“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The name simply seemed to stand for all of man’s agonizing reach for greatness, and yet for the anguish that always seemed to separate himself. But in any case I felt like a divided Israel, crying out for the people to come together in peace. And what it meant was that Israel itself was a simile for the individual —that is, one person—who was (long pause) composed of so many fantasies and dreams and prophecies and hopes and angers and fears.

So for a minute I even called myself Israel, I guess, but there’s more connections here that I haven’t got. I feel that my sleep with the pillow, and my later reactions of soreness, mean that I’ve touched upon, again, those areas I’d forsaken for some time, and shoved away or whatever, and that the release of tension itself was bound to be somewhat explosive, I suppose.

I guess I feel that Israel.... (long pause).... that the tale of Israel, with all of its wars and so forth, and its historical and biblical past, represents some ancient brilliant knowledge that man once had, of the self being so diverse as to behave as a nation of a million individuals, each looking for their homeland.

(Long pause at 12:25.) But through the years the story itself lost its meaning for people. But the term Israel still stands for one individual, along with its multitudinous parts, and all of the colorful, feared, anguished or enticing heroes of the bible represent elements of each person’s soul, personified, set momentarily alive in myth.

(“I guess that’s all,” Jane said. “Odd thoughts for me, though, about ‘Israel.” She hasn’t read last night’s session yet, but said now, “Well, I suppose you can see why I came up with this material after last night’s session,” although she hadn’t mentioned Israel.

(Israel is constantly in the news, of course, and we see the television reports while eating supper or later in the evening. It always seems to be bad news, full of strife and agony and grim determination to survive. In addition, a NYC station is running a serialized story called Golda, with Ingrid Bergman. Jane has seen some of this, and could have identified with the Golda Meir character as representing the soul of Israel, and well as its individuals and its multitude. There was also much publicity until a couple of days ago, about Israel returning to Egypt the last portions it held of the Sinai peninsula, and how Israel destroyed the settlement of Yamit rather than hand it over intact to the Egyptians—a haggle over a price, I believe.

(Jane could also have equated the Israel nation with the large belief systems—involving hospitals and/or the law that she discussed in last night’s session.