“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] He will not hurt you if you hurt him to retaliate, but he will escape, close himself off from further hurt, leaving a shell behind, an animated but empty one.

This is a last-ditch escape so to speak, but dangerous because its signs are not obvious. [...] Such a recourse, again, is only a desperate final one, but with his stubbornness it would be very final, and a means of self-defense.

[...] But secure in it, you both are free to reach into other existences. [...] The loyalty is there but you bring it out and it serves you both therefore. [...]

The charge alone you see is not sufficient enough to initiate such symptoms, but it is strong enough to feed a steadily diminishing continuance of them unless changes are made, and you are making them. [...]

Simply a beautiful symbol of communication, for you wanted to voice your resentment again, but covered it over. And with Frank in terms of probabilities, the Edgecomb adventure may still go through—but Frank and his brother each gave the gentleman permission to act as he has. [...] But this time of emotional turmoil takes their minds off the fact that their children are grown, and adds a new challenge—one that convinces them that life is still exciting, that you must be on your toes. [...]

[...] I did think I’d learned some things about money and taxes, but this latest hassle makes me wonder. [...] But I figured I’d learned from that episode, so decided to try using it again.

[...] I am now caught up with Seth’s work, except for whatever may lie ahead with Mass Reality—but we regard that as current work, still in progress, of course. [...]

(A few notes, rather than at the end of the sessions:On Thursday, November 9, I had the two teeth extracted by Paul O’Neill—a difficult time indeed, but after an uncomfortable night and morning, am recovering as expected. [...]

[...] At one time I had decided never to sell the portrait, but gradually changed my view on this in the light of my own feelings, along with Seth’s statements concerning my using my work to influence others. [...] The painting was rather abstract, but hinted at a Middle East background, and the head was in a turban of sorts.

And then within this same physical universe, the inwardness was not content to find expression through but one form only, but in multitudinous forms and degrees. [...]

It will be found in some important respects that the dream universe, which began even then, has somewhat the same relationships to the physical universe, but on a psychic level, that the physical universe has to the universe of negative matter. [...] Someone holding the fruit might be able to peel away the layers, but as for the fruit itself, the layers while making up the fruit are to all intents and purposes separate.

Allegorically speaking, from the inside he reaches outward, his hands full of inwardness, but it is you who form the inwardness. In the past you have been afraid of what you considered, but no longer consider, the chaos of inwardness. [...]

Since suggestion is used constantly, and by every cell in your body, then it is not a question of whether or not you can use suggestion, but of how to use it more effectively. [...] The ego will gain and not lose in the process, but we will not have an autocratic and willful ego, but a reasonable and even disciplined ego that is aware of its position, aware of its own dependency, as well as of its own peculiar and unique perceptive apartness. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated, but not as well as usual for a first break. She said the traffic noise bothered her, but that she would make an effort to see that it didn’t continue to do so.

(Jane’s eyes had remained closed for the first delivery, but they opened soon after she began speaking again. [...] As during the last session she looked at me occasionally, but for the most part looked casually ahead without staring fixedly at anything. [...]

There are obviously many occasions when his condition is unusually suited to hold a spontaneous session, but when the emotional climate is not for one reason or another correct, or when other elements, practical ones to you, may prevent a session.

[...] Slow at the start, but she did better as she went along, amid pauses. [...] When Jane got to the end of the session, and read my own notes about my own crying spells, she began to cry while reading aloud—but she kept going, and finished in good style. [...]

[...] “I don’t know whether I should tell you this or not,” she said, “but for the last couple of days I’ve had the suspicion that he’s started another book. [...] But when he says “comments” I figure he’s separating book material from stuff about me....” [...]

(“I was going to tell you about them sometime,” I said, meaning my own blue periods, “but I hadn’t done it before because I didn’t want you to feel bad. [...]

[...] The emphasis is not upon pleasure, but on the avoidance of pain. [...]

[...] “Your notes don’t show it for last night, but I was right, but I was highly upset at that hospital experience,” she said, meaning the experience at St. Joseph’s. “Boy, I was so glad to see you and get home....” [...]

(The middle finger of her left hand is still obviously discolored, but not as much, and I haven’t heard her complaining about it. [...]

[...] The resulting sensations may be unpleasant at times—but the entire procedure balances itself out so that no one area is under undue strain for any long period of time, as other areas unwind. [...]

[...] The same sensations of discomfort can be felt at time in those areas, but those sensations are above all therapeutic, and “hurt” far less when he is not otherwise disturbed. [...]

[...] “She sounded well-meaning, but not too bright. [...] Not only that, but she still seemed bewildered by it herself.”

[...] I mentioned this experience briefly in How To Develop Your ESP Power, but here I’m including Rob’s notes which provide a fuller version of the event and our attitude toward it at the time.

[...] He was not English himself but was visiting relatives there. [...]

[...] Malba didn’t know where the daughter was, but she did know that her son now had two boys of his own. [...]

[...] It is theoretically, but definitely, possible for an individual to suddenly perform an art for which he has in the past achieved no conscious knowledge or mastery, and to do it well. But usually expectations are just not that strong, and a conscious and unconscious preparation is necessary.

(It might also be noted that Bill was a witness to the 68th session, but not of course the 75th. At the 68th session, Bill, Jane and I made tentative plans to experiment at set times for telepathic communication while Bill was at the Cape, but these plans did not materialize.)

[...] Again Jane had been coughing all day, but when she rose to begin the session the coughing virtually disappeared. [...]

The basis and firm groundwork of the material, and its primary contribution, lies in the concept that consciousness itself indeed creates matter, that consciousness is not imprisoned by matter but forms it, and that consciousness is not limited or bound by time or space; time and space in your terms being necessary distortions, or adopted conditions, forming a strata for physical existence.

(I told Jane, joking, that the Democrats might achieve a show of unity in their convention, but that come election time in November they might end up saying something like: “Well, we lost but we were united” against Reagan. [...]

Now those tendencies are not natural to the intellect, but only appear when it is forced to operate in such an isolated fashion — isolated not only in time and space, but psychologically isolated from other portions of the personality that are meant to bring it additional information that it does not possess, and a kind of magical support.

You are also somewhat idealizing the past, however, so you did not simply get the information “straight on,” but you received it in such a fashion that it made its own psychological points also, and was furthermore wound into other action not only within that dream, but in a series of dreams.

[...] The portion of you that formed the dream knew of the pollution; but also knew of the award, the newspaper article, and of your habit of reading the evening’s paper. [...] It shows you that the rational world’s views do not represent the bulwarks of safety, but are instead barriers to the full use of the intellect, and of the intuitions.

[...] You must look not to space but to the source of space, not to time but to the source of time—and most of all, you must look to the kind of consciousness that experiences space and time. You must look, therefore, to events that show themselves through historical action, but whose origins are elsewhere. [...]

[...] I am not speaking of some dumb instinct, but instead of an intuitive knowing, a high intelligence different from your own, but amazingly complex, with which other species are equipped.²

Neither of us had counted the sessions we have for Dreams, but when I made a quick check the next day I was surprised to discover that Jane’s estimate is only two short of the 32 sessions Seth has called book dictation. I’m still busy typing the final manuscript for Mass Events, but we’ve already planned that I’ll be adding several “nonbook” sessions, and excerpts from others, to Dreams when finally I get to concentrate on the production work for it And my own opinion, I explained to Jane, is that Seth is considerably more than halfway through this book, even if we add more extra sessions to it.)

“I got a definition of master events but forgot some of it … to the effect that master events are spectacular events whose main thrusts are outside of time, but whose actions on or in time [are] extravagant—out of proportion to their actual historical connections. [...]

[...] But these are to be carried on but once daily, and if he tries any other sort of experiment, such as he tried with the Father Trainor poetry session last week, then he is not to attempt his regular psychological time experiment for that day.

[...] With the schedule that I have suggested the inner energies are vividly and intensely focused, but for a short period of your time. [...] Too many attempts at this time do not permit this brief but excellent intensification, and can lead to that peculiar semitrance state in which Ruburt found himself last week.

[...] I wasn’t conscious of breathing any differently than usual, but if this was a subconscious production that wouldn’t make any difference. But where would the male aspect enter, unless it be a woman’s attempt to mimic as best she could the voice of a man she had admired?

[...] And also, I am at present against these fairly frequent sessions where, on the one hand, Ruburt pretends that he is merely resting; that is, he pretends to himself, but actually he is expanding his energies, and expending them just as quickly, for this amounts to more than one psychological time experiment daily.

You perceive however but one flicker, one small dimension of any given action as a rule. As in the case of your own illness, Joseph, you perceived the physical effect of the mental action, which was but a small portion of the event.

[...] Consciously he may not even know the problems which beset him, but which he has worked out on a subconscious level. But he will have chosen his solution, and in the physical world an event will shortly occur which will be close to a duplicate to one of those dreams which he has created.

[...] We chanced interruptions but none developed.

[...] An action may be recalled in terms of memory, but it cannot be taken back, or denied or undone.

[...] But a firm stand on Philip’s part will result in compromises that they are not now considering, but that must be made to ensure his comparative happiness within the field.

[...] But this is dependent upon their knowledge that your stand is sincere and determined. If they sense that you will compromise, not in small matters but in basic principles, then you lose this club that you now hold over their heads.

We will let the demented bit pass for now, but this represents a failure on your part, and a somewhat smug attitude of hiding what is best from view. [...] It is not within the realm of either her nature or experience, but you can bring it within the realm of her experience; and what is within the realm of her experience becomes part of her nature.

(It was of course very dark, but we could see a few lights in the valley below. [...] Jane had originated this idea, and she thought there was a chance Seth might come through while we were on the property, but he did not.

[...] I am not saying that others are not involved, but that discordant thoughts bring about discordant reactions in others, to which they will react according to their own beliefs. But no one creates your private reality but you.

[...] This does not apply to the two of you alone, but to your world at large: you make your own reality through your beliefs. You want to keep your beliefs yet change your reality—I am not referring to you personally here now—but this is impossible.

You cannot say to yourself twenty times a day “There is no peace,’’ and at the same time expect to find some, with any possibility of achieving anything but conflict. [...] Keep your cherished beliefs in conflict, but you will not find peace.

It is easy for you to say that your parents did not appreciate what they had, that they looked at the “bad” side of things all the time, but not quite so easy to see those same attitudes in yourselves.

[...] He has not learned to conserve his energies, but to use them at all it seems that he must allow them almost to explode, so that there is little reserve. This is unfortunate, but can be corrected.

The ulcer simply can be cured, but this will involve on the part of the personality a disciplined program of self-understanding. [...] Instead what is advisable is a gradual but definite program that will result in a legitimate and a long-lasting cure.

[...] She was coughing, but made no mention of not wanting to hold a session. [...]

[...] I was somewhat concerned about interruptions but as it developed there were none.

(Jane said that she’d felt like having a session several times recently, but that obviously I didn’t since I’d fall asleep on the couch, and so forth. But tonight, when we wanted to have one to get back on the ball, she said she didn’t have any feeling for a session at all.

Those sketches of his, it seems, do not stand up as creative products as a great sculpture might, but they stand for a truly creative originality in which a consciousness played with internal material, and projected outward many of the material properties that then simply did not exist. Much of his art in those terms did not show, but the art of his consciousness expanded beyond Michelangelo’s.

[...] I planned to resume work on Mass Events this week, but haven’t done so yet. [...]

[...] I still don’t see anything wrong with the decision, but evidently my body—my psyche—rather violently disagreed, considering the beliefs I must carry around with me.

This of course is obvious, but the same sort of symbol changing may occur within dreams. [...] One person may symbolize fear as a demon, as an unfriendly animal, or even as some perfectly simple ordinarily harmless object; but if you know what your own symbols mean, then you can use the knowledge not only to interpret your dreams but also as signposts to the state of consciousness in which they usually occur.

[...] A fire mentally seen that has warmth but does not burn destructively obviously means something else. [...] Symbols represent the infinite variations of feelings, and in various stages of consciousness these will appear in different terms, but they will always accompany you.

[...] Into his inner mind come pictures or symbols of material objects, people or events, from perhaps the past as well as present and future imaginings, the joy now being expressed with greater freedom mentally, but with symbols.

[...] Logically there may be little connection between them, but intuitively the connections are clear. [...]

[...] Using it, you can perceive events not only from your own viewpoint, but from other focuses. Using that set, you can leap from station to station, so to speak — not simply perceiving, but experiencing what is happening in other times and places.

[...] You bring it into clear focus in almost the same way that you adjust your television picture, only in this case not only sound and images are synchronized, but phenomena of far greater complexity. [...]

As they sit thus comfortably ensconced (leaning forward with a smile), they observe dramas in which planets explode, and otherworld intelligences rise to challenge or to help the dauntless captain of the good ship Enterprise and the fearless “Spock” — but none of this threatens our friends, Ruburt and Joseph. [...]

[...] Not only can you experience dramas in which you are intimately involved, as in waking life, but your range of activities is multiplied so that you can view events “from outside” your own usual context. [...]

(9:48.) A ruler cannot make his decisions based upon national events only, but he must take international ones into mind, and in a more direct fashion, say, than even 10 years ago. [...] It is a time of turmoil—but it is a time of turmoil partially because consciousness has been willing to extend itself in that particular fashion. [...]

[...] We discussed the amazing facts that the American civilizations had existed for centuries concurrently with the European and Far Eastern ones, but with each totally isolated from the other. [...]

[...] But I found it at least roughly reminiscent of Seth’s idea of simultaneous time to watch the color broadcasts from different areas of the world each day, and then to mentally hold all of those actions, especially the backgrounds, in mind at once, visualizing them as simultaneous happenings at different places on the planet.

[...] But I saw similarities of course between those various news events happening in far portions of the earth today, and the thought that the American and European civilizations had existed for so long on the same planet, yet completely unknown one to the other.

[...] But when I wanted to be by myself to paint, I had a corner studio I could retire to where I could work in privacy — a very nice room. [...] In the dream I was involved with painting, but not writing.

[...] I didn’t note it in my dream account earlier here, but I’d described to Jane how I’d asked whoever owned 458 W. Water Street these days how much our rent would be. I did this several times, but received no answer. [...]

[...] She began to have trouble getting through the session, but finished by 3:30, doing better towards the end.

(Carla interrupted our conversation to check Jane’s vitals — temperature 98.4. During our talk I noticed that it didn’t take my wife long to begin reacting emotionally to my questions, which I thought were innocent enough — but it was apparent that the subject matter of our conversation had an emotional charge for her. [...]