“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This will be the first time Seth has appeared on television since we did some promotional work for The Seth Material after its publication in 1970. At that time Jane spoke for Seth on two occasions from cities in the East. [...] I might add that since Seth launched “Unknown” Reality in February of this year, Jane and I have fulfilled another television commitment, and that she was the subject of a lengthy radio interview. [...]

5. In the last session see the material, with notes 1 and 7, on Einstein, as well as Note 5; in the 684th session the material on the multidimensional activities and fluctuations of Seth’s CU’s (or units of consciousness), electrons, and other such phenomena; and in the 681st session the material, with Note 7 especially, on science, probable atoms, and the basic unpredictability behind all systems of reality. In the same session Seth also comments on Jane’s vocabulary, as he does after break tonight.

See Chapter 15 of Seth Speaks for Seth’s material on the art and technology of the ancient civilization of Lumina (as well as his references to those that came before and after it). [...]

(I thought it very interesting that Seth had talked about subatomic waves and particles in the last paragraph of his delivery tonight. [...] We had briefly discussed Einstein’s work and some allied subjects before tonight’s session, but I hadn’t asked her to give material on physics through Seth.⁵ In her own way, Jane is quite interested in the field, however, and has done a little work in it with scientists. [...]

“Of course, I thought, in ordinary terms the vast potential of the Seth material is fated never to be developed. [...] She could hold sessions 24 hours a day for the rest of her life, and still not exhaust Seth’s potential store of information. We’ve had many indications that his material is multichanneled, as when Jane has felt him ready to discuss any one of a number of subjects on any given occasion. I call that feeling, that awareness, a pale indication of what Seth means with his theory of probable realities—for like probable personalities, the unspoken channels he has available are certainly real whether or not they’re actualized in our physical reality.

“I can envision Seth’s material expanding almost endlessly just on a day-to-day basis, as he deals with events in the lives of Jane and me—and this idea conveys nothing about news of his reactions to and interactions with events on various levels of his own reality, plus other realities he may be able to reach. In Chapter 8 of Dreams, when I asked Seth what he was going to do for the rest of the evening (in our terms), he replied: ‘I am going to refresh myself by diving into some new concepts, for there are new concepts for me also, of course, and I dive into them from many positions all the time as well.’ (See the conclusion of Session 916 for May 14, 1980.) Think of the questions one could ask him relative to just this one statement! [...] But obviously, if Seth did take up every moment of our temporal lives with personal material, all else would be probable.”

[...] It’s not contradictory to note that during August and September, following his regular schedule of twice-weekly sessions, Seth methodically presented some very exciting concepts. So closely do those 13 sessions fit together that it’s most difficult to give excerpts.⁵ Seth’s magical-approach material represents one of his best efforts to help us, as well as others. [...] The title of the new book would be automatic: The Magical Approach to Reality: A Seth Book.

[...] Yet it is, of course, since in it Seth illuminates from still another perspective his concept of value fulfillment.⁸ The session grew out of the encounter we had yesterday afternoon with an unexpected visitor from out of state. Seth hardly mentions the individual involved, however, but instead goes into the subject of mental illness in more inclusive terms. I see many correlations between this evening’s material and that in Session 917 for Chapter 8; there, among other things, Seth had discussed the reasoning mind, the imaginative mind, and schizophrenia. [...]

(This session was held to obtains answers to two questions we had for Seth. Both pertained to Jane’s book on the Seth material, which she is just finishing. [...]

(By this I meant to ask Seth if he planned to dictate a chapter, or at least a few pages, for Jane’s book on the material. [...] But it can be seen that Seth doesn’t directly answer the question.)

There will be more material on the (ELM) units of which we have been speaking. (Jane may use this material in the appendix.) I wanted to tell you that when Ruburt sends off his book we will try to give you more information on the art gallery material.

(Jane said she didn’t really want to speak for Seth’s entity tonight, if that’s what she was trying to do, so I suggested she break it off. Jane said “things were significant in the room,” a phrase she has used before when preparing to speak for Seth’s entity, or Seth II as we sometimes call “him.”)

(Possibly here Seth refers to the results flowing from Dick’s mentioning The Seth Material on his TV and radio shows in the course of talking about his own book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, etc.)

His bubbling enthusiasm was partially responsible for his contracting The Seth Material. [...] He was also not rigid in his ideas, however, and sensed the importance of the material, and as a young editor impressed his boss by his own enthusiasm. [...]

[...] Your position as not being publicity seekers works strongly to your advantage now, as far as Seth Speaks and The Seth Material is concerned. [...]

[...] Telling me about it—we also reread this session—Jane said it would be more than a casual mention of The Seth Material in the article, and that now she could “feel a tremendous amount of energy gathering around” the fact of Dick Bach, us, Seth, etc.

(John said it was all right for the personal material to be included in this record, and it is a good example of the way Seth handles such data. [...] Most of the family material is self-explanatory. [...] Seth has advised patience here; John said this is difficult for him but that he is carefully considering the advice. [...]

[...] These were the poetry book and the first section of her book on the Seth material. This material is discussed in the 234th session, among others.

[...] John’s presence usually calls forth some telepathic and/or clairvoyant material from Seth, and so it developed this evening. The form of the material is a little different however this time, and involves John and his wife for the most part.

[...] The object is the insurance slip for the manuscripts of Jane’s poetry book, and the first section of the Seth material, mailed to her publisher on February 10,1966. This material is discussed to some extent in the 234th session, among others.

(Seth repeated several times that he felt in fine form, and Jane’s voice and manner so indicated. I asked some questions designed to keep the material on the level of reincarnational data, since our guests had done some reading on the subject. Seth said I had not known Lee Wright before, but that I had been “involved” with Judy in a past life. [...] This reminded me that Seth had given similar data for our friend Bill Macdonnel; he too had been a sailor in a Denmark contemporary existence, but as I recall I did not ask Seth whether Judy and Bill had known each other in that life. [...]

(Prior to this evening Jane and I had not mentioned the Seth material to them, although the four of us have tried a few ESP experiments on weekends. [...] Tonight’s experiment began rather spontaneously and ended with Seth making an entrance, although I for one had not particularly planned it that way.

(Seth expressed much pleasure at being able to speak in a natural manner, without dealing with the usual philosophical and complicated subjects that make up most of the sessions. [...] Seth reinforced this by saying that in the future I should be careful if I did not want it to happen again. Jane and I now like to prepare witnesses beforehand, since the material has become so lengthy and complicated that it is increasingly difficult to explain briefly.

There should be an extra dimension added to the material, and now and then the freedom for some informal discussion. With your recorder we may be able to arrange a more comfortable conversation, although as you realize as far as the material itself is concerned, it is rather weighty material and I must sort of hit you over the head with it. [...]

[...] Our main goal in wanting a home for the Seth material—or for a lifework, really—is one of preservation for future use. We don’t think that Yale can have much of an idea of what’s involved with Jane’s abilities, or the subject matter of the Seth material. [...]

(Before the session Jane read over the letter from D. R. Moorcroft, the professor of physics who’d written her such a fine letter on April 3. She divided the letter into questions; Seth may discuss some of them tonight. [...] Seth does refer to the first question Jane had noted, and that material is also presented as the 849th session, as well as being included here.

(What I’m trying to do is to let the information Seth has given in the last several deleted sessions for me, starting with that for April 4, sink in so that I can achieve a synthesis of it all both consciously and unconsciously. I think the material is very perceptive, and that I may have begun achieving some kind of equanimity between the two men, or opposing sets of belief, that Seth so aptly described in the deleted session for April l8. [...]

[...] They want the Seth material and related papers. [...] [Jane is not in favor of public accessibility at this time.] LD explained a few things, suggesting among them a committee, perhaps, to screen qualified applicants to the material. [...]

Our guests, with others who didn’t make the trip to Sayre, had been visiting the collection of the Seth material in the archives of Yale University Library in New Haven, CT. The archives contain a complete copy of my original typed pages of the Seth material in its 46 three-ring binders; many editions of the Seth books and Jane’s “own” books in English and in translations; her published and unpublished novels; her journals and poetry; her notes and papers, and mine; various published Seth journals; treatises and websites on the Internet (some nice, some not so nice); plus other relevant, indeed very evocative material like the reader correspondence from this country and abroad. [...]

Jane and I were very surprised at the initial reception of The Seth Material, then Seth Speaks and Personal Reality (our shortened terminology for those first two Seth-dictated books.) Since we had no experience with “fan mail,” for example, we had no expectations, but as the Seth titles and Jane’s own books were published she came to spend many a weekend answering that most welcome mail. [...] Time travels for sure; travels not only through the psyche but through time—even if Seth did call that quality we were so used to “camouflage time!”

The Seth material, as Jane and Rob spoke and wrote it between 1963 and 1984 has brought insights and inspiration to millions of people, including myself. [...] The Seth material was magical to me as soon as I started reading the first book I found in a used bookstore, Seth Speaks, in 1979. [...] Rob and Jane and Seth’s magic has brought new interest and purpose into the lives of many different kinds of people. [...]

[...] Once in a while Seth would come through—though usually only by invitation—but that wasn’t the norm by any means. [...] Sue Watkins, a dear friend who was to write several books about Jane’s work with the Seth material, lived just down the street for a while before moving to the country. (Sue’s latest, Speaking of Jane Roberts, is crowded with much frank and loving information about Jane and me that I have no room to go into here.) Peggy Gallagher and her husband Bill worked for the Elmira Star-Gazette; as a reporter Peg wrote several well-received articles about Jane and the Seth material. [...]

[...] If Seth comes through with material for “Unknown” Reality, Tam will be the first “outsider” to sit in on a session for this work. Almost always Jane dictates book material without witnesses other than myself and uses the framework of ESP class for emotional interactions involving herself, Seth, and others. [...]

1. For those who are interested in publishing matters: Like counterpoint endeavors, Jane’s Dialogues and Adventures have become interwound with her Seth books. She discussed her “own” works in her Introduction to Personal Reality. I mention them in various notes in that book, and selections of poetry from Dialogues itself are presented in chapters 10 and 11; in the latter chapter Seth used one of those excerpts in connection with his own material. Then in Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, Seth refers to Adventures on occasion, while I give information about it in Note 3 for his Preface, and Note 5 for Session 680, among others.

[...] In it Seth gave the heading for Section 4, just before finishing his evening’s work with a few minutes of personal information for Jane and me. [...] But I’d say his procedure also helps satisfy Jane’s spontaneous impatience about learning what’s coming next in the material.

[...] A young man had finished reading The Seth Material this evening. [...]

[...] The end of the Seth material — or is it? [...]

[...] Although one can say that her life is over in this reality, her lifework isn’t. Many have written that her books are new each time they read them — that they’re constantly finding new material in them. [...] It also happens with the audio tapes from Jane’s ESP class, as she speaks for Seth, or as herself in exchanges with students, or as she speaks and sings in her trance language, Sumari. [...]

[...] The 15 three-ring binders containing her poems, all neatly typed, for example; her essays and journals; other blocks of unpublished Seth material, one of which I mentioned in the Introduction; an unfinished autobiography that perhaps I could put into publishable shape; likewise, passages from an unfinished fourth Oversoul Seven novel, in which Jane dealt with Seven’s childhood; a book of her paintings, with commentary; several early novels that I still believe merit publishing. [...]

When Jane published The Seth Material in 1970, we were quite unprepared for the impact her work would have. [...]

(Earlier today Jane and I had been discussing how best to go about writing her projected book on the Seth material. [...] We decided we would like Seth’s help with this problem, and so expected to hear him speak this evening.

[...] She said that at the end of the session, just before she left trance, she got a message that she would hear from the publisher Prentice-Hall, within three days concerning the prospectus they have for the book on the Seth material.

To think in such a way could be to limit the good the material can do, and the numbers and kinds of people it can reach. Like action, the material moves out in all directions. [...] There will be, at some time, those interested in a study in depth of the material; and as Ruburt’s students have seen to it that their need is satisfied, so will these people see to it. [...]

My personality is what makes the material unique, for it is information sifted through an individual that is unique from all others. Ruburt therefore should not attempt to disentangle the material from my personal characteristics. [...] But he should not present my ideas as if they come from thin air, for this is to rob the material.

Today I received scientific corroboration by mail from James Beal, a NASA scientist, for some of Seth’s data on the units that Seth says underlie all physical particles. This information, given to us in sessions, was published in the appendix of The Seth Material. The paper Jim sent was so professionally oriented that I could hardly understand it, couched as it was in specialized mathematical language. Yet through Seth, we had received the same data. Someone — my own unconscious or Seth — had access to it; that much is certain. [...]

In The Seth Material, I told the story of my psychic initiation and introduction to Seth as I understood it at that time, and gave a sampling of his ideas on a wide variety of subjects. I also emphasized the “evidential” material we had received — spontaneous clairvoyant demonstrations given in sessions and in the envelope tests that we conducted for over a year. Seth has given correct clairvoyant descriptions of people and events in other parts of this country and Puerto Rico.

[...] It was 10 A.M. on the last day of our first tour to promote my book, The Seth Material. This was our fifth television show. I tried to look composed and confident, though I still found it difficult to face strangers so early in the day, much less the world at large — particularly when I was expected to explain my own psychic experiences and the philosophical concepts of The Seth Material.

Even without a physical form, Seth is highly effective in our world. Through me, he is producing the Seth Material, a continuing manuscript dealing with the nature of reality, consciousness and identity that now totals over fifty notebooks. He is also dictating his own book: Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. To date, we have held nearly six hundred sessions. [...]

We were most eager to get this particular material to the public, since many correspondents write requesting Seth’s views on sexuality. This desire, coupled with Seth’s seemingly endless creativity, led us to a decision: From now on, the Seth books will carry far fewer notes. In the two volumes of The “Unknown” Reality, Rob tried to correlate Seth’s views on various subjects, tracing them backward to his earlier books (and often to unpublished material), showing the context in which the books were written. Now we will include usual session notes, but the reader will have to keep track of the development of the theories or correlate them with previous Seth books at his or her leisure.

I know very well that there were evenings when I “should” have held our regular Seth session, but didn’t, for reasons also forgotten. [...] During the period that Seth was dictating this book, Rob was typing the two volumes of Seth’s previous work, The “Unknown” Reality, and adding innumerable notes that correlated Seth’s material with that of his earlier books. [...] Turn into Seth.

Unless I “turn into Seth,” go the whole way, alter my very psychological alignment — unless Seth smiles and speaks — there is no Seth material. [...]

I’d been producing my own books during this time, and getting them ready for publication, so surely Seth wasn’t taking up any creative slack of my own. Still, I stared at Psyche when Seth finished it, wishing that he could type, too! [...] And I wondered: What must I look like to Rob as I leaned forward as Seth, smiling, (my glasses off, Seth’s eyes darker than mine), joking as Seth, gesturing, waiting while Rob got me (Jane), a beer? [...]

[...] It contained a few excerpts of the Seth Material, and a reproduction of Rob’s painting of Seth. Mrs. Brian had a terrific headache while reading the article; suddenly she thought she felt Seth’s presence. An inner voice, presumably Seth’s, told her that she had been feeling sorry for herself, that she must stop brooding over her health at once, get up, and go out for a walk. [...]

Our Monday and Wednesday sessions, where Seth develops the theoretical material, are still private, although a guest may drop in occasionally. Seth sometimes does hold a session for my ESP students on class night, and in class he deals with the practical application of the material.

Several people have told me that Seth communicated with them through automatic writing, but Seth denies any such contacts, saying that his communications will be limited to his work with me, in order that the integrity of the Seth Material be preserved. [...]

Demonstrations of ESP in sessions have always had a purpose: either to help increase my confidence or train my abilities, to illustrate a point made in the material, or to offer information to someone in need. It’s easy for me to forget my earlier feelings that Seth should prove himself; easy for me to forget that I, too, insisted on my “wonders,” and on several occasions even denied the evidence of my own senses out of the mistaken belief that I was somehow being more scientific that way. I will say that I always highly respected the Seth Material, and recognized the scope and daring of some of the concepts it contains.

[...] Rooney, incidentally, can be seen in a photograph with Jane on the jacket of The Seth Material, hard cover edition.

[...] In retrospect, Jane and I had been wondering if Monday’s session should have consisted of book dictation — yet Seth was putting that material to use tonight….)

2. Seth notes in part, in Chapter Three of Seth Speaks: “Root assumptions are those built-in ideas of reality … those agreements upon which you base your ideas of existence. [...]

[...] According to Seth, Emerson is one of the “Speakers” — personalities who, both in the physical state and out of it, speak to man through the ages, reminding him of inner knowledge so that it is never really forgotten. [...] Also see Chapter Twenty in Seth Speaks.

(Finally, and perhaps prematurely: Left untapped so far in all of this is any material from Seth on whether the counterpart and family-of-consciousness mechanisms apply to other species. If they do, I remarked to Jane as I typed this session the next day, then Seth must have a great amount of extremely interesting information on those concepts in relation to animals, say, or birds, insects, and marine life — not to mention bacteria and viruses; perhaps, also, submicroscopic entities down to the molecular and atomic levels, or even “below,” are involved. I added that I hoped we’d soon begin to get the material we wanted on all of those categories, and others, and that Seth’s flow of information on such topics would continue as the years passed. [...]

(I told her I’d been rather surprised when Seth had so baldly stated that there were only nine families of [human] consciousness upon our planet. [...] I also remarked upon my understanding that usually neither she nor Seth liked to categorize new information so definitely. [...] Strangely, neither of us had ever asked Seth to name any of the other families of consciousness, following Jane’s Sumari breakthrough some three years ago — but at the end of this session see the material about the family of consciousness Sue Watkins had tuned in to back then.

6. Seth’s line about the dislike that can exist among counterparts is hilarious, nor am I being facetious in so commenting. [...] The interesting thing about Seth’s statement is that with counterpart theory in mind one can gain a fresh appreciation of how underlying emotions and motives flow among certain individuals, sometimes surfacing in feelings of dislike, for instance, to whatever degree. And, of course, my thinking here is in line with material Seth himself soon gives in this session.

1. It will be remembered that Seth first mentioned his concept of counterparts in the ESP class session for Tuesday evening, November 18, 1974, rather than in dictation for “Unknown” Reality; see the opening notes for Session 721. [...] Then see all of Seth’s material on counterparts in the 721st session itself.

[...] The stories by Peg Gallagher dealt with the origin of the Seth material, Seth himself, and quotes from various sessions as well as the way the material is gathered, etc. The photos were of Jane and of the painting I did, in oil, of Seth.

(Strictly speaking, these episodes could be called seances, since they were given by Jane herself rather than Seth. The math material meant little to Roger, and we have no way, as yet, of checking out the California data. [...] We didn’t insist that Seth discuss this material this evening, instead merely saying we had much to learn here.

[...] The series was built around the acceptance of the first book of the Seth material by Prentice-Hall.

[...] I said I thought it was a contact session, as Seth calls them, meaning that he was present with us at this time, rather than having given Jane the material earlier. [...]

[...] I told Jane I felt that regardless of John’s evocative visit Seth would have mentioned my eye phenomena tonight, given his subject matter for the session. And yet, I added, because of the very nature of the Seth material, I’m also bound to think that beneath that simplified explanation there are “deeper” connections—in which the television program, her reactions to it, John’s appearance, and tonight’s session are all related. [...]

[...] I’m also presenting it because it shows how an event on one day of our lives—a television program—influenced Jane’s delivery of one session of the Seth material. [...]

[...] In Mass Events Seth told us: “Consciousness forms the genes, and not the other way around, and the about-to-be-born infant is the agency that adds new material through the chromosomal structure.” [...]

[...] I don’t feel Seth around or anything.” [...]

(Seth also said that Jane and I would die within a short time of each other, when our earthly work was finished. [...] Seth said that Jane would publish 5 books on the Seth Material; 3 novels; 3 books of poetry; plus 2 books to be dictated by Seth himself. [...]

(As predicted by Seth in the 420th session for July 1, 1968, Prentice-Hall is to publish the first book on the Seth material. [...]

The format of the book shall be simple, and it shall be a supplementary to the Seth material itself, for it shall be my own... [...]

[...] John said there is a tie-in here with some earlier material given by Seth concerning family travel and Hawaii. [...]

[...] She is doing invaluable work as a research and editorial assistant; studying Jane’s notebooks, journals, and poetry, and putting together material from those sources to be included in this book. She has also been working with and choosing the published and unpublished Seth sessions for The Magical Approach. [...] Laurel has been involved with Jane’s, Seth’s, and my work since November of 1979, when she was 24 years old. Her boyfriend recommended Seth Speaks to her. [...] Laurel began writing to Jane and me in 1980 — while Seth was dictating The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events and Jane was writing her God of Jane. [...]

[...] Today I sent Sue a copy of a recent page of Seth’s material on the intellect, and a list of the questions about George that Seth discussed above. I expect her answers to tally with Seth’s.

[...] Conversations With Seth is Sue’s fine two-volume account of the ESP classes Jane held from September 1967 to February 1975. Tam’s enthusiastic and intuitive help was always invaluable to Jane, ever since he encouraged her to publish her first book, The Seth Material, in 1970.

(Now to my surprise, Seth answered a question or two I’d asked Jane earlier today to relay to Sue Watkins — material I could use in my chronology for Dreams. [...]