“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In important ways, Jane’s work is outside of society’s accepted frameworks — scientific, “occult,” philosophical, or whatever. Not that we dwell upon that comparative isolation much, but we are aware of it. And I know that Jane sometimes misses the kind of camaraderie enjoyed by professionals who fit more comfortably into accepted structures. Actually, though, we consider many of our correspondents as friends, even though we never meet most of them, and despite the fact that Jane can only reply to their cheering communications with Seth’s dictated letter (as well as our own), or with notes scribbled quickly on postcards. We’ve become quite aware of that kind of support, for which we’re very grateful. Many such people are somewhat like us — refusing to accept any kind of dogma.

I hope these Introductory Notes have prepared the reader to take up “Unknown” Reality in the middle, more or less, with the 705th session. But as I wrote in introducing Volume 1, whatever comments I make along the way will explain Jane’s trance performances from my view, as best I can offer them — her behavior while she’s “under,” the varied, powerful or muted use of her voice as she speaks for Seth, her stamina and humor in sessions, the speed or slowness of her delivery. But above all I try to help the reader appreciate the uncanny feeling of energy and/or intelligence — of personality — in the sessions, as exemplified by and through Seth; conscious energy, then, taking a guise that’s at least somewhat comprehensible to us, in our terms of reality, so that we can understand what’s happening.

The appendix idea worked out well in The Seth Material and in Seth Speaks, and in both volumes of “Unknown” Reality each excerpt or session in an appendix, with whatever notes it might carry, is usually fairly complete in itself. These pieces can be read at any time, but I’d rather the reader went over each one when it’s first mentioned in a footnote; just as he or she ought to check out all other reference material in order throughout both volumes. I think it especially informative to compare Jane’s Psychic Politics with Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality, for she produced large sections of both works concurrently; there are many interesting exchanges of viewpoint between the two.