“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Now these notes hark back to the end of the 732nd session, when I wrote a paragraph concerning Sue Watkins, our longtime friend who attends class as often as she can these days from the small town where she now lives, some 35 miles north of Elmira. Jane listed Seth’s families of consciousness last month in Session 732, but wound up the evening’s work thinking that several years ago, soon after she’d initiated the Sumari breakthrough, Sue had psychically tuned in on the name of a second family of consciousness — one that Seth didn’t give in the 732nd session. Jane thought the family name was similar to the “Gramada” that Seth had described; at session’s end I wrote that I intended to check our records for the missing name, and to ask Seth about it — but I neglected to do either of those things. One of the reasons for my failure to settle the matter right away was the lack of any immediate pressure to do so, for we hadn’t seen Sue since before the 729th session was held; that’s over five weeks ago now; newspaper work has often kept her too busy to make the trip to Elmira.

The personalities possess a keen resiliency of both body and mind, and serve as a strong earth stock. It goes without saying that members of one family often marry into other families. Of course the same thing happens here. When this occurs new stability is inserted, for this particular family acts as a source-stock, providing physical and mental strength. Period. Physically speaking, these people often have many children, and usually the offspring do well in whatever area of life is chosen. (Pause.) Biologically speaking, they possess certain qualities that nullify “negative” codes in the genes.² They are usually very healthy people, and marriage into this group can automatically end generations of so-called inherited weaknesses.³

These parents do not sacrifice themselves for the sake of their children. They understand too well the burden that is placed upon such offspring. Instead, the parents retain their own clear sense of identity and their individual characteristics, serving as clear examples to the children of loving, independent adults.

(10:01.) Throughout the ages they have served as the spreaders of ideas, the assimilators. They (the Ilda) turn up everywhere. They were pirates and slaves as well, historically speaking. They are often primarily involved in social changes. In your time they may be diplomats, as they were also in the past. Their characteristics are usually those of the adventuresome. Very seldom do they live in one place for long, although they may if their occupation deals with products from another land. Individually they may seem highly diverse in nature, one from the other, but you will not find them as a rule in universities as teachers. You might find them as archaeologists in the field, however.

(So far, Jane and I haven’t been able to find a home that we intuitively feel is the right one, although the place on Foster Avenue has intrigued us considerably since we first saw it on February 3. [Since then we’ve looked at many other houses.] Last Thursday afternoon [February 13], Jane was busy with her creative writing class so I went house hunting alone. Without feeling any great curiosity I checked out one place we’d seen before: the hill house. Once again I thought it wouldn’t do for us. Jane agreed when I asked her about it at the supper table.⁷

The [other] couple also interested in the Foster Avenue house are musicians — attracted to it for the same reasons that you were. You would find their house in Sayre interesting. They are primarily teachers of music, however. Their purposes do not necessarily involve the same kind of privacy that you want, although they think it attractive.¹³

Since you both work at home, those houses do not fit you, generally speaking.¹⁴ Work is not incorporated into daily family life, but certainly exists apart from it — something you find, each of you, relatively inconceivable. You can see farms better, though you are not farmers, simply because there also work and home life are one.

I suggested that you take it (but see my note in the material at next break). It would have been good for you both, but you were afraid of it, and your feelings had much to do with the contract being turned down (by the Veteran’s Administration). That house represented what each of you thought of as unbridled, undisciplined creativity. It was dirty and cluttered. The artist had children who ran about without any control. There was much playfulness there, however, that could have tempered some of your great mutual seriousness at the time. You did not choose to accept such a probability then, any more than you could have accepted my advice all the way. The authorities turned the contract down — but the authorities stood for the inner disciplinarians, and you did not want to share your road with the world; nor did you want, later, to share your driveway (for the Sayre house) with your neighbor.

(11:43. I told Jane that, once heard, much of Seth’s material had the quality of being so obvious that we in turn seemed to be quite opaque not to have reached the same conclusions ourselves. After considering the alternatives Seth suggested immediately following last break I decided to leave his delivery in place in the session as a guide for the reader; parallels can be drawn with many other situations, I think having nothing to do with art or houses.

The present owner, even, of the Foster house thinks of it as “work,” since she herself is a … working [real estate] person. Ruburt finds the rugs there out of place, however, because they do not fit in with his ideas of work areas. The owner, however, is quite proud of them. Her work in that respect is to decorate, and the rugs represent her idea of what belongs in the house.

(“Do you want to say something more about that auditory experience of Jane’s?”)

In more general terms, how do the members of each family operate through the mechanics of reincarnation? Or of probabilities or counterparts? It’s also important to keep in mind what Seth told us in his first delivery for the 735th session: “Each personality carries traces of other characteristics besides those of the family of consciousness to which he or she might belong … A book would be needed to explain the dimensions of the psyche in relationship to the various families of consciousness.”

8. As she lay down for a nap last Friday afternoon, Jane asked her inner self to let her know what to do — specifically — about buying the house on Foster Avenue. She fell asleep, then drifted off into a relatively bland dream. Suddenly a male voice burst loudly through that dream fabric in a very intrusive way, saying only: “Wait a few days.”

Jane woke up. “That wasn’t Seth’s voice, but I recognized it as giving me the answer I wanted,” she told me later. “I had no doubt. It was even clearer because the dream, which I can hardly remember, was so vague. But even after I got the answer I was too worked up to follow it. I wanted to do something, take some action.” The result was that on Saturday we made our low offer for the Foster Avenue place, as described in the notes at first break. We did so mainly to relieve the psychic charges we’d built up concerning it, thinking that if we were so inclined later we could make a higher bid.

10. This afternoon Jane and I had spontaneously decided to lay our work aside and go for a drive. We needed the brief change. Neither of us had any conscious intentions of making the trip to Sayre, which lies just across the New York State border in Pennsylvania, some 18 miles east and south of Elmira. We found ourselves doing so, however; we also found ourselves driving past the house we’d considered buying there last year. I received a distinct shock of surprise when I saw the familiar “For Sale” sign still tacked to the front of the house. So did Jane — although she’s never been drawn to it in the way that I am. We’d been informed months ago that the place had been sold. This new joint perception of ours set a whole group of events into motion — all of which were connected to those described in sessions 693–94 (see Note 9).