“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Generally the distortions will cease almost entirely. However, while we are working with word patterns in this manner there will unfortunately always be some, though lesser, distortions. And in the main body of the material there are very few distortions, as I have explained. Of course, at this point you cannot prove the main thesis of the important material which is not distorted.

You should not, and I repeat this, grow panicky at the thought of distortions occurring, simply because to expect no distortions is just as unrealistic, and would send you flying headlong against an eventual wall of disillusion. We are not dealing with rigidities. Ruburt will improve. I do not want to set up a fear that is an exaggerated fear of distortions, since this might well make him so rigid that he would block perfectly valid material, fearing he was adding distortion.

I am of course pleased about Ruburt’s letter. As I mentioned earlier I am extremely leery about trying to get predictions through to you, and therefore at this point I do not try. I do not want to be blamed for any distortions that might arise, though at a later time Ruburt will be able to get this sort of material through without such distortion.

First of all, such distortions will almost always occur either in the beginning of a session or toward the end, and distortions in the material itself will not as a rule occur in the middle of sessions.

Distortion, in this respect, has a different meaning than the sort of distortion arising from a misreading of information. [...] Its attempts to do so, never successful, result in a kind of distortion, and this distortion then becomes the basis for a new reality.

[...] Your time system is indeed the result of tension as it is distorted within your own system, yet the distortion itself, as you see, creates a new reality. And that reality then continues to operate, forming like realities of the sort that can exist within the given conditions already set up by the original distortion.

Mankind is to some intimate degree acquainted with this attempt of action to recreate itself, for human reproduction is here a case in point, each individual attempting to create a replica, the attempt doomed to failure, but the attempt itself resulting in a distortion of the original action; that is, a distortion of the original individuals, and in the creation of a new reality, this process then being repeated indefinitely.

Creative distortion, in its relationship with action, affects therefore the creation of thoughts. The principle of creative distortions is mainly responsible for the fact that no identical thought is ever transmitted from one individual to another. [...]

These environments may appear distorted to you, but the distortion is usually your own and not that of the environment. [...]

[...] When you turn on a radio to a particular station and find that it is distorted by static, you realize that the distortion is in the reception. [...]

[...] As soon as you begin to translate an idea you are distorting it. The inner senses you see do not distort the data, but when you attempt to make such data available to the ego, then distortion to some extent must enter in.

[...] The attempt is bound to bring distortions, but without the distortions you could not consciously perceive the data. The distortions in all cases form your physical camouflage patterns.

[...] That is, we could speculate on the reasons for what seemed to be many distortions, but had little idea of the causes. Since we could pick out a few items in the data that seemed to apply to the object, we took it that Seth had correctly tuned in on the object itself, and that Jane’s translation of the data had been distorted most of the time. [...]

Now you can translate inner data into the terms of the outer senses, but always some distortion is absolutely necessary, for the very method of perception you see colors that which is perceived.

[...] There are distortions because of the limitations of the outer senses, but the inner senses¹ do not distort. [...]

Yet even these camouflage patterns must follow the basic rules of the inner universe, and reflect them, even if in a distortive manner. [...]

Concentrating upon your own camouflage universe, you are able to distinguish only the distortive pattern, and from this pattern you deduce your ideas of cause and effect, past, present and future, and ideas of an expanding universe that floats …

There may be the appearance of a time lapse of one kind or another between mental actions and their appearance or projection into other systems, but this is a distortive effect. Such distortive effects, such distortions, are often correlated within a given system, and accepted as a foundation for the nature of reality. And all further data is then accepted according to the easiness with which it can be accepted within this framework, the distortions being mistaken for the actuality behind them.

[...] They would seem to be distortions. [...]

A study of the correlations with their distortive effect would seem to yield entirely different data. [...]

These acts are not only interpreted differently, they also of course have effects which are caused not only by the initial action but also by the distortive appearance of the action in a given system. [...]

(Jane and I were pleased at Seth’s statement that no distortion did occur, but only a partial blocking. [...] We feel that we can do little to speed up this process of eliminating distortions, as they occur. We have had no trouble that I am aware of in clearing up any distortions we ask Seth about after the event.

The second mention of the 23rd date was not a distortion. [...] There was no distortion here again. [...]

As far as my mention of May 23rd in connection with Miss Callahan, this was not a distortion; and the crisis, which was a psychio-physical crisis, came as I said that it would.

This is not nearly as troublesome basically as a distortion, though at times such blocking may leave you up in the air. [...]

Scientists realize that the atmosphere of the earth is a distortion, or has a distorting effect upon their instruments. What they do not understand is that their instruments themselves are bound to be distortive. [...] Any material physical instrument will have built-in distortive effects. [...]

A certain distortion must be expected, in the same manner that a distortion occurs in the form of your flying saucers. [...]

[...] But the effect itself is a distortion. On other planes the distortion effect may not be chemical at all. [...]

[...] This is caused of course by the typical camouflage distortion effect, which occurs on almost every plane to some extent.

As errors and mistakes creep into the physical organic system, bringing forth mutant genes and distortions, so also these mutant genes and distortions are, on a smaller scale, the result of inner distortions within the consciousness of the individual genes.

[...] It is obvious that the body is equipped to handle many such distorted actions, but a conflict is hereby brought into play, where constructive energies or actions are not given full reign, and patterns of distortions are set up within the system.

The same sort of distortion occurs on another scale, in the duplication of any given illness or destructive organic or gross misfunctions. [...]

[...] It is indeed distortive. [...]

The Kennedy material was not distorted in these sessions, though some parts of the Oswald material had small unimportant distortions due to Ruburt’s tendency to compare Oswald’s mother with his own present mother. The distortion was slight.

The material was received, transformed into a poem, distorted in the last two or three lines where the prerequisites of technique involved the addition of a word that added a distorted meaning. [...]

[...] The outer senses provide camouflaged distortions of translated secondhanded experience.

[...] I do not know if you will get distortion in the name. [...]

Man possesses an innate biological knowledge, however, of right and wrong, and to a large extent religions, as they are utilized, distort much of that information. [...] Your communication system may, in time, make the distortions of your God concepts much more visible, so that honest men can at least question “How can God say this to the Jews, and that to the Arabs? [...] The old distortions involved with the various religions must and will come to light.

[...] “Decent” God-fearing men, then, must indeed question how the same God can have such different views, and at least wonder if their own nationalistic histories and prejudices may not have distorted the interpretation of God’s word somewhere along the way.

[...] Such ideas can and have been used most beneficially by simple men and women throughout the ages, and distorted as they are, they still served to remind man that his source is not the world.

[...] We have stated that a reality remains as it is, unchanged even though the perceiver, because of his sense apparatus, may perceive it in a limited or distorted fashion. [...] In our later sessions for example, we have mentioned that the desire for duplication must always result in a distortion, but this distortion is also the basis therefore for a new reality.

[...] Their problem therefore is a distortive one. [...] The reality, however, is much more distorted than usual, and this is one of the main problems.

[...] However, the very distortions that occur in his attempt to perceive this reality results in a new reality. [...]

[...] The very distortions therefore form many of the characteristic differences which for him gives his reality its peculiar nature. [...]

Any investigation of the basic inner universe, which is the only real universe, must be done as much as possible from a point outside your own distortions, but the only way open for you to escape the distortions of your own physical universe is to journey inward. To get outside your own universe, you must travel inward, and this represents the only perspective free of distortive elements, from which valid experimentation can be carried on. [...]

[...] There are distortions because of the limitations of the outer senses, but the inner senses do not distort. [...]

The subconscious, it is true, has elements of its own distortions, but these are easier to escape than the tons of distortive camouflage atmosphere that weigh your scientific experiments down.

Yet even these camouflage patterns must follow the basic rules of the inner universe, and reflect them even if in a distortive manner. [...]

[...] There are various schools and religions that try, in distorted terms, to express the self’s validity, but the distortions have smothered the basic validity of the teachings.

Now: distorted as it is, and it is distorted, the science of mind book, coming from outside of himself, in those terms, is valuable, for it reminded him of his own power. [...]

[...] It is possible however that along the way true data will become distorted. I am in no way responsible for these distortions.

At later times with your present rate of development, the distortions themselves will be held to a minimum. [...] The more personal and the more direct the bearing of a question upon your daily life, the greater the distortion is likely to be. [...]

The material in these cases apparently comes through quite distorted. [...] I hope to go into this also at a further time, because there are definite reasons for this that have nothing or little to do with you personally, but represent a more or less natural distortion of data along these lines. [...]

[...] There is distortion present, but still I put down something that my obvious senses can perceive. [...]

All religions are distortive. For that matter much of your science is distortive. [...] The distortions in science and religion have been truly disastrous. [...]

[...] The optimistic remarks had come through the Ouija board in the first two or three sessions; none of them had materialized, and in the light of Seth’s recent material on distortions Jane and I had thought distortion the reason for this failure.)

[...] In some cases such blocking is on a deeper level and not at all conscious, and it is also at this level that the few distortions that occur take place.

[...] He learns as he goes along, so that he will be able to recognize the actual feeling of such distortions and avoid them, as this evening he was able to feel his own attempt to block the initial portion of my greeting.

[...] As the reflection of the tree, however, gives a waving and distorted appearance, so as the idea is projected into another field it also is seen in a distorted fashion.

The distorted reflection of the tree in no way changes the actual tree. The distortions that occur as a mental act appears in another field in no way changes the mental act.

[...] The human psyche adds its own distortive effects, and it is of these that we have been speaking. [...]

[...] The camouflage distortion is like the effect that water reflections have upon the image that falls across the water.

Scientists realize that the atmosphere of the earth has a distorting effect upon their instruments. What they do not understand is that their instruments themselves are bound to be distortive. Any material instrument will have built-in distortive effects. [...]

Mental enzymes, by the way, have a chemical effect or reaction on your plane, but the effect itself is, of course, distortion. On the other planes, the distortion effect may not be chemical at all. [...]

[...] The reaction is necessarily a distortion. That is, any camouflage is a distortion in the sense that vitality is forced into a particular form. [...]

[...] If you look at the observable world you can learn something about the inner one, but only if you take into consideration the existence of camouflage distortion. [...]

Translations are therefore necessary, and in many respects the distortions that will appear of necessity in any such translation (pause) are requirements; what might be termed distortion from pure knowledge, you see, is often the result of the translations without which you could not receive nor understand the material.

[...] It always springs from channels that are available to you, (pause) and if it is, again, distorted, without the distortions, you could not use the inspirations.

Beyond this however, some channels are more distortive than others, and we hope to keep this channel as undistorted as possible. [...]

[...] Jane then feels that pure knowledge is funneled down this cone toward her; that on the way it is changed, distorted out of shape so that finally she can put it into words. [...]

I have tried to explain the distortions which make such questions seem intrinsically valid, but it is only from your own perspective that you think in terms of beginning and end, and only because of your self-adopted limitations that you continue along these lines.

[...] You will perhaps recognize a certain similarity between this concept and the Christian concept of a Trinity, except that the Trinity concept, while hinting at diversity within prime unity, was nevertheless distorted by man’s own sense of his own adopted and unfortunate delusion of duality.

[...] In formulating a theory concerning the primary energy gestalt, the data is distorted by the peculiar set of outer sensory equipment characteristic of any given plane of reality. [...]

[...] That is, it will represent one facet of the primary gestalt, but a facet so infinitesimal in the overall reality of the primary gestalt that it distorts beyond all recognition. [...]