“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Student Bill Herriman is a professional pilot who flies a considerable distance to Elmira for class; his counterpart in class, Carl Jones, lives in Elmira each summer while giving instructions in sailplane flying, the third member of the counterpart trio, Bill Granger, is not a member of class, lives in Elmira, has always had a deep interest in aircraft, and is now learning to pilot sailplanes. Carl Jones knows Bill Herriman and Bill Granger well — but Bill Herriman and Bill Granger have never met; all three are obviously males; all bear a general physical resemblance; all fall within a certain rather broad age bracket. The close observer could, I think, find among the three men more physical and psychological correlations [some having to do with illness], as well as meaningful opposing features, so that in this instance the counterpart relationships can be seen as quite apropos.

(I began this short appendix a couple of weeks after the 732nd session was held, but didn’t finish certain parts of it until some time later. Seth’s naming a good number of class members as counterparts came as no great surprise to Jane and me — but it did make us more than a little suspicious at first. We’ve been thinking about counterpart ideas since Seth introduced the concept two months ago; see the opening notes for the 721st session. Then, in the 726th session, Seth named Jane and me as counterparts of each other. Although we keep the power of suggestion in mind, on one level we found Seth’s associations quite pleasant for the most part, and, once given, somewhat as we might have expected them to be. Yet I felt no strong surge of emotion, for instance, to learn that Norma Pryor [whom I’ve met but a few times], Peter Smith, and Jack Pierce are counterparts of mine — nor did they when I read Seth’s material to them during ESP class six nights later. Jane’s feelings were pretty similar to mine, when Seth named three students as her counterparts: Sue Watkins, Zelda, and “the young man from Maryland….”

(I found it very interesting to consider my class counterparts with that general designation of them in mind. Peter and I had rather idly speculated that because of our common interests we could have reincarnational ties.² Seth’s naming Norma as being psychically affiliated with me was unexpected, however. Norma is a new member of class. She’s from out of town, and I hardly know her [she’s also so quiet]; but even so, I could see how it was possible that she could be embarked upon her own series of lifetime challenges while expressing certain qualities of the entity, or whole self from, which we both emerged. Some of her characteristics, which I’ve just begun to glimpse, complement some of mine; others are opposing. And Norma, of course, would turn all of this around and examine it from her own very independent viewpoint.

(Our suspicions entered in, however, when Jane and I realized that between us [and including each other] we were personally acquainted with nine counterparts: All but one of them [Alan Koch] were class members. As Jane wrote:

(Neither Jane or I could remember what Monday evening’s session is all about — even though I’d read part of it from my “shorthand” notes to the members of ESP class last night. [...]

Most of the people who come to Ruburt’s classes are Sumari,⁷ for example. [...]

[...] Most of the people are members of Jane’s class; some have met certain of their counterparts, but not others; Jane, Sue, and I are the only ones who know everyone Seth named. [...]

Now: I am using this group of Ruburt’s class as an example, but the same applies, again, to any group.