“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In the historical time of Christ, I was a man called Millenius, in Rome. In that life my main occupation was that of a merchant, but I was a highly curious gentleman, and my travels gave me access to many different groups of people.

The bells were only a small portion of my business, which dealt largely with cloths and dyes, but they fascinated me. Because of my interest in them I did far more traveling about the countryside and the region than any prudent man should. The bells became my hobby. My curiosity drove me to journey in search of different kinds of bells, and led me into contact with many people I would not otherwise have encountered.

(10:11.) While I was not literate, I was shrewd and lively of mind. Special bells, I discovered, were used by various sects of Jews, both within Rome and without. While I was a Roman and a citizen, my citizenship meant little except for providing me with minimal safety as I went about my daily way, and in my business I encountered as many Jews as Romans. I was not too far above them socially. (This was Seth’s first bit of humor in the chapter.)

The Romans had no clear idea of the number of Jews in Rome at that time. They went by guesswork. The bells on donkeys belonging to the Zealots had upon them the symbol of an eye (Jane, as Seth, pointed to one of her eyes). They came secretly into town, hiding as much from other Jews as from Romans. They were good bargainers and often did me out of more than I deserved to lose.

— who was, as clearly as I could figure out at the time, a “sacred” assassin. He was drunk the night I spoke to him in a stinking stall outside of Jerusalem. It was he who told me about the symbol of the eye. He also told me that the man, Christ, was kidnapped by the Essenes. I did not believe him. Nor at the time he told me did I know who Christ was.

At the time that Christ lived his existence was known to very few, comparatively speaking. To put it bluntly (and humorously) I knew that someone had the ball, but I was not certain of the person. In dream states, the situation finally became known to me and to many others.

(“I was originally called Protonius. Now give me a moment. The last name is not nearly so clear, and this is not my papal name, but my — if you will forgive the term — common name: Meglemanius, the third. From a small village.

(“I did believe implicitly in the God in which I was brought up, and in that belief. It was only later that I wondered how such a god would choose me for such a position — and then I began to wonder. I had four lives following that of the most adverse circumstances, to make sure that I understood the difference between luxury and poverty, pride and compassion. And there were days in other centuries that I walked the same streets that I had walked as Pope. I touched these streets lightly as Pope; but as a peasant I walked with a heavy foot and great weight, until I learned the lessons that I had to learn, as all of you will also learn your own lessons.”

Perhaps you will see an analogy here when you compare the situation with age regression under hypnosis. Those personalities are not locked up inside of what I am, however. They have progressed according to their own fashion. They are not negated. In my terms, they coexist with me, but at another layer of reality.

(Now she smelled something very rancid. “Seth has some kind of soap with his wares — some awful mixture with lye and rosewater,” she said, unbelieving, her nose wrinkling. “This was in some kind of woven sack; a double one like you’d throw over a horse…. I can almost see it in front of me. I could draw the shape of it, though it’s not any big deal.

None of my deaths surprised me. I felt during the process the inevitability, the recognition, even a sense of familiarity: “Of course, this particular dying is mine and no other.” And I accepted even the most bizarre circumstances then, feeling almost a sense of perfection. The life could not be finished properly without the death.

There is a great sense of humility, and yet a great sense of exaltation as the inner self senses its freedom when death occurs. All my deaths were the complement of my lives, in that it seemed to me that it could not be otherwise.

(Long pause at 11:29.) If I choose, in your terms I can relive any portion of those existences, but those personalities go their own way. Do you understand me?

Now I began by telling you that I was dictating this material through the auspices of a woman of whom I was quite fond. Let me now tell you that there are other realities involved. The following paragraphs will be written by another personality, who stands relatively in the same position to me as I stand to the woman through whom I am now speaking.

(Pause at 11:51. I now watched a transformation begin to take place in Jane, as our familiar Seth retreated and Seth Two began to come to the fore. At the same time I knew that subjectively Jane was experiencing the feeling of a “cone” or “pyramid” coming down over the top of her head. Jane has often told me that whereas she feels Seth come to her in a very warm and alive and friendly manner, she feels her consciousness going out of herself to meet Seth Two — “up the invisible pyramid like a draft up a flue.” She doesn’t know where she goes or how she gets back. Her body seems to be left behind.

(12:06 A.M. This was the end of the session. As usual when Seth Two speaks, the end was unannounced, and came without any of the warmth and emotional exchange that often involves Seth, Jane, and me.