“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

By going to extremes fanatics point out to others the virtue of more moderate ways, and their actions actually make others with the same kind of persuasion evaluate their own beliefs. I realize the impracticality of asking anyone in physical life to bear no human rancor. It is futile. On the other hand, when you look at your fellows, try to see them as they are in all respects—as you would, say, a group of individual animals. Do not always compare them against any ideals—ideals superimposed by you, or anyone, upon others.

As each species of flower has its place in the natural world, so, in terms of this analogy at least, the fool and the scholar, the fanatic, the timid, the weary and the exuberant, the greedy—all of these also have their place.

(Since I liked him—Michael— as we talked, I sat on the front steps for a few minutes with him. Our neighbor Marian came by, looking for her dog; she stopped to talk to us. By then over half an hour had passed. I gave up on the session. Jane laughed inside the house. We invited our guest in for a beer. He was from Port Arthur, Texas. He was quite intelligent, a musician who had written an “opera,” he told us. Like a number of our other recent callers, he was traveling around the country, seemingly free of all ties, doing odd jobs on occasion, but living on little money. In a way I envied them. Michael had no place to stay, regardless of the weather.

(He stayed until about 12:20 AM, then left, bound for where?.... Jane said the next day that we should have offered him shelter, but I didn’t feel any compulsion to do so. I did think that practically all of our unannounced visitors were young people because the Seth material attracted them much more easily than older generations. I thought it a good sign, actually, since these young people would one day be playing roles in society; at least, I thought, they’d have been exposed to what we thought were good ideas in their formative years.

Though the fanatic may make much noise in the world, he is actually isolated from all of the world’s ideas except his own. Anything else is seen as a threat. He does not allow the development of his concepts or beliefs, for example. They stop at one particular point—and at that point he wages his battle against reality.

I suggest that first of all you ask yourselves what you really want, and what you really believe. (Amused:) I will tell you what you want, my dear friend: you want the books to sell very well, and the message to go out clearly to all. As long as you are not bothered, as long as you do not have to mix with fools—the same fools who compose the various psychological, scientific, or medical societies—the same fools whom you sometimes say do not bother contacting you as long as the Enquirer, that rag, does not annoy you for interviews, and as long as people are not personally affected enough to bother you in any immediate fashion.

(All of the above was delivered in a very emphatic manner.)

I am in my way rather pragmatic about the world. I do not expect all people to be wise. I do expect all people to be different, to display abilities and characteristics of a highly diverse nature, and to be highly creative. They try to be creative.

Over the years he developed patterns of behavior to deal with threatful situations. In a large manner, and beneath all, the situations themselves could vary, and are not the main issue.

(But louder:)We will not have a minute Seth session by phone, for example. You are connected through spiritual, biological, natural webworks with all of your fellows through the reality of the natural world, regardless of cultural, political, or religious frameworks.

(To me:) For all of your complaints, if you will forgive me, you have exactly what you want from Prentice. They are distant from you. You do not want them breathing down your neck. You might find yourselves amazingly uncomfortable, despite what you think your reaction would be, if Prentice suddenly began initiating publicity campaigns, ad campaigns.