“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“These mass suggestions include not only those given to him by others, both verbally and telepathically, but also those he has given to himself, both in the waking and dream states. If an individual is in a state of despondency, this is because he has already become prey to negative suggestions of his own and others. Now if you see him and think that he looks miserable”—Seth looked at Joan sharply—“or that he is an incurable drunk, then these suggestions are picked up by him subconsciously, though you have not spoken a word. And in his already weakened condition they will be accepted and acted upon.

“Now, you are not speaking of basic issues,” he said. “You are flying paper dragons to be punctured, but these are not the real dragons. You must learn to listen to the voice of the inner self. It is hardly to be feared. You have allowed the ego to become a counterfeit self, and you take its word because you will not hear the muffled voice that is within it.

One of my students, a businessman, always gets worried when Seth speaks about spontaneity. He equates it with lack of discipline. Seth calls this man “the Dean,” with affectionate humor, because he’s one of my best students, and the others listen to his psychic adventures with a good deal of interest. But he’s very much a community man also, and the word “spontaneity” can be like a red scarf to a bull, at least as far as he is concerned! And I have to admit that many of us have the feeling that our inner emotions are too hot to handle.

“The complicated human personality with its physical structure has evolved, along with some other structures, a highly differentiated ‘I’ consciousness [the ego, in other words], whose very nature is such that it attempts to preserve the apparent boundaries of identity. To do so it chooses between actions. But beneath this sophisticated gestalt are the simpler foundations of its being, and indeed the very acceptance of all stimuli without which identity would be impossible.

“In other words, an action cannot be judged as impeding without a thorough knowledge of the actions that result in the makeup of any given personality. This is extremely important. To overlook this point is to risk the adoption of a more severe illness.

Seth sessions are held in full light in the Butts’ living room. Jane’s husband, Rob, using his own shorthand system, takes down Seth’s words verbatim. Above, as Jane goes into trance, she—as Seth—removes her glasses and has thrown them onto the couch. (Rich Conz)

“Now, I have made my friend Ruburt sit fairly quietly for some time, so out of the goodness of my heart I will now end our session; though I may indeed drop in a word now and then.”

For the envelope test in Session 300 (which is described in Chapter Eight), the target item was a scrap of paper torn from The New York Times of November 7, 1966. Note the words “Election Day” and the models on the major portion of the page, which Seth alluded to in giving his impressions of the fragment. (Rich Conz)