“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The race was dealing with the creation of a new world of physical experience. To do this particular kind of experiment, it was necessary that physical manipulation be concentrated upon. Ghost images from the future were one thing, inspiring mankind. Had such data instantly appeared before him, however, man would have been deprived of the physical joys, endeavors, and challenges that were so basic to the experiment itself. Do you want to rest your hand?

The ego specialized in expansions of space and its physical manipulation. It specialized with objects. As a result, now, a person in any given hour is aware of events happening at the other end of the world. No immediate physical response he or she can make seems adequate or pertinent on many occasions. Bodily physical action, then, to that extent, loses its immaculate precision in time. You cannot kick an “enemy” who does not live in your village or country; an enemy, furthermore, whom you do not even know personally. (Intently:) Again, to that extent instant physical action in time is not the same kind of life-and-death factor that it was when a man was faced with an enraged animal, or enemy, in close combat.

(Slowly:) In a world in which individuals were confined in space in a tribe or clan (a one-minute pause), action was immediate. The environment presented a framework in which consciousness learned to deal with stimuli in a direct fashion. It learned how to focus. The necessary specialization meant that only so much data could be handled at once, emotionally or otherwise. The formation of different tribes allowed man to behave cooperatively, in small numbers. This meant that those on the outside were selectively ignored, considered strangers.

(11:26. Actually, this was one of those times when it seemed that I could have continued note-taking indefinitely. Seth-Jane certainly appeared able to keep going. Jane had been in trance for an hour and forty-one minutes, but even so she was out of it rapidly. “The trances have changed since he started this book, though,” she said. “Once I get on the right track, Seth just keeps going, and I don’t want to change it or get off … I think it’s a great development. But you know: If you think you’re on to something no one else has, you’re afraid you’ll be called batty by the rest of the world … Seth is a great organizer, though. It’s like there’s a tremendous amount of work being done behind the sessions, so I can get the data — but this isn’t like the channels from Seth [as described in the 616th session in Chapter 2 of Personal Reality].”