“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Rev. Lowe and his wife came on a class night, and so of course I invited them to attend. I try to keep classes as informal as possible. Everyone is on a first-name basis, and each of us wears whatever clothing is most comfortable and natural. Men in business suits mix with people in hippie outfits, and we always have wine for those who like it. I admit I wondered what Rev. Lowe would think, and hoped he didn’t expect something like a prayer meeting. In our own way we do use prayer—but in a highly creative, unstructured, unconventional manner. Sometimes we play rock ‘n’ roll music, for instance, while I read a poem—and this I would consider prayer.

Doris was having all kinds of problems. For one thing, she kept falling head over heels in love with men who didn’t want marriage under any circumstances. In these relationships she was the aggressor. The men in each case were men who did not date, were overly attached to their parents, or who for some reason or other did not have ordinary relationships with women. Doris was smart enough to see this, but each time she was certain that there was something about the new man that made him more eligible—or at least more liable to accept her advances. In the meantime she was dreadfully lonely, for she would refuse dates with “ordinary” men, since they seemed so inferior compared to the new idol.

An editor I’ll call Matt came to visit us from New York. We had corresponded but never met before. He had read a manuscript of mine and knew about Seth. We liked each other at once, but it was primarily a business meeting. And then, I felt that Matt would want me to “prove my abilities” somehow or other, and I didn’t want to feel under pressure.

Actually, it was kind of funny: Matt knocked himself out to show me that I didn’t really have to prove a thing! So for a while our conversation was rather bright and frantic.

Matt has since become a good friend, incidentally, but at that point we didn’t know him from Adam. The psychological insights shown were really astonishing—and I don’t believe that the most accomplished psychologist could have pinpointed this young man’s character, abilities, and liabilities as well as Seth did.