“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now. To you ... (Long pause, eyes closed.) Your paintings are your own, and I am no artist. If I read your inner intent correctly however, your prophet will dominate the background, and seem almost to come out of it. At the same time the background itself will be alive, so it is difficult to tell whether the living background propels him outward, or whether he himself, from his own power, seems to rise out apart from the background. Or whether he has been thrust outward from the background of which he is part, a living focus rising out of the background, a part of consciousness rising out of a larger, undifferentiated consciousness implied in the background.

(The idea had come to me intuitively while I was at work at Artistic. I made the pen-and-ink drawing then. I hadn’t tried to consciously decide what the prophet might be saying as he looked upward. The only conscious decision I had made was that I would let such designs remain in the subconscious if they did not spontaneously present themselves.)

(At this moment I then consciously knew what my prophet was saying in the painting; the words came clearly to mind: “My God, my God, what am I?” I was tempted to speak them aloud next chance I had, but did not. I hadn’t tried to conjure up these words; the emotional climate set up in the session by Seth had made their release from the subconscious effortless.

Do his words go back into the background from which he himself emerged, and does the answer emerge also? Or is there any clear answer to his question? (Smile; pause, eyes closed.) Or is the question itself the important thing, whether or not there is any answer to it in the terms in which it is asked? All of these issues are a part of your painting, implied in every line of its conception, but I want you to see consciously the implications of the figure, and the overall implications of the figure in context with the background.

For now the figure rises from the background and dominates it, is thrust forward and you catch it; but may it not also once more return to that background in the instant that you turn away, and emerge anew. The question itself is significant, and indeed universal. (Smile.) And look even further: what is the nature of one who can ask such a question?