“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The information on the Denmark life in Chapter Eleven is correct, except for a misinterpretation. That was one life divided into two separate periods — literally a life divided in terms of interests, concentration of abilities, and life styles.

Aside from the information given in that chapter, there have been distortions in some past material concerning that life. These were not caused by Ruburt’s feeling about reincarnation. They were simply a result of correlating many details into the correct specific pattern.

Here the division was set between the idea of owning property, as opposed to being an artist. In this life that has caused you considerable unease.

(10:13. This is very true. And for whatever reasons, in this life I have insisted upon being an artist in spite of all obstacles.

(In the 223rd session for January 16, 1966, Seth said that my name in the Denmark life was Larns Devonsdorf. My wife then was named Letti Cluse. My son — who is now Jane — was Graton. Seth, a prosperous merchant, traveler, and family friend, was named Brons Martzens.)

(Long pause at 10:15.) The details that so concern you now are, of course, important, and yet in a larger way it is the deep emotional experience of your life that is “later” remembered. Basically the names and dates are meaningless to the inner self. Therefore in reincarnational data the emotional values will come through more vividly, and with much less distortion.

You place upon names and dates an importance you presently find of critical import. You insist upon them to add to the validity of past life narratives, yet these are precisely those things that are forgotten first, and that have least value psychologically.

(10:20.) Certain names will, therefore, spring into immediacy. You insist that the names be neatly placed, and yet often the inner self has great difficulty in this regard, for names simply do not matter. Persons and events of meaning, carrying strong emotional charges, will come through far clearer. Dates that are associated with emotional events will also be recalled. The past life is (smile) like a crossword puzzle that must be put together, but at its center is the emotional reality from which the puzzle springs.

Now if the life in question is a recent one, in your terms, the details may be more readily recalled and far more precise. Even a life centuries ago may be perfect in detail however if it included, for example, battles or events of great import, where the dates themselves were impressed upon the personalities because of the occurrences at those times.

It will do no good to ask deep questions concerning the history of the times of some personality who was impoverished, ignorant, and limited. He simply would not know the answers. The picture of any given life, therefore, usually comes through the experience of the personality who lived it.

(Pause at 10:35.) Again, those details will emerge that were important to him. In my particular case, I am so unfocused on my own reincarnational selves, and they have gone so far on their own, that I have little feeling of immediacy. Since we [Seth, Jane, and I] have been so involved however, those relationships remain important, and in your terms our present relationship was latent then. The Denmark life exists as much as this one does for you. “You” are simply focused within this picture of reality.

The reality, the validity, the immediacy of those lives do exist simultaneously with your present life. The distance between one life and another exists psychologically, and not in terms of years or centuries. The psychological distance, however, can be far more vast. There are certain lives, as there are certain events in this life, that you may not want to face or deal with. There may be great temperamental differences in some cases, between your personality in one given life and another — so that your present self simply could not relate to the other’s experience.

(11:01.) Those selves are not dead, in other words. Your understanding of this must be limited because you automatically think in terms of one life experience at a time, and in linear patterns of development. In your terms, a reincarnational self can be aware of your environment, and interact sometimes through your own relationships.

(11:07.) Strong emotional associations can often trigger such responses. (Pause.) Reincarnation, as it is usually explained, in terms of one life before another, is a myth; but a myth enabling many to partially understand facts that they would otherwise dismiss — insisting as they do upon the concept of a continuity of time.