“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

3. In a note like this I can only touch upon the theme of repetition. All of Jane’s books, as well as my own notes for her Seth books, obviously contain repetitious material, and/or material based upon variations of certain basic concepts. It’s inevitable and necessary that they do. Individually and en masse, and to the extent that our human systems of perception make it possible, our species has created a world and universe built upon a very limited, repetitious creation and interpretation of internal and external data. We could hardly survive without our particular communicative repetition, nor could any other species without its own.

Last night, as I began typing Monday’s 915th session, I asked Jane why Seth hadn’t just called his “invisible particles” CU’s, or units of consciousness, as he’d done earlier in Dreams,² and as he’d always done in his other books. The question upset her, especially when I added that I was afraid Seth was repeating old material under a new term. In order to help Jane feel better, I speculated that he must have had his reasons for doing this, and that of course a certain amount of repetition is necessary in each book in a series: The restatements not only furnish a foundation for new material, but enable each book to be complete in itself. After all, I said, I try to achieve those same goals with the notes.³

I’ve often thought that the repetition in the Seth books, say, is nothing compared to the repeated barrages of suggestion—much of it negative—that our species has chosen to subject itself to daily. I constantly search for balances between the positive and the negative. Indeed, however, Jane and I think that in ordinary terms, and for many reasons, our species long ago began creating a great deal of negative thinking and action—so much so that those qualities came to range throughout all facets of our world culture. As far as I know, we humans are the only ones to indulge in such behavior. I can’t imagine animals doing so, for instance—they have no need to!

The same mechanism that causes a disturbed woman, say, to perform repetitive action such as a constant washing and rewashing of hands, also causes a particular kind of apparition to return time and time again to one place. In such cases the behavior is often composed of repetitive action.

[...] While it is easy then to understand the nature of exterior actions of repetitive quality, it is far more difficult to see many physical symptoms in the same light — but here also whole groups of recurring reactions to certain stimuli are involved. [...] In their own way symptoms frequently operate, actually, as repetitive neurological ritual, meant to protect the sufferer from something else that he fears even more.

[...] But when a man’s ulcers bother him every time he eats certain foods, it is more difficult to perceive the fact that this behavior is also compulsive and repetitive.

[...] You each gave yourselves daily suggestions that are no more than the repetition of new conscious beliefs.

The repetition, verbally or mentally, is important because it activates biological patterns and reflects them. [...]

[...] I know that one of my thoughts was that Jane’s simply getting up earlier might help break the cycle of repetitive thinking and action.

[...] After a few repetitions the head would then be still again. [...]

It is possible to be opinionated at times, closed-minded, and pedantic, in good normal behavior—but when certain characteristics group together, then you have the formation of an overly-conscientious self, which acts in a repetitive manner, always showing these fairly rigid characteristics. [...]

Negative beliefs have to be inserted there with great repetitiveness before you meet their physical results. [...]

[...] Accumulated feelings of like nature will be expressed often, but not always, in repetitive fashion. [...]

[...] I asked for a repetition of the word, whereupon Jane, her eyes still closed, pointed at me rather emphatically.)

(9:38.) This inner communication acts like the constant repetition of a hypnotist. [...]

(Seth asked the question because I fell behind in my notes on the above paragraph, and had to ask for its repetition.)

At the risk of being repetitive: if he concentrates upon his work, the morning issue will take care of itself, and by work I mean not only his writing, but his own individual psychic endeavors. [...]

[...] However, they may be found in your country precisely where you might not expect them to be: on some assembly lines that require simple repetitive action — in factories that do not require speed, however. [...]

[...] The assembly-line time and the beliefs that go along with it have given you many benefits as a society, but it should not be forgotten that the entire framework was initially set up to cut down on impulses, creative thought, or any other activities that would lead to anything but the mindless repetition of one act after another (intently).

[...] We do know that it’s much easier to condone a philosophy espousing traumatic and repetitive animal research if one is relatively shielded from it.

[...] It was seen in human terms as inhumane: life without reason, life with no purpose except its own repetition, life in which the individual was dispensable. [...]

[...] A shorter repetition, also recorded, was given for Judy and Lee Wright on the evening of February 12, Friday. [...]

[...] It presupposes a mouth and a tongue, the kind of physical organization necessary; a mind; a certain kind of world in which sounds have meaning; and a very precise, quite practical knowledge of the nature of sounds, the combination of their patterns, the use of repetition, and a knowledge of the nervous system. [...]