“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The firm decision to do this was made when we were visited by Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall, Tam Mossman, and a business colleague who accompanied him. By then it was obvious that in a couple of weeks Seth would be through with “Unknown” Reality, as we’d taken to calling it. For some time all of us present had been aware that as a single volume this new work would be more massive than we wanted it to be. Jane and I were really pleased, then, to get the official word. Not only would the expanded format be something out of the ordinary in itself, but it meant that with two volumes I’d have the room I needed for notes and references; excerpts from Jane’s ESP class sessions, as well as from “regular” sessions dated before and after the production time of “Unknown” Reality; a little of Jane’s poetry; and appendixes — all of which I thought would add extra dimensions of consciousness to the books. (And, of course, I couldn’t begin these notes until such a decision had been made.)

Seth presented his sessions for “Unknown” Reality as usual, but dispensed with any chapter framework. He did group his material into six sections, though, with headings. As he told us in the 743rd session, a few days after the visit of Tam and his associate: “This book had no chapters [in order] to further disrupt your accepted notions of what a book should be. There are different kinds of organizations present, however, and in any given section of the book, several levels of consciousness are appealed to at once.” Seth gave no headings for individual sessions, so after each one as it’s listed in the Table of Contents (in each volume), Jane plans to insert a few words indicating at least some of the subjects discussed in that session.

Since the sections themselves are of unequal length, for a while I contemplated trying a four-and-two division; but as Jane commented, “Three sections in one book are enough of a bite for the reader.” We do think most people will find it more convenient to have “Unknown” Reality presented, with indexes, in two shorter works, whether or not they’re of equal length. Volume 2 will be published a year or so after the first printing of Volume 1. After that initial waiting period, the two can always be read together.

Now I’d like to briefly comment on the handling of the notes, excerpts, and other such matter. After Jane began delivering this work it soon became apparent that my notes for it were going to be longer than they are in Seth Speaks and Personal Reality. The very way Seth was presenting his material required this. Jane and I liked the idea because it meant something different from the two previous Seth books, but at the same time I was concerned that the notes would become too prominent. (I felt this way even though Seth told me in a private session in June, 1974: “The notes will take care of themselves. Do not worry.”)

Once we’d decided to publish in two volumes, Jane, Tam, and I agreed that we didn’t want to move all of the supplementary data to the back of each book, as is often done in such cases. Not only would the reader be constantly involved in looking up specific items, but we felt that the shorter notes especially would be too far removed from their intimate positions within the sessions; we wanted these to enhance individual sessions directly without getting in the way, so I worked out a compromise which offers some sort of orderly presentation without being too rigid.

As in Seth Speaks and Personal Reality, the usual notes are presented at break times, but I’ve indicated the points of origin of what would ordinarily be footnotes by using consecutive (superscription) numbers within the text of each session; then I’ve grouped the actual notes at the end of the session for quick reference. For consistency’s sake, these notes are printed in the same smaller type throughout both volumes. Footnotes will be found “in place” only when they refer to a specific appendix in the same book. So for the most part, these approaches keep the body of each session free of interruptions between breaks.

In the notes I’ve tried to say exactly what I mean, no more and no less, and to watch out for unwitting implications. Things can get complicated, though, and at times while preparing these volumes I found myself wondering just how to make clear certain points of reference without leaving the reader confused by dates, session numbers, or other matter. Although I think my system of presentation has a kind of order, still it’ll take study at times, and I can only ask the reader to patiently go along. I don’t believe such instances are too many.

I’ve noted the time every so often during each session to show how long it takes Jane to deliver a particular passage (and shortly I’ll explore further the time elements involved with the production of “Unknown” Reality). For obvious reasons I’ve deleted most of Seth’s instructions for punctuating his material, beyond leaving a few examples in place at the start of his Preface, or in an occasional session. But Seth is far short of overdoing such directions. Once in a while Jane or I recast his sentence structure for clarity’s sake, or we eliminate a repetitive phrase — for all of this is verbal work as opposed to prose work, which can be easily revised on the spot. Except for such changes the material is presented as received throughout both of these volumes. Whenever anything is deleted from a session — personal information, say — it’s always indicated; occasionally such material is summarized.

The next four paragraphs contain some information on our publishing schedule that I’ll present as simply as I can. Originally I hadn’t planned on dealing with such material in these notes, but after talking it over, Jane and I agreed that it should be given here after all. There are various titles, section numbers, and dates to keep in mind, so these passages may take some rereading.

We want those references to help the reader place each one in a time sequence, regardless of when any particular book might have been first published. For the more time passes, the less important the date of publication becomes. When I note, for example, that Psychic Politics “is to be published this Fall (in 1976),” I know, of course, that by the time the first volume of Seth’s work is in print in the spring of 1977, Politics will actually have been on sale for several months. Yet, as I see it, that’s the most accurate way to present that bit of information in this Volume 1.

The first Seth excerpt is in keeping with the idea of creating bridges between the two volumes of “Unknown” Reality by lifting something out of one for inclusion in the other. Once more from the 743rd session in Volume 2: “No book entitled The “Unknown” Reality can hope to make that reality entirely known. It remains nebulous because it is consciously unrealized. The best I can do is to point out areas that have been relatively invisible, to help you explore, actually, different facets of your own consciousness … I am well aware that the book raises many more questions than it presents answers for, and this has been my intent….”

And Jane’s intent and mine, too. Jane’s books are records of her use of certain abilities that we think are very creative; the questions she raises present us with larger fields to investigate. Ordinarily we don’t think of those questions — and challenges — as being mystical in origin, not from our Western social viewpoint. Seth discusses Jane’s early religious background, her “deeply mystical nature,” in the first session of this volume (the 679th), and I add some material on mysticism in an appendix to that session. That information is related to these introductory notes, yet it should be separate.

However, the work we do deals with concepts that consciously we’d paid little attention to in earlier life. (I was 44 years old and Jane was 34 when she initiated the Seth material late in 1963). Jane’s early poetry, as I show in certain notes, clearly reflected her intuitive understanding of some of the concepts Seth came to elaborate upon much later. (This was true even when she was consciously unaware of what she was up to. See the verse from her early poem, Summer Is Winter, which precedes these notes.) As I see it, her task with the Seth material is to place these basic artistic ideas at our conscious service, so that their use in our daily lives can change our individual and collective realities for the better; and by “artistic ideas” here I mean the deepest, most aesthetic and practical — and, yes, mystical — truths and questions that human beings are capable of expressing, then contending with. Much of the response to her work that Jane receives by mail and telephone indicates this is happening. (That response, incidentally, will be discussed briefly at the end of these notes, when Seth’s letter to correspondents is presented.)

I’m more inclined to agree with what Seth told us in the 590th session in Chapter 22 of Seth Speaks: “You are not fated to dissolve into All That Is. The aspects of your personality as you presently understand them will be retained. All That Is is the creator of individuality, not the means of its destruction.” And whenever I read about conventional Eastern conceptions of a supreme spirit, I remember what Seth had to say in the 596th session in the Appendix of Seth Speaks: “I have used the term ‘expansion of consciousness’ here rather than the more frequently used ‘cosmic consciousness’ because the latter implies an experience of proportions not available to mankind at this time. Intense expansions of consciousness by contrast to your normal state may appear to be cosmic in nature, but they barely hint at those possibilities of consciousness that are available to you now, much less begin to approach a true cosmic awareness.”

Once before (in January, 1973), Seth dictated a letter for us to send to those who wrote, and it can be found in the 633rd session in Chapter 8 of Personal Reality. Many people liked that letter (they still do) — and some wrote back in response to it! Because of this, Jane and I suggest that Seth’s earlier letter be read in conjunction with the one below, for as Jane says, the two complement and reinforce each other. We feel that both messages from Seth reflect much of the essence of his material, and our own circumstances and attitudes surrounding its production. Certainly we think that presenting Seth’s new letter here makes an ideal way to conclude these notes. (Seth refers to Jane by her male entity name, Ruburt; and to me as Joseph, for the same reason.)