“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The general public, however, has been obviously largely ignorant of the books. Publishing them in paperback presents a different picture. Again, they do not fit into the overall occult picture as even the general public understands it. There is no position, no God from the mountain top, and no dumb or docile medium to be taken advantage of by the spirits or otherwise. The work is not simplistic.

It will take longer then for the general public than it did, for example, with The Seth Material hardcover, for several reasons.

As you mentioned, you are outside, not fitting into any acceptable mold. The general public, moreover, in those terms does not know how to respond. Many, picking up those paperbacks, do so on impulse, and are unfamiliar with any such books. They cannot laugh the matter off. The books require personal questioning. Some people are frightened. They are also intrigued. But many put off spending more money, say, for a hardcover book, because this would involve a commitment involving the ideas themselves.

The books are immediate in a way, for example, that the Castaneda books are not. Castaneda speaks of what is really exotic behavior from your cultural viewpoint. We are saying that changes can be made from within the culture. You do not have to be an Indian guru, or appear and disappear at will, so the books invite instant challenge. People do not feel silly buying such a paperback, but many of these people, in the general public now, have to make certain mental adjustments before they will spend more. Spending more means that they consider the ideas to be worthwhile.

Moreover, from this other general (paperback) market, you will consistently pick up a newer group of readers. To some extent you have been “hitting the underground movements.” Well and good, and important. You are competing now, as you were not before, however, in that general market with all of the conventional cultural goodies. As mentioned, you are not packaging our material either in such a way that it builds upon the cliches of the occult field believed in as the public sees it.

The paperback Personal Reality will be highly important in the ultimate changes that do take place. You are in an in-between period. If you went out in a grand manner, publicizing the books, appearing on shows, you could indeed quicken the pace—but in so doing other intangibles would also be altered. There is a great difference between keeping the people always in mind, and playing to the crowd for whatever reasons, but there would be a tendency for purposes to be altered.