“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

They were drawn to each other because of those previous ties, and yet in that past life this daughter was extremely cruel, particularly in speech, to Throckmorton. Sensing of course the bitterness that he felt because she was not a boy—incidentally this is a strong subconscious motive—this caused her to bear him three sons to help allay his bitterness. She gave him these three sons as a gift or sacrifice; and when it seemed he would not accept them as such she turned against him, made too much of the sons to pay him back. The relative who is now your mother’s niece contributed to some degree to the unrest in the previous family as it existed in England. The young relative was very jealous of the older daughter for her position in the family, and for the dowry which was hers.

These questions are worked out by entities between lives, and each entity has many problems to consider. In your technological age such problems are easier to solve than in the past. That is, contemporaries even from different continents can meet in a simpler fashion. The basic problems are necessarily kept from the personality by the entity simply because so many psychological undercurrents would sweep the ego off its feet, and pull the rug of sanity from beneath it.

In some instances this happens despite the personality’s attempt to hide the weight of the past. Also on many occasions the personality escapes the problems entirely. What happens here is that the subconscious communicates with the entity through the inner senses, to the effect that the present personality is not strong enough to handle the problem.

The personality then changes course in midstream. Some, but not all, cases of insanity represent the personality’s inability to handle a particular problem, while at the same time it refuses to obey the orders from the inner senses to change course. On such occasions data from past lives rushes up or through the inner senses. The personality is no longer capable of shielding itself from this material when it goes beyond a certain point. That is, the personality is now working against itself.

Some controls are still present. These struggle desperately to distort the past data, clothing it in all sorts of idea camouflages and fantasy. In this case insanity is actually a protective mechanism, in that the personality will face almost complete disorientation rather than confront truths in its past that bring up problems it cannot solve. At the same time such a personality will not let go, either, and will not change course. The dilemma is therefore a dire crisis.

After this point was passed, and all inner warnings went unheeded, then to one or another, little by little, or perhaps in flashes, clear pictures from the past would rush to the personality who was no longer strong enough to hold them back. Almost instantly the present ego of the personality concerned would set up countermeasures against what it would consider an invasion. The past’s inner data would be turned into delusions, fantasies and so forth.

(Break at 10:20. Jane said that at times she is still afraid she’ll give contradictory information involving past sessions—wrong dates, etc. “Besides, I can’t keep all those names and places and so forth straight. I don’t want to get all mixed up; so I hardly ever read the material between sessions.”

The entity in this case would be compared to the mind. The brain would be more or less what it is, that is, the brain of the present personality existing on a camouflaged plane. As the brain gives orders and communicates messages to the various parts of the physical body, so would the mind or entity do in like manner. The mind would contain all data having to do with past existences and intertwining purposes, problems and relationships, but it would only give such data to the brain as was necessary for its present existence.

Your eager, bungling friend was an acquaintance in your immediately past lives, making late contact with you now. He was a sort of educated medicine man in those days, peddling many potions supposed to arouse erotic passions in weak and fainting Victorian ladies. He had seven children, a wife of almost obscene girth, and a child called Stephen who was a pharmacist or doctor. His name was Cronton the Third.

He merely moved in the circle, the outer circle, of your acquaintance at that time. There is no reason in particular why you met him this time, except for this sense of familiarity. It does not follow, in other words, that everyone with which you are concerned involved themselves with you in past lives. You always meet completely new and different personalities in various existences as well as old ones. Many times in fact you solve problems that arose with certain personalities by helping other personalities in other lives.