“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Last Thursday I finished the final pen-and-ink drawing of the 40 I’d planned for Jane’s book of poetry, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time.¹ I spent Friday checking the batch, then on Saturday morning I mailed them to Tam Mossman, Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall. That afternoon we talked with a real estate agent, Debbie [not her real name], whom we’ve known for some time. Sunday we rested. And today we began house hunting.²

(Jane and I were also interested in the fact that we’d seldom been on Foster Avenue, even though it lay within comfortable walking distance of the apartment house we lived in on Water Street; nor could either of us recall having noticed the “Foster Avenue place” before. We speculated that we’d “homed in on it” now, as if for the first time, because our combined focus was opening up in the direction of homes.

The psyche as you know it, then, is composed of a mixture of these families of consciousness. One is not superior to the others. They are just different, and they represent various ways of looking at physical life. (Pause.) A book would be needed to explain the dimensions of the psyche in relation to the different families of consciousness. Here, in this manuscript, I merely want to make the reader aware of the existence of these psychic groupings. I am alert to the fact that I am using many terms, and that it may seem difficult to understand the differences between probable and reincarnational selves, counterparts and families of consciousness. At times contradictions may seem to exist. You may wonder how you are you in the midst of such multitudinous psychic “variations.”

An apple can be red, round, weigh so much, be good to eat, sit in a basket, but be natural on a tree. It can be tart or sweet. You can find one on the ground, or on a table, or in a pie. None of these things are contradictory to the nature of an apple. You do not ask: “How can an apple have color and be round at the same time?”

(9:40.) So far, you do not hold your consciousness in your hand, however. When I speak of the behavior of your psyche, then, you may wonder: “How can my psyche exist in more than one time at once?” It can do this just as an apple can be found on a table or on the ground or on the tree.

The inside dimensions of consciousness cannot be so easily described, however. If you ask: “How can I have reincarnational and probable selves at once?”, you are asking a question comparable to the one mentioned earlier, colon: “How can an apple have color and be round at the same time?”

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.

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 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.”

(The phone stopped ringing — at last.) As contemporaries, counterparts choose a particular time framework. The time format alone makes certain focuses clear, that in your terms could not be made in another context. What you learn in your present about industry — “progress” — and the equitable sharing of the earth’s products, could only be learned in a context in which industrialism was experienced as going too far, where technology was seen and known as a growing jeopardy.

(“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.”

1. I was about a month behind schedule in finishing the illustrations for Dialogues; see Note 1 for the 705th session. The delay doesn’t matter in this case, though. Jane’s publisher still has plenty of “lead time” for the production of the book, since it won’t be marketed until the fall of 1975.

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.

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.