“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

As far as we can see, Seth’s reincarnational, counterpart, and probable selves, and his families of consciousness, suggest the varied, complicated structure of human personality — and hint of the invisible psychological thickness that fills out the physical event of the self in time.

The two volumes of “Unknown” Reality hardly tie truth up in neat packages, though, so that after completing them the reader can claim to know all of the answers. In fact, Seth’s material always raises more questions to stimulate the intellect and intuitions, and these two books are no exception. In a sense, they are incomplete and complicated at times, with new terms, for the unknown reality they attempt to describe will, I fear, always elude us to some extent, and new terms are needed as old ones become stereotyped and worn.

Seth told us ahead of time, of course, that “Unknown” Reality would follow an intuitive and inner organization rather than a linear one, and that this writing method would itself arouse the creative, revelatory characteristics of the psyche. Material on any given subject may start, go on for a while, then either stop almost in mid-sentence or “evolve” into another topic. Yet underneath, the books ride securely upon rhythms that reflect the psyche’s deep resources.

It seems clear now that Seth knew all along that this would happen. The creative explosions begun with these books still erupt, for “Unknown” Reality does seem to have a life of its own, one that defies definition, and that even now serves as a springboard for new psychic and creative experience. Talk about probable realities! This manuscript seems to possess dimensions that place it — and Jane and me — in many probabilities at once. As I type its pages for the final time, I’m back at our old Water Street apartments, and in our new “hill house” at once; I’m referring to 1975 sessions and recording Seth’s dictation on his latest book as well. Sometimes I feel like saying: “One reality at a time, please.”

In vital ways, Seth’s material itself is timeless, yet its production, of course, is tied to the events of our lives. I hope my notes provide that “living story” — the narrative that gives the material its flesh in our time. The material itself can stand on its own, though, and we trust it will continue to do so when Jane and I are through with this particular joint physical adventure. Then Seth’s work will fall back upon the timeless quality that always illuminates it.

Then also, I remember what Seth said about being reckless in the pursuit of the ideal. (See the Introductory Notes.) I don’t know that I was that daring, but I was persistent despite the hesitations and misgivings. So along with Seth’s work, we tried to share our reality with the reader, and to provide a platform in time for knowledge that must basically straddle our ideas of time and reality alike.

Long before I finished my part of “Unknown” Reality, Seth and Jane had started their next book: The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. I recorded those sessions, of course, while keeping up with my own work. Jane finished her Psychic Politics, and began some new poetry and world-view material. She was taking calls from readers in all parts of the country, trying to keep up with the mail, participating in an occasional radio interview, and, for most of that time, conducting her classes. And oh, yes, both of us also did a lot of ordinary living, such as moving and getting settled in our new home and entertaining friends now and then. Yet none of those “outside” events were fully removed from “Unknown” Reality. They found their way into the pages, the sessions, somehow, even if only by feel or inference. For how could any one event not jostle all of the others in lives so closely bound?

Yet we think now that such extensive notes have served their purposes for Seth’s material, at least for some time, so those books-in-the-works will carry minimum notes — as they do, say, in Seth Speaks. For one thing, as I write this Epilogue, Seth has finished The Nature of the Psyche, and has already begun still another book. Psyche, as Jane and I call it, contains some excellent new material, such as Seth’s first discussions of sex — including lesbianism, homosexuality, and bisexuality — as well as other related subjects that we know, from our correspondence, to be of intense general concern. By using simple session notes only, we can get that next book to the public in a minimum of time, and it should be published shortly after this second volume of “Unknown” Reality — perhaps within just a few months.

That wait could be a very long one. Who is to help initiate meaningful changes in our psychological and social orders? Surely Jane feels the necessity to turn aside from the selected dogmas of our time. For to her, and to me, our world’s present definitions of personality are as limited as the conventional meaning implied by the term ESP. We hope that Jane’s work can help expand such concepts.

We also think science is “objective” enough in its own terms of serial time and measurement, as it claims to be, but that eventually it must choose to look inward as thoroughly as it does outward. To us, much of the turmoil in the world results from our steadfast refusal to accept a major portion of our natural heritage. We project our inner knowledge “outward” in distorted fashion; thus on a global scale we thrash about with our problems of war, overpopulation, and dwindling natural resources, to name but a few.

According to Seth, each of us chose such a course at this time — but now, we think, a time of imperative change is necessary if we are to continue our progress as a species. A new blending of inner and outer consciousnesses — a new, more meaningful coalition of intellectual and intuitive abilities — will be the latest step in the process of “consciousness knowing itself,” as Seth has described it.

As I’ve joked with Jane more than once: “If there’s life after death, each of us in turn will find it out — including the nonbelievers. And if there isn’t — well, no one will ever know that. Either way, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about….” So in the meantime the search can be fun, and intriguing — even a passion — but at the same time, without absolutism or any Messianic drive to change the world.

In its way the nighttime visitation was even more mysterious, for that time I looked up at a starlit but moonless sky that didn’t have a cloud in sight — and heard this multitudinous sound moving across it. The night was chilly. Jane was sleeping. All of the qualities of the birds’ flight were heightened for me by its very invisibility, for while I actually saw no geese at all, that sound was everywhere. And what guided those creatures, I wondered — magnetic lines of force, genes, innate knowledge — or what? And I knew that no objective reasoning processes alone could explain their magnificent flight.

Somehow the twice-yearly, north-and-south migrations of the geese have become symbols for me of the known and unknown qualities of life — sublime and indecipherable at the same time, enduring yet fleeting, and almost outside of the range of human events. For me, those migrations have become portents of the seasons and of the earth itself as it swings around “our” sun in great rhythms. The one consciousness (mine) stands in its body on the ground and looks up at the strange variations of itself represented by the geese. And wonders. In their own ways, do the geese wonder also? What kind of hidden interchanges between species take place at such times? If the question could he answered, would all of reality in its unending mystery lie revealed before us?