“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Do not think first, “Is this a true word?” Use the word as a launching pad to experience. Within the word is a wordless knowledge. Now you need the sounds to remind you. In time—in your time—you will dispense even with the sounds. You will be walking backward, in your terms, into the heart of perception. Therefore, you will leave behind many of the truths that are now familiar to you, the words that you take for granted. For when you consider an experience, you apply words to it much more than feelings: “Does this word apply, or does that word apply, or what is it; and without its label, dare I experience this unknown?”

As I speak now, the revelations that you are burst into activity, and certainly you should know of this. While you think, “I am man, a member of a certain species, inhabiting a planet named Earth in this space and in this time,” then you place artificial barriers between you and your perceptions. And you dwell in a world in which words grow into a distorted lens that denies your own vision. Therefore, to some extent, we will crumble the words up, crumble the words up and distort them until it seems that in the language that we use you perceive certain familiar sounds. Your associative processes find a certain feeling of safety and familiarity, leaping upon this vowel and this syllable. All delightful trickery. But a trickery that is in its own way as truthful as revelations that you are.

We want to do away with the normal punctuation of your experience, for you put periods and question marks and dashes where they do not belong. What Ruburt said earlier concerning the songs of the Sumari is indeed true. The words are stepping stones to lead you into other areas of experience. (To Gert.) Do not be afraid to step off of the words.

Now, I am using words in a different way this evening and for my own purposes. And I hope when I am finished, you will be sufficiently unscrambled to know what I am telling you, because when you are not scrambled, you do not understand what I am saying! If you possibly remember what I said last week, then we will have you dancing through your cordellas, throwing alphabets out of the window to flutter in the wind. Eat your words and see what happens.

[...] The true information is not in the objects any more than the thought is in the letters or in words. Words are methods of expression. [...] You are used to the idea that you express yourselves directly through words. [...]

[...] You create them as surely as you create words. [...] I mean that objects are natural by-products of the evolution of your species, even as words are. [...] Though you hear the words and recognize their appropriateness, and though they may more or less approximate an expression of your feeling, they are not your feeling, and there must be a gap between your thought and your expression of it.

Chapter Five: As you read the words upon this page, you realize that the information that you are receiving is not an attribute of the letters of the words themselves. [...]

[...] Your actual words convey information, feelings, or thoughts. Obviously the thoughts or the feelings, and the words, are not the same thing. [...]

Unless otherwise indicated in the early sessions, the pointer gave yes and no answers by moving to the appropriate word printed on the board, rather than by spelling out the answer letter by letter. Also in the first few sessions the pointer very often indicated the word yes between each word of the message being received. For ease in reading this word has been eliminated when so used, without changing in any way the content or intent of the material received. [...]

At first when she began dictating Seth’s answers to my questions, Jane would hear the words within, then repeat them aloud so I could write them down. Now she does not hear the material beforehand, but simply speaks it out, literally and consciously unaware of what she is going to say from one word to the next. [...]

Now even when Jane delivers an answer via Seth that may be five typewritten pages long, she never repeats herself, loses track of what she is saying, uses the words “uh,” “er,” etc., or changes in any way what she had said. [...] I have taken down each word as she dictated it; nothing has been added, eliminated or changed. [...]

[...] The word “gratis” is used to denote places where, after a pause, the board delivered up further information without being asked to.

(Note that the words EASTERN and ROADS appear twice, and that they tally with an answer given us by Frank Watts during the second session, December 4/63. [...] This might not be unusual, though the words in this context are a bit out of the ordinary; and Jane and I wonder whether these, repeated twice among what seems to be gibberish and other unrelated words, might not be the first groping attempts of Frank Watts to make contact with us.

(The separations are arbitrary on my part, in that I made them only to pick out ordinary words. Note that the word ROAD, singular, also occurs once.)

(As mentioned before, most words of the above message were followed by the pointer moving to the word yes on the board. [...]

(We were a little more hopeful of obtaining results on the board after getting the few jumbled words on November 26/63. [...]

The word shambalina (spelled by Seth at my request) connotes the changing faces that the inner self adopts through its various experiences. Now this is a word that hints of relationships for which you have no word. [...]

[...] Sound itself, even without recognizable words, carries meaning. Oddly enough, sometimes the given meaning of a word does battle with the psychic and physical meaning of the sounds that compose it.

[...] In other words, instances where he misinterpreted your meaning, or anticipated a negative reaction.

(9:39.) There will be words for example for feelings that you will be asked to imaginatively change into objects and back again, to project into time as you think of it, and sense the differences in the feeling’s relationship to yourself. [...]

[...] To you, language means words. Words are always symbols for emotions or feelings, intents or desires. [...] The first language, the initial language, did not involve images or words, but dealt with a free flow of directly cognitive material.

[...] The “secrets” of languages are not to be found, then, in the available sounds, accents, root words or syllables, but in the rhythms between the words; the pauses and hesitations; the flow with which the words are put together, and the unsaid inferences that connect verbal and visual data.

[...] Initially, however, before the birth of images and words — as you understand them (underlined) — the world existed in different terms from those you know. [...]

[...] The symbols of the words stand for your own or someone else’s experience, while protecting you or them from it at the same time.

This does not mean, my dear young friend, that you need to go about speaking [the word] to those who do not like it, and saying “Fuck you.” (To the class, with deep humor:) He wanted me to use that word (fuck) on tape. But again: This does not mean that you should use such a word to make other people uncomfortable.

Now many of you here use the word “shit.” [...]

So, when you shrink from such words or such meanings, why do you shrink? [...]

(Class members laughed, of course, and Seth said:) Yet when you laugh, you laugh because you still think the word is beneath you, and you are being sneaky or smart-alecky — or you think I am — by speaking so freely.

[...] From the 600th for December 13: “Each symbol in an alphabet stands for unutterable symbols beneath it … Sound itself, even without recognizable words, carries meaning. Oddly enough, sometimes the given meaning of the word does battle with the psychic and physical meaning of the sounds that compose it … The [Sumari] word ‘shambalina’ connotes the changing faces that the inner self adopts through its various experiences. Now this is a word that hints of relationships for which you have no word.” And from the 602nd for January 5, 1972: “In your language there are words that sound like the reality they try to represent. [...]

[...] You might know the word for “rock” for instance. Knowing the word might actually prevent you from seeing any specific rock clearly as it is, or recognizing how it is different from all other rocks.

Part of the unknown reality, then, is hidden beneath language and the enforced pattern of accustomed words — so, for an exercise, look about your environment. Make up new, different “words” for the objects that you see about you. [...]

Certain presentations in Appendix 18 contain information from Seth about the distortive effects caused by words as he communicates through Jane. Review his excerpts from the 27th session for February 1964: “It is difficult for me to have to string out this material in words….”

Now this is a sort of psychological understanding and intuitional insight that is beyond words. [...] Now I have written the material, using rather crafty methods, in that there are keys within the material, within the words, that I have chosen that open up intuitions if you allow them to. Certain words that I have used, in other words, are like gateways, and if you are receptive as you read the words you will enter the gateways, and the gateways will lead you to your own intuitional understanding. [...]

Now we use words because you deal with them. You deal with the words physically but your inner self has no need of verbalization. What each of you experience as you listen to me cannot be expressed in words, and what each of you feel of yourselves when you are alone and when you are with others, cannot be put into words. You know but you cannot find the words. [...]

Now what I tell you, to some extent, must be distorted because when I speak I use words, but the inner self interprets the words that are spoken. You do not need the words. [...] They are only to make you happy because the words, times and places, have a meaning to you but in your basic reality you do not know times nor places. [...]

[...] And there are journeys that each of you embark upon, and you do not know in words the nature of the destination, and you do not know when you arrive at this destination, and you do not know when the destination is no longer a destination but a way. [...]

[...] Man’s language, and the sound of the words, brings the greatest sense of accomplishment, biologically and psychically. [...] No matter how wasteful with words a person might seem to be, each one contains an amazing economy, and is chosen precisely because it is a perfect carrier for certain intents or feelings that are all organized by that word. There are many obvious simple examples, such as the word “home,” which can automatically organize psychic, emotional, geographical, natural, and time information.

Now: you use words and their suggestive elements to reinforce and communicate your own purposes, beliefs, and intents. There are all kinds of verbal and body signs that tell you which words are to be attended to more than others, so that the quality of the words is strengthened or qualified. [...]

[...] I used the word “heavy” several times also, meaning that she could be aware of the normal weight of her body, but later wondered if it was a good word to use. [...]

[...] People use words somewhat in the way that you might use dream images. One word carries many meanings, and no matter how spontaneously it seems you speak, even the most mundane remark is carefully chosen so that it serves as the spoken symbol for many unspoken ones.

[...] First of all, you must forget words like purpose and time. [...] They are limiting words. [...] Now as far as possible, you should divest yourselves of words that limit your concept. [...] The language with which we are working, however, deals with far more than words. We must use words as you are aware of them. The words are all that shows, but beneath those words are actualities and realities. We can only hint at these with the use of words, and this is why we must be very careful as to which words we use. [...]

[...] There is no feeling that you have, there is no word that you utter, there is no thought hidden in the deepest environment of your brain that does not have a reality different than the one you know. [...]

What you need is a preponderance of constructive words. This often has nothing to do with numbers of words, but emotionally charged words. [...]

The power of words has to do initially with the sound and symbols. Pleasant words, silent or spoken, instantly cause beneficial reactions, some noticeable and some not. [...]

[...] The color of you walls can influence your state of mind—a simple-enough fact; but the uses to which you put words, both silent and verbal, affect the state of your mind far more.

And with implied words, for the words that are sensed but not spoken, will rush out with color rather than with sound, and behind the implied words those emotions upon which the painting must be based. [...]

The particular words are not important, but the emotion behind them is important, for they will—the words and the emotions—be reflected in every muscle of the face, as well as in the thrust of the head and the hands. [...]

(At this moment I then consciously knew what my prophet was saying in the painting; the words came clearly to mind: “My God, my God, what am I?” I was tempted to speak them aloud next chance I had, but did not. I hadn’t tried to conjure up these words; the emotional climate set up in the session by Seth had made their release from the subconscious effortless.

By the time the painting is done you should almost be able to hear his words, even though they are in a language you do not know. [...] Is he speaking words not only for himself but for every other individual?

[...] Then more sensations; or rather, again I felt sensations that were concepts translated into feeling rather than words; but feelings and images. [...] its relative size [poor word] and of the whole physical system. [...] Through all of this, I use the word I, yet these things were happening and “I” was a part of the action so a part, that it was difficult to separate me from it. [...]

(Wonder now, strangely, if the voice is merely a signal, translated into words... [...] use or purpose independent of words; though the words are definitely meaningful.)

[...] Only moments afterward, memory of the thing was beginning to vanish, and words hardly express the subjective sensations. [...]

(Long pause.) Events emerge like spoken words, then, into your awareness. [...] The atoms and molecules within your vocal cords, and lungs and lips, do not understand one word of the language they allow you to speak so liquidly. Without their cooperation and awareness, however, not a word would be spoken.

(11:15.) Yet each of those nameless atoms and molecules cooperates in a vast venture, incomprehensible to you, that makes your speech possible, and your reality of events is built up from a cordella of activity in which each spoken word has a history that stretches further back into the annals of time than the most ancient of fossils could remember. I am speaking in your terms of experience, for in each word spoken in your present, you evoke that past time, or you stimulate it into existence so that its reality and yours are coexistent.

[...] A sentence is built up as words, parts of speech, verbs, and adjectives, subjects and predicates, vowels and syllables, and underneath there is the entire structure that allows you to speak or read to begin with. [...]

[...] It seems that events happen as it seems words are spoken. [...]

Then, and only then, can you project this understanding or insight onto the word alphabet, and sense how the skin does have its own alphabet. The word alphabet itself becomes changed for you. [...]

The word dyniah connotes an apparent boundary that serves to define that which lies within by acting upon it. dyniah, the word itself without the “d” ending, you see, while never appearing within the montella, defines its activity, reinforces its identity, and is as much a part of it as the hidden cordella that gives it form. [...]

[...] When Ruburt got a real touch of inhibited feeling he automatically translated it to the leg, and only by a strong exertion of will managed to get the feeling behind the words out at all. [...]

[...] The word cordella, now for example, was used instead of alphabet to break your ordinary conceptions of alphabet while conveying an idea of symbols closely allied, and upon which alphabets are based.

Often when you read a book you silently mouth the words, as if to reinforce their symbolic content with a more emotional immediacy. [...] Its “words” spring alive. [...]

[...] In other words, it has multitudinous tenses, all in the present, or it has multitudinous present tenses. Within it no “word” dies or becomes archaic. [...]

[...] Some words are entirely forgotten in one language, but spring up in altered form in another. [...]

[...] Spoken language is embellished with smiles, frowns, or other gestures, and these add to the meaning of the spoken word.

[...] But the true reality cannot be put into words. Neither words within your brain, within your mind; for the voice itself and language itself is bound to be distorted. The words are merely symbols for the reality. You need the words in your state of being but only each of you in your own way can search for the reality that has no need of words. [...] And when the speakers speak to each of you in the dream state and in your private hours then they do not need words. You translate what they say into words, but the inner knowledge within you exists long before any alphabet was ever known. [...]

[...] Whatever words you hear, remember those. [...]

(By 9:12 I began to spell an occasional word incorrectly. To show what was happening I’m including, in parentheses after the corrected word, some of the mistakes my notes contain.)

(I caught myself omitting the word “not” from the last sentence, and was quite aware by now that something was up. [...] In the material below, I couldn’t think of some of the symbols I used and had to write the words out.)

I do not particularly like the word “spirit” because of several implications attached to it, but it (ot) suits our purposes in that the word does imply an independence from physical form.

[...] You are aware of your own consciousness, in other words, through the medium of your own physical mechanism. [...]

In your language there are words that sound like the reality they try to represent. [...] Hush is an example, the word hush. [...]

Such feeling-tone “words” (in quotes), with pantomime or the expressive body, can therefore come closer often than structured language to convey various levels of emotion, to explain levels of subjective feeling that are often distorted in recognizable words.

Ruburt’s proficiency with rhythm and words and your proficiency with visual symbols will be put to use therefore. [...] There are various ways, in other words, open in which the information may finally be received.

[...] Seth changed the word regulations to covenant, however, in the January 3, 1972 session.)