“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Seth:) Now. The sun shines, the writer writes, the artist paints, the thinker thinks, the dreamer dreams, and each of you, whether you know it or not, naturally follow your own natures. You bloom whether or not you recognize the pattern of your petals. You sing. You are like a trans-species, as Ruburt would say. Something happens when you meet the world, something happens when you meet each other, something happens when you have a child, when you think, when you look at each other. Something happens the moment you are born and the world is different. Because you are, the world is different. It is a world of individuals, and distorting an old historic statement: God must love individuals because he never made anything else. You are not born as members of a nation tied tail to tail. You each are aware of the difference of your thoughts. And when your thoughts meet the world, you change the world. Now, you are also changed by the world since you are not made of concrete. But if I have taught you anything, I hope I have given you the grace to know yourselves to some extent, to recognize that you are indeed, in your way, world changers. For as you change yourselves, as you grow you change the world. The world changes because you are. Now if you listen without listening too hard, in any intimate moment you can hear your molecules shout, if you will forgive me, with their own optimism. Each molecule is its own world. Each molecule is its own world. Your thoughts form worlds. I say what I say and I say more than you hear and yet you hear me silently. When I speak of responsibility, I speak of the cat’s responsibility to lift its tail or twirl its ear. No cat says “I must hold my backside in such and such a fashion or I must play with catnip.” And yet a cat is a cat, a perfect cat, whether it is flawed or has a broken foot, or whether it can hear or not hear, or whether it is ancient or young. A cat is a perfect cat. Now you can understand that. But in the same way you have a responsibility to be yourselves as a cat has to be itself. To express the joyful creature nature that is your own. And through that expression your spirituality will flower. For it will not flower if you pretend that the spirit is elsewhere and you are here. So those of you who speak on my behalf, let there be times of boisterous activity. Let there be play. Let there even be time for discord if that is what is needed, but never, and I know you would not, never impose an artificial ceiling of peace. For peace is active (to Sheri, Rick and Van Zandt.) And so if there is any message that I have for your students, as usual it is not a quiet one. When you feel your own vitalities fully then that will be understood by your students. And when each person feels and releases their own creativity, (to Sue) there will be no need for books about Seth classes, but now there is such a need.

So you have all begun something, have you? And when was it begun? Now in my books and when I speak to you, I use simple words usually. And the people sometimes write asking why I do not give proper methods, that is, more and more instructions as to how to do this and that. So when I say to you let your classes thrill with quality, it is up to you to discover what quality means to you. And when I say to each of you, classes or no, that your lives be lives of quality, of beauty and of truth, I am not about to define beauty or truth for you. That is your challenge. So you will listen to my words and read them through your interpretations. And those interpretations are highly important. (To Rob:) Now if there is anything in the universe called good intent, then you have it here.

(Seth:)Now, subject: Anita Bryant. Subject: Jonestown. Subject: Communication of the official consciousness and what it has wrought.

If it were not for television, you would not know much about Anita Bryant, you would not know much about the Reverend Jones, who believed he was God and led (in quotes, out of quotes), “his followers into folly”. If it were not for television and technology and the official line of consciousness, you would not know of the fanaticism of Anita Bryant and our Miss America, American apple pie, good religion and all the rest. Now Anita Bryant serves a purpose for all of her distortions, for she presents each person with an exaggerated picture of certain beliefs. She makes each person question the nature of their own beliefs concerning sexuality. And sexuality is not only a personal question. It is not only a question of when to do it, with whom and when and how. Sexuality in your time means what is American. Is it American to be a football hero and a gung-ho male? Is it American to be a homosexual and love poetry or dancing or music or children? Is it a cliché to think that all homosexuals are sensitive and love music, and children? Are there no violent homosexuals and no bastards? Are all stereotyped masculine men that way because they want to be that way, are they forced to hide certain feelings? What are women? How do men consider them? Now Anita Bryant with orange blossoms presents you with all of those questions. And each person who views her on television must look into their own beliefs. And the same applies to our Reverend Jones, and to any fanatic, for the fanatic speaks in exaggerated terms, but he or she speaks beliefs that to some extent each of you hold, but to what degree? And so they are teachers in their way. You may hate them or deride them. And you may say they are fanatics, which they are. But they frighten you, because you know that in your hearts some of their beliefs exist in weaker terms, and where do you draw the line? So even the fanatic serves good purposes. And I will tell you that no one and no fanatic leads masses of people. People follow because they want to and no one leads them. And if you think you are a leader you misunderstand the people, for they are taking you where they want you to go. Only you are taking the responsibility and not them. You form your own reality. All of this, you see, is much trickier than appears at the hundredth or second hundredth or thousandth glance.

(Seth:) Now I wouldn’t drink her goddamned orange juice either!!!!

(Seth:) Now I love you and all of you, and I know that you love me. And I hope that that love is somehow distantly able, distantly, distantly to contain some, some, some, some kindly feeling for people like Anita Bryant. And say for roses who are blighted. Remember, and I do not expect any of you practically in daily life, to hold this as a rule. But remember. It is because you expect so much from people that Anita Bryant and fanatics fall so short. And that is why you are so angry at them. Your love for humanity holds. And you become angry when people do not live up to your expectations of their capabilities. You want them to be better, as you want yourself to be “better” (in quotes). You do not hate anyone that you are not capable of loving. Remember that. I do not expect any of you to be saints. For if you were saints you would not be here. And if I were a saint I would not be here either. But in the vast range of your emotions, leave room for loves that are very distant, so distant and so alien that you do not recognize them. And hold room for the feelings of loss and bitterness and anger that are behind Anita Bryant’s statements. And the feelings of lack of worth that power her statements and feelings. It is as if she were a meadow upon which no rain had fallen. Then certainly would she be bitter and cry.

([Van Zandt:] “I just want to say that while we were discussing quality earlier.... now I want to say that since I began studying the books the quality has definitely increased in my life, and I want to thank you for that.”

(Seth:) Sue is greatness. Dickie is greatness. Joseph is greatness. Ricky is greatness. Roni is greatness. You are all greatness. To know you are greatness is quality. Then your expressions are true expressions of quality, and they are not marred. Whatever they are, they are not marred. You recognize quality. Instinctively; whether or not you can say what it is. It inspires you. You run away from things that are not of quality, whether you can say why they are not or not. Your dreams are quality. Your dreams are quality. No one need tell you how to dream. You dream instinctively, automatically, and beautifully. You commit a beautiful dream each time you dream. And each dream is a dream of quality. Each breath you take is a breath of quality. All you have to do is to realize that each breath you take ultimately reaches to the ends of the universe and helps withhold your world. You are alone and not alone. Now that statement is far more important than it sounds. For in your aloneness, and in your togetherness, and between the two there is the meaning of your humanity. And there is the meaning of your life and your death. You cannot be completely together. You cannot be completely alone. Yet always must your existence flit between the two; between the desire and the ideal; between the dream and its execution; between your love and your expression of it. There dwells your reality and your meaning, and therein lies the validity of your soul.

(Seth:) Now, if you really believed what I said then, then you would bank upon yourselves. You would really trust yourselves. You would really know that you are an intimate part of the fabric of the universe; you would trust your abilities and bet upon yourselves. You would, without repressing anything, experience your own reality without impediments. You have a way to go. But you have support. You have biological support. For your atoms and molecules are not imbeciles. You could learn from them. The pupils of your eyes see far more than you see visually. And when you listen to this session think about that sentence. As Ruburt said earlier, I am not telling you you can have a heaven upon earth. For one thing, there is no such thing as heaven, and for another, if there were you would be bored. You need a challenge. Any flower uses it. And I am not talking about problems and challenges being the same thing. I am speaking of initiative, and desire and accomplishment. The need to use your abilities. They need to be used as a stem needs to grow. That is what I am speaking of. Now all of you this evening tell yourselves you will have a true dream from the Gates of Horn and we do have a City building. A City. Highly impractical, it seems at this time. A City that does indeed exist mentally. But all things must exist mentally first or they will never be materialized. And someday, that City might exist physically. But it will not be when you are here. Yet your memories will be in it and your desires. And to that extent you will be founders. And you forge such dreams in your sleep and in your private imaginings, and in your inspirations. For when one member of a species dreams such dreams, those dreams are transmitted to all other members. They do not die. When a runner at the Olympics does better than the runner before then all the sportscasters say, “How grand! We did not know man could run so fast.” And so now records are being broken all the time. And mentally the same thing applies. Dream a grand dream. For when one member of the species dreams, all members, to some extent, participate. And the psyche, and the soul, and the heart of man takes new leaps, in your terms, not taken before. So trust yourselves, and trust your love and your dreams (to Rick, Sheri, and Van Zandt, looking at Rick), and tell your students I said R-A-Y!!!! which means hooray. HOORAY!!!!

The City simply represents, in your terms, an idealized version of a reality that can be physical. And that hopefully will be. And if it is, it will be created in your terms now, through your dreams, your love, your desire and your intent. And then it will seem to be given to its inhabitants, even as it seems to you the earth is given to you. For when you are born everything is here for you. It is given. But by whom is it given? And how is it that it has come? Can I say to you that your Earth originated in a sphere of dreams? That it is a mental creation of others, to some extent, in which you participate. That is indeed what I am telling you. (In a whisper:) Think about it.

(Seth:) Now.

(Seth:) My accent isn’t difficult to understand. Now all of you have different accents. I have an eternal accent. It is always this way.

(Seth:) Now. Sue, if you speak of life and death and if you speak of men’s dreams and aspirations, then some people in Dundee will understand. Do not think in literary terms. The literary terms can divide you from the people. But what you know intuitionally can only connect you with the people. You will only vocalize feelings that they have but do not understand. Speak simply. Be aware of your own doubts and hesitations for they can relate to those. They are not creatures of habit. They are not opaque to these ideas. They are not as dumb to them as you think. To the ideas. Now I am indeed a strange animal to go into any farmer’s barnyard. And I moo loudly indeed. And yet I am not all that strange to any of them. The strangeness is only at a surface level. Ruburt receives letters from people all over the country. In every walk of life. From farmers and taxi drivers, teachers, people in any profession. So do not think of the people in Dundee as a group of people who do not understand what you are doing. They are all individuals with their own dreams and levels of understanding. Some will read the books and some will not. Some will understand and some will not. People in other Dundees will do the same. You must be true to your own feelings, whatever they are.

(Seth:) One other point however. Ruburt never said “Will the people in Elmira understand what I am saying?” He wrote because he had to write what he wrote. Now if you (Sue) have to write what you have to write, write it. If you do not have to write it, don’t. For that is the way that you must go. You must follow your feelings. And if you write what you feel it must not matter, for your message wilt reach people all over the world. And if you do not write what you feel then the message has no meaning.