“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

All of your exterior communication, your physical events, national affairs, and private gatherings, are the result of the interrelationship of subjective realities, whose very basis is not physical at all. [...] The ordinary events of each day are overloaded with coincidences and significances that are nearly invisible because they are so taken for granted, and they are so multitudinous in number, and fit so perfectly into the framework of the days.

These coincidences do indeed hint at another kind of organization, and throw a different perspective indeed on the nature of events. [...] This organization is personally, intimately tuned, in that it gives evidence of a spectacular psychology on another scale that organizes events in a manner that is for each individual personally significant.

It hints at the most precise and powerful focus, so that amid an infinity of data, events can be arranged at times so that two particular people, for example, separated in childhood, could, 30 years later, find themselves living next door to each other. [...]

[...] They could not then see the entire picture, or understand for example that a seemingly innocuous, or even a seemingly unfortunate event, that led from a move to one place from another, had anything to do with the search.

Moreover, the choice of presenting the material in essay form proved to have one virtue that was more valuable than all the others combined: It allowed us to delve into the events I describe, and “our deep-seated, sometimes wrenching feelings connected to them,” a little bit at a time. [...] Many of the events and feelings evoked such deep implications of trial and challenge for Jane and me that we were often left with strong feelings of unreality: This can’t be happening to us. [...]

[...] Originally I’d planned to write the standard kind of introduction for Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment. However, as I became involved in describing the complicated, emotionally charged series of events surrounding the hospitalization earlier this year of my wife, Jane Roberts, the material automatically began organizing itself into a series of dated essays. [...]

[...] This weaving things together to make them “fit” is only natural for one of my temperament, but I didn’t alter any of my original copy—that I’d have refused to do—and I kept intact those first spontaneous descriptions of the events attendant to Jane’s physical difficulties, as well as our deep-seated, sometimes wrenching feelings connected to them. [...]

[...] We agree—and that is where Jane and I diverge most sharply from the conventional establishment belief that events happen to people, instead of being created by them.

(I also learned during the discussion that Jane didn’t like the Seth book material being tied too closely to current events, as witness Mass Events and Jonestown and Three Mile Island. She reminded me also that even the title of Mass Events, when Seth had given it, had alarmed her, or at least aroused some sort of defensive mechanism in her—something I’d forgotten. On the other hand, I’d taken it for granted that the way Seth had used current events in Mass Events had been quite natural and extremely informative, offering a much broader view of human affairs. This little dilemma also pointed up some of Jane’s other reactions to remarks I would make, innocently enough, I thought, to the effect that Seth could do a great book on any number of current events—the latest being the whole hostage question. [...]

(That topic ties in with my idea that I mentioned to her this afternoon, about it hardly being a coincidence that many events in our lives are coming to a head at the same time: Our deep upset about Jane’s condition; the trouble with the disclaimer idea for Mass Events; Prentice-Hall’s reorganization into the General Publishing Division, in which all of their narrative books will be phased out, thus eliminating any real need for Tam and his job; indeed, Tam is looking at other job offers even now. [...] And the irony of the situation is that, even though we detest the idea of the disclaimer for Mass Events, we see it as another means of protection in the public arena.... [...]

[...] This pattern was most pronounced while Seth was producing Mass Events, but without checking at the moment we remember similar if shorter layoffs while the previous books were being produced. [...] It did make for some tricky work writing notes for Mass Events, say, to explain these long periods in between certain sessions in the book.

(I remarked to Jane today that if I’d known what I think I know now, today, a month ago we could have withdrawn Mass Events from Prentice-Hall, using the disclaimer dispute as an excuse, and delayed its publication for as long as we wanted to. [...] Now, it seems that we will have to deal with the public as far as Mass Events goes. [...]

(The last session we presented in Mass Events, the 841st, was held on March 14. [...]

[...] It would hardly be a coincidence, I added, that the mass events at Jonestown and Three Mile Island took place within less than six months of each other, and that they represented the two poles, or extremes, of mankind’s present main belief systems: religion and science.

(Certainly we hope that as he continues with Mass Events. [...]

[...] Then Jane proceeded to come through with much evocative material on dreams—our second reason for excerpting the session for Mass Events. [...]

[...] Again, in Framework 2 each event is known, from the falling of a leaf to the falling of a star, from the smallest insect’s experience on a summer day to the horrendous murder of an individual on a city street. Those events each have their meaning in a larger pattern of activity. [...]

(Session 819, which was held last Saturday evening, had nothing to do with Mass Events. [...]

[...] We’ve had 31 private or nonbook sessions since then, and a number of them contain information on Frameworks 1 and 2 — much of it relevant to that presented in Mass Events. [...]

When you are writing a regular book you draw upon associations, memories, and events that are known to you and others, that perhaps you had forgotten but that suddenly spring to mind in answer to your intent and following your associations. [...]

[...] Despite this, however, events spring from a nonphysical source. As mentioned earlier, your recalled dreams are already interpretations of other nonphysical events.

[...] They serve to shape mental events as you physically perceive them.

Therefore, at levels that would appear chaotic to you, there is a great mixing and merging of consciousness, a continual exchange of information, so to speak; an open-ended exploration of possibilities, from which in your terms events privately and en masse emerge.

[...] Physical events as you understand them could not exist otherwise. [...]

It can change the individual’s present reaction to the past event, and alter the original implications and meanings that were once connected with such an event. Suggestion can shape future events because any action changes that which existed before it, and that which shall exist after it within your system.

[...] A connection with a particular event, with some unpleasant connotations.

[...] Jane and I drew a blank on “a particular event, with some unpleasant connotations” at the moment.

[...] “Yourself a year ago” I regarded as valid, since I had paintings of my own on exhibit at Bill’s gallery on the occasion for which he made these cards; and the event took place around a year ago, although I do not know the exact date offhand.

(With gestures, emphatically) That selfhood jumps in leapfrog fashion over events that it does not want to actualize (pause), and does not admit such experience into its selfhood. Other portions of your greater identity, however, do accept those same events rejected by you, and form their own selfhoods.

Now some of you might choose some of the same events, and there probabilities will merge. [...] One historical event may be simultaneously accepted in several probable realities, for example, while others may occur in one and not in an alternate history.

[...] Therefore, there are realities in which the endless probabilities of one given event are probed, and all experience grouped about that venture.

I have often said that even in your lifetimes, all probable variations of any one event occur, but I never went much further. [...]

[...] The process of his complete recovery includes body events and other events that may seem to have no connection—events perhaps that will change an attitude here or a belief there.

[...] My own thought at the moment was that something different, or at least not the same, was involved with the Cézanne events—less personal.

[...] All of those people who might in any way help Ruburt change certain beliefs, for example, are notified in Framework 2, so that the most auspicious psychological events occur, triggering further body releases.

The timing of such events is outside of your time, but the results appear within it. [...]

[...] Still strongly on my part the feeling that she waits for some event, or that some large event will occur, and that she will not die before it happens.

[...] (Pause; one of many.) There seems to be some other important event that will intervene or happen first. [...]

[...] The event may involve the wife’s mother…. [...]

The other event of which I spoke will occur first, but this does not mean that the wife’s death will immediately follow. [...]

[...] I project all of this outward around me into literally hundreds of brilliant scenes; expressions, I knew, of probabilities, ‘past’ and ‘future’ events, sideways events I can’t even understand … all happening at once, with perfect comprehension of that by the ‘anchor’ dream self. [...] In at least one of these selves, the knowledge of this entire event comes to consciousness like a half-recalled dream of its own, and the experience of recalling and being recalled is like liquid electricity in me, the anchor self.

[...] She first encountered the event on the evening the last session, the 691st, was held. [...]

[...] And once again, Seth used a “fresh” event — a dream experience of mine that transpired on the third night following the last session — as a basis for his book dictation tonight.

[...] I was more than a little surprised when Sue said that she’d enjoyed such events several times. [...]

[...] They are understood ways of dealing with events. Once again, however, with the experience of the last few days, you are both astonished by the magical ease by which work — real work — can be accomplished: events perceived out of place and time and so forth.

“Any event, therefore, has an invisible thickness, a multidimensional basis. [...] In those terms your thoughts mix and match with others in Framework 2, creating mass patterns that form the overall psychological basis behind world events. [...]

(Pause.) There is much material here that I will give you, because it is important that you understand the different ways of relating to reality, and how those ways create the experienced events.

In Mass Events, Seth speaks often about Frameworks 1 and 2. From my opening notes for Session 814, which Jane held on October 8, 1977 for that book:

[...] Again, all of a person’s reincarnational existences are, indeed, connected — but the events in one life do not cause the events in the next one.

[...] The reasons for maladies are almost always present in current life experience (long pause) — and even though old events from childhood may have originally activated unhealthy behavior, it is present beliefs that allow old patterns of activity to operate.

[...] Therefore, try to understand that the particular dilemma of illness is not an event forced upon you by some other agency. [...]

[...] It appears to you that your present consciousness wanders backward into the past, until finally you can remember no longer—and on a conscious level, at least, you must take the very event of your birth under secondhanded evidence. [...]

I used the term “before the beginning,” then, and I will speak of earth’s events in certain sequences. [...]

(Pause.) We will nevertheless call our next chapter “In the Beginning,” laying certain events out for you in serial form. [...]

“In all of these instances, however, there are uncertainties, for probable events can be seen as clearly as events that will physically happen. No event is predestined. Any given event can be changed not only before and during but after its occurrence. [...]

“Therefore, it is possible to react in the past to an event that has not yet occurred, to be influenced by your own future. It is also possible for an individual to react in the past to an event in the future which may never occur in your terms.

“The inner self can, indeed, perceive events that will occur after physical death. [...] The inner self can perceive events that will occur to itself after death, and those in which it is not involved.

“In summation: the individual is hardly at the mercy of past events, for he changes them constantly. He is hardly at the mercy of future events, for he changes these not only before but after their happening.

The majority of events do not ‘solidify’ until the last moment, in your terms. According to your understanding and interpretation of the word events, none are predestined or predetermined by sources outside of yourselves. [...] The main events of a civilization are chosen by its people, but because a course is begun, this does not mean that it cannot be changed at any point.

If you would have some idea of what the probable universe is like, then examine your own dreams, looking for those events which do not have any strong resemblance to the physical events of waking existence. [...]

Events, then, are materialized in your time from their origins in ‘no time.’ There is no end to the source or supply of probabilities, therefore ‘no time’ is not a static, completed storehouse. Each event you form from any set of probabilities automatically gives rise to new probabilities.

[...] There is give-and-take between the two, for much data is received by the dreaming self from the probable self — the self that experiences what the ego would call probable events.

(In the notes preceding the last session I wrote that Jane was to call Tam about the date of publication for Mass Events and God of Jane. [...] The expected call came as I finished reading to Jane at breakfast time—but it wasn’t from Tam: Ethel Waters apologized for the fact that now Mass Events has been delayed until May 19, or just possibly only May 4. Mass Events and God of Jane are now due to be published in the same month. [...]

Again, that belief in the need for control is rooted in the earlier concepts of the Sinful Self (long pause)—concepts that have come to the fore in current contemporary world events with the new attention being given to religious cults and religions. Current events can trigger such reactions, therefore. [...]

[...] A nervous physical reaction—including my stomach and back upsets—to yesterday’s personal events, I thought. [...]

(That event, as well as the launching of the shuttle Sunday morning, had been very emotional doings for me, somewhat to my surprise. [...]

Last night’s events cannot be discussed without a brief preview of the time since our last session. Yesterday in particular, however, provides an excellent example of the way approval and self-disapproval work, and of the ways in which the habit of disapproval can cause you to misinterpret events, and then of course act accordingly.

I would like to give you an explanation for last evening’s events, presuming you are both interested. [...]

[...] That disapproval was in a way quite natural, considering your interpretation of the event. [...]

Such self-disapproval can color your interpretation of events, then, forcing you to act accordingly.

[...] (Such associations also apply to large geological and geographical events, for example, and I wish I had the time and space to go into those!) But if Jane and I, say, as counterparts are exploring certain long-range connections through our own adventures in consciousness, then the consciousnesses of related major events must have much greater abilities and desires for fulfillment. Consider the following group of events as seen through a narrow window of ordinary time; consider the moral, economic, and diplomatic impact they have had—and are still having—upon our own national interests (let alone the interests of other nations). These events must interact with each other on many levels: The revolution in Iran came to a head with a change of leadership in February 1979, after a ruler long favorable to the United States had been deposed; the accident at TMI took place in March 1979; the American hostages were taken in Iran in November 1979; Russia invaded Afghanistan at Christmastime 1979; and less than 10 months later Iraq invaded Iran. This list can either be expanded almost indefinitely, or compressed—but, I think, these events and states of being all are psychically related. [...]

[...] Lesser accidents, or “events,” as they are called within the nuclear-power industry, have continued to happen within the context of that primary accident at TMI—the loss of coolant for the nuclear reactor of Unit No. 2. I call the whole series of accidents “events of consciousness,” and think of them as unfolding in an orderly way from that initial large-scale event of consciousness, which took place on March 28, 1979. [...] The “unusual event” was not serious, although a small amount of radiation was released into the atmosphere through a ventilating system.

[...] Without knowing anything, I know that we’ll need much time in which to understand all of the deeply moving and conflicting emotional, psychic, and intellectual events connected with this development. Each day as I look at my lovely wife lying in her hospital bed after years of struggle, I feel the surge of those events—and I see them in Jane, and feel them in her!

[...] Although Seth hasn’t gone into the idea yet, I believe that events have counterparts also, just as does any “living” organism, whether human or not. [...] (And yes, I think that events have reincarnational histories also, but in this note I’m confining myself to the counterpart thesis.)

[...] Yet it certainly contains a most intriguing, multidimensional view of the nature of probabilities, a view in which our ideas of a “simple, single event” must vanish; at least we can never again look at any event as being concrete, finished, or absolute. Seth stresses the importance of probabilities as they exist in relationship to a thought, an ordinary physical event, or the mass event of Homo sapiens as a species, and emphasizes the existence of probable realities as the understructure of free will.

[...] ‘Unknown’ Reality required much more work on Joseph’s part, and that additional effort in itself was a demonstration that the psyche’s events are very difficult to pin down in time. [...] As Joseph did his notes, it became apparent that some events … seemed to have no beginning or end.”

Seth also presented the entire work in such a way that the events of our daily lives were intimately connected with his material, serving as personal examples of how his theories actually work in everyday experience. [...]

Where do the events of our lives begin or end? [...]