“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Jane died in the hospital at 2:08 a.m. on Wednesday, September 5, 1984, after being there, quite helpless in certain ways, for a year and nine months. It was the third time she’d been hospitalized since February 1982. Since her death many have written to both sympathize and to ask “Why?” She had Seth, didn’t she — for whom she spoke for some 21 years; she also produced six books with him along the way (plus a number of books on her “own”). Why hadn’t Seth gotten her out of her dilemma, turned the magic key in the proper psychic lock? She was only 55 years old when she died. She could have lived for another 20 years, say, and contributed even more to our knowledge, both with Seth and by herself. She could have become world famous had she chosen to go that route.

During those 21 months in the hospital, Jane, Seth, and I said much about her physical/psychic condition, and I recorded it all in my homemade shorthand as best I could under often very stressful conditions. In all that time I missed spending up to six or more hours a day with my wife only once, because of a heavy snowstorm. For weeks after her admittance in April, I didn’t know if Jane would ever do any “psychic” work again, but three months later she surprised me by beginning a series of dialogues similar to the “world-view” material she’d produced for her books on the psychologist and philosopher William James, and the artist Paul Cézanne. Once again, she was inspired by my questions on art and related matters. “At least I feel I’m doing something I’m made for,” she said when starting the new project. She concluded it in September 1983, then over the next four months delivered a series of 71 mostly short, mostly personal Seth sessions. She finished that series on January 2, 1984 — and began The Way Toward Health the next day.

Robert F. Butts
Elmira, New York
September 1997