“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Again, this was a short session. Jane and I had grown very used to living with Seth’s production of his book; we had come to look forward to each development. But now… “I almost don’t want to hold the session,” Jane said as we waited for 9:00. “It’s a real funny feeling — almost nostalgic. I can feel — I know — that Seth’s going to end his book soon now, probably tonight, and I don’t want it to happen, I guess.” She’d mentioned such feelings occasionally before, since Seth began work on the last two chapters.)

Now: We will resume dictation. (Now Jane’s pace was rather fast, her voice quiet.)

Each reader, however, should in one way or another sense his own vitality in a way quite new to him, and find avenues of expansion opening within himself of which he was earlier unaware. The very nature of this book, the method of its creation and delivery, in themselves should clearly point out the fact that human personality has far more abilities than those usually ascribed to it. By now you should understand that all personalities are not physically materialized. As this book was conceived and written by a nonphysical personality, and then made physical, so do each of you have access to greater abilities and methods of communication than those usually accepted.

(9:30. The end of the book seemed to come abruptly even though we were prepared for it. Once out of trance, Jane again expressed her peculiar regret that Seth’s book was done, even though this was what we’d been working for. “What’s he going to do now?” she asked. “I can’t really believe it’s over, you know.”

Christ, the historical Christ, was not crucified…. You will have to give me time here. (Pause.)

He had no intention of dying in that manner; but others felt that to fulfill the prophecies in all ways, a crucifixion was a necessity.

Christ did not take part in it. (Pause.) There was a conspiracy in which Judas played a role, an attempt to make a martyr out of Christ. The man chosen was drugged — hence the necessity of helping him carry the cross (see Luke 23) — and he was told that he was the Christ.

He believed that he was. He was one of those deluded, but he also himself believed that he, not the historical Christ, was to fulfill the prophecies.

Mary came because she was full of sorrow for the man who believed he was her son. Out of compassion she was present. The group responsible wanted it to appear that one particular portion of the Jews had crucified Christ, and never dreamed that the whole Jewish people would be “blamed.”

(Pause at 10:00.) This is difficult to explain, and even for me to unravel…. The tomb was empty because this same group carted the body away. Mary Magdalene did see Christ, however, immediately after (see Matthew 28). (Long pause.) Christ was a great psychic. He caused the wounds to appear then upon his own body, and appeared both physically and in out-of-body states to his followers. He tried, however, to explain what had happened, and his position, but those who were not in on the conspiracy would not understand, and misread his statements.

Peter three times denied the Lord (Matthew 26), saying he did not know him, because he recognized that that person was not Christ.

The plea, “Peter, why hast thou forsaken me?” came from the man who believed he was Christ — the drugged version. Judas pointed out that man. He knew of the conspiracy, and feared that the real Christ would be captured. Therefore he handed over to the authorities a man known to be a self-styled messiah — to save, not destroy, the life of the historical Christ.

(10:10.) In the Last Supper when Christ said, “This is my body, and this is my blood,” He meant to show that the spirit was within all matter, interconnected, and yet apart — that his own spirit was independent of his body, and also in his own way to hint that he should no longer be identified with his body. For he knew the dead body would not be his own.

This was all misunderstood. Christ then changed his mode of behavior, appearing quite often in out-of-body states to his followers. (See John 20, 21; Matthew 28; Luke 24.) Before, he had not done this to that degree. He tried to tell them however that he was not dead, and they chose to take him symbolically. (A one-minute pause.)

His physical presence was no longer necessary, and was even an embarrassment under the circumstances. He simply willed himself out of it.

Now: He knew that without the wounds, they would not believe he was himself, because they were so convinced that he died with those wounds. (See John 20.) They were to be a method of identification, to be dispensed with when he explained the true circumstances.

He ate to prove he was still alive, for example (John 21, Luke 24, etc.), but they took this simply to mean that the spirit could partake of food. They wanted to believe that he had been crucified and arisen.

(A note: Beneath a larger agreement, there are many differences in the details of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. For instance, in John 19 it is said that Christ carried his own cross; in Luke 23, Simon from Cyrene is named as carrying Christ’s cross for him. Many complicated questions and reasons have been advanced in dealing with various aspects of the Gospels: their possible foundation in oral tradition and older common literary or documentary sources; whether any of them embodies an eyewitness account of the life of Christ [it has been very recently claimed that Mark’s was written only a few years after Christ’s death, for example], whether the Gospels should simply be regarded as expressing a single tradition, the fact and atmosphere of Christ, regardless of anything else, etc.

(With a good deal of anticipation and not a little nervousness — Jane now began to read Seth’s book from page one. She was amazed.)