“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(It had been snowing for several hours by the time the session was due. The fall was very fine and light, and several inches had accumulated. [...]

[...] Most all of it was book dictation. [...]

(4:30 p.m. I’d had to ask Jane to repeat several words, so quiet was her dictation. The session Seth had referred to was that for last Saturday, August 11, when he’d first mentioned that Jane would be able again to sit on her back porch. [...]

(It was time to turn my wife on her left side for half an hour, then take my nap. [...]

[...] He agreed with us that it was okay to leave the area uncovered and free of cream, since it’s thoroughly washed each day in hydro. He didn’t advocate doing anything like an operation, and his advice was consistent with Seth’s material yesterday. [...]

[...] “As you read that I again got what was coming up tomorrow,” she said. [...] But that’s not right either,” she added, meaning there was much more to be learned.)

[...] At 3:55 a student took her blood pressure, which was good. Jane was ready for the session early. [...]

[...] Today was cold — 22 degrees when I left for 330. [...]

[...] Traffic noise was a bother at times — and that effect reminded me of how often such racket had been a problem when we held sessions at 458 W. Water Street.)

[...] It was quite intrusive and cut through what she was talking about and thinking—which was on the discouraged side re her condition.

[...] She doesn’t know whether the death impression was symbolic or literal. [...]

[...] Later, when she was getting supper, she realized suddenly that she’d had an experience after all, that “something had happened while I was asleep, and I was delighted with it while I was asleep.” [...]

[...] (See my question in session 842.) It was fiction, and yet they were aware of Ruburt’s psychic reputation. (Pause.) There were indeed problems within the firm, and the editor who liked the book was let go and unable to follow through as she would have liked.

Particularly in the beginning, for all of your joint complaints about Prentice, Prentice was innovative. [...]

[...] This does not mean that the individual self was less, but was more aware of its own reality. A completely different kind of focus was presented, in which the ancestors were understood to contribute to the “new” experience of the living; one in which the physically focused consciousness clearly saw itself as perceiving the world for itself, but also for all of those who had gone before — (gradually louder for emphasis:) while realizing that in those terms he or she would contribute as well as the generations past.

[...] This was a give-and-take in which, for instance, a jungle neighborhood was truly home, and all was a portion of the self psychically, spiritually, and physically.⁴

[...] The species’ sense of curiosity would not allow it to stay in any home territory for long,⁶ and so the sense of intimacy was purposely broken. It would become highly important again, however, when the planet was populated extensively, as it is now — only the original feeling of home area has to be extended over the face of the earth. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

[...] She was also working on her own The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James. [...] There was more than a little irony in the situation, for I was the one who’d told her flat out, back in July 1975, that she was going to start Psyche, just so that she’d have a Seth book to play with. [...] I was all for it, though, I told Jane enthusiastically. [...] I repeated my thought that it didn’t matter how many Seth books she piled up ahead of contract, or publication: That was certainly a more creative and exciting position to be in than if one didn’t have anything ahead. [...]

(It wasn’t until I was checking the page [or printer’s] proofs for Volume 1 last week that I realized Seth hadn’t followed through on his promise. [...] We also thought it was a good time to pose questions for Seth — for just two weeks ago, in the 800th session, he’d finished dictating his own fifth book, The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression.²

I have thus far stayed clear of many important and vital subjects, involving mass realities, because first of all the importance of the individual was to be stressed, and his power to form his private events. Only when the private nature of reality was emphasized sufficiently would I be ready to show how the magnification of individual reality combines and enlarges to form vast mass reactions — such as, say, the initiation of an obviously new historical and cultural period; the rise or overthrow of governments; the birth of a new religion that sweeps all others before it; mass conversions; mass murders in the form of wars; the sudden sweep of deadly epidemics; the scourge of earthquakes, floods, or other disasters; the inexplicable appearance of periods of great art or architecture or technology.

[...] I was thinking of something like a question-and-answer format for a book, if we did a new one.” Even that idea was a revelation to me, since she hadn’t mentioned a book, period. [...]

[...] Jane’s trance was very deep. [...] “Boy, was he ever here,” she said, meaning Seth. [...]

(The pace for the session was fast, usually emphatic, and Jane’s trances were deep. [...]

[...] Now I wish this session was recorded so you could hear me, for I hold you, as Ruburt does, closely and dearly as a friend. [...]

(Again, the above paragraph was delivered very loudly and emphatically.)

There was a recording he made with In a Gadda Da Vida in which suggestions were given. This was of help, and I suggest he use it. [...]

(Jane went for a walk by herself after supper tonight, and got mad at herself because she was so slow. [...]

When you made the remark about tour, Ruburt repressed the fear invoked, wanting to show you that he no longer was so sensitive. [...]

[...] I was also somewhat dismayed.)

[...] The idea of a “cure” upset me, if it was available and we weren’t trying it. [...] In short, I wanted something from Seth about whether it was worth it, or even necessary, that Jane try this diet—which, after all, would be the latest in the series of schemes I’ve come across in efforts to help her. [The last one was the anti-amoebic medication regime.] And what does it all mean, I asked, if she’s getting better now without any special diet or foods? [...]

[...] It turned out there was nothing to it. [...]

(Then Jane told me that in hydro Gail Greene said that one of the ulcers on her back was starting to bleed a bit—another good sign, since the bleeding is a sign of healing. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. Her pace was very slow. [...]

[...] This would almost amount to a cellular thinking process, but it is actually a gestalt of relatedness in which cellular comprehension was, and is, passed throughout the physical organism.

[...] In other words it can accept larger portions of action, and adapt itself in ways not possible when it was connected with the physical organism.

[...] Jane was out as usual. [...]

Our friend, Joel, reacts to our Lady of Florence, therefore, as she appears to him now in this place and in this time, and yet he also reacts as a person that he was, in your terms, and our Lady of Florence reacts as a person she was, in your terms. [...]

(To Joel.) And you do not allow yourself to remember that the Lady of Florence was a very strong taskmaster followed by you in China in a Ching dynasty. [...]

(To Sue.) Now your friend was a jealous leader. [...]

[...] But I wondered if you could give us any information as to how we might go about it, or if the initial information was accurate, or if you can tell us anything that we ought to check into in particular?”)

No strong love was generated. If ever a hatred was generated, then the relationship usually continued in one way or another through several existences. [...]

[...] However it was a good one, she said; Seth was coming through strong, yet she could remember parts of the material concerning multidimensional personalities. [...]

[...] I explained that by the question I didn’t mean I wanted a host of predictions or gaudy claims; I was merely curious to see what Seth might say concerning the two guests we expected. [...] I didn’t realize it was so late when I asked the question however, and so told Jane to forget it if she wanted to, and to consider the session over. [...]

(Today Jane received a call from John Pitre of Franklin, Louisiana, concerning John’s ill wife Peg; thus there was a chance Seth would talk about Peg, but this did not develop.

[...] I was a young man and my hair was longer than yours, but I wore lace about mine. At other times my style was rather different but when my hair was worn somewhat in the style of yours, then I wore more sporty attire to go along with it. [...]

Now, you were early given the idea that a portion of your personality was guilty and therefore you were relieved when you were told that there were methods whereby you could receive this guilt. [...]

[...] You were like a child with a new toy, and how could it be as good as you supposed and where was the hidden blemish, and so you have been looking for the hidden blemish. [...]

[...] Your own face may not have been beautiful, but it was your own. [...]

[...] Jane said she felt funny—that there was something there that she didn’t get; it was frustrating, she said; she thought it might be a final bit of necessary data for a last breakthrough.

[...] When he felt joyful yesterday, the sense of release was translated, as it should be, into physical expression – he sang, for example. [...]

[...] Now it is true that initially the motion was made in his mind, and accepted, but the will can also be used to initiate such actions. [...]

The point was completely unconscious earlier.

(As in the last session, I was getting irritated, since all of this is emotionally loaded material of course. I was on the point of asking Seth what one should do when one confronted a fearful result even if one had constructed that result, etc.)

When he was walking his thoughts were upon how well or poorly he was walking, rather than on his book, the weather, or some neutral subject.

With the best intentions in the world, his conscious attention was on his symptoms and his physical condition all day long, on the procedures involved with motion.

[...] It was the ritual involving your can opener.

Einstein was such a person in the sciences. While he was tainted to some extent by conventional sexual beliefs, he still felt his own personhood in such a way that he gladly took advantage of characteristics considered feminine. [...] This rebellion was psychological — that is, he maintained an acceptable male orientation in terms of sexual activity, but he would not restrain his mind and soul with such nonsense. [...]

[...] To some extent this was a true, creative, sexual drama — again, of high pretense, for in its own way the consciousness of the species was playing for high stakes, and the drama had to be believable.

(Pause at 9:34.) It was seeking for a multiplication of consciousness, forming new offshoots from its own source. [...]

[...] Children were a necessary part of the family, for a family was a band of people who belonged together, cooperating in the search for food and shelter.

[...] She said she knew she was having trouble at the one slow passage, above. She was making an effort to get something through by using words that were correctly suggestible. It was very difficult, even though both sides were doing what they were supposed to.

[...] The session was recorded, and when obtained a copy will be inserted into this record.

For example (pause, eyes closed; one of a series along in here), I was about to explain by telling you that these image traces are not, of course, visible physically, but latent. [...]

[...] A personality communicating with your system, who was once a part of it, can make use of this trace image. [...]

Until lately he idealized authority on the one hand, and was frightened of it on the other. Only when he realized that there was no authority in those terms could he begin to let down his guard.

Each of you felt, however, that there was great value in being anonymous, yet you put yourselves in a position where you could not be. You tell Ruburt to keep it a secret from Leonard that your rent was raised, or you might move—good God!—while your most intimate personal beliefs and inspirations are given to the world. [...]

[...] You are taught to respect such authorities, and as mentioned earlier, while Ruburt defied authority as a child he was still dependent upon authority’s welfare.

[...] The question was how these could be related to the world, how people would interpret or misinterpret, or how he would be regarded—for he took it for granted that anyone offering revolutionary ideas would be punished or ostracized.