“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Seth had often told us that when we’re finished with our lives here, we’re actually anxious to leave this existence. When the body is worn out, we really want to get rid of it. The instinct for survival is served quite well, because the inner self knows that it lives beyond death. Still, I hated to say this to Jon over the phone. In theory it sounded fine, but naturally I knew he wanted Sally to live. I knew that he hoped for some miracle—at least a partial recovery, a reprieve.

“You then move out into a larger and different kind of room, and here the furniture may be arranged in any fashion, arranged and rearranged to your heart’s content. You may form different combinations from it and use it for different purposes. So Sally is rearranging the furniture of her mind. And as you might visit a new residence and move some of your belongings there before you officially make it your own, so she has been examining the new environment. She is in the process of transferring herself to the new location.

“Shortly, training periods will begin. It will be her turn now to help others and be their source of strength. She has already begun a new life, therefore [Seth does not mean another physical life here, of course], though presently her experience is being monitored to some degree by guides.

Suddenly Seth came through, saying: “And I thought you were on your good behavior because I was here! I will have to learn to be a reverend rock drummer, and I will keep the beat with you.” After this he spoke to various class members, and then invited Rev. Lowe to ask whatever questions came to his mind.

“She lived in Mesopotamia before it was known by that name. Here we find abilities shown, ignored, and misused through a succession of lives; a rather classic example of the ‘progress’ followed by many psychically endowed, but in poor control of their personalities and abilities.

“A small town twenty-five meters from Charterous—the nearest approximation here, Charterous or Charteris [Chartres?]. The last name then was Manupelt. Or Man Aupault. A. Curia. Some connection here with the first historical personality we have run across: a very distant connection to Joan of Arc, on the mystic’s father’s side, twice removed. And that name, approximately as given, in some records … in an old cathedral. The family name, the town, and the name of the cathedral are the same.”

He told her that she was projecting this image upon each male she met, and then reacting to it instead of to the individual. He gave her some mental exercises calculated to help her dissolve this false image. Here Doris began to cry a little. Seth smiled and said, “Now, now, do not sniffle. I am not your father giving you an arithmetic lesson. I put myself out to help you, and for this I get tears. I usually do not have that effect on people.”

At this, Rob and Matt both burst out laughing. Then Seth went into some information, connecting some of the young man’s present interests with past activities. He mentioned several past lives, but emphasized one as being particularly significant. “You were a member of a monastic group who classified and collected various kinds of seeds. The group worked on manuscripts officially, but our friend here and several others were bootleg seed finders, believing against currently held theories that questions concerning nature could be answered by examining nature.