“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane held no session last Monday night because she was so relaxed and out of it, as she has been so often lately, what with the numerous changes still taking place in her body. Indeed, she felt the same way tonight, but decided to try for a session when I suggested she ask for something about herself. “But I can’t stand anything that’s all charged up about me,” she said several times.

(All of this began when at break this morning I asked Jane is she knew her true feelings about the Mass Events affair. We had a long discussion—which helped, finally, clarify many things for us. I started it because of a couple of questions I had about our relationship with Prentice-Hall. Both of us are in conflict between getting the Seth books out, not caring about any disclaimer, and on the other hand saying no to the disclaimer and letting the chips fall where they may, to coin a phrase. Of course, we don’t want to get sued, as the legal department fears we might. I personally resent a great deal the poor connotations that now have attached themselves to Mass Events; if the material has any validity, this has happened, and would be picked up by readers, even if counterbalanced by other good feelings. The fact that such ideas do not occur to entities like the legal—or even the editorial—departments at Prentice-Hall shows, I think, the great gap that exists between our own views of life and theirs. It’s wider than I thought.

(I suppose we don’t know what our response to the legal department missive will be. My best guess at the moment is that the disclaimer matters not at all, but the idea of it doesn’t bode well for the future, I’m afraid, and there may be the real rub. Jane has God of Jane and her book of poetry well in the works now, and both involve Mass Events, or material in it. We want those books published. A cutoff point is reached after these three books have been taken care of; then we would be free to try something else if we choose to.

(Coupled with all of these things is the three-part article we’re reading in The New Yorker on the travails of publishing these days; the large sums involved, books being treated as “products,” etc. According to that information, we’re so far out of it in any meaningful way that we’re left feeling quite inadequate. On the other hand, we haven’t forgotten Seth’s recent material about our being protected—and I for one really think that’s true. It does take an effort to keep it in mind at times, though. It’s also made it quite difficult for me to whip up any enthusiasm about getting back to work on the notes for Seth’s Dreams. I’d just gotten nicely into that project when the disclaimer business started over Mass Events—it seems like months ago; actually, this may be the third month following the interruption, an incredible gap in creativity, for which I blame Prentice, no doubt about it.

(On top of all of this, we received from Prentice-Hall on Monday the revised movie contracts for Oversoul Seven, and now must see Bill Danaher again about new notarization, etc.

(Pause.) The body is composed of organs, physical parts, living matter—but the body is also composed of processes, relationships that exist on all levels between various portions of the body and between the body and its environment.

All processes in nature are intelligent. They may involve a different kind of consciousness and intelligence than your own. But there are no unintelligent processes. (Pause.) There are no closed processes. There is no process that is not in one way or another related to others. In a fashion, any one natural process carries within it the implied existence of all others. The body is in that regard a highly energized gestalt of intelligent processes.

(Long pause.) It is as if bits and pieces of any and all probable events exist in a jigsaw-like fashion throughout the minds of men, throughout the consciousnesses of plants and all natural things, wanting to be put together—and each individual consciousness has its part to play in directing which of those events occur or do not occur—but the processes involved in the formation of those events are hidden from the conscious mind.

In that light, there is no reason to be overawed by the body’s knowledge, either. It is a portion of your natural heritage. If you begin to concentrate upon the importance of the nature of thought, to become overly concerned with the processes involved with thinking or reasoning, then your very conscious concern would make those processes seem all the more complicated, while instead it is easy to see that those processes are quite naturally equipped to handle their own tasks with remarkable ease. Ruburt’s body is also so equipped to perform its healing functions.