“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You are lucky that Bantam was unable to use the exorcist type of publicity—and that is their idea at this point of how to handle such unconventional material. Such publicity could be devastating.

[...] They were highly impressed because you did not press for publicity. You were not publicity seekers, then. [...]

[...] If you were, or if Ruburt was, a conventional Philip Roth, a novelist, safely within that framework, or if he were willing to set himself up as an “occult” mistress of the spirit, then you would have publicity galore.

[...] Ruburt wondered how far he should go in publicizing his work. [...]

[...] These two books are, I think we agree, the most recent triggers that she has responded to in a negative way, so yesterday I suddenly realized that Jane must be reacting presently to the imminent publication of those two works. [...] I knew they were due out soon, but slipped up in my own awareness that their publication could—would cause her additional problems; my opinion was based on her paper of last December, in which she wrote that from its very inception she had been concerned about the reception Mass Events would be accorded by various elements of the public.

(Several times during recent weeks I’ve said that I wished we’d withdrawn Mass Events from publication, using the disclaimer controversy as a ready-made excuse. [...]

As far as dilemmas go, he feels one as far as Prentice is concerned, since he sees Prentice as a vehicle (underlined) that moves his work out into the public arena, and he feels that that vehicle is at best presently stalled, while no other one is in immediate practical sight. [...]

(As soon as I’d finished reading my list of points to her, this morning, Jane called Tam about the publication of Mass Events. [...]

As soon as I realized that Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment was going to be so long that it would require publication in two volumes, I began to think about how I was going to summarize here all of the material that Jane, Seth, and I had contributed to Volume 1. I developed the hilarious notion that if I did the job the way I really wanted to, this introduction would be as long as that first volume is itself! [...]

[...] I thank each reader for his or her patience in accepting the publication of Dreams in two volumes.”

(I for one had never thought of Jane’s symptoms as having such a cause, but...I am still puzzled by the worsening of her symptoms when we got back home after being on tour to publicize The Seth Material, in September of 1970. [...]

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

[...] Console can freely speak about it in public, because it carries within itself its own lovely camouflage. [...]

[...] Get him to go to public places, for here he is weakest, so that he builds up his conflict. [...]

[...] One might better address the fears of being the public person, for example, rather than trying to futilely patch up a body that was only faithfully following mirroring habits of deep and long standing.

[...] This fear of future developments ties in very well with her natural concerns about becoming a public figure, one that should be able to solve the world’s problems. [...]

[...] (Pause.) Anything that I may say in a session is relatively agreeable to him, though its publication in book form may at times cause difficulty as he wonders how the material will be interpreted by others. [...]

[...] The entire arena of public endeavor brings up questions about the differences between spontaneous and controlled behavior, of course (long pause)—an issue we will go into another time, but thoroughly. [...]

(“Well, supposing we did concentrate upon increased sales, and did more publicity work on radio and television, for instance: wouldn’t these things increase Jane’s feeling of vulnerability? Here she has the symptoms as a kind of protection, so I’m wondering about our reactions if we took steps that would put us more in the public eye—left us open to more criticism—as well as praise—for instance. [...]

[...] A novelist may indeed maintain seclusion from the world—and while the world may not like it, it doesn’t care enough, except for a few publicity seekers, to track him down.

[...] You might find yourselves amazingly uncomfortable, despite what you think your reaction would be, if Prentice suddenly began initiating publicity campaigns, ad campaigns.

[...] It’s a project that Jane herself never figured she’d do, but wanted done — and Sue, who was a class member, is talented psychically herself, has a newspaper and reporting background, and is ideally qualified for the job.¹ (Conversations, we think, is sure to be published before Mass Events, since Tam is supposed to have Sue’s manuscript in hand by January 1980, for publication in the fall of that year. Even assuming that Seth will finish dictating Mass Events later this year [1979], Jane and I will still have too much work to do on it for publication in 1980.

[...] In June, with no hard feelings involved on anybody’s part, Jane withdrew Emir from consideration at Prentice-Hall when the decision was made there to publish the story in two volumes; on July 12, Eleanor Friede at Delacorte Press accepted Emir for publication as a single book. [...]

[...] The thing is, often we’re so busy getting the material and preparing it for publication that we don’t have the time to really study it as our readers do. [...]

[...] And then, on the very night when she told me that she thought Seth would resume book dictation, Sue Watkins called with news that it was all official now: Today she’d signed her contract with Prentice-Hall for the publication of Conversations With Seth.)

[...] Before the material was public this bothered him, but not to that degree. [...]

[...] The public aspects of it alone brought up the false prophet. [...]

[...] But Ruburt insists that he intellectually and intuitively understand each point, and agree with it, or it puts him in the position of publicizing ideas when he is not a hundred percent certain of their validity, and he considers this to some degree dishonest. [...]

[...] On top of that, however, the whole idea of responsibility has played an overheavy hand, and it is this idea of responsibility—overplayed—that is to a large degree responsible for the idealized image of the public person with which Ruburt has unsuccessfully tried to compete. [...]

It seems to him as if he would—if he were using all of his abilities as he should—be a public figure. [...]

[...] Any kind of extensive public life cannot be reasonably expected from two people who value privacy to the extent that you both do. [...]

Magic is public
as the air,
so obvious
and clear that it appears
invisible.
And we look through it
at the world,
which rises up about us
everywhere.

[...]

[...] We attributed a mental cause to it, probably concern over the forthcoming publication of her ESP book.

[...] He is not upset basically (Jane got up from her rocker and walked about the room as she spoke, looking for her cigarettes) believe it or not, with the delay in his book publication, though this is the conscious rationalization.

(Laugh.) He is concerned, you see, over the publication of his book, period. [...]

Subconsciously he exaggerates the dangers that will beset him as a result of the publication, and the actual facts will be a relief. [...]

[...] Remember, I am speaking of an overemphasis upon the idea of work, not about a normal concern about book publications, or career concerns, those are certainly reasonable. The overemphasis brings up the public image idea, so that Ruburt compares himself personally against some composite image that he imagines other people have of him. [...]

Now a private session, not for publication.

[...] I’d been concerned lest Jane become involved in an unpleasant situation that would have repercussions via symptoms —the idea of publicity, of public display, which she doesn’t want—just when we were trying to learn more about the subject as she reacted to it. [...]

[...] Both involved communication with the public—a sense of responsibility—which we now know to be a source of constant tension for her. [...]

Many of the public-health announcements routinely publicize the specific symptoms of various diseases, almost as if laying out maps of diseases for medical consumers to swallow. [...]

“Mary shows us the large sketch papers in an open-air restaurant — a setting where physical needs are satisfied in public. The open air specifies this public aspect, meaning that Mary’s ideas are connected with social values wanting her needs satisfied in a socially acceptable public fashion. [...]

[...] I speculated about the reactions of public personalities when their predictions don’t work out. I hoped their errors are not rationalized, or made just for the publicity, since the psychics have to live with them. [...]

[...] Thirteen days later, Jane and I were most intrigued to read an article in a national publication in which researchers show, after eight years of tests, that not only do women do most things as well as men — they actually outperform men in many areas, both intellectually and intuitively.

The realization that he need not be a public person, for example, is taking root, so keep this information at your fingertips. [...]

[...] It had started in mid-afternoon after she had received an OK from Tam Mossman re the publication of her book of poetry, Dialogues — at least as far as Tam is concerned. [...]

[...] Contact with the public is important for his confidence. [...]

[...] Prentice-Hall authorized this venture by a foreign publisher well over a year ago, but we didn’t know just when we’d see books within the two-year limit set for publication. [...]

[...] We hope these two editions will lead to the publication of Seth’s material in other languages.

[...] Rick’s publication of The Early Sessions, then, is a very important advance in the marvelous journey of discovery that, I think, each one of us is inevitably involved in, that each one of us has chosen to create, in whatever way and for whatever purposes.

[...] Eventually they’re added to the collection of our papers at Yale University Library, while not being open to the public for privacy’s sake.

(Jane’s Tuesday paper on her feelings is evidently a very important one, representing some excellent insights on her part about her repressed impulses, her fears about my reactions to various events, her private nature and public appearances, and related topics. I’d say that to some extent at least its content flows from the proposed interview with a reporter from The Village Voice, a contact made with the business manager at WELM in town, and so forth—hardly accidental, we think, that these events connected with publicity, her work, etc., come into our awareness at this time. [...]

8. Your impulses will automatically provide you with the proper balance of solitude and company, private and public activity, exercise and rest—for you!