“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] (With many pauses:) When I speak of the dream world, I am not referring to some imaginary realm, but to the kind of world of ideas, of thoughts, of mental actions, out of which all form as you think of it emerges. [...] Your physical reality is but one materialization of that inner organization. [...]

At first we thought of keeping the collection closed until after our deaths, as donors usually request to be done, but we’ve decided to make everything accessible as soon as we can, both for scholarship and for study by the public. [...] This decision is especially apropos where we have but one copy of the material in question: We like knowing that “security copies” will be on file elsewhere—as with Jane’s journals, for example, and many of my own notes.

[...] But that is how physical experience would seem to someone not focused in it, or inexperienced with its organization.

[...] I am speaking for your edification of the world you recognize, of the earth you know, but there are probable earths, of course, as real as your own. [...]

[...] They moved in and everybody could have coexisted together but it just didn’t work that way. [...] We lived in a beautiful, but in the sense that this world has plenty, that there was nothing there. [...] There was summer and there was famine and there were some pretty bad winters, but we were a success. [...] It wasn’t necessary at all, but I guess we didn’t know that then.”

([Joel:] “But you didn’t care if the Indians lived or died or survived or moved out or what happened?”

([Jane:] “She also took the first shot at you guys, but that didn’t mean much because you were going to kill them anyway.”

([Bette:] “I don’t think so, but maybe I do.”

It is connected with Sean, but it also has deeper roots. [...] When you refuse to use them for whatever reason, you lessen your own abilities and your own effectiveness as you know, but this is not ever thrust upon you. [...]

[...] But it is not handed out to you on a silver platter. Your own abilities operate here, but this is within your reach now. [...]

[...] You know that it is, but you must think of what noise represents to you, and what it is that you do not want to hear, and why at this particular time you do not want to hear it. [...]

[...] Not in fear but in joy. [...]

[...] Jane and I figure that from now on they’ll probably be held irregularly into January, 1973; partly because of our holiday activities, which we enjoy, but also because this seems to be a natural time of rest for us — although Jane plans to keep her ESP and writing classes going as usual.

An analyst might consider Augustus as schizophrenic and label him neatly, but such terms are basically meaningless. [...]

If chemical alteration were made in Augustus Two he would return to the Augustus One personality, but the change would be artificial — not permanent, and possibly quite dangerous.

[...] But at the same time the dangers and difficulties would make such a cure relatively impossible.

Again Rob assured me that I wasn’t dreaming, but now I was sure that I was and afraid that I was about to awaken. [...] Later I forgot much of what I read, but I knew that a contract would not be given yet — there would be a lag. Some obstacle had arisen, but there was still hope. [...]

[...] There was no pain but a movement in the pelvis, and I delivered a baby. But then a doctor held up two infants and I thought with a laugh, “Oh, no! [...]

[...] It is composed of thought images, not physically materialized in your terms, but vivid storehouses of energy. [...] Not only does it feed the physical universe, but in it, many aspects of your own dreams become actual. [...]

[...] On another layer, it represented the knowledge that a future endeavor would at first seem to be two separate ones — two accomplishments, but on later examination, it will be seen that they are unified. [...]

(“A miscellany of united objects or images, of small patterns like dots but larger than small dots. [...] Excellent data, and Jane did everything but name the object as pepper. I almost called a halt to the data here, on impulse, but then decided to see what else Seth came up with.

[...] If such past memories are consciously recovered, as they have been, the closed mind of the academic psychologist will not see what he has, but will suppose the overworked imagination responsible. [...]

The physical brain as you know it is but the camouflage mechanism belonging to the physically oriented self. [...]

A miscellany of united objects or images, of small patterns like dots but larger than small dots. [...]

(Jane was rather relaxed tonight—again—but decided to try for the session. [...] But Jane didn’t mention any of those events.

[...] Consciousness and matter and energy are one, but consciousness initiates the transformation of energy into matter. [...] The universe emerged into actuality in the same way (underlined), but to a different degree, that any idea emerges from what you think of as subjectivity into physical expression.

[...] But how could they be, in a book on scientific creationism?) There was no evolution. [...] Why man’s sin, resulting in the catastrophic flood, to which all species fell victim? The regular theory of evolution doesn’t have to contend with such questions, of course, but in the book I just read no explanations for questions like that are given—I don’t even remember that they were raised.

[...] Established science is quite certain that no energy can now be created or destroyed, but only transformed (as stated in the first law of thermodynamics). Science sees energy and matter as being basically the same thing, appearing differently under varying circumstances.

I am, again, not telling you to be blind to physical events, but to realize that the news media, and your organizations, are not giving you an “objective” view of the world, but a view compounded and composed by Freudian and Darwinian beliefs. [...] It is impossible, I know, and not really beneficial, to try to separate yourselves entirely from the cultural world, but you should understand the makeup of that world, and be able now and then at least to separate your private experiences from it, even though they must occur in its context.

(“I haven’t done spectacularly with those red stars Seth suggested,” Jane said, “but as far as the week is concerned I’ve done pretty good. [...] I’d get down other times, too, but not for long....”

[...] I do not want to shock you, but there are quite as many cases of honest heroism as there are crimes committed. [...] There are compensating, creative earth patterns occurring in terms of energy, but these do not show.

You can if you prefer forget terms like hypnosis, but between tonight’s and next Saturday night’s session, I strongly advise that you take a half-hour: it can be nap time. [...] You sit beside him or lie on the bed as you prefer—but verbally reassure him. [...]

[...] [I had cried in the car as we drove out of Sayre on the way south, but had, I thought, regarded this as natural enough at the time.] Jane told me that it was her fault we had chased around the country, that her spontaneity had done nothing but get us into trouble. [...] Her father was to help us out financially also, but did not do so.]

[...] For a few moments she let her hands lay at her sides, but since there is tension in the upper arm muscles, her arms cannot lay fully relaxed upon the bed when she is flat on her back; after a few minutes she again crossed her hands, and told me later that this was more comfortable. Of course I noted that even after my suggestions, her arms did not fully relax, but I had not stressed that she would achieve any great or startling improvement; this first session was more to learn how to proceed, and during it I tentatively tried several different approaches.

(I had wanted to hypnotize Jane for some time, but had been hesitating even though my pendulum told me I had nothing against the idea. [...]

[...] I was also as 9 PM approached, but not overly so. [...]

[...] The permanency and the timeless quality do not belong to the shapes of the mountains and the trees, but to the conscious energy that forms them.

You as artist, symbolically speaking, should not step backward to see the landscape more clearly, but step into it so that you can feel it more clearly. [...]

[...] But your painting of course will be more visible.

[...] Thoughts of expansion will help your work, so that the energy and vision are not imprisoned by form but are within form, even while in the process of change.

[...] I don’t think her “sinful self” could have risen to such prominence without feeding upon those repressions, clamping down more and more within the psyche as the years passed, continuing its misguided but “well-meaning attempt to protect the creative self … to keep a hand of caution on its course lest the centuries of men’s belief in sin carried a true weight that I shared but could not comprehend.” [...]

[...] Her illness led me to question that premise, but now it’s back in place. Jane may not be always conscious of what she wants as she confronts her own projections in physical reality, but strong portions of her psyche are (and I think this applies to everyone).

But that simple statement also means that our dream work relative to Jane’s challenges has often been powerfully abetted by Seth in many of the 347 completely private and 159 partially private sessions he’s given us since November 1965. Much of the fascinating and informative material in which Seth discussed various aspects of Jane’s symptoms is generalized enough for publication, and could help others, but because of its very intense personal connotations it’s a project we haven’t started yet. [...]

[...] “I don’t like to talk about it,” she said, “but I’ve been potting around with the idea—getting some thoughts about something like that. But I’d rather not discuss it.”

[...] Such a development as we are considering involves instead an expansion or extension; in the same manner that the expanding universe takes up no space, but expands in terms of value fulfillment, so the expanding consciousness would take up no space, but would also expand in terms of value fulfillment. [...]

[...] Our living-room windows command a good view of our street, one of the main ones in Elmira, but a quick look told me the accident was out of our visual range. Jane heard it too, but merely cast a casual look through a window. [...]

[...] Not only necessary but beneficial, and the means toward various kinds of value fulfillments. [...]

[...] She resumed in a normal but emphatic voice, using many gestures, and with the usual darkening of her eyes, at 10:14.)

It is not a neutral energy but one of strong emotional impact, reassuring, and in an odd way, personified — warm and amazingly immediate. Perhaps it envelops me, but I do not fall asleep or lose myself in nothingness. I am myself, but very small. I seem to fade into a distance that has nothing to do with space but more to do with psychological focus. [...]

Actually, this is a simple analogy and only carries us so far, but in the beginning Seth used it as a way of giving us some idea of man’s current (and artificial) relationship to dream reality. [...] Our records show clearly that what we saw in some such episodes were not imaginary places, but locations we visited while the body slept. [...]

[...] But if he goes far enough, the scuba diver must somewhere come to the bottom of the ocean, and I don’t believe there is any bottom or boundary to this inner reality. Instead, I suspect that there are even stranger chasms and openings into other worlds of whose existence we are quite unaware — pools of creativity, consciousness and experience, from which not only our three-dimensional reality but also others spring.

[...] I always tried to behave very sensibly to show that a trance was not a strange but a very natural phenomenon, and so my momentary stagger caught me by surprise. [...]

[...] “I may be done, but I’m not back yet. [...] I can hear what’s going on out there, but I still have to get out,” she said.)

[...] But you are not just receivers, you are also givers. [...]

[...] The inner self is aware of this integrity of identity, but the ego, focused so securely in physical reality, cannot afford this luxury.

[...] The inner self knows what is behind the physical stars and planets that the eye views, but the ego would be swept aside in panic at such realization.

[...] Usually we experience it through neurological connections; that’s when it seems vivid or alive, but actually it’s that way all the time. Past motion and acts still go on, not recurring — it’s hard to explain — but those past actions are still exploring other probabilities, while our nervous structure focuses us in the one (physical) probable reality we’ve chosen. To us those other actions seem terminated … but that’s only because usually we can’t follow them.

[...] I’m sure about the first part of that sentence but not about the last part. [...]

[...] I thought part of it went with stuff already given … but in a … probable way. [...]

[...] So the last time I said: ‘Now, look, Seth, if you want to take me to some of these probabilities, great; with you leading the way; but my consciousness is having a hell of a time handling whatever it is we’re doing.’ Then I fell asleep and the material stopped.”

[...] I told Jane she needn’t have a session, but she was willing enough, if Seth decided to. She has been working long hours on her book and has but a couple of chapters to rewrite.)

With Ruburt’s limited vocabulary, this is rather difficult to explain, but it would be as if the positions of your north and south poles changed constantly while maintaining the same relative distance from each other, and by their change in polarity upsetting the stability (pause) of the planet—except that because of the greater comparative strength at the poles of the units (gestures, attempts to draw diagrams in the air), a newer stability is almost immediately achieved after each shifting. [...]

[...] But the rhythms have to do with the nature of emotional energy itself, and not with the laws of matter.

[...] The three-sided effect, instantly formed, leads to an effect that is something like friction, but the effect causes (more gestures) the three sides to change position, so that you end up with a triangular effect, closed, with the initial point inside the triangle. [...]

[...] The visit was very pleasant but it disrupted our schedule enough so that we ate an hour later than usual. [...] But we sat for it as usual, and eventually Jane began to feel Seth around. [...]

[...] That spontaneous order shows itself in time, but it is apart from time, in that its origins (underlined) are not physical. [...]

[...] The usual idea of order is greatly concerned with serial time, but spontaneity’s natural order, with its origins outside of time, has “all time to play with.” [...]

[...] I am not speaking here of discipline as punishment, but of discipline accepted by a person or a civilization in order to direct action along certain lines. [...]

[...] But the fact is that physical matter is not solid except when you believe that it is. [...] But when you leave your physical system, and when physical perception is no longer the rule—then you must learn new root assumptions. [...]

[...] But you do not perceive it. [...]

[...] If you were able to focus your attention upon the dissimilarities, merely those that you can perceive but do not, then you would be amazed that mankind could form any idea of an organized reality. [...]

[...] But as long as you believe that it is, again, you will not be caught dead outside it. [...]

[...] Now he may not approve of Ruburt’s habits, but then Ruburt does not approve of his, and that is between he and Ruburt. [...] He thinks of vitality in different ways than you do, but he uses it very well. [...] But the true reality cannot be put into words. [...] You need the words in your state of being but only each of you in your own way can search for the reality that has no need of words. [...] You translate what they say into words, but the inner knowledge within you exists long before any alphabet was ever known. [...]

[...] Use my voice simply as a thread so that you can follow it, and it can bring you back safely but concentrate upon your own feelings and sensations. [...] It may seem as a path or a ray of light but follow it with full freedom and confidence. [...]

[...] And if you find worlds that you do not understand, then look upon them with wonder, but send your consciousness as far as it can go with great vigor, with freedom and joy. [...]

[...] Not strangers that you meet, but strangers that approach you where no effort is required on your part. [...]

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. [...] 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.

[...] 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. [...]

“But the names and designations aren’t meant to be taken too literally; these aren’t to be interpreted as esoteric clubs or brotherhoods, but as natural psychic ‘conglomerations’ to which we all belong.”

[...] “That wasn’t Seth’s voice, but I recognized it as giving me the answer I wanted,” she told me later. [...] But even after I got the answer I was too worked up to follow it. [...]