“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(She was indeed very relaxed, sitting as she was with her head bowed, leaning forward on the couch. Leonard Yaudes had just left. Today Jane had worked a little on page 6 of her “Manifesto from the Sinful Self”—a long dissertation from that entity that she’d started to get yesterday afternoon. [She’d slept ‘till noon.] The material had begun to flow quite effortlessly because of her concern over what I’d written in my notes for Monday’s session, about her being unable to take care of herself physically any longer. As soon as she’d read that passage on Tuesday, she’d begun to talk about it, to question me, so I knew it had struck a sticky point.

(I hadn’t deliberately planned that those notes would do that, yet in retrospect I was glad they had—especially in the unprecedented response Jane was getting from her Sinful Self. Her paper was very well done, and would make fascinating material in an autobiography, for instance. The Sinful Self’s material is too long and complicated to describe here, except to say that it contains the Sinful Self’s own view of reality and its relationship to Jane’s background and work, it’s regrets, its defensive attitudes, its questions, and its genuine puzzlement that man has for so long —perhaps for most of history, indeed—persisted in the creation of and reliance upon such entities as the Sinful Self.

(Nor was Jane finished with her dissertation. A unique situation. I told her, feeling that only good could come out of such a dialogue between parts of the overall self or personality. It will be very interesting to see the results. I wondered how often such a clear-cut dialogue or exchange was on record as having taken place between such various portions of the self. A search of the psychological literature would be very interesting.

(Jane has also had some very vivid dreams in connection with this material, although she hasn’t written them down and actually cannot recall much about any of them. They’ve involved healing, however, and in one of them she even expected to wake up healed—but found herself moving slowly on the bed as usual. I’ll attach a copy of the Sinful Self’s material to this session if Jane ever types it in duplicate. She’s done practically no typing for days now because her arms have been very sore.

These often involve responses to session material. Ruburt’s message from “The Sinful Self” is a case in point, for it represents a response both to my material and to a question of your own. It gives a clear declaration of the Sinful Self’s attitudes in the past, and its new growing recognition that those attitudes have been unfortunate. The Sinful Self has also raised some questions that are pertinent, and with which we will shortly deal.

The advice of the Sinful Self should also be followed as given in the last paragraphs of that material. The statement that I suggested should also be written, along with those procedures; the plans for the front porch (via Frank Longwell) and for the small (class) group should be further considered, for they also represent motion on other levels.

Then there are quite necessary resting periods in between, in which theoretically (underlined) the matters would be best dropped from conscious concentration. Such a period is then followed again by perhaps more pointed activity. It is necessary that assimilation take place, of course. It is also necessary that there is room for certain psychological actions and motions to change from one pattern to another. The message of the Sinful Self shows excellent psychological mobility. (Pause.) That material can quite legitimately “take the place of” a regular session for the week. It was of great value in the fact that the Sinful Self was able, finally, to express itself that clearly—and I do not believe that the document is as yet completed.

The main issues with which the Sinful Self was concerned were focused most clearly in Mass Events and God of Jane, since more than the other books they represent a direct confrontation “attacking” the very legitimacy of the entire concept of sin and evil, insisting more dramatically on the good intent of man’s basic impulses.

(Long pause.) Ruburt felt those issues could not be buried under the rug, but he did not realize the extent to which some of those old beliefs still lingered. (Long pause.) The Sinful Self’s explanation represents a fascinating psychological document in that regard, and also shows the self’s mobility and willingness to learn and change—once the intent is made to take a stand (intently).

It might be of value to have Ruburt mentally ask the Sinful Self for a few comments on how its beliefs about the female sex were connected with its concepts of sin, and if those attitudes are changing. That material, plus my comments in this session, will set off further psychological mobility, of course, clarifying various positions more clearly.

(9:14 PM. It’s Friday evening as I type this. Seth’s suggestion that Jane ask the Sinful Self for its comments of the female sex and sin were very acute—for today Jane has received several pages of material from the Sinful Self on that subject. Again, well done, and not finished yet. Right now she’s watching a disaster movie—The Poseidon Adventure—as I finish work.)