“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Friday evening Jane and I were visited by a psychologist [Ed Ostrander] from Cornell, after an exchange of letters over a period of several months. I’m afraid that the encounter was typical of others we’ve had with the members of academia, and once again we were rather taken by surprise. It wasn’t until the next day that we realized the visit had upset us more than we knew, because of the various connotations aroused. Although we liked him personally, we came to understand that he used words as a barrier to any real communication, asked Jane few questions. At the same time he thought himself liberal-minded, he repeatedly couched Seth’s ideas in the terms used by the respected, well-known members of his profession. He told us often that while he liked a good idea “no matter where it came from,” he wouldn’t use Seth’s name in conversations with others, but would try to work in Seth’s ideas under the guise of others’ works. Jane and I were slow: we didn’t realize that such thinking should have been challenged by us on the spot. Instead, we passively let it go by.

(In sum, we probably got exactly what we expected out of the deal, although it was certainly valuable as a reminder of how the psychic field and its members are regarded by the “straight” scientific community. Ed called himself a “closet” devotee of psychic matters. But Jane and I have seen the pattern demonstrated again and again: the visitor walks in the door, starts talking, usually about himself or herself, and seldom stops until leaving x-number of hours later. Although we now see that we should have said more—interrupted more—such behavior doesn’t appear to be too easy for us, whether because of beliefs or what. But we don’t really feel like confronting guests. At the same time, we end up wishing we’d done exactly that, so we feel caught in some ways that we don’t think others have to bother with, or understand in life.

(Ideas of authority as represented by Ed were obviously involved. Jane actually reacted better to some of the things he said than I did, to her credit, but I’m sure we can do much better. Half the problem is that we don’t see the people often enough to begin with. Even after all this time, then, we can still be caught unprepared.

Academic people do like structures, and to some extent mass learning experiences of course require them. At certain times universities are avant-garde, and in other periods of history they are instead highly conservative. Contacts with so-called authorities are good for both of you, so that you can see that such authorities are simply people. You expect more of them than you do others, because you are still blinded by the ideas of authority.

The Atlanteans, so-called for example, are supposed to be coming back now. All concepts and ideas in the first place, referring to a continuous forward progression of time distort all reincarnational experiences as a rule. It is almost impossible to describe some of what I know. Simple facts to me sometimes appear quite clearly in the material I give you—but then I perceive that the particular information escapes you completely. I can say that I traveled in Rome at about the time of Christ. To me there is no contradiction between that statement and the statement that the reality of that Rome is even now being affected by present, current concepts and beliefs. The past changes, even as in your terms, say, a river does—only the changes go out in all directions. Atlantis is as real as tomorrow is—and that is a loaded statement.

In certain terms then, and following a given line of probabilities, in future lives you know the outcome of your work now, and you can also ask for advice from your future selves, who are very actively interested, since their reality is so involved with your own. If it were not for such facts, then again in certain terms these present sessions would not be held. Whenever you come into difficulties, it is because you are still relying upon Framework 1’s authority, in which normal cause and effect operates, in which problems are solved by exaggerating them, and in which magical changes or alterations are considered out of context to normal living. “Magical” changes happen all the time. Your very existence is proof of that, for it is a mystery to Framework 1’s understanding. Framework 1 looks to time, and particularly the past, as authority.