“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Speaking of names, this is the time to remind all that Seth calls both Jane and me by male names: Ruburt and Joseph. Why does he speak of Jane as a male — and so as “he” and “him?” In Note 6 for Session 679, in Volume 1, I quoted Seth from the 12th session for January 2, 1964:) Sex, regardless of all your fleshy tales, is a psychic phenomenon, merely certain qualities which you call male and female. The qualities are real, however, and permeate other planes as well as your own. They are opposites which are nevertheless complementary, and which merge into one. When I say as I have that the overall entity [or whole self] is neither male nor female, and yet refer to [some] entities by definite male names such as “Ruburt” and “Joseph,” I merely mean that in the overall essence, the [given] entity identifies itself more with the so-called male characteristics than with the female.

(Sessions 12 through 15 are briefly quoted in Note 4 for the 680th session, in Volume 1; Seth remarked upon the impossibility of closed systems, his own senses [including something of their limits], his ability to visit other “planes” of reality, and his “incipient” man’s form.

(From the 22nd session for February 4, 1964:) I have never trusted the written word half as much as I trust the spoken word, and on your plane it is difficult to trust either. But I do not feel that I could be myself as easily by means of automatic writing, for example. I do not mind speaking through Ruburt’s mouth — somehow the sound of the words is rather pleasant. But seeing myself transformed more or less into plain black and white words on a sheet of paper seems dull and uninteresting. And I have always enjoyed conversation, which is the liveliest of all arts….

To me this [reincarnational and family material] is all so obvious that I almost hesitate to mention it, but this is because I tend to forget what human existence on your plane actually involves….

We have gone into this before, and I have no doubt that we will on endless occasions. And if I succeed in convincing you of my reality as a personality, I will have done extremely well … Ruburt’s subconscious has enough camouflage pattern to enable me to make contact, but not so much as to distort me out of all recognition. I am not his subconscious, though I speak through it. It is the atmosphere through which I can come to you, as the air is the atmosphere through which the bird flies. A certain reassembly of myself is necessary when I enter your plane, and this is done partially by myself, and by the combined subconscious efforts of you, Joseph, and Ruburt. Will this satisfy you for now?

13. Following his comments about his reassembly in our reality, Seth went into some analogous material (in that 28th session) that I’ve always wanted to see published. In part, then: “Condensed time is the time felt or experienced by the entity, while any of its given personalities ‘live’ — and you had better put that in quotes — on a plane of physical materializations. To go into this a bit further, many men have said that life was a dream. They were true to the facts in one strong regard, and yet far afield as far as the main issue is concerned.

“… the part that translates inner data sifts it down through the subconscious, which is a barrier and also a threshold to the present camouflage personality. I have said that the topmost part of the subconscious contains personal memories, that beneath these are racial memories, and so forth. Things are simply not layered in the way I speak of them, but continuing with the necessary analogy, on the other side of (or beneath, to you) the racial memories, you no longer exist within your plane; you look out upon another with the face of this other self-conscious part of you. This part receives inner data, is in contact with the entity to some greater degree than you are in contact with your dreams, and actually directs all of the important functions that you think are either automatically or unconsciously controlled.

“We have spoken of the biological interdependence and cooperation among organisms in your physical universe. The appearance of an individual into the physical realm is aided by the psychic collaboration of individuals on your plane. Almost at once the new libido takes up its adopted duty of maintaining the physical universe, along with all others. If it did not do so it would not exist for long. Cooperation on all levels is the necessity on all planes.

26. Although in that 1971 class Seth stressed his experiences with the human condition through reincarnation, in 1964 he’d had this to say: “To me this [reincarnational and family material] is all so obvious that I almost hesitate to mention it, but this is because I tend to forget what human experience on your plane actually involves.” (See the excerpts from the 27th session in this appendix.) In that early session Seth spoke to me alone; in class he faced a large group. I’d say that from his position or focus as an “energy personality essence” both attitudes are true, rather than contradictory — and that one or the other predominated according to the circumstances and subject matter of the session involved. I don’t think the time gap between the two sessions — seven years — was a factor.