“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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.

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.”

“There are reasons why these particular connections have been made. There are events that unite us and that have served as turning points in the development of our various personalities. In some strange manner, what I am now is linked to what you are.

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.”

Some of our questions were answered in the next session, our 419th on June 8, 1968. Just before the session started I began to get the pyramid effect again. I grinned, somewhat embarrassed, moving so that I sat directly beneath where I felt the pyramid had come down. Then the session started. A friend, Pat Norelli, attended.

“Our entity is composed of multitudinous selves with their own identities, many of whom have worked in this behalf. Their messages will always be basically the same, though the times and circumstances of their communications may differ and be colored accordingly.

“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.

The next session showed us how different this new development could be. It also nearly scared me out of my wits, at least for a few moments. More than this, however, it opened our eyes to new possibilities of experience and demonstrated yet another phenomenon that could occur within the session framework.

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.

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.”

“Later, in your time, all of you will look down into the physical system like giants peering through small windows at the others now in your position and smile. But you will not want to stay, nor crawl through the small enclosures. … We protect such systems. Our basic and ancient knowledge and energy automatically reaches out to nourish all systems that grow—”

When the personality compared physical reality with children’s blocks, he made a remark about individuals returning in our future to peer into physical reality like giants squinting down to watch children play with blocks upon the floor. (As the voice spoke, my eyes were closed, of course, and I don’t remember what the voice said, but have checked Rob’s verbatim notes of the session.) In here someplace, suddenly I saw a giant’s face peer into our living room, its face filling up the entire window.

I started to feel the microscopic nature of our physical universe, comparatively speaking … this is most difficult to put into words. There was a momentary sense of desolation accompanying this—my own, I think. I’m always aware of the pyramid shape above me just before this personality speaks. Usually I “go up through” it. This time, though, at the narrow end far above me I saw the same giant head, peering down at me and the room as through a microscope. If the room and everything in it was going to shrink as realistically as it had expanded earlier—and it was, I could tell—I just wasn’t ready for the experience.

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.