“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN:

A “Future” Seth—Origin of the Sessions

By now I was used to Seth. The sessions, so strange at first, were a familiar part of our lives. There was a lot I didn’t understand—there still is—so I hoped to develop my abilities more fully and to learn more. But I thought that the Seth sessions themselves would more or less remain the same. Looking back now at the earlier material, I can see that I should have known better.

One night in April of 1968, we settled down for our usual Monday night session, unaware that anything new was about to happen. I sat in my rocker. Rob sat on the couch as usual, taking notes. According to Rob, Seth’s voice was unusually powerful that night. My opened eyes were very dark, and Seth seemed to be watching Rob rather closely.

Seth began the session, our 406th, by telling Rob the direction the material would take in following years. “You have been given a sketchy outline, but we have time to fill it in,” he said, smiling. “For that matter, the outline itself is scarcely completed. … We want to deal with the nature of reality as it exists within your camouflage system and within other systems, and to study the overall characteristics that pertain to it, regardless of any given materialization.

This material ran several pages, as Seth discussed the future content of our sessions. Right after this we took our first break. Neither of us realized, even at this point, that the session would be any different from the usual. As soon as we resumed, however, I suddenly felt a powerful surge of energy flow through me, so that inside it “I” seemed almost lost and swept away.

I couldn’t tell Rob what I was experiencing, of course, but he began to suspect that something was happening. Seth became very emphatic, watching Rob closely for one thing. For another, Seth began to stress each word.

At this point, Rob became aware of the new and rather odd energy in Seth’s voice as his delivery grew more powerful. My open eyes were very dark. Rob began to look up whenever he could snatch a moment from note-taking.

Seth said, “We will make an effort in the future to give you both some direct experience in concepts. These experiments will run along with, and closely follow, the vocalized expression of the concepts involved. They will give you some small glimmering of the unfortunate but necessary loss of meaning that occurs when any concept must be communicated in physical terms. This will be a different kind of in-depth learning, a rather unique and original development that will be as devoid as possible of stereotyped symbols, which are usually almost automatically superimposed on such experiences. Do you understand?”

Seth’s voice continued to get stronger. “I am the Seth that I say that I am, but I am also more. The Seth personality that is part of me is the portion that can most clearly communicate with you. Do you follow me?”

“The Seth portion of me has been intimately connected with you both, and so, in that respect, have I. This is closely related to the definition of a personality energy essence, from which, of course, all personalities spring.”

The voice became even more powerful. Rob thought of asking Seth to slow down, but he wasn’t sure what was happening, and thought it best not to interrupt.

Then, to Rob’s surprise, Seth told him to end the session. Rob was to follow the procedure given, recently, to end my trance. (Just lately I had begun going into particularly deep trances compared to earlier ones, and Seth had suggested that Rob call my name three times.) Seth said, “This evening you have reached somewhat beyond the personality by which I usually make myself known to you. Even if I continue to speak, end the trance.”

I shook my head, “Wow. If I ever had any doubts … what-ever’s going on, it’s not coming from me, not from my own personality.” Later in my own notes I wrote, “… tremendous energy seemed to flow through me, with the definite certainty—thank God—that this was coming from beyond me, and was automatically translated into words at my end. I feel this is as significant a development—almost—as the original Seth session. The sense of contact was undeniably there. The feeling I had was that I really was in touch with some all encompassing reality.”

The next Wednesday night I was somewhat hesitant as session time approached. We began at the dot of nine, but instantly Rob knew that this wasn’t going to be a “normal” session. For one thing, the voice was different. It was much more like my own voice, yet it wasn’t mine. Seth’s deep tones, his gestures and characteristic way of using words—these were absent.

The voice was much softer than usual. Rob had to listen closely to get all the words. “The development in the last session was latent from our first session, but it was a development that could or could not have occurred. Had it not, then many important future developments would have been blocked. The points where the [Seth] voice was loudest and most powerful—these points often represented openings through which the development could occur. For various reasons, however, that method was not used. The energy would have been diverted from the voice in which it had already been built up, you see.”

The voice became lighter, almost lilting. “The laws of the inner universe [which had been given to us by Seth] are not laws in some book. They are attempts to explain in words the nature of inner reality. I must disentangle concepts, unravel them, in order to explain them, and much is necessarily lost in the process.

“The Seth personality has been an intermediary and a legitimate one. The information already given to you regarding the nature of personality gestalts should make this development seem a fitting one. Seth is what I am, yet I am more than Seth is. Seth is, however, independent, and continues to develop as I do. In the Spacious Present we both exist.

“Some material he can present to you more clearly than I.” Rob looked up sharply this time. If Seth wasn’t speaking, who was?

“While I was the source of the material [in the last sessions], Seth, as you think of him, was at times a silent partner, helping Ruburt make the proper translations, while stepping aside in a personal manner. Earlier [in previous sessions] Seth interpreted material from me so that Ruburt could receive it.

“You may rest. Seth will always be an element in these sessions as you know him. He is the connective between us, and he has been a part of me that I have sent out to you. He has participated willingly.”

Since then, I’ve had this cone effect often, always in this kind of a session. Right after the session resumed, I began to feel that tremendous energy again as the new voice spoke. “You have always been in contact with me, but you were only able to ‘see’ a portion of me. Keep in mind that all names are arbitrary, and we use them merely for your convenience. Basically, Seth’s name or mine isn’t important. Individuality is important and continues in ways you do not suspect.

“In the most important way, and in the only basic way, I am Seth, dispensing with certain characteristics which are mine, which I used to contact you. The Seth personality, again, is legitimate and independent and is a part of my identity. Seth is learning as I am.

“Simply as an analogy, you could call me a future Seth, Seth in a ‘higher’ stage of development. This is not to be taken literally, however, since both of us are fully independent and exist simultaneously.

Here the voice was very distant, high and clear, so unlike the usual Seth voice that Rob was still rather taken back. “I am more, however, than this portion of me that you contact, for it is only one portion of me that experienced that reality. It is highly important, then, that this material not be distorted, for most communications take place on far different levels than this—[levels] so closely connected with your own system that even the most ‘undistorted’ data is highly distorted because the communicators themselves do not realize that they create the realities which they then describe.

“I have done my best to give you an understanding as a basis for future sessions. Seth as you knew him will also be Seth as you know him, for whether or not I speak as myself or through him, he is still the intermediary and the connection between us. More, he will still appear as you have known him. There are necessary emotional elements that are uniquely his own.

When the session was over, Rob and I sat up talking. “It’s crazy,” I said. “When we have a usual Seth session, I sort of feel Seth take over, though I don’t like that term. With this personality, though, I go somewhere, out of myself, and seem to make contact with it in some nowhere, leaving my body empty. I don’t know how I get there, wherever it is, or how I get back.”

Rob nodded. Both of us felt almost sad, in one way. I think we were afraid that our regular Seth sessions were over, and that the new ones would take their place. “Besides,” Rob said, “what do we call this new personality?” We knew it was meaningless basically, but we felt we needed a name, a label. And how exactly was this new personality different from Seth? What could it do that Seth couldn’t? “I wish it were more masculine or feminine,” I said. “A neuter personality seems so strange.”

“I have told you who we are. We are Seth, and whenever we have spoken we have been known as Seth. The entity had its beginning before the emergence of your time. It was instrumental, with many other entities, in the early formation of energy into physical form. We are not alone in this endeavor, for through your centuries other entities like us have also appeared and spoken.

“We taught man to speak before the tongue knew syllables. We adopt whatever personality characteristics seem pertinent, for in our own reality we have a bank of complete inner selves, and we are all Seth. We attempt to translate realities into terms that you can comprehend. We change our face and form, but we are always the one. Many of us have not been born in flesh, as I have not been. In one way we have seeded ourselves through endless universes.

Our friend, Phil—the salesman I spoke of earlier—dropped in that evening; we began at 9 P.M. as usual. Seth spoke to Phil about some business matters and answered several questions that had been on Phil’s mind. During our rest period, however, I felt the now familiar pyramid effect, and when we resumed, the other personality began to speak.

The transition from Seth’s deep voice and lively gestures was very startling to Phil, who hadn’t heard the other personality speak before. Now my body was almost puppetlike, and my face was devoid of expression. Just before the voice began to speak, I felt my consciousness drawn up through the invisible pyramid like a draft up a flue. There was no indication that anything else was about to happen, however.

No one thought anything in particular about that last statement until later that night. The voice continued for a short time and I encountered some difficulty “getting back.” I felt suspended in darkness somewhere far above, but I was also aware that Seth was close by. A few minutes passed. Suddenly Seth came through, loud and clear. The contrast between the two personalities was so marked that even Rob was startled. Seth started to joke. “Now that ‘Big Brother’ has had his say, I will bring our Ruburt back to you.”

I came out of trance easily enough once Seth came through. We sat chatting for a few moments and then the session resumed, letting me in for one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. This is rather difficult to describe, so first I’ll quote what the “other” voice was saying.

“I’m on my way up to the other guy” she said. “I just passed Seth and he joked with me, something about a massive experience.”

This time I “found myself,” pulled myself together, and found my vocal chords while the other personality paused for a moment. It was just about here that I saw the giant face peering down through the pyramid above me. In the earlier episode, I’d screamed involuntarily. In the second, I found that there were ways of “finding” my own voice, and ending the experience. With Seth such a question never arose. There was no pressure put upon me by the other personality to continue the experience … but I had to learn how to terminate it myself when I wanted to.

That session was well over a year ago. Our usual Seth sessions still continue, and only now and then does this other personality speak. We refer to it as Seth Two. Often these sessions involve me in some kind of subjective experience, though now I am learning how to handle myself when this happens. Once during a rest period, for example, Rob wondered what it was like to be nonphysical. When the session resumed, I felt myself seemingly suspended, fully alert and aware—but bodiless—in space. I had no form as far as I knew, but I possessed complete freedom of motion—something like conscious air. This time I wasn’t frightened, realizing that we were getting an answer to Rob’s question. During this experience, the emotionless, lilting, distant voice explained what nonphysical existence was like.

The difference in the two personalities was particularly apparent in a recent ESP class session in which Seth was at his jovial best, showing personal interest in each student. As usual during such times, my face was extremely animated, and Seth’s characteristic gestures were quite noticeable. After speaking to each student individually for a moment, Seth said with a touch of humor: “I come here, I hope, as an ‘endearing’ personality, with characteristics to which you can relate.

“Now, these characteristics are mine, and I am who I say I am. And yet the Seth that you know is but a small portion of my reality … the part that has been physical, and can understand your problems.

The voice had been vibrant and full, booming and loud. Then there was a pause. And for the first time the other personality came through in class. All of Seth’s gestures and mannerisms vanished. Instantly that high, distant, asexual voice began to speak. It is almost musical, without inflection, like single notes. “And that self tells you that there is a reality beyond human reality and experience that cannot be verbal nor translated in human terms. …

“So I am the Seth that is beyond the Seth that you know. And in me the knowledge and vitality of that Seth still rings. In your terms, I am a future Seth, but the terms are meaningless to me.