“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.)

The Sumari abilities are highly creative ones, however. To a large extent they have been inhibited in your society. I have been speaking of them here so that each individual can learn to recognize his or her own degree of Sumariness. The playful, creative elements of personality can then be released. These qualities are particularly important as they add to, temper, or enhance the primary characteristics of the other families of consciousness.

Following this analogy, in the same way each psyche contains within it infinite notes, and each note is capable of its own endless creative variations. You follow one melody of yourself, and for some reason you seem to think that the true, full orchestra of yourself will somehow drown you out (intently).

Returning to our comments about the alternate compositions, you can at any time bring into your own life-composition elements from any “alternate” ones. Period.

Some people structure their lives around their children, others around a career, or pleasure, or even pain. Again, these are simply certain focuses that you choose, that direct your experience. You can add other focuses while still retaining your own identity — indeed, enriching it.

Sometimes you act as though one ability contradicts another. You think “I cannot be a good parent and a sexual partner to my mate at the same time.” To those who feel this way a definite contradiction seems implied. A woman might feel that the qualities of a mother almost stand in opposition to those of an exuberant sex mate. A man might imagine that fatherhood meant providing an excellent home and income. He might think that “aggressiveness,”⁶ competition, and emotional aloofness were required to perform that role. These would be considered in opposition to the qualities of love, understanding, and emotional support “required” of a husband. In actuality, of course, no such contradictions apply. In the same way, however, you often seem to feel that your identity is dependent upon a certain highly specific role, until other qualities quite your own seem threatening. They almost seem to be unselflike.⁷

So you look back through the historical past. All of the counterparts alive as contemporaries then form, together, a musical composition in what you think of as a present; and once that multidimensional song is struck then its past ripples out behind it, so to speak, and its future sings “ahead.” But the song is being created from its beginning and its end simultaneously. In this case, however, it is as if each note has its own consciousness and is free to change its portion of the melody. Yet all are in the same overall composition, in “time,” so that time itself serves as the scale (gesturing) in which the [musical] number is written — chosen as a matter of organization, focus, and framework.

In the last few sentences there is an intuitive “definition” of probable and reincarnational selves, and counterparts, in relationship to the self that you know. In your case, however, you can change your own pacing, add variations, or even begin an entirely new composition if you choose to. Now many people have done this in very simple, mundane ways by suddenly deciding to use abilities they had earlier ignored. A man of letters, for instance, at the age of 40 suddenly remembers his old love of carpentry, reads do-it-yourself manuals, and begins his own home repairs. After disdaining such activities as beneath him for years, he suddenly discovers an intimate relationship with earth and its goods, and this appreciation adds to words that before may have been as dry as ash.

(10:48.) In that case, you see, there would be in another reality a carpenter or his equivalent with a latent love of words, unexpressed — and that individual would then begin to develop; reading books on how to write, perhaps, and taking up a hobby that would allow him to express in words his love of the land and its goods. (With emphasis:) The creativity of the psyche means that no one world or experience could ever contain it. Therefore does it create the dimensions in which it then has its experiences.

Each portion, by whatever name, contains within it the latent potentials of the whole. If the unknown reality exists, it is because you play one melody over and over and so identify yourself, while closing out, consciously at least, all of the other possible variations that you could add to that tune.

There are many kinds of music. I could say: “Music is triumphant,” or “Music is tragic.” You would understand that I am not contradicting myself. You would not say, or (humorously) at least I hope you would not say: “Why would anyone write a composition like Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique?”⁸ Why would a composer choose a somber mood? The music itself would have its own sweep and power, and would indeed be beautiful beyond all concepts of good and evil.

(All very intent, leaning forward, eyes wide and dark:) In some manner, even a tragic composition of merit transcends tragedy itself. The composer was exultant in the midst of the deepest emotions of tragedy, or even of defeat. In such cases the tragedy itself is chosen as an emotional framework upon which the psyche plays. The framework is not thrust upon it, but indeed chosen precisely because of its own characteristics — even those of despondency, perhaps.

He picks, or she picks, victims as intuitively as the victim seeks out the slayer. On the other hand, Mary’s experiences in life may make her change her mind, so to speak, so that at 17 she encounters a severe illness instead, from which she victoriously recovers. Or she might narrowly miss being murdered when a bullet from the killer’s gun hits the person next to her. On an entirely different level and in a different way, she might have no such experiences but be a writer of murder mysteries, or a nurse in surgery. The particular variations that one person might play are endless. You cannot consciously begin to alter the framework of your life, however, unless you realize first of all that you form it. The melody is your own. It is not inevitable, nor is it the only tune that you can play.

To some extent you can actualize portions of your own unknown reality, and draw them into the experienced area of your life. There is an obvious relationship between one note and another in a musical composition. Now in terms of physical families and in larger terms of countries, there is a relationship between realities, which constantly change as the notes do. To some extent your reality is picked up by your contemporaries. They accept it or not according to the particular theme or focus of their lives.

In those terms, you are not a part of any reality that is not your own. If you share it with others, it is because others are concerned with variations of the same theme. This applies in terms of world goals “at any given time.”

(“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.”

2. Every so often I’ve referred to the inconveniences of apartment living for us, especially those involving that ever-present, ever-growing traffic noise. During break for the 726th session, which was held on December 16, 1974, I wrote that we planned to start looking for a house of our own as soon as I finished the illustrations for Dialogues. Our need for a certain kind of privacy and quiet has become very strong. At the same time, we want to avoid the sense of isolation that might result if we move into the country. I’d probably like that, but realized some time ago that such a situation would bother Jane considerably.

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:

“Even in the country, houses can have a closed quality if the mountains or trees press too tightly. The land that you own is important, but the visible land that you do not own is also, and you should be in sight of a mountain or some open area, while still having a private ‘secret’ area also.”

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:

3. In Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, see sessions 693–94, with their notes.

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.

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.”