“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(2. From a discussion Jane and I had the other day: Why do Seth’s books sell so much better than her own? I’ve always been upset by this, and several recent visitors have admitted reading only the Seth books. The question has been exaggerated lately by Prentice-Hall’s decision to let Dialogues go out of print —John Nelson’s office wrote Jane last week, offering to sell us as many copies as we wanted at 85 cents a copy. Tam also told Jane last Friday that some other publishers of poetry have turned down Dialogues for paperback editions. This situation also makes me think that if I wrote Through My Eyes, people wouldn’t pay much attention to that either, on a large-enough scale to make it worth doing. This is spite of an occasional request I get from a fan about that book.

(10:15.) They do not trust themselves. They do not have the stamina, or the resoluteness, however, yet, to face a reality in which they are the creators of their circumstances. They no longer trust religion or science in organizational terms. If they read Ruburt’s books, they must accept the fact that Ruburt, as a woman, without the world’s credentials, will dare to follow the dictates of the inner self, and this makes the entire affair more frightening to them, to a degree.

The two of you are after all people, they think, and since they distrust themselves they cannot really understand how the two of you trust yourselves as much as you do. They use my position as a substitute for the authority they are trying to give up. They think “If I had a Seth (loudly), I too would progress,” and so forth.

They are afraid of vulnerability. They are between the comic book world and your own. They yearn for an authority they can trust. Ruburt’s books show that it is not all that easy, in their terms. They want to believe that he depends upon me to make all his decisions, and they do not want to hear about his independent thinking. They are between dependence and independence, at the level of which I am speaking.

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.

(10:42.) Because of my source. I can appeal to many levels at once. To some extent also, people do not want to be told by one of their own kind of their failures, even if these are only implied. They would much prefer to think of him (Ruburt) as a sweet, passive, and spiritual channel—the figurative phone booth. Some people purposely will not read his works. They do not want his comments, where yours are acceptable.

Give us a moment.... To an important extent, you disdain the opinions of your age, of your times. At the same time, to some extent, you act as if you court them. You purposefully go against the conventions and beliefs of your times. You even stay out of the various “underground movements” that have some following, and would embrace you. With all due regards (amused), I speak to your fellow men and women in a certain democracy of spirit. I do not restrict my words or my works to those who in any way or terms may be considered stupid, or dumb, or greedy, or incompetent or silly. My books carry no such prejudice—or they are addressed to those portions of the personality that exist inviolate.

Often you are reacting to implied threats—either those you imagine in the future or remember from the past, so that you do not take the necessary comfort in the sense data of any given moment. You do not let your organism suitably relax enough in the moments of safety that the body requires. The imagined threats then cut down your feelings of security, adding anxieties for which the sense perceptions can directly find no reason.

You imagine what might happen to future books. You do not suitably live in the present. This does not mean you need wear blinders—but when you are not suitably reacting to the validity of the present and immediate sense data, then to some extent you are putting on blinders of a different kind.

(Amused:) I do not want to alarm you. But your individual and joint condemnations of your fellows hides a deep love for them, and it would help considerably if you understood this. Do not be blind to the good intents of your fellows. You judge them often by the difference between their intent and their performance. Do not make the mistake of becoming self-righteous.

Practically speaking now, all of my suggestions should be followed, given in the last sessions, and they should be read again by each of you. The loving encouragement, again, is highly important, for here you must change habits, both of you, of conditioning. I do not think you believe me yet, but I must repeat: (After a long pause:) I am searching for a new way to explain this....

Any improvements Ruburt shows are considered insignificant, unimportant—or worse, deceptive. They are not trusted. They become lost. It is not that they are considered unimportant so much as they are considered to be not trustworthy. You are so afraid to trust them, either of you. Not only are they not taken advantage of then, but when they do not continue this is taken as proof that they are deceptive.

(11:25.) Give us a moment.... The improvements, then, rouse anxiety. Ruburt is afraid of disappointing himself and you as well if they do not continue. One or the other of you reinforce the idea of threat, the extraordinary energy is available. (This from Jane’s reading of William James lately.) You have been afraid of really structuring the improvements, of really making an important effort, for fear that effort will fail.

(1. How would Jane’s books do in the marketplace if Seth’s books didn’t exist?

(2. How will “Unknown” Reality do? Seth’s material this evening was making me wonder if my notes were going to be detrimental in that work. But I was also simply curious about whether “Unknown” Reality was going to do as well as the other Seth books.

Obviously your relationships with your bodies are highly vital, intimate. Those relationships also represent, however, the most natural aspects, in certain regards, in which the self must rely upon that source that initially gave it life. The division of beliefs is therefore corporally written. It is of utmost importance that you do not consider Ruburt’s physical condition in terms of “absolute ideals.”

The foot and finger reflexology in particular stimulated all the areas of the head, activating various nerve passageways. Muscles in the head and neck area that had been held fairly rigid had to respond. The tissues of the feet have become a good deal more flexible, softer, resulting in a kind of massage that opened up nerve impulses that do affect the knees, eyes, and ears.

The trouble with the left eye has to do with changes in the left leg and knee. The towels will help. The entire ear-sinus area is changing. Congested passageways are opening. The eyes felt the change of pressure and congestion. This caused, the initial eye difficulties, and unequal working of the eye muscles. Short periods of deep breathing will help, but mostly it is the confidence in his own body that is important. Otherwise you have the anxiety of believing that any symptoms have the worst possible connotations, and that the body does not know what it is doing.

Without my books, Ruburt’s books would not be the same. He would not have written them. It is impossible to say what he would have written. His books would not have shown the ability that they do now, however. “Unknown” will do well. Most likely it will be put out as one volume sometime in the future. It will be considered a textbook, however, and somewhat of a collector’s item.

I expect you to write your own book, and I believe you are too tenacious not to. You will think “I will say my piece and it will serve them right.” But you have been practicing to write it for some time now. Do you have other questions?