TV while we had something to eat. Then I remembered that Seth hadn’t given headings for the first eight chapters of his book. He’d told us not to worry about this in Chapter Seventeen. Could he give the headings now, or would Jane have to go over that early material first? Impossible as it seemed, well over a year had passed since she had stopped reading the book, session by session, early in Chapter Four. Resume at 11:39.)

Now: I will bid you a fond good evening after a few remarks in answer to your question. Again, Ruburt picked this up from me this afternoon: When I deviated from the original outline as given (in the 510th session for January 19, 1970), I gave chapter headings. Otherwise those statements made in the outline apply. You can simply add them if you prefer. I inserted many chapters where none were mentioned, and so used the headings from then onward.

Now, do you have more questions?