“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There were “modern,” or highly sophisticated civilizations, utilizing some technology, long before the dates given for the invention of writing (about 3100 BC). Writing was invented and reinvented the art lost, then reemerging.

There were languages then long before your earliest evidence of them, and in written form. Your civilization is organized around science and technology, and generally speaking, now, the arts and other schools of knowledge have been largely subsidiary. Long before the time of the Egyptians, now, there were sophisticated societies, utilizing some technologies and advanced in the arts of writing. But these civilizations were not organized around technology, so that the technological advances, while highly sophisticated, were not pursued with the same diligence as in your time, and they were considered novelties—playthings for the wealthy, advanced toys, but not considered in a serious light.

There were electric batteries (as we’ve read lately; see my files). There were airplanes (files). There was not a technological organization however as you know it, so that the technological achievements were considered somewhat in a fashion that your society now considers fine art—esthetic, to be collected by the wealthy, delightful, good for collectors but not particularly practical. The aura of the mind of man simply had a different cast.

Reading was generally accepted. Books were numerous, but reading was done in the daytime. Technology was considered a plaything. Airplanes were not generally used. They were novelties. People identified so with the earth, they could see no reason for fast travel. There were automobiles, again considered as fanciful, technological art.

The poles at one time were reversed. The earth has formed and reformed and reformed. The inner psychic organizations always determine the kind of challenges and civilizations that emerge. There have been civilizations devoted mainly to art, in which all other endeavors were considered subsidiary, and the quality of workmanship was everything, no matter what the product. Mass production was inconceivable, because the originality of each piece of art, or furniture, or bowl, held its value in that manner, and the idea of producing a copy of anything would have been considered ludicrous, or considered an act without reason.

There is a connection on your part between your own interest in the Jewish past, and your art, and the gentleman (Raphael Soyer) who is an artist and a twin, to whom you sent Cézanne.