“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Give us a moment.... My work is in a way more direct than Ruburt’s. It appeals to many levels of the psyche at once. It can be interpreted at many depths. From the comic book reader to the scholar, each will find a point of contact within my work. The comic book reader will interpret it in his own way, and perhaps I will emerge as a supersoul instead of a superman (with humor).

You have to be fairly intellectual to read Ruburt’s books. You think my books require much effort, and people often say so—yet you get letters from people who are nearly illiterate. This is nothing against Ruburt’s books, for they are excellent—but people become frightened sometimes because they do not want to compare themselves to Ruburt. They want to think that I spring automatically into your lives, as Superman. They did not question Superman. Only a simple change of clothing was required for our hero, Mr. Kent. They want to endow me with an authority that will make up for the authority they are trying to be free of. They do not want Ruburt’s inquiring mind to intrude.

(With much humor and irony:) What comic book reader wants to bother with a Clark Kent who, before his transformation, distracts the reader with such beside-the-point questions as “What am I doing? How do I, a mere mortal, suddenly turn into Superman? Is this mission necessary? At what point am I me? When does the transformation occur? What are my motives? What is the nature of the reality that lets this miracle occur?”

Or worse—what comic book reader wants Clark Kent to shout out from the phone booth, or wherever “You can do this too, or your version, because we all have a reality in which we are Clark Kent and Superman at one and the same time?” Such people simply want Superman to perform his miracles.

They want to keep Clark Kent and Superman entirely separate on a mental, psychical, and physical basis, and only in the terms of our analogy, and in line with our discussion, I become a supersoul rather than superman. They do not want my authority questioned. For one thing, they are tired of questioning. They think that if they had their own supersoul they would have far better sense than Ruburt, and they would use me as if I were a magic genie. They are afraid Ruburt might go too far, and question me out of existence, for they do not understand that Ruburt’s questions, and your own, your sense of integrity, are partially responsible for a “superman” rather than a supermouse.