“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] You sought instead questions that would stretch your abilities, and develop them, that would bring out all nuances before unknown to you. It is easy enough to at times look at others, perhaps now—for I am not saying that you do this—but perhaps romanticizing them, thinking that you would after all prefer a much simpler, more overtly physical existence, freed of any deep concerns about the nature of reality or the plight of the race.

It is easy perhaps at times to have regrets, to wish that curiosity, the love of learning, the desire for knowledge, and yearning to help your fellow men (was Seth a bit amused here?) had not gone quite so far, and to imagine that had it not Ruburt would be in excellent physical condition, and no one would miss the work that then would not exist.

Had your goals previous to your psychic experiences been adequate to your natures, and sufficient to you, nothing else would have developed—nor would you have been seeking so avidly answers to the kinds of questions that then and now concern you.

(Jane wanted to try a session tonight, while not being sure the tooth condition would permit it very easily.)

Left alone, you would both work many hours, but under completely different mental conditions. Left alone, you would both have altered your schedules simply because creative work enjoys variety. You would each have had periods where you worked nights for a while, and then days, or whatever, or when you began work at eight and worked until one in the morning. But you would have felt free to follow the inner scheduling.

[...] You felt that you had to isolate yourselves to some extent from the world not because you wanted to, which would be all right; and to some extent you wanted to, but because you felt you must. You did not grant that others would understand your pursuits. Or if they did, you felt, they would not honor your intent.

[...] For once stated, that desire —which is a desire—would lead to insights and inspirations that would collect in odd hours, scribbled down in a few moments, that would lead quite easily to a finished product.

[...] Nor did you have any certainty that any self-imposed period of training and learning would succeed in leading you to your goals. In practical terms your goals were nebulous enough, in that there would be no degrees granted you, to say you had achieved them. [...]

Ruburt felt that anyone who went outside the established systems would meet ridicule, so he protected himself against it. He did his thing, but he set about creating an environment of “safety,” and he would not go outside of it. He would not have to deal with so-called skeptics on the one hand, nor would he allow himself to be set up as an occult priestess on the other. Nor would he be an object of ridicule to neighbors, for they would not see him that much.

(9:58.) For a while, though he would not admit it, he felt that he would be welcomed with open arms by someone, meaning some system. The spiritualists, he found, would do so, and made overtures. The so-called occult groups would also, with their Gnostic brotherhoods. [...]

Now only a belief in hostility would justify such behavior. [...] It would not be fair play.”

Your own natural feelings toward him, your own natural sexual feelings, with their naturally allowed sexual gallantry, would clear that point. In the past, the long past, he discouraged your sexual gallantry in his concern for proving himself independent—and also, then, because he felt on the other hand that if he endorsed it you would feel that he was tacitly demanding conventional female protection. [...]

If so, how independent would he be? [...] I don’t believe, for example, that his presence would be disclosed by any psychological testing of my own personality. The inherent relationship would snap into focus during a session, however, when the supraconscious identity would take over.

“Such a book would have nothing to do with Ruburt’s own writing, which would progress at its own rate. … The book would bear my name, but I would dedicate it to the both of you,” he said with a broad smile.

[...] Your own emotional need would be known to me, however. If that need was strong, I would of course answer it, even as you would not disregard the need of a friend. [...]

[...] It would be relatively impossible for me to make my full reality clear to you, for your understanding would not contain it. [...] We would not want to blow a tube. [...]

Riding the creative energies in that manner, you see, would allow him to recognize his own rhythm, flow and ebb. When his mind was tired it would automatically signal the body to physical activity, walks, changed environment, and so forth. [...] The conflict itself then prevents the follow-through thrust, so that he does not feel the natural relaxation that would follow, or the natural resulting desire for activity.

[...] If he wrote, steadily even, and did not go out for two or three days he would not think that there was anything wrong in that—nor would there be. When the stint was over he would feel perhaps a strong burst of physically directed energy, and want to clean the house or go for walks.

[...] It would help when he is working, particularly whenever he is unduly bothered, to stop and say “What do I think about what I am doing in this moment? [...] His natural pattern would be to do housework also, in bursts of activity.

[...] It was a condition that for example would not involve destruction of organs, or reliance upon the medical profession. This would blur the issues. [...]

[...] Now you do not properly listen to what I say and if the proofreaders were reading that sentence they would change it to “you do not listen properly to what I say,” but I mean you do not properly listen and there is indeed a difference. [...] You would be appalled if I gave them to you. I would be cheating you of the joy of your own self-knowledge. [...] Why you will follow our Lady of Florence when she gets up and says we are going to make a circle, or why you would be kissed by our friend here, the cousin of Richelieu. [...]

I would leave an envelope, but no one would put anything into it except questions and I have plenty of those. Now who else do you know, except those two people (Jane and Rob), who would sit for one solid hour conversing in a language they do not understand? [...]

My dear cousin of Richelieu, you give yourself a report card that I would never give you. You are much harder on yourself than I would ever be. [...]

[...] And when the Sumari come home (to Rachel), I would like it if they stayed home for awhile, which means that I would like to see you around for awhile. [...]

[...] Therefore in this situation he would fight back but he could not hurt you. [...] You did leave him with some however, for the symptoms themselves were the means that would bring you to these realizations. And he knew underneath that it would only go so far before you would realize what was happening. [...]

Ruburt indeed felt attacked, but he would not fight against you, you see. [...] For if he suffered because of them, he knew that you would also suffer, until finally you would have to admit the truths that could set you both free.

Ruburt would have continued to work, though physically quite incapacitated. These conditions however would not likely have resulted. You both had something very strong working for you, still strong enough to help, and that was the creative intuitive nature, which would have in one way or another made the facts plain.

You had also been operating on inner cues which would have been broken, and in these lapses buried intuitions would have leaped up, bringing these truths in their wake. [...]

[...] He would not disappear as an inner awareness. He would exist within your psyche as a small but definite organization of characteristics that would continue within themselves to retain a sense of identity. He would also for continue his protective devices for your own physical body. You would not overly miss him if he did this at this time.

[...] (To Eve.) You would do very well—I can see now, however, that this will not appeal to you and it is to some degree an unusual knack—but you would do very well in finding lost animals. You would have a knack... [...] You would do very well also in dealing with animals where you cared for them and picked homes for them. [...] On another level, however, you would do very well. [...]

Now, he would remain the individual that he is, as much as anyone ever remains the individual that he is. He would not turn into Adam. I would make a comment here, but I would not.

[...] Now when you form it you do so with the inner realization that it reaches from you outward and you expect something to be on the other side, or the bridge would be useless. [...] A steel bridge would get you nowhere. [...]

This began at the gallery when your father and mother first stated that money would be needed, and very shortly after your return from Florida. Ruburt was outraged that having treated you the way they had, they would so humiliate themselves as to beg for your aid, and instead decided that basically they did not feel humiliated but were asking what they considered their just due.

When you were ill and not working part of Ruburt’s money went to them, and he was ashamed at resenting this, and furious at you that you would allow them to do this to him. He was sure that if the circumstances were reversed he would never bleed you to help his parents.

[...] He did fear that you would become bitter if you did not succeed (as a painter), and he sometimes felt that you retreated to the studio away from him, as purposely your father retreated from your mother into the cellar or garage. He would rather have burned anything that you have rather than store it in your family’s house. [...]

(Actually, I first began moving things to Sayre because we thought we would be moving from Elmira. I wanted as little surplus material here as possible, thinking it would be easier to take our time moving items from Sayre to the new location, wherever it might be.

(Seth said he did not know whether Marian could learn rapidly enough how to do this; but if she could get herself on the right track soon, he said, she would not need the operation in June; a medical examination then would show that the tumor was shrinking, and would continue to shrink. [...]

[...] Otherwise, Jane said, she would prefer to leave; she had no trouble keeping Seth from speaking, yet felt it would be better to change her surroundings should no session be held.

(Seth reassured Marian that should a child enter the room unexpectedly Ruburt would instantly “be himself,” and nothing would be noticed by the child. [...]

[...] Seth stressed that if Marian could learn to channel her energies outward, perhaps in helping underprivileged children, the subconscious need to be wanted would be satisfied and the tumor would shrink by itself.

[...] You would like to have it finished to take to New York. [...] You would like to kick the downstairs tenants out, and you would like to kick your poor landlord, because you think that Ruburt would like that apartment, and you cannot afford it; and he would not, you believe, come down on his rent.

The appointment made but not kept refers to the fact that you all said you would get together again in the near future, and you did not.

You would not be shunted aside as your mother shunted your father. You would not be forced to work as he did, and waste his creativity, so you chose a wife who would make no such demands—apart from other reasons. [...]

On the same level: With Ruburt’s background he felt no man would support him, yet wanted to be supported. It would prove he was being cherished. [...]

[...] I had become afraid a contract would reinforce the emphasis on psychic work that she wants to get out from under. I told her I would go along with whatever she decided on the contract, but did express my thoughts on it.

[...] When I left my job I thought it would please Jane, and of course I was glad to see it go, although I would have waited longer on my own. [...]

[...] Such a possibility is feasible, containing in fact many desirable—and most desirable—elements; the presentation of a second frame of reference, a second environment that would still be your own. [...] The probability is in fact most intriguing, since it would offer you a home away from home that would still represent largely an investment rather than primarily an expenditure —as would, say, a series of vacations. A place of relative privacy, and yet one in which you would not be unknown or isolated, one in which in fact the 458 West Water Street connections would continue to operate, with Paul of course as mediator. [...]

[...] At the same time, she rather wished Seth would forget about it—probably because she knew what our reactions to it would be. [...]

I would heartily suggest that you and Ruburt consider (underlined) the possibility of buying Paul’s cottage. [...]

In a fashion this would indeed represent a very desirable arrangement over a period of years, one that Ruburt could take advantage of, one that could serve you by also presenting you with a different framework through which to view your painting and visual world, one in which the idea of water as motion was always present. [...]

There would be no psychological avenues to connect my world and yours. There would be no extensions of the self that would allow you to travel such a psychological distance to those thresholds of reality that form my mental environment. If the universe were structured as you have been told, the probability of my existence would be zero as far as you are concerned. There would have been no unofficial roads for Ruburt to follow, to lead him from the official beliefs of his time. He would never have acknowledged the original impulse to speak for me, and my voice would have been unheard in your world.

(Pause.) The probability that this book would ever exist, itself, would have remained unactualized. None of you would be reading it. [...]

He could not express his love for her in the terms she wished for he believed that women would, if allowed to, destroy the man’s freedom, and he interpreted the natural need for love as an unfortunate emotional demand. [...]

In those areas where you cut down on your impulses, upon their very recognition, you close down probabilities, and prevent new beneficial acts that of themselves would lead you out of your difficulty. [...]

I would suggest for the psychological time experiments, fifteen minutes to begin with, along the lines of the directions which Joseph has given. You will find here an intimacy with portions of yourself which you would tend to ignore, which the ego would tend to ignore. [...] I would suggest that the directions, Joseph, be more specific. [...]

[...] Nothing would be gained if I told you now that the ego would allow the ulcer to vanish, for there would still be a definite need on your part to understand. [...]

Nor do we want to rid him of one illness so quickly that he still feels a need for it, for in such a case he would indeed very promptly develop another. So, though he would wish that we go quickly, we shall go slowly, for the nature of his own reactions causes in some degree the necessity for the illness.

There is an involvement that would seem, would seem, intense. [...]

[...] Only now are you beginning to question your methods, and even your questions.⁵ The true physicist would be able to ask his questions from his usual state of consciousness, and then turn that consciousness in other directions where he himself would be led into adventures-with-reality, in which the questions would themselves be changed. And then the answers would be felt.

If you did not feel any need to destroy reality (in your terms) in order to understand it, then you would not need to dissect animals, hoping to discover the reasons for human diseases. You would have attained a living knowledge long ago, in which diseases as such did not occur. You would have understood long ago the connections between mind and body, feelings, health, and illness.

[...] In such a case you would only see what was directly before you. [...] If you suddenly turned an inch to the right or the left you would not be altering your body, but simply changing its position, increasing your overall picture, turning very cautiously from your initial position. [...]

If Einstein had been a better mathematician,⁷ he would not have made the breakthroughs that he did. He would have been too cowed. [...]

(Seth told us the Seth book which is now at Jane’s publisher would be published, and that her dream book would also. [...] After a pause Seth said the verbatim material would be published also, but gave no hint of a date.

[...] We had been wondering aloud if the bulk of the material would ever be published verbatim. Seth came through to say quite definitely that the material would be published verbatim—not all of it, literally, but certain large areas of it. [...]

(Seth then went on to say that the bridge personality would be dispensed with eventually, because it would no longer be needed. [...]

Setting up such a global organization to study dreams, I told Jane, with some amusement, would probably require a decade of arguing among nations. Would governments gather the information, or independent agencies? How would all of this be paid for, administered and analyzed? How long would it take to acquire statistically significant data? Would the peoples of the world cooperate? I said they most enthusiastically would, for if Seth is right the dream research would have a sound intuitive basis: It would uncover and reinforce many deeper aspects of our individual and collective beings—and I know of few things more important than that consciously we understand ourselves as well as we can in order to meet the great challenges we’re creating. [...] Actually, it would be quite an advance if we could even agree to begin talking about such a study.

[...] At once, I told Jane, I thought that science and religion would be violently opposed to the idea, at least in the beginning, for it would challenge many rigid beliefs held by each of those disciplines. In deeper terms, of course, such a study would actually validate the sources of science and religion [just as it would confirm Seth’s material on dreams, incidentally!]. [...]

[...] This was in a way as startling an experience as it would be to you to find yourselves on some distant planet. [...]

[...] The person interested most in herbs and plant life would also find that nightly dreams mirrored that daytime preoccupation, so that nightly dream excursions might find the dreamer examining strange herbs in another location than the native one. [...]

It seems to him as if he would—if he were using all of his abilities as he should—be a public figure. He would also be far more capable of helping people solve their problems through some kind of therapeutic framework. (Pause.) He would see to it that as many persons as possible had the opportunity to see a session, and he would furthermore also be developing his own psychic experience at a far greater rate. [...]

[...] These concern my insight—a simplistic one to be sure—that one of Jane’s hassles results from her fear that Seth would take over if given the chance. [...] Note, however, that I wrote that she feared Seth would take over—not necessarily that he would if given the chance—a big difference. [...]

(Rather intently:) He would not have had the sessions to begin with over this period of time for your sake alone, or even for your sake primarily—they simply would have petered out. [...] Nothing, however, would have kept him at the sessions for this amount of time unless he wanted them. [...]

If you would remember natural selves, and your own characteristics, you would have a much better, clearer idea of what to realistically expect from yourselves, and you would let other ideas go when they conflict with your own quite definite inclinations. [...]

[...] Through such therapy actions would be allowed greater spontaneity, and channels would not be clogged by impeding actions to any great degree. Dream therapy would actually involve no more than lending a helping hand to a phenomena that already occurs.

[...] The desired but feared actions would not then gather up toward an explosion. The habitual, overly-aggressive or overly-dependent tendencies would not result in habitual aggressive or dependent behavior, for each individual action would be harmlessly expressed.

[...] The individual involved would experience the aggressiveness, and yet he would hurt no one. [...]

There would still be repercussions, however, though less disastrous, that would be unavoidable. [...]