“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.

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.

(Van Zandt, who earlier had said he doesn’t use Florida citrus juices, was relating Seth’s comments about Anita Bryant to Jane.

(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.

(Seth:) Since there are no physical universities, and since I threw out those statements with my own purposes in mind, then it follows that those who are interested must find their own way; and that their imagination and will must drive them to find their own methods. But then people who spook out the universe usually find secret and hidden corners where they can play and work to their heart’s content.

Nothing is wasted. Nothing is wasted. Creativity least of all. So your thoughts are not wasted, your dreams are not wasted, and neither are the thoughts and dreams of others who have psychological realities perhaps completely different than your own. Nature is luxurious. It uses everything with a grand and riotous display.

(Seth:) It may be dumb. I do not know if it is a waste. For the consciousness will come to life if it wants to. And if the consciousness picks a mother who wants to abort, then the consciousness is only here for a short trip. A look around. It is like the seed from an apple tree who travels into the next yard but does not mature. It looks around and tries again. Any consciousness that wants to be born is born. And it picks a mother that wants to carry a child all the 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.