“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Time may show that this session is one of the most significant to date, as far as demonstrations of the authenticity of the Seth Material are concerned. [...] It might be added that Jane and I have no set opinions concerning the Seth Material. [...] We let the material speak for itself.

(The following reference by Seth to the mixing of the papers stems from the fact that in reading back some of the notes of the session to Jane and Bill aloud, I had gotten them out of sequence; for a minute or so I had not realized what had happened, and the material had sounded oddly jumbled.)

(This reproduction, combining the two drawings Bill MacDonnel made of the apparition he saw in the 68th Session, was published in 1970 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., in Jane’s The Seth Material. [...]

[...] My personal feeling is that Seth’s enormous cranium in the drawings is a symbolic one—perhaps one pertaining to Bill’s feeling that Seth possesses greater or different knowledge than we do.

[...] Bantam also wants Seth Material.)

(I personally had one question for Seth. I was rather upset at the way my notes were running so long in some of the book sessions, and wanted Seth’s comment. [...] I needed Seth’s ideas, I thought.

(The following material is from the 704th session.

[...] Not all the sensations involved are pleasant at first, as Seth indicated they might be. [...]

In extracting material on dreams from our many sessions, I have, to some extent, ripped it out of its living context. [...] Seth’s monologues are broken up by humorous references or snatches of conversation with Rob. Seth’s own book, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, will be presented using the session format, however, so that the entire flavor of the sessions can be appreciated.

The nature of this book also meant that the Seth material was chosen exactly because it related to subjective experiences such as dreams and consciousness. Seth also relates beautifully to other individuals in sessions and in give-and-take conversations, as I’ve tried to show several instances. [...]

Seth’s own book will carry his discussions of the dream state still further. [...] Rob tells me, however, that it contains a good deal of new material on the nature of dreaming consciousness.

[...] In them Seth briefly explained how Jane had created her symptoms as protection against the spontaneous self going too far: this fear was the real reason for the symptoms—not, as we usually thought, her fear that she would do other things besides work if she had normal mobility. [...] And to me, as I began to put all of this together, it meant that although she did the Seth books, which we think so highly of, she also drags her feet in resistance with each one—hence the long intervals of non-work that crop up during the production of each one. Again, without checking, I think that an examination of our records would show that her symptoms flared up, indeed worsened, as she worked on each Seth book, and that behind her labors on each book there lay this fear that she was going too far with each one she produced. This fear may be based on outmoded ideas—as Seth has mentioned at various times—it may make no sense, or whatever, yet as long as it exists it must be dealt with. This present session represents, then, our latest attempt to come to terms with all of our personal, public, and creative aspects involved with the Seth material—not just those we’d chosen to deal with in past years.

[...] I reminded her that I was the one who first suggested we start publishing the Seth material, and that she’d had reservations about doing that. [...] I said that she would have probably used her psychic gifts in some fashion in her writing, but that the Seth books might very well have not come into existence except for my own interest—hence my mental insight this morning that Jane did the Seth books to please me. I know things aren’t that simple, but I do feel that the fact of public exposure represented by the Seth books has always bothered Jane. [...]

(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. [...]

[...] Another example of this occurred at noon, when we were visited by two beautiful young ladies—who, unfortunately, were using the Seth material in ways we wouldn’t have. [...] And of course the whole lengthy disclaimer bit for Mass Events beautifully sums up the situations: Even our own publisher seeks to protect itself from possible legal action because of the material within the Seth books. [...]

[...] (Long pause.) My communications are dependent upon Seth’s permission as well as Ruburt’s. The material should still be called the Seth material, for I am an aspect of Seth that you did not know, and in the past I helped him deliver material though I did not directly attend sessions. [...]

[...] On that day Jane received a letter from Prentice-Hall, outlining plans for publishing the Seth material. [...]

[...] None did, but she received brief notes from Seth: “You don’t have to worry about me drinking too much. [...] I drank too much and I can’t let Seth speak in his own voice, to answer my questions.” [...]

[...] Just above us is Seth; above both is the new development that we have come to call Seth’s entity; this is the peak of the cone. [...]

(I had several questions resulting from Jane’s material of yesterday. [...] She also thought that she personally couldn’t live up to the high quality of the Seth material — her own “mental work,” a good way of putting it. [...]

[...] Jane had read the free-association material for yesterday; she got through it okay, but had to struggle a bit. After we’d talked about the material, she announced a session.)

The following material is for Ruburt, and can be used as material for free association. [...]

(No session was held today, April 21, 1984, but we did do some free associating, so I’ll present a summary of that material here, and follow it with a session and more free association whenever they come through.

[...] John has witnessed several sessions; with him he brought the first carbon of Volume 1 of the Seth material, which he has been reading. [...] John is also an indefatigable worker at finding people who are willing to devote free time to typing up extra copies of the material, and he had news for us on this score also. [...]

(Leaving, John took with him the first carbon of sessions 24-38, to test out his two female volunteers’ determination in making copies of the Seth material. [...]

(John and Bill, Jane and I engaged in a discussion of free will, and in an effort to make some points I was sure the material covered I again became aware of something that was becoming more obvious all the time: namely, that the material has now reached such a length, and has gone into so many subjects, some lightly and others deeply, that I for one can no longer keep all of it on prompt recall.

My heartiest appreciation for Philip's attempts to have the material typed, and my rather impatient request that Ruburt begin his work of preparing the material for publication.

[...] It might be added here that at the time of the visit of Jane’s father, on the night in question Jane had, as she was explaining some of the Seth material to her father and Midge, felt definite emotional “nudges” from Seth to hold a session, whereas upon the occasion of our visit with Bill and Ida in Rochester, she had not. [...]

(And here I must admit that although Seth gave the entity name for Bill’s wife Ida, I did not think quickly enough to ask for the entity name of Ida’s twin sister. Jane and I are curious to see if there is any similarity in entity names under such circumstances, and I will make it a point to ask Seth for the name.)

[...] She said my sneezing did not bother her, that Seth was willing to wait; but also that Seth probably called the break early because of my continued sneezing.

[...] The more philosophic material, or what could almost be called academic material, suits both of you greatly, and is indeed where my own interests mainly lie.

2. A note added later: The Seth Material and Seth Speaks contain some references to the reincarnational connections that Seth postulates involving himself, Jane, and me. Such personal data is outside the scope of this book; but in Chapter Nineteen, Seth does go into his ideas on reincarnation, time, etc., in a more objective way.

[...] “I’m glad Seth’s working on his book again,” she said. [...] And so, like Seth Speaks, this is really two books in one: It’s not only about the nature of personal reality, but the circumstances surrounding Jane’s production of the material and the many ideas she has concerning it.

[...] We’d lost our car, but we had a place to live and had all of our paintings, manuscripts and records, including the fifty-three volumes of the Seth material, intact. [...]

[...] Occasionally a footnote like this will be included in order to point up Seth’s own material. [...]

I told her the material is fascinating in its implications. It’s an excellent point, I said, that in her ability to tap into a seemingly endless amount of Seth material, she strikes a parallel with early man and his capacity to carry all personal, cultural, and historical information within himself. As early man functioned on his own, without writing or any of the other modern conveniences of communication that we have, so does Jane function through Seth. [...] Seth has never discussed the subject, nor have we asked him to. [...]

Jane was interested in our talk—mine, mostly—but finally she revealed that it was better for her when Seth didn’t take a break: “I like it when he zooms right through to the end.” I replied that my questions carried no hints for material from Seth. [...]

Seth didn’t return to the material on reincarnation, schizophrenia, and possession that he began discussing last Wednesday evening in the 921st session.)

3. Among others in The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book, see Chapter 9: Seth discusses the state of grace, natural guilt, artificial guilt, and related subjects.

As the Seth sessions continued, our activities fell generally into three main divisions. First of all, the emphasis was on the delivery of the Seth Material itself, as in the twice-weekly sessions Seth continued to explain the nature of nonphysical reality. Second, we became involved in trying to obtain “evidential” material, some definite instances of extrasensory perception on Seth’s part. Along these lines, we embarked on long-distance tests with a psychologist and a year’s series of envelope tests in which Seth was asked to identify the contents of doubly-sealed envelopes. At the same time, Seth began to send me on out-of-body journeys during some sessions and to offer, on his own, other instances of “paranormal” activity.

In my book, The Seth Material, I explained some of these episodes. [...] In the out-of-body experiences, Seth correctly described events that happened across the country and in Puerto Rico. [...]

It wasn’t until 1965 that Seth began to suggest variations of the early dream recall instructions and to add other techniques for more advanced dream investigation. Here are a few excerpts from that material.

I was fascinated with Seth’s material on the dream universe. [...]

(The questions I referred to concern the fact that once in The Seth Material and nine times in Seth Speaks, by my count, Seth spoke of Atlantis as being in our historical past. [...] Seth’s theory of simultaneous time, which can encompass the notion of future probabilities projected backward into an apparent past, for instance, leaves great leeway for the interpretation of events or questions, however, and makes the idea of contradiction posed by an Atlantis in the past and one in the future too simple as an explanation. At any given “time,” depending on whatever information he’s given previously, Jane could just as easily quote Seth as placing Atlantis in our historic past, or in a probable past, present, or future — or all four “places” at once, for that matter. [...]

(I read to Jane the few paragraphs of material Seth had given on Atlantis. [...] I’ll have to admit that we cringe a bit when Seth talks about cultish concepts like Atlantis. [...] From these remarks it’s easy to see that we feel much more comfortable with the ideas about Atlantis that Seth advanced in this session. [...]

(The tenor of Seth’s material tonight led me to think that he was close to finishing “Unknown” Reality, but since Jane evidently didn’t feel that way I said nothing about it. [...]

1. This is a good place to insert these excerpts from the session Seth gave for ESP class on February 16, 1971, three years before starting “Unknown” Reality. While it leads to a number of questions, his material still sums up certain important meanings that lie behind or within the overall concept of probable realities.

(In preparation for her next book, which will deal with the Seth material itself, Jane made an exploratory trip to several county records offices in Elmira; she is beginning an effort to track down Frank Watts. [...]

(“Good night, Seth.” A reminder: Seth alone calls for all underlined words.

(Last week we received Dr. Instream’s letter of September 13, in which he wrote that he would like to try straight clairvoyant communication with Seth on Monday and Wednesday nights at 10 PM. [...]

(Dr. Instream would like us to ask Seth why he stopped at York Beach, since he had never been there before. [...]

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.

[...] An archivist from Manuscripts and Archives has visited us to get a rough idea of the amount of material we have to offer. [...] Jane and I are most pleased that the Seth material and everything connected with it are to be preserved.

Her delivery as Seth was for the most part comparatively subdued.)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

4. Seth’s material here reminded me of a remark he made in the 504th session, which is presented in the Appendix of The Seth Material; he was discussing the perceptions of the fetus as mediated by electromagnetic energy (EE) units: “Cells are not just responsive to light because this is the order of things, but because an emotional desire to perceive light is present.”

(In tonight’s relatively brief session Seth discussed our house adventures in quite a personal way, yet also passed along some related concepts of a more general nature. I’ve deleted certain portions of his material about us while leaving other parts for presentation here, since they do extend his recent work for “Unknown” Reality.)

Our own plans to relocate, however, plus those of the family next door (whom we’ll never get to know), reminded me of the material Seth gave at 11:25 for the 737th session, to the effect that any important decision we make organizes the patterns of probability set into motion: “This should be obvious … Unconsciously, then, the movers are in league with each other. [...]

5. See Seth’s discussion of tree consciousness in Session 727; Note 7 for that session contains excerpts from his tree data in the 18th session (for January 22, 1964) and in the 453rd session (for December 4, 1968). Here’s some more related material from the 18th session:

Actually, Seth has been describing in various ways the indissoluble relationship between consciousness and information (or consciousness and anything else), ever since Jane began holding the sessions over a decade ago. [...] Five of the eight sessions contained material applicable to this note. Seth, in the 18th session, for example:

7. Seth evidently referred to the material he gave on the conscious attributes of information for Chapter 3 of Personal Reality. Note 1 for Session 697, in Volume 1, contains quotations from those comments, as well as a few other references.

9. When Seth mentions reincarnation now, I usually think of a certain delivery of his in Volume 1. After 10:45 in the 683rd session, see the paragraph of material beginning with this phrase: “Reincarnation simply represents probabilities in a time context….” [...]

[...] Let me briefly continue that early Seth material here: “In drawing up his list of so-called natural laws, I have said (in the 16th session) that man decided that what appeared to be cause and effect to him was, therefore, a natural law of the universe. [...]

[...] The article also included information about the Seth material. See the 618th session in Chapter Three for an account of Seth’s meeting with Dick and the latter’s editor, Eleanor Friede.

(Monday night, Jane had another vivid dream involving the Seth material, herself, and a certain kind of magazine story. [...]

2. Seth tells us in Chapter Nineteen of Seth Speaks: “Molecular structures send out their own messages, and unless you are tuned in to perceive them, they may be interpreted as meaningless noise.”

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

3. After this session, I was rather surprised when Jane told me that the Jonestown tragedy was an emotionally charged subject for her, and that Seth knew it. [...] Involved also are her adamant feelings against having the Seth material used as the basis for any kind of cult, with herself as its leader. Hence, she’s continually examining Seth’s revelatory material — and her own — with very critical eyes to make sure she isn’t “a self-deluded nut leading people astray.” [...] See Seth’s material on evolution and fundamentalism in Session 829.

[...] The mass deaths at Jonestown (in November 1978) took place during our long layoff from book dictation, but Seth began discussing the affair almost at once in our private material, as Jane described in her own portion of the opening notes for Session 831. Now she told me that Seth introduced the subject in that manner so that later she’d be more at ease dealing with it for Mass Events.

[...] Seth promptly came through with two lines of encouraging material for her. [...]

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

[...] Seth lists these in Chapter Nineteen of The Seth Material. [...]

[...] Material could have been given in a much more simple fashion through another, but I wanted it as undistorted and fully dimensional as possible. Had Ruburt not been available, the material would have been given to a Speaker, living in your terms, who was also involved in the creative field.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(I asked the question because I thought Seth’s answer to number forty-six, in the last session, touched upon one of those propositions: “The Law of Infinite Changeability and Transmutation.” [...]

(But Seth wasn’t through work on his book yet. The following material shows the relationship between my vision effects and the events in the session itself. [...]

^* For illustrations of this painting, see The Seth Material.

(At 8:30 tonight Jane and I discussed Seth’s progress on his book. [...] She wasn’t reading the book now, but she realized Seth wasn’t following, literally, the outline he’d given for it before he began dictating it chapter by chapter. I told her I thought Seth was presenting it just as he wanted it done; she agreed that she might as well relax and just let it come out.

(In considerable surprise I asked Seth to wait once more. [...] Jane, as Seth, sat waiting rather noncommittally, eyes open.)