“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“There were three men whose lives became confused in history and merged, and whose composite history became known as the life of Christ…. Each was highly gifted psychically, knew of his role, and accepted it willingly. The three men were a part of one entity, gaining physical existence in one time. They were not born on the same date, however. There are reasons why the entity did not return as one person. For one thing, the full consciousness of an entity would be too strong for one physical vehicle. For another, the entity wanted a more diversified environment than could otherwise be provided.

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.

(There followed a short exchange between Seth and me, which isn’t recorded verbatim because it was too rapid. I was interested in learning whether, and when, the three personalities of the Christ entity had met as physical beings. It seemed that superior psychic interactions would have taken place among them, and I wanted to know more about this. Jane, as Seth, listened politely to my groping questions.)

— for this would be fairly apparent to those who have.

His was the portion that was to deal with physical reality and manipulation, and so these qualities were strong in him. To some extent they overruled him. When the historical Christ “died,” Paul was to implement the spiritual ideas in physical terms, to carry on. In so doing, however, he grew the seeds of an organization that would smother the ideas. He lingered after Christ, [just] as John the Baptist came before. Together the three spanned some time period, you see.

(Another question concerned a name and country for the appearance of the third Christ in the next century. Also, could or would Seth give any data on the religious figure already born in India, and the black man to be born in Africa?

(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.

(3. For the same reason Seth wouldn’t say more at this time concerning the Indian religious figure, and the to-be-born African who would work in Indonesia.)

I would like to make certain points clear. The “new religion” following the Second Coming will not be Christian in your terms, although the third personality of Christ will initiate it.

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.

(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.)