“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“As I looked up at the soldier’s head and shoulders, I believe (with some hesitancy) that I confronted another version of myself. The whole thing was so nebulous — I was almost a disinterested observer, as I’d been while perceiving my first three Roman episodes. Perhaps this affair was engendered by a book I’ve just started to read; it contains descriptions of the long siege that Imperial Rome, whose military forces had occupied Palestine for 60 years, began against a rebellious Jerusalem in the year 66. I don’t know whether or not the city had a wall surrounding it earlier in that century, but assume it did.³

“My only touch of emotion was involved with this second image; as I first saw it, I felt light thrillings in my body, coupled with a somewhat fearful reaction. I trust the thrilling sensations, since over the years I’ve learned that they signify something psychically legitimate for me⁵; their onset now at least reinforced my suspicion that the tumbling figure was me. Yet, I’m not sure. I slept.

“Several interesting — and frustrating — questions are raised by today’s episode. As stated, this makes the second time that I’ve had an experience involving the violent death of a Roman soldier in the earlier part of the first century A.D. (I never did arrive at names for those two militant individuals.) Perhaps both instances are merely my own psychological reflections of present concerns or challenges, although I think that more is involved. Given Seth’s concept of simultaneous time, the best connection I’ve made so far between the two soldiers is that as counterparts of mine they explore questions having to do with authority. As I rebel against authority now — a characteristic remarked upon by Seth in the 721st session — so do my Roman selves in their times.

5. I experienced much stronger thrilling sensations two and a half weeks ago, during my perceptions of myself as Maumee, the black woman who lived in Jamaica in the early 1800’s. See the opening notes for the 721st session, with its Note 1. In Appendix 21, Seth remarked that those suffusing feelings are my personal sign that I’ve made a “neurological changeover.” When that happens I seem able to at least glimpse other time periods, other realities.

13. Early in this appendix I wrote that I added these notes later, to give “ordinary background material” for my fourth Roman. So now, what do I make of the considerable similarities between my Jerusalem episode and Peter’s? Although his internal data reinforce mine to some extent, he can be no more specific about a physical location in the city for his visions than I can be for mine. (See Note 6.) I’ve also written about the conflicts involving authority that I believe my two Roman soldiers are expressing. Here I feel on more “solid ground” symbolically than physically. Just as I do, Peter rebels in his own peaceful ways against conventional authority, preferring to go his individual route in the arts, no matter how dubious his rewards may be.

(Fortunately, class member Sue Watkins managed to tape all but the first few paragraphs of the session, but even the sense of those was taken down in longhand by another student while Sue got our recorder going. [I really enjoyed letting someone else do all the work for a change!] Later that week, Sue transcribed Seth’s material, wrote all of the notes for the session, and prepared mimeographed copies for everyone. Only portions of the session are given here, and I’ve rearranged them — and Sue’s notes — a bit for convenience’s sake. From her transcript, then:)

2. I’ve given fictitious names to Jane’s students, “Alex” and “Warren.”