“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The following material is, in part, an outgrowth of certain effects described in Personal Reality; see my notes for the 616th session, bridging chapters 2 and 3. That session was held on September 20, 1972, and the notes I’m referring to concern a new development in Jane’s abilities: her initial realization that on at least some occasions she would have more than one channel of information available from Seth. I quoted her as saying she believed that “Seth could do three books at once, a chapter at a time on each, and with no confusion among them.”

(Jane had some other insights into Seth’s multiple channels as she continued dictating Personal Reality after that session,¹ yet we continued to think of the new development as one of mostly theoretical interest. Close to 18 months passed. Then on the morning of March 10 — the Sunday before last — we learned that we may have to rethink the idea of Seth-Jane producing more than one major work at a time; for on that day Jane received the outline for another book, along with the knowledge that she’d need Seth’s help in producing it. The book’s title is The Way Toward Health. Jane wrote at the time, then told me, that she almost felt “the book could be Personal Reality Number Two.” She added that her experience in “getting it” was related not only to her ability to sense that sometimes more than one stream of material was available from Seth, but to the way that she herself had tuned into the information on neurological speeds late last month. That episode had taken place just before she delivered the 686th session for this volume of “Unknown” Reality, and is described in Appendix 5.

(As quickly as she could once she became aware of what was happening that Sunday morning, Jane typed a 3-page summary or outline of the contents for The Way Toward Health, including chapter headings, then wrote a very condensed statement about how the whole thing came to her. We’re presenting the statement below, and a few examples from the outline, in order to show some of her other activities while producing “Unknown” Reality. Thus, everything she’s received so far on the health book is on file, ready to be used should she choose to follow this new idea any further.

(As of now, however, I’d say that she doesn’t have much inclination to do so. Nor do I. Perhaps, even knowing Jane’s unique creative abilities as well as we do, we’re each somewhat daunted by the thought that consciously we might not be able to concentrate enough on two such projects at once. I do believe it possible for Jane to deliver “Unknown” Reality and The Way Toward Health concurrently through Seth, and to carry on her “regular” writing, for I think we have yet to learn the limits of her abilities [although as she continues to develop them she increases our knowledge of human potential]. Right now she’s working on the final draft of Chapter 5 of her own theoretical work on psychic matters, Adventures in Consciousness.

“I have all the material for a new book, suddenly, after breakfast. Read something in the paper about concentration on illness causing pain, and that reminded me of some ideas I had last night. Then while doing dishes this morning I had the feeling a whole book on health is there or here. Went to my study, got chapter headings and outline, more or less, but I don’t know yet how to get the rest of it; I feel almost that it’s a Seth book, that I need him to bring it in. But Seth’s doing a book! I know this new book has application to me most practically, too, giving methods of breaking out of my own patterns.² Could feel the bulk and immediacy of the book, but also frustrated that what I’ve got down is so little and sketchy — WHEN IT’S ALREADY HERE. Yet of course it must be there and I have to get it here. I feel caught between relaxation — want to lie down — and ambition, that if I just sit here the book will somehow clearly burst out in one way or another. Rob wondered if it’s part of “Unknown” Reality, but I don’t think so.”

Illnesses of Childhood and Old Age
The connections between schizophrenia in the young, and senility. The child tries to project inner reality outward, and finds outside structures too small.

The Way Out of Illness?
A title or chapter heading? No, that’s negative. I’d rather be more positive:The Way Toward Health. A feeling this could be Personal Reality Number Two.

(Jane had produced her statement so quickly that after reading it I was left with several questions. I took notes on our conversation about it that Sunday night. Yes, she had been in an altered state of consciousness during her reception of The Way Toward Health “on a real high” — both while the outline for it was coming through and while she wrote her description of the process. No, she hadn’t heard Seth, or sensed his presence while this was going on; she’d just realized that his help would be necessary if she decided to do the book. Nor was it connected with “Unknown” Reality. “I wrote down what I could snatch from the whole book,” she said, “but I knew that what I got was nothing compared to what was there. If I could have immediately spoken the whole thing, it would have been done at once — that’s what was so frustrating! While I was in the altered state, I sensed not only the physical bulk of the book, but the actual contents within it. Those contents were immediately available. I can’t tell you how frustrated — how blocked — this made me feel at the time.

(We’ll see what, if anything, develops concerning The Way Toward Health.)

1. In Personal Reality, see sessions 648, 657, and 673 in chapters 12, 15, and 21 respectively.