“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(That concentration upon places to live reminded us of families, of course — “regular” families as well as Seth’s families of consciousness. While I drove us back to our apartment house for supper we discussed the incredibly complicated roles and events surrounding those different kinds of organizations — whereupon Jane came up with a most apt phrase: “The genealogy of events….” She laughed, then added: “As families of people have their genealogies, so do families of events.”⁴

(As we waited for the session to begin Jane abruptly received a block of impressions from Seth. They concerned the opposing uses of personal power by two individuals whom we’d encountered within the last week: the woman lawyer who had interrupted the session last Wednesday evening, and who is so afraid of her power; and the young classical guitarist who had visited us last night, and who revels in the positive use of his power. The impressions are for use in either “Unknown” Reality, Jane said, or in Psychic Politics.⁵ She grinned: “Thanks, Seth.” Then she launched into the session before I could finish these notes. I came back to them at first break.)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(Occasionally Seth will make this kind of correction in his material.)

(12:01 A.M. The ending was quick. Jane’s trances and deliveries had been excellent — strong and vital. “Seth’s going into historical probabilities in the next session,” she said. “I could go into that stuff right now, I feel so good. I could do it for another hour without any hassle. There’s a lot there on national counterparts, too.”¹² Then while I wrote this note she proceeded to tell me more about what Seth had in mind.

(“Tonight I did have the feeling — for the first time — that ‘Unknown’ Reality was heading toward an end,” Jane said, “that Seth will soon be getting ready to tie it up, and incorporate the ending with the beginning … Not right away; but it’s the first time I’ve felt that.”

(Actually, she now had many channels open from Seth. It seemed that every topic we mentioned engendered another one. Seth even had “a bunch of stuff” available on Jane, myself, and music. This included data on my starting to take violin lessons when I was eight years old — an event I hadn’t thought of for what seemed to be decades [it took place in 1927], but which I was able to instantly recall as soon as Jane mentioned it.)

The 726th session was held on a Monday night, and was the last one for “Unknown” Reality for the year. During a private session on the Wednesday night following, Seth had a few things to say relative to our upcoming house adventures:

It will be interesting to see how many of the points Seth mentioned above tally with the place Jane and I finally acquire.

For those who may be puzzled by Seth’s reference to “pendulums,” I’ll quote a paragraph of my own for the 619th session at 10:01, in Chapter 4 of Personal Reality:

5. In very gentle ways, Jane did eventually use some of Seth’s impressions relative to both people — but cast in her own vernacular — for Chapter 18 of Politics. In that chapter she also began presenting, again from her viewpoint, material on our house-hunting activities; she plans to continue doing so in subsequent chapters.

6. For some of Seth’s material in Personal Reality on true aggression, see Session 634 for Chapter 8, and Session 642 for Chapter 11.

7. In Volume 1, see Appendix 2 for Seth’s discussion of the conflicts I felt between my artistic, writing, and sportsman selves. I spent a number of years working to resolve those feelings. From the private session for January 30, 1974, which I quoted in Appendix 2: “Your father’s creativity … had its side of secrecy, privacy and aloneness … you identified creatively with his private nature. The writing self became latent as the sportsman did, yet the writing self and the artist were closely bound. You felt conflicts at time. It never occurred to you that the two aspects could release one another — one illuminating the other — and both be fulfilled. Instead you saw them as basically conflicting. You believed the painting self had to be protected … as you felt that your father had to protect his creative self in the household….”

8. It’s no coincidence that Seth used the Pathetique here in his material. The symphony is, probably, Jane’s and my favorite musical composition. We “discovered” the Pathetique during our courtship 21 years ago, and many times during the following months we listened to the two scratchy old records that carried the piece. But even then we were impressed — awed — by its creative power, over and above the obvious emotional connotations we put upon it.

9. Much of Seth’s material in Chapter 18 of Personal Reality applies here; see especially Session 665. Then see (in the same book) Session 667 for Chapter 19.

10. For some Seth material on suicide, see the first delivery for the 546th session, in Chapter 11 of Seth Speaks. In the 642nd session for Chapter 11 of Personal Reality, Seth mentioned that suicide can be “the result of passivity and distorted aggression, and of natural pathways of communication not used or understood.”

11. See the 657th session for Chapter 15 of Personal Reality; Seth talked about how to “repattern your past from the present.”

12. A note added later: I’m sorry to write that Seth didn’t discuss historical probabilities in the 736th session, or national counterparts either. I forgot to remind Jane of those topics before that session, just as I forgot to ask Seth about them while he was speaking. Several more sessions were held before I discovered the lapse, which occurred partly because I hadn’t typed the 735th session yet, and neglected to refer to my handwritten notes, and partly because in the meantime Seth had returned to his material on the families of consciousness. My error was unfortunate, since I feel that his information would have been most original, enhancing future sessions.

(I should add that those reasons do not involve any particular unwillingness on Seth’s part to do this, nor is it that those data we want may have evaporated beyond his recall.)