“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Within the last two weeks Jane delivered the final version of her book, The Seth Material, to Prentice-Hall. They have asked her to do a book on Seth, dreams, and reincarnation.

[...] She said she knew from the beginning of the session that Seth was “putting me out deeper.” She knew Seth was talking about his own projected book, and avoided blocking, etc. She hadn’t been using suggestion in an effort to get this material tonight.

[...] Seth could develop this material, since I do not know how one of these men “influenced my life at one time,” etc. [...]

The next chapter will relate what experience I have had in all my existences, with those pyramid gestalts of which I speak in the material, and with my own and about my own relationship with the personality you call Seth Two, and with multidimensional consciousnesses far more evolved than I.

We’re still trying to get answers, with the help of the Seth material. I don’t mind noting that I think that with Seth, Jane has achieved some understanding of our species’ larger questions about life and death. Seth went into those questions while talking about Billy in sessions 837–39, but his material is much too long to print in Mass Events — and even too long to touch upon the highlights in any adequate way. There follow a few quotations from the material he gave us in those private sessions, however. [...]

I might add here another insight into the relationship between Jane and Seth — the kind of information we continue to search for. [...] From Seth she then picked up material to the effect that “time was in the present to the cat … in a way its life was eternal to it, whether it lived 10 months or 10 years, or whatever.” At the time (she wrote later for me) emotionally she objected strenuously to that message of Seth’s, since “it seemed too easy a way to sign off a cat’s life — or any other life — even if it was true. [...]

(Almost five weeks have passed since Seth gave the 835th session. [...] Let me try to put that unhappy event in perspective now, in the continuing chronology of our lives as they’re enmeshed in the Seth material in general and in Mass Events in particular.

(Seth also touched upon the question while dealing mainly with Billy’s death in the next three sessions, which are also private, but this evening he was more specific. Even though he didn’t call this 840th session book dictation, we’re presenting part of it here because the material fits in so well with his themes for Mass Events.)

[...] “No” Actually I was, but Jane was doing so well as Seth that I hated to interrupt her delivery of the material.)

(As break neared its end, Jane said that Seth was going to give the material available through one of the other channels open from him tonight. [...]

(Returning at 10:54, then, Seth not only came through with the material Jane wanted,^,8 but devoted considerable time to some other information for her. [...]

1. Appendix 12 contains much material on conventional theories of evolution, as well as on Seth’s and my own often countering views.

[...] For whatever reasons since holding the 709th session, she hasn’t had to wait for that certain, more “difficult” kind of trance to develop before launching into Seth’s book material; see the note at 10:55 for that session. [...] For other contrasting examples, in Volume 1 see the notes closing out sessions 688 and 703, as well as related material in Appendix 4, wherein I wrote about the translation challenges she’s often faced since beginning “Unknown” Reality: “— hence her talk before many of these sessions … about attaining that ‘certain clear focus,’ or ‘the one clearest place in consciousness,’ before she began speaking for Seth.”

(This afternoon Jane told me that in her sleep last night she’d had bleed-throughs from Seth about the material to come next in his book. She described it to me — and tonight Seth followed that subject matter very closely in the first part of the session. [...]

(And added a year later: Seth also discussed the will in a personal session that was held just six months after he’d finished dictating “Unknown” Reality in April 1975. As soon as Jane came through with the material, I thought of adding some of its more generalized portions to this session. Seth:)

1. See the references to the Dr. Instream material (for 1965–67) in Appendix 18 with its Note 18. In chapters 5 and 6 of The Seth Material, Jane described other contacts we made as we sought to understand her psychic growth.

[...] I’ll explain what I mean by referring to my two questions for Seth in reverse order. At the end of the 732nd session I expressed the hope that “… we’d soon begin to get the material we wanted …” from him on whether the counterpart and family-of-consciousness mechanisms applied to other species and forms than our own; hence my second question this evening. With Seth’s evident help, Jane herself began at least a partial answer — one that was cut off by our visitor, Barbara, pounding upon our door. [...] Not only that: I must note that even several years later we’ve still acquired no Seth material at all on such possible counterpart and family-of-consciousness roles. I also let go (although not consciously and deliberately) my plans to keep after Seth for that kind of information.

In a way, however, Seth may do Jane and me something of an injustice when he remarks, for instance, that the Sumari “don’t hang around to cut the grass….” [...] I doubt that the Seth material would exist in its present recorded form if we weren’t that way.

3. In view of Seth’s statement that “Many of the Sumari choose to be born in the springtime,” I decided to poll the members of Jane’s class for their months of birth. At various times, and usually in connection with other subjects, Seth has referred to many of them as being Sumari. Actually, I took my little survey on February 4, the evening following next Monday’s session, but give the rather ambiguous results here because of the predominately Sumari material in this (734th) session. [...]

(See Appendix 26 for some of the family-of-consciousness material that Jane delivered for Seth in ESP class yesterday evening.

(Some of the material obtained is verbatim, some is not because of Seth’s rapid delivery. [...] The very beginning of the session is not recorded because I was working in the studio in the back of the apartment when Seth came through as Jane, Eve and Tam sat in the living room.

[...] When I returned Jane and Tam informed me that Seth had come through again. This time the material concerned, among other things, plants and thoughts; Tam being very interested in plants and related subjects. Since we have no notes on this material, Tam said he would send us a brief resume of this last delivery, to include with these notes.

[...] In this session were perhaps a page and a half of Seth’s clairvoyant data re Tam and Miss Carr. [...] The last name of Cecile Grossman, an editor at Prentice-Hall, was mentioned by Seth, for instance. Tam noted the correct data in the 418th session, so this material has now been checked at least once.

[...] I will never speak through anyone other than Ruburt, simply because there must never be any doubt of the origin of the Seth material.

(I presume here that by “earliest session” Seth refers to his first material on the fifth dimension, given in the 12th session. [...] See Volume 1, page 8. This first session material was given to us through Frank Watts, however. Frank Watts is a fragment of Seth’s entity. Seth stated recently that the Seth material begins when he announced his presence to us by name, and this would be in the 4th session. See the 85th session, Volume 2, page 336, for Seth’s statement concerning the Frank Watts material.)

[...] Jane has been quite surprised to find many references in these books that tally with what Seth has said. Many other points in the books have served as jumping-off points for Seth’s material, also.)

(See the 41st session for Seth’s first long dissertation on the spacious present. [...] As this material continues to expand it becomes more difficult to pinpoint references on a subject to a given few pages.)

(She had no idea of the material for the session as the time for it approached. [...]

(Seth did make a prediction: Jane will write an excellent book about the class sessions, and this will lead many to read the regular Seth material. Seth added that the material itself, in session format, will be published in its entirety one day. [...]

[...] After an average-length break an unrecorded interval of material followed, with Seth mainly answering questions for Carl. [...] [This is usually the case when I don’t take notes.] One such point had to do with Seth’s statement that whenever a person thinks strongly about another person, a portion of the “thinker” goes out to the “thought-subject,” etc.

[...] He teaches a high school course called “Inner and Outer Space,” in a small city in Connecticut; the class uses Jane’s book, The Seth Material, as text. [...]

*See Chapter Eighteen of The Seth Material.

(Reading the 3rd session, of December 6/63, John noticed that Frank Watts, Jane and I had all lived together in Mesopotamia in the 4th century B.C. In that life I was a woman, Frank Watts was my sister, and Jane was a brother to us, and named Seth. [...] Seth did not announce his presence until the 4th session. Now John wondered if the Seth mentioned in the 3rd session, page 18, was the same Seth who is now giving us the material.

(John Bradley took with him Volume I of the Seth Material, consisting of the first 15 sessions, first carbon; two friends of his who are professional typists had offered to try copying the material, and John thought that this amount of material, 147 pages, would be sufficient to test their interest and staying power. [...]

I realize that this is somewhat difficult, but when you reread the last two sessions you will understand this material completely. Ruburt is now the result of the Seth that I once was, for I have changed since then. Ruburt represents, and is, a personality formed by that Seth which was myself, by focusing upon and using a peculiar set of attributes and abilities. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, there is no distortion in the particular material which you have been reading. Your Ruburt was, indeed, Seth. [...]

(Seth reiterated that Jane’s book on the Seth material would be published, and that the poetry book would be published. [...] See page 269 of the 232nd session for background material and other references. Jane’s publisher F. Fell, has written asking for photographs pertaining to the Seth book; in connection with this and in answer to my question, Seth said he would be amused to see a reproduction of my painting, purporting to be Seth, in the book. I’d done my oil of Seth in May/June of 1965.

The inverted time system should be at least briefly explained in the Seth book. [...] All of this in direct quotes from the material itself. The last section of the book could then deal with what evidential material we have, and you shall have more. [...]

(The evening’s conversation had largely concerned matters other than Seth, but his name had been mentioned. After the Gallaghers left Jane said she could feel Seth “buzzing around.” Shortly after this she began speaking as Seth, in an average voice; she was smoking; she gestured often, and eventually her eyes began to open. [...] I did not ask Seth the type of question I would prefer being answered in writing.

(Seth began by discussing a very emotional dream I had on the night of Thursday, February 24, involving what seemed to be the death of my father. [...] Seth explained how the dream was built around my subconscious fears concerning my father. [...] The conclusions were somewhat similar, and contained Seth’s assertions that the death of my father is not imminent, although he is 75. Seth went into one of the basic problems behind the dream, the lack of an easy communication between my father and myself. [...]

(The Spazianis know about the Seth material, of course. This evening Jimmy asked if Seth could help him locate the missing cover for the thermostat, which is located in the downstairs hall of the apartment house. [...] We promised to ask Seth’s help.

(In line with the above material, it might be noted that Seth had cautioned Jane to go easy with her “ecstasy” experiments in the 54th session, May 18, 1964. [...] Seth stated that he did not realize Jane would achieve this focusing of inner energy so early in her studies with psychological time, and furthermore said that it could have unpleasant effects if it was unwittingly directed toward someone else. [...]

(Jane now began to take some rather lengthy pauses as she delivered this more personal material. I did not feel that she was worrying about its accuracy particularly, merely that such information is evidently more carefully presented by Seth lest it arouse such outer ego fears; hence it “comes out” at a slower rate. [...]

[...] I did remember Seth’s previous answer concerning the top question above, and it was to the effect that his experience with Jane and I is his first, at least on this plane. [...] I am making my own version of an index for the material, and have not yet covered that particular session.

3. A note added later: Of course, as soon as Seth mentioned units of consciousness in “Unknown” Reality I thought of the electromagnetic energy units (EE units, as he called them) that he’d discussed in 1969 and 1971. See sessions 504 through 506 in the Appendix of The Seth Material, and the 581st session in Chapter 20 of Seth Speaks, respectively. In the latter material he used several evocative analogies to describe his EE units: “… basically emanations rising from consciousness … the invisible breath of consciousness … The emanations are actually emotional tones … The units are just beneath the range of physical matter.”

[...] Seth came through with a page or so of material for Jane, then wound up the session at 11:48 P.M.

(I’d say that Seth’s information after 11:29 implies at least a partial answer to the questions Jane asked at break. And tonight, just as she had following last Monday’s session, Jane realized that she was actively delivering material on probabilities both in the sleep state and while partially awake.)

However, nowhere in tonight’s 682nd session does Seth refer to EE units by name — and for a reason, as will be seen late in the next session. In his earlier material he left himself plenty of room to add to his data on such units of consciousness. [...]

6. Jane covers our York Beach “dancing episode” in Chapter 2 of The Seth Material, and also quotes information Seth gave us on it in later sessions. The mystifying event took place during our vacation in York Beach, Maine, in August, 1963, a few months before Jane began to speak for Seth. [...] In the 9th session for December 18, 1963, Seth explained what we had been up to, and called our creations “fragments of our selves, thrown-off materializations of your own negative and aggressive feelings.” (Naturally, the more Seth told us about the human ability to generate such forms, the more questions we had!) In that 9th session Seth also used his term, “probable self,” for the first time.

Jane quotes Seth’s material from the 12th session much more extensively in Chapter 3 of The Seth Material; see Seth’s analogy involving cubes (realities) within cubes.

[...] Perhaps I’m reinterpreting old memories in the light of Seth’s material here. [...] On several occasions Seth has given very blunt, very perceptive interpretations of the churning relationship involving my parents. That material is too long and complex to excerpt here, but I’d like to treat it separately sometime.

(In the last session, Seth began discussing separate photographs of Jane and me [taken at the ages of 12 and 2, respectively] in connection with his ideas about probable selves. Since we wanted Seth to continue with the same material tonight, we looked the pictures over again while waiting for him to come through. [...]

1. Originally Jane said “world” here, where I’m sure Seth wanted her to say “universe.” Anytime I make such a change in Seth’s copy, or insert a clarifying word or phrase as though it came from him, or might have, the alteration is in brackets [like this]. Occasionally Jane or I may recast a sentence of Seth’s, but this isn’t necessary even once per session. Our rule is that otherwise we do not change or delete any of his material without noting it.

3. I’ve known Seth planned to discuss evolution—that sensitized subject—ever since Jane tuned into the title of his new book a couple of months ago. However, my interest in one of my favorite fields of inquiry lay relatively dormant until Seth confirmed the title earlier this month (September); then I felt the impulse to jump right into producing notes on the subject. Better wait, I told myself and Jane, until we had an idea of how Seth is going to handle his own material on evolution.

So why do Jane and I think we’re on to something with the Seth material—that it can help if given the chance? Why haven’t others—our scientific, religious, and political leaders, or those in the fine arts, say—come up with ideas similar to those espoused by a Seth, and why aren’t those ideas common today? Seth’s kind of information must have surfaced innumerable times, I think, and for many reasons fallen short as broad coherent systems of thought. [...]

[...] Adding to the humor of the situation is the fact that we’ve had people write or say the same thing about the Seth material. [...]

(Jane has finished her ESP book for all practical purposes, and has been looking through the Seth material for a suitable quote to end the final chapter. I suggested she ask Seth for a few appropriate words this evening.

(Jane said she felt that Seth was trying to come through with material on the Gallagher object, and that she was trying not to block it. She had the feeling Seth wanted to say it was rock; the other day Jane had the conscious impression that it was tin or galvanized metal, of the sort Bill Gallagher uses in fashioning some of his modern sculpture.

(It will be remembered that it was at York Beach, in August 1963, that Jane and I saw the fragments we had ourselves created, according to Seth, in the dancing establishment called the Driftwood Lounge. [...] For York Beach material see sessioms 9, 15, 17, 69, and 80 in Volumes 1 and 2.

[...] She thought she might very well use Seth’s material above to end her book.

At the time of the “Idea Construction” experience, the Seth sessions themselves were undreamed of, of course. So while this book is devoted to Seth’s theories on the nature of dreams and his instructions on their use, it is not meant to be a definitive statement. Seth continues to deliver material on dreams, along with other subjects. Those of you who want a more general idea of Seth’s views can refer to The Seth Material. Here, I’ll give the material on dreams as it was given to us in succeeding sessions — particularly in the early part of the book. This automatically presents the material in order, preserving the sense of continuity, and serves as a progressive, subjective journal of dream experiences as Rob and I, and later my students, followed Seth’s suggestions. This method of presentation also gives the reader a built-in opportunity to try the experiments for himself, just as Seth gave them to us as we went along.

[...] Even when I wrote The Seth Material, I didn’t clearly understand why it happened or connect it in any way with my previous life or beliefs. [...]

Before Seth began a discussion of dreams, and as a preliminary, he explained the natural mobility of human consciousness and outlined the main features of the “interior universe” that could be glimpsed in both waking and dream states and which underlie physical reality. [...] The first portion of this book will therefore deal with this material and with our first explorations into that inner reality.

I’m including in this chapter a few poems as notes of a subjective autobiography, to show what events triggered this first release of unconscious material on my part, opening the doors to the interior universe; for now I believe that certain personal conditions are characteristic prerequisites for such developments, that the channels of intuitive knowledge are opened according to the intensity of individual need. [...]

The Early Sessions are also very important for the sheer preservation and distribution of the Seth material. [...] The Seth material is a long way from being on computer—if that ever happens—and relatively few readers will make the journey to Yale University Library, to study the collection of Jane’s and my papers that’s available there for anyone to see.

[...] Also, even though I’d been so intimately involved with the Seth material from the very beginning, for example, I didn’t fully comprehend the volume of just the session material that we’d accumulated over a total of 21 years. [...]

[...] These 510 sessions, then, are exact copies from the verbatim transcripts I made in my homemade shorthand while Jane spoke for Seth; I added notes and comments while typing the material after each session. [...]

[...] This framework matches that in the already-published Seth books like Seth Speaks and The Nature of Personal Reality.

(To my way of thinking, this is one of the most significant bits of information to come out of the Seth material.)

(This material is inserted into the record here because it is dealt with briefly by Seth in the following session, the 68th.

Again, the only main difference between material and immaterial constructions is that immaterial constructions are not perceived by the outer senses. These immaterial constructions include among others dream constructions, and also certain intangible, necessary constructions upon which the material worlds rest.

[...] These are utilized in the material universe, but they do not actually exist in it in the same way that, say, a rock or chair does. [...] Material objects are indeed actions, literally without specific beginning or end, the action being continuous.

We didn’t realize either that the emergence of the Seth voice completed the psychic structure through which we would receive the Seth Material, and through which Seth’s personality would express itself. [...] Much later, Seth told us that this psychic energy can be translated into sound like this, or it can be used for other purposes. Now when Seth gives clairvoyant material, for example, the voice is seldom loud. [...]

[...] I knew that he was concerned about me, but also tremendously interested in the material Seth had been giving. Besides this, as Seth, I had been extremely active, making funny remarks now and then to break up pages of serious monologue. [...] While we were talking, Rob had wondered aloud about the meaning of time; when we resumed, Seth started discussing this question.

Again, on reading the notes we were fascinated by the material, particularly since Seth told us that he was going to explain these Inner Senses more fully, and teach us how to use them. [...]

Looking back, though, it does seem that with the initial emergence of the Seth voice the structure of the sessions was completed. Even the basic principles of the material had been given in highly simplified form: the blocks upon which the foundations would be laid.

On April 17, 1968—I got request from a Tam Mossman to do a book on Seth Material, using portions of the best chapters from dream book that deal with Seth.

This involves request from other publisher—same connection with February (the initials would be T. M. rather than Seth Material) and it would be a year off. [...]

JANE’S HANDWRITTEN NOTE,
RELATING TO SETH’S COMMENTS IN SESSION 313