“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I equate this with three events: a movie I saw on TV the night before last where Sean Connery sees through the god of his people after reading The Wizard of Oz; a Raggedy Ann doll Rob found in the yard and brought in that reminded me of my old Suzie; and a part of a review I read yesterday on a book about death. The book was based on the idea that nature was against man; and that religion was man’s attempt to operate within that unsafe context. [...]

(At lunch today I read the latest group of poems Jane has prepared for her book of poetry for Prentice-Hall.¹

[...] If you remember the early portions of our latest book (Mass Events), then this information should fall into place, for consciousness emerged from the inside outward. [...]

1. Jane called her book of poetry If We Live Again: Or, Public Magic and Private Love, and Prentice-Hall published it in 1982.

Jane also wrote three introductory essays for the book. [...]

Three years ago there was no Cézanne or James books. [...] James had been thought of, but Ruburt certainly had no idea he would, or could, possibly write a book on painting.

Now the books exist, for no impediments were put in the way here, yet again there was no physical evidence. Ruburt had written books before—but Ruburt has walked before also.

There will be three books rather than two, more or less clumped together. [...]

[...] A plan for a book will evolve, and other plans. [...]

(The data above on a third book for Jane was entirely unexpected by us, and unasked for. [...]

(A few more notes from the Mossman phone call to Jane today: Tam told Jane the book on the Seth material was practically a certainty; that is, as certain as one can get until a contract is signed. [...]

[...] For one thing, in that larger framework mentioned earlier in this book, illness itself is a part of life’s overall activity. Disease states, so-called, are as necessary to physical life as normal health is, so we are not speaking of a nirvana on earth — but we are saying that it is possible for each reader of this book to quicken his or her private perceptions, and to extend and expand the quality of ordinary consciousness enough so that by contrast to current experience, life could almost be thought of as “heaven on earth.”

(4:47.) A note: This will be the last chapter of the first part of the book — which is to be called “Dilemmas.” [...]

(Rachel quoted from the book, The Sky People.)

[...] The excerpts from the book that Ruburt read from in class earlier this evening were highly distorted but they were less damaging, the excerpts read in particular, than the excerpts you just described. [...]

[...] There are also some excellent points in that book and I will at some time, in your terms, begin a discussion or a monologue, on the origin of mankind as you know it. [...]

[...] See her Introduction to this book.

[...] The inner knowledge can be compared to a book about a homeland that a traveler takes with him into a strange country. [...]

[...] She liked it so much that she read it to ESP class, as she has done with a few previous segments from the book.)

(Jane said this was not the answer she would have given in her book on idea construction. [...]

(Jane then asked me if her book, To Hear a Dolphin, would be accepted by the publisher who now had it. [...]

(I said the book would be accepted this month, and that some changes would be asked for. [...]

The books are different, however, while the poetry carries the more clearly recognizable stamp of his accepted identity, so he was afraid that I would lead people astray unwittingly perhaps, through the energy and power of our communications. [...] But also how basically easy it was for his, say, Cézanne and James books also, for creatively he moved very quickly. [...]

[...] For it gave us the extra time to have these sessions before the book’s publication. [...]

[...] He did not feel the same way about his poetry, which largely in its way states the same messages that our own books do. [...]

[...] Ruburt was presented with—or presented himself with—a situation in which large portions of his creative life appeared in books that were written in another state of consciousness entirely. [...]

Ruburt began to feel a pressure as the books became better known to carry out a kind of responsibility, not simply to sell books, for example, but to get the message out into the world, to help others—all considerations that seemed to be—he thought—the acceptance of adult behavior on his part: actions that would be more or less expected of him. [...]

[...] Before the session began I tried to locate the remark, but couldn’t. I felt considerable frustration, and finally laid the book aside. [...]

[...] To some extent—with some important variances, having to do with quite legitimate ideas of art—such feelings have also been behind many of your own responses to, say, the appearance of the books, as public packages in the world (intently). [...]

[...] Your own difficulty with notes on our books or whatever comes mainly when you forget your own self-directedness and sense of enjoyment, and replace those with a sense of responsibility. [...]

[...] Bates’s book, or rather philosophy, suggesting that the eyes were not made for reading, is an example of a different kind, implying that there were no books when the eye was created—and so therefore it is not natural for the eye to see letters—while it is natural for the eye to see, say, trees. [...]

(By way of contrast, I want to add here that this week Jane has been notified by Prentice-Hall of their most enthusiastic reception of her children’s book, Emir. Not only that, it appears that Prentice-Hall may have found at the same time the ideal illustrator for the work; black-and-white copies of sample illustrations have been sent to Jane, done by the female artist, with Tam’s assurances that the color is brilliant.

[...] To some extent, again then, the sale of a book, a new sale, is somehow connected in your mind with disapproval of yourself, Joseph, in that Ruburt seems able to express what I think you interpret as competitiveness, that you feel you are not expressing—and you add that to your arsenal of disapproval. [...]

The 1973 session book Ruburt is reading has helped him, simply because it rearouses the feelings of psychic, creative and physical improvement he did achieve, and because it contains in capsule form all—most all—of the important material I have given, though some of it no longer applies.

Many of the ideas given in this book can be used most advantageously to solve personal problems. [...]

(Seth burst out with loud and emphatic humor this time because of the work Jane and I have done in recent weeks as we proofread this book, checking all my notes that are included, and so forth.)

[...] The “story of your life” is written by you, by each reader of this book. [...]

[...] Nor could I keep all of Seth’s book in mind, even though I was working with the manuscript just now. [...]

[...] There may be a book, a fairly large one, beneath the paper, with something like dull gold-edged pages, or so it would appear when the book is closed. And brownish covers to the book.

[...] When we were set up for the session, I placed a lighted candle on the shelf beside me, behind some books so that Jane could not see it. [...]

[...] Some books or papers on the bed. [...]

I do not believe it is a new book. [...]

This applies—again, generally speaking—whether or not actual book dictation is involved. Difficulties arise, however, in book dictation on those occasions when he becomes too heavy-handed and worries about the responsibility of helping to solve the world’s problems—about his or my capacities in that regard, and when he considers the possible and various objections that any given subject matter might activate on the part of any given group of people. [...]

(10:20.) Our books and sessions are primarily a celebration of life, not a justification of it, or an excuse or apology for the conditions of physical reality. [...]

It is further inhibited if that sense of responsibility is wedded to solving the problems of the world or of correspondents, or when such an attempt is allowed to tinge any book sessions. [...]

The collection will include our family trees; my father’s journals and photographs; Jane’s and my own grade-school, high-school, college, and family data; our youthful creative efforts in writing and painting; the comic books and other commercial artwork I produced; our early published and unpublished short stories; my original notes for the sessions; session transcripts, whether published or unpublished, “regular,” private, or from ESP class; tapes, including those made in class of Jane speaking for Seth and/or singing in Sumari; our notes, dream records, journals, and manuscripts; our sketches and paintings; Jane’s extensive poetry; our business correspondence; books, contracts, and files; newsletters about the Seth material, published in the United States and abroad (independently of Jane and me); the greater number of letters from readers—in short, a mass of material showing how our separate beginnings flowed together and resulted in the production of a joint lifework.

Later in the book I will discuss some of these, but they represent intuitive leaps of new understandings. [...]

[...] Once again, as she had before the 684th session and on other occasions, she said that now “something was different” in the sessions: For this book she had to “get a certain clear focus …”)

(After we talked for a few more minutes, Jane said, “I’ve got the feeling you’re going to get answers to your questions about psychology — but they’ll be presented as the Preface to this book. [...]

[...] See the Preface at the beginning of this book. [...]

(The last two sessions are highly interesting, but weren’t devoted to book dictation. [...]

[...] (Humorously:) The remark is an aside — and not necessarily part of the book, though it may be if you prefer.

[...] Included in it was a discussion of his relationship with us, and the place of his books in our lives. [...]

[...] I worked on Dreams but an hour this morning, and once again, told her that I was concerned about lost working time on the book. [...]

This will also be reflected in your concerns with books and [your publisher] Prentice-Hall — with any of your business concerns. [...]

[...] I can get more on the book or some on me. [...] I know the book stuff is all right there — but it takes time to get it. [...]

8. Jane has had strong yearnings before to instantaneously receive book material that was “immediately available.” See the closing notes for Appendix 7 in Volume 1, in which are described her feelings of intense frustration at her inability to speak all at once the contents of a potential book, The Way Toward Health.

(This afternoon Jane told me that in her sleep last night she’d had bleed-throughs from Seth about the material to come next in his book. [...]

[...] For whatever reasons since holding the 709th session, she hasn’t had to wait for that certain, more “difficult” kind of trance to develop before launching into Seth’s book material; see the note at 10:55 for that session. [...]

(Before Seth began book dictation, he spent fifteen minutes answering two questions we had for others.)

[...] In a book we must use words, but such analogies can, if you let them, conjure up within your imagination some feeling of your intimate relationship with all other reality. [...]

[...] (Pause.) One of the purposes of this book is to tell you that no one is born to be a sickly person, so reading it can help you there.

This creativity, the strongest force within all reality, reaches from sources we have not as yet discussed in this book, down to the smallest atom and molecule. [...]