“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(In the 586th session, earlier in this chapter, Seth stated that by the year 2075 the third Christ — Paul or Saul — would have enacted the Second Coming, exerting of course a profound effect upon religion and world history. Jane thought a period of less than a century was much too short a time to encompass so many dramatic changes. She wanted me to ask Seth if she had distorted this data while delivering it.

(All of the following historical dates are quite approximate, but they show the overlapping pattern of the physical lives of the three personalities making up the Christ entity.

(It isn’t known for sure that Christ and Paul ever met. Paul was converted several years after Christ’s death; before that he had been a zealous persecutor of Christians. Nor does it appear that John and Paul met.

(According to history, all three members of the Christ entity met violent ends. Christ was crucified near Jerusalem at the order of Pontius Pilate; Herod had John beheaded; and Paul was beheaded near Rome during the reign of Nero.

(Readers of The Seth Material had asked Seth to elaborate upon data of the three Christs given in Chapter Eighteen, “The God Concept,” of that book. Some wanted to know if one of the three Christs could have been the Teacher of Righteousness; this personage was the leader of the Zealot sect in Judaea early in the first century A.D. There were four known Jewish sects flourishing there at the birth of Christianity.

In any given historical period, one religious drama may finally emerge as the exterior representation, but there will also be many minor dramas, “projections,” that do not entirely take. These represent, of course, probable events. Any of them could supersede the actual exterior drama. In the time of Christ there were many such performances, as many personalities felt the force of inner reality and reacted to it.

There were probable Christs, in other words, living in your terms at that time. For several reasons that I will not go into here, these projections did not mirror inner events faithfully enough. There were, however, a score of men in the same general area, physically, who responded to the inner psychic climate and felt upon themselves the attraction and responsibility of the religious hero.

Some carried on following the same pattern taken by Christ, performed psychic feats and healings, had groups of followers, and yet were not capable of holding that powerful focus of psychic attention that was so necessary.

These men innately understood their part in this drama, and also their position within All That Is. They were all highly clairvoyant and telepathic, given to visions and hearing of voices.

In their dreams they were in contact. Consciously Paul remembered many of these dreams, until he felt pursued by Christ. It was because of a series of recurring dreams that Paul persecuted the Christians. He felt that Christ was a kind of devil who pursued him in his sleep.

John the Baptist, Christ, and Paul were all connected in the dream state, and John was well aware of Christ’s existence before Christ was born.

Now in answer to Ruburt’s question: The birth will occur at the time given; by the time given (the year 2075). The other changes will occur generally over the period of a century, but the results will show far before that time.

Because of the plastic nature of the future, in your terms, the date cannot be considered final. All probabilities point in its direction, however, for the inner impetus is already forming the events.

Unless you have other questions, that is the end of the chapter.

(“As a matter of curiosity: can you say how the Teacher of Righteousness met his end?” This is one of the questions correspondents have asked.)

The name given was correct, though it is itself a translation. He died with a small group of men in a cave that he held as a point of refuge in the middle of a battle, killed by members of another sect. The murderers took with them certain manuscripts that they found there; but others they did not find, and these have not as yet come to light.

The final place of refuge was near Damascus. For some time the Lord of Righteousness tried to hide himself within the city. His identity was discovered, however, and he and a band of men took to caves that were between Damascus and another nearby town, much smaller, that had been used at one time as a fortress. They were heading there.

One small note for those interested. The Zealots, the sect, were also divided into two main groups, one splitting finally from the other main one. Other documents will be found that will clear several important matters concerning the historical times. (Pause.) During one short period of his life, Paul joined a Zealot group. This is unknown. It has not been recorded.

(Jane sat in trance so long that I began to ask a question; but then she raised a hand to indicate that I wait.)

In fact, for a period he led a double life as a member of the Zealots. He turned against them vehemently, however, as he was later to turn against the Romans to join the Christians. Before his conversion, he knew he had a purpose and mission, and flung himself with all the passion of his being into whatever answers he thought he had found.

(I was finding Seth’s information intensely interesting. It was unavoidable in many cases, but Jane said she much preferred not to know anything about the historical period Seth would be discussing. She hadn’t read anything about the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, although I’d explained a little about them to her at various times. Nor is she familiar with the Bible.

(Jane’s attitude about biblical history is in keeping with her feelings about some other facets of her abilities: she has often told me she felt much freer giving a reading for a person when she wasn’t acquainted with him. The same was true when she was trying for the contents of sealed envelopes. She preferred not to know who had prepared them, or their origin, etc.)