Monday, October 31, 2011
Posted in
Life
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Religion
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Seth
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Note: The term "Seth Material" refers to the readings given by the psychic Jane Roberts from 1963 until her death in 1984 in which she "channelled" a soul or spirit who called himself Seth.
In mid-2008 I took a portion of the Jane Roberts article on Wikipedia and spun it off into its own article called the Seth Material. The idea was that the Seth Material, as a subject, was important enough to stand on its own. However, it wasn't long before the article was attacked by other editors, mainly atheists and Christians. In late 2008, when the attacks began, there were other editors who liked the article, and the article came through mostly unscathed. But in 2010 there was another round of attacks, and the Christians and atheists gained control of the article. The primary attackers were the editors Verbal (a Christian) and BullRangifer (an atheist). In the process of gaining control of the article, Verbal enlisted the aide of a biased administrator named EdJohnston to get me banned from the article. Once I was out of the picture, they promptly cut the article down by about 75%.
While doing a search recently, I found my original article intact in two locations on the internet. It occurred to me that since I have my own blog now, there was no reason not to put the original, uncensored article here. Before I do, let me say a few things about Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia on the internet that anyone can edit. The original idea was noble enough: There is a huge amount of knowledge in the general public, and this was a place where the public could share that knowledge. Jimmy Wales, the founder, once said that Wikipedia could become the repository for all the information in the world. But the idea didn't really work. At first everyone excitedly wrote articles and shared what they knew, but conflicts developed pretty quickly. There was no requirement that an editor actually know something about the subject he was editing. Editing wars erupted (among editors who wanted the articles to say different things), and the editors who won the wars weren't always the ones with the most knowledge. Rather, the editors who won the wars (and still win them) were the ones who knew how to bend Wikipedia's rules to their advantage. Eventually a class of editors evolved who were more interested in censoring the encyclopedia than expanding it (since censoring requires no knowledge). At the same time, a new standard evolved which said that a good article is an article which is concise. But if all the articles are now concise, who decides which information gets included and which information gets left out? The self-appointed censors do, of course.
If you decide to get involved in Wikipedia, it is important to know some things about the self-appointed censors (or "deletionists" as they've been dubbed by some editors). The censors/deletionists are people who have made Wikipedia their hobby. They spend hours making edits every week, sometimes as many as 30, 40 or 50 hours. For some, it has become their full-time job. But who has so much knowledge that he can make 40 hours worth of contributions to an encyclopedia every week? The answer is: no one. After exhausting their knowledge on the few subjects they are familiar with, there is nothing for such editors to do but to start changing and/or deleting other people's writing. To feel like they are doing something worthwhile, they spend their time conforming articles to Wikipedia's rules. The problem is that Wikipedia's rules are vague and can be interpreted in many ways. Thus, if one of these wiki-addicts (as I call them) has a bias for or against some subject (as many of them do), the rules can be twisted to support the editor's biased edits. Sadly, these censors, deletionists and wiki-addicts are now the largest contingent on Wikipedia. Authors like myself, who have a lot of knowledge to share on a few subjects, are being driven away. What's left are the editors who have little knowledge, but who know what they don't like. All of the administrators (none of whom are paid) fall into this group of wiki-addicts. Instead of protecting the encyclopedia's knowledge base, the administrators spend their time refereeing the editing wars, and few of them care whether the information in the encyclopedia is accurate or complete.
Let me add that there is a struggle going on to determine the "world view" of the encyclopedia. Since Wikipedia is the only encyclopedia freely available to the public, many editors have come to see it as the de facto standard of man's knowledge. And since mankind loves to do nothing more than fight over ideas, the fighting on Wikipedia is often fierce. If Wikipedia is the first place where most people go to get their information, editors can control the opinions of readers by controlling the content of the articles. This happens both by deleting information that editors don't like, and by emphasizing information that editors like. In my estimation, the deletionists are mostly conservatives. This isn't surprising since censorship is a well-known tool of conservatives (in the guise of fascists) all over the world. Thus, if a Christian editor believes that a person must be "saved" to get into "heaven", that editor may feel threatened by, and may try to censor, an article which describes a theory in which everyone is "saved" by default (as the Seth Material does).
The editing wars on Wikipedia have ironic consequences. Articles about subjects of importance, such as science, religion, philosophy, historical events, etc., may end up incomplete or biased, while at the same time you will find a plethora of articles on every unimportant topic imaginable: new products, food recipes, video games, hair styles, etc. Thus, you will find a complete and accurate article on Canon's latest camera model, while the article on America's greatest psychic is little more than a stub.
Personal rivalries frequently pop up on Wikipedia, and editors will often struggle to get other editors thrown off of articles, or thrown off of Wikipedia altogether. If you see Wikipedia as a microcosm of the world, as many editors do, then these struggles can get very personal and take on a life-or-death quality. Since the Seth Material article was the only article that I cared to edit, Verbal's successful attempt to get me thrown off the article completely killed my interest in the encyclopedia. It made me feel rejected, and it also gave me a feeling of being horribly wronged since I knew more about the subject than my attackers did, and since I had drafted most of the article. It was like being fired from a job (though I never spent more than a few hours a week on Wikipedia). And I'm sure that Verbal and BullRangifer felt very triumphant once I had been "expunged". In my opinion, such personal and gratuitous struggles are not good for anyone, and for this reason I now view Wikipedia as a negative presence in society. It has become one more place, one more venue, for people to fight in. And since the articles aren't always accurate, I now believe that it would be best if Wikipedia just closed altogether. There are other sources of information on the internet (and in the library) that are more reliable than Wikipedia.
The lesson that I took from this experience was to publish my writings in venues I control, such as this blog.
Clearly I am biased towards the Seth Material, but I nonetheless did my best in 2008 to write an article that was informative and impartial. The article that I wrote included all the basic tenets of the Material (a logical thing to do since the article was about the Material), but the Christians and the atheists didn't like that. As I write this, the articles about Jane Roberts and the Seth Material have had most of the information cut from them, whereas the article about the Amazing Randi (a debunker of psychics and a favorite of atheists) is longer and more complete. Yet the contribution that Jane Roberts made to society was vastly more valuable than the contribution that the Amazing Randi is making.
In short, if you get involved in Wikipedia, you can expect it to be a frustrating experience. You can expect to end up in a lot of fights; and if you actually make positive contributions to the articles, you can expect to see your writing changed or deleted, often by writers who are less skilled. As a reader, you should be aware that many articles are incomplete (having been censored), and that some articles may be biased in subtle ways. When Wikipedia started, the original idea was that all points of view should be represented. Now, however, points of view that are not mainstream are routinely expunged from the articles, and the point of view that remains is the one that is the most conventional.
In reproducing my original Seth Material article below, I have eliminated the footnotes (which I didn't have time to verify), and I have also fixed some of the language. In addition, I have added back blocks of quotes from the Material itself. The quotes probably don't belong in an impartial article, but I think they convey the flavor of the Material. Since the article is now mine alone (on this blog, at least), I see no reason to bend over backwards to be impartial. Thus, the article here may be slightly more biased than the one that originally appeared in the encyclopedia.
Seth usually referred to God as "All That Is", but I used the term "God" throughout the article because using Seth's special term might have been considered biased by other editors.
The Seth Material (sometimes referred to herein as simply the "Material") is a collection of metaphysical texts dictated by the American writer and psychic Jane Roberts (May 8, 1929–September 5, 1984) from late 1963 until her death. The Seth Material is one of the cornerstones of New Age philosophy, and has been described as the most influential channelled text of the post-World War II "New Age" movement. The Material was purportedly dictated, not by Roberts herself, but by a discarnate entity who called himself Seth, whom Roberts "channelled". Roberts would enter a trance state during which Seth would assume control of her body and speak through her. These episodes are variously referred to as "readings" or "sessions". Roberts also purportedly channeled other personalities, including the philosopher William James, the painter Paul Cézanne, and the painter Rembrandt; but she is best known as the psychic who channeled Seth. In addition, Roberts wrote poetry, plays and novels under her own name, as well as her own non-fiction thoughts on metaphysical subjects.
In late 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband, Robert Butts, experimented with a Ouija board as part of Roberts' research for a book on extra-sensory perception. According to Roberts and Butts, on December 2, 1963 they began to receive coherent messages from a male personality who eventually identified himself as Seth. Soon after, Roberts reported that she was hearing the messages in her head. She soon began to dictate the messages instead of using the Ouija board, and the board was eventually abandoned. For 21 years until Roberts' death (with a one-year hiatus due to her final illness), Roberts held regular sessions in which she went into a trance and purportedly spoke on behalf of Seth. Butts served as stenographer, taking the messages down in home-made shorthand, although some sessions were recorded. These messages from the Seth personality, consisting mostly of monologues on a wide variety of topics, are collectively known as the "Seth Material". The Material through 1969 was published in summary form in The Seth Material, which was written by Roberts with substantial excerpts from the Seth personality.
Beginning with the 511th session in January, 1970, the Seth personality began to dictate his own books. Roberts claimed no authorship of these books beyond her role as medium; and according to Roberts and Butts, these "channelled" books were published verbatim with only minor editorial corrections. This series of "Seth books" eventually totalled ten volumes, although the last two books appear to be incomplete due to Roberts' illness. The list of titles includes Seth Speaks; The Nature of Personal Reality; The Nature of the Psyche, Its Human Expression; The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events; The Unknown Reality; and Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment. Robert Butts contributed notes and comments to all the Seth books, and thus was a co-author on all of them.
The Seth personality described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused in physical reality" who was independent of Roberts' subconscious, although Roberts herself expressed skepticism as to Seth's origins. The Seth personality said that he had completed his earthly reincarnations and that he was speaking from an adjacent plane of existence (or "system of reality" or "universe", all terms which Seth used). He described himself as an educator whose task was to impart the principles set forth in the Material to the current generation of human beings.
The Seth personality's demeanor was notably different from Roberts', as reported by witnesses who included Butts, friends, acquaintances and students. He was at times stern, jovial or professorial, and he frequently assumed a distinct accent which was not identifiable. Unlike the psychic Edgar Cayce, whose syntax when speaking in trance was antiquated and convoluted, Roberts' syntax and sentence structures were modern and clear when speaking as Seth.
Sessions were held at regular intervals, usually two per week. For a period of years Roberts conducted one, and then two, ESP classes in addition to the regular sessions. With the exception of the classes, Roberts gave few readings to the public and was mostly focused on publishing the Material in printed form, as well as on publishing her own work.
Tenets of the Seth Material
The Seth Material covers a wide variety of topics, including the nature of physical reality, the origins of the universe, the theory of evolution, the Christ story, the nature of God, and the purpose of life. The Seth personality made the following assertions, among many others:
* The physical universe is one of a multitude of universes or "systems of reality", some physical in nature, some mental or spiritual, and some completely foreign to human concepts, each with its own natural laws, and each as valid as any other. All systems of reality are, to some extent, camouflages since all beings have an existence which is independent of any system. The number of systems is infinite since new systems come into existence constantly. No system of reality is closed or finite; energy and information pass through all systems.
* As in the "many worlds hypothesis", our physical universe has multiple "probable" renditions. Any event or action which is likely to occur in one probable universe will be actualized in that or another probable universe, or in the dream universe or in some other system of reality. There are, as examples given by Seth, probable universes in which the dinosaurs are still alive, and probable universes in which Christianity did not develop. Each individual has many counterparts within the probable renditions of the universe, not all of whom have the same name, occupation or personal relationships.
* Each human being has many spiritual layers, most notably an "outer ego" which interacts with the physical world, and an "inner ego" or "inner self" which is concerned with the mechanics of constructing the physical world, and which existed prior to any incarnations. The entire self (which Seth referred to as an "entity") is a gestalt consisting of the inner self, the various selves that existed from lives in prior universes, all the currently incarnated selves, and all their probable counterparts. According to Seth, human beings are generally unaware of the inner self, although it comes through as intuition and the "inner voice" that many people believe they hear. At death, the outer ego lives on and continues to develop; it takes its place as part of the gestalt that forms the entire entity, but it is free to evolve and to develop new associations.
* Each human being exists in four universes or "planes" simultaneously: the physical universe, which is the result of coordinated mass mental projections on the part of its inhabitants; a dream universe, which is created in the same way but has less rigid natural laws; an adjacent electrical or mental universe, where all mental activity occurs; and an anti-matter universe of which Seth said very little. The various portions of the self, and the various universes, are all aspects of a single whole, though Seth referred to them separately for the sake of explication. Ultimately, there are no boundaries to the self just as there are no boundaries to any system of reality. All portions of the self contribute to dreams, which continue when the outer ego is awake.
* The physical environment is constructed and maintained by the inner selves of the individual occupants (this includes animals). The inner selves project, en masse, a pattern for physical reality which is then filled with energy, as needed, by each individual. The energy which is used is the inexhaustible energy which emanates from God. Because all things are composed of energy, and because energy must always be active, change and transformation are constants in the universe, and nothing remains the same from one moment to the next. Identity, however, seeks permanence, so there is a constant struggle between the desire for permanence and the necessity of change. Time, which is essentially illusory (see below), has the effect of slowing the perception of experience, and thus creates the illusion of permanence or gradual development. Even amidst constant change, however, identity is never lost.
* All individuals create their own circumstances and experiences within the shared earthly environment. The phrase "you create your own reality" was frequently used by Seth and may have originated with him. As stated above, the inner self is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the individual's physical body and immediate physical environment, but the unfolding of events is determined by the expectations, attitudes and beliefs of the outer ego, that portion of the self that we know as ourselves. There is, in a sense, a feedback loop between the two in which the expectations of the outer ego are actualized by the inner self. Both productive and unproductive attitudes are translated into reality, and thus one of the tasks of the individual is to learn how to direct his or her thoughts in positive directions. In a private session given to a friend of Jane Roberts, the Seth personality said:
* The majority of souls who are reincarnating enter the fetus shortly before, during or after birth. If the mother is considering an abortion, the soul will be aware of that and can choose not to incarnate. If the soul enters the fetus and the fetus is then aborted, the soul continues on to other lives. Some souls seek the in utero experience and do not wish to be born. According to Seth, there is no actual death in the universe; even the cells of the fetus reincarnate.
* Time and space are "root assumptions" of this plane of existence; i.e., they are essentially illusory, and both the past and future coexist with the present in what Seth referred to as the "spacious present". Therefore, a person's incarnations in different time periods are actually lived simultaneously, as opposed to consecutively. Communication among the various past, present and future selves occurs during the dream state. Time appears to exist in a linear form because of limitations inherent in the human brain. Development, expansion, growth and change do not require time in order to occur.
* There is a God, whom Seth referred to as "All That Is" and described as a "primary energy gestalt". God is composed of self-replicating and inexhaustible mental energy; this mental energy permeates the universe and forms all things, including all individuals. As it does so, it carries God's consciousness with it. Thus, God's consciousness occupies all things and is omnipresent. God is therefore a gestalt of all existence, as in pantheism (a gestalt is a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts). For this reason, it can be said that only one individual exists in the universe, and all other individuals are contained within the greater Whole. Seth said, "All faces belong to God." Since God's consciousness occupies all things, God experiences each life that is lived. God wishes to experience existence in all its forms and ramifications, and through its creations is able to do this. God is therefore dynamic and ever-changing and shares in the failures, triumphs, perfections and imperfections of its creations.
* According to Seth, the individuals who exist within God, though part of God, have free will and self-determination. They also have God's creative powers, though those powers are masked by the root assumptions of physical reality. Since God's mental energy forms all things, all material things have life and consciousness, though of an order that is not perceptible to human beings in our present state of development. The atom is a means by which God's mental energy can be materialized into objects. According to Seth, God does not know of any others like itself, but assumes that something -- possibly another "primary energy gestalt" -- came before it. If God sprang from another like itself, then the possibility exists that there are many Gods, each presumably aware only of its own existence.
* God had a beginning, and there was a Creation, though it differs markedly from the Christian version. In God's early stages, the universe existed in a state of potentiality within what Seth referred to as God's dreams. The agony of knowing the potential of the universe, yet not being able to express it, compelled God to find the means to actualize its dreams. Additional impetus was provided by the individuals in its dreams, whom God had imbued with life and consciousness, and who clamored to be made real. In a passage of the Material addressed to Robert Butts (who was an artist), Seth said:
* Paul/Saul will reincarnate in the 21st century to correct mistakes that he made that set Christianity on the wrong course, and a period of spiritual awareness will ensue. Paul/Saul will not identify himself as Christ, and some will view him as the anti-Christ since his appearance will hasten the decline of traditional Christianity, along with other organized religions. Paul/Saul will be known as a psychic; he will strive "to straighten out Christianity, which will be in shambles at the time of His arrival", and he will form "a new system of thought when the world is sorely in need of one". The events surrounding the return of Paul/Saul will substantially be complete by the year 2075, but the ensuing changes to society will take a century to unfold.
Posthumous Publications
In 1996, sessions 1 through 510 of the Seth Material (the "early sessions" which preceded the dictation of the Seth books) were published posthumously by Robert Butts in nine volumes, along with seven volumes of previously unpublished personal messages which accompanied the later sessions. Roberts' and Butts' manuscripts, notes and recordings were donated to the Yale University Library. Robert Butts remarried and lived in Sayre, Pennsylvania until his death in May, 2008.
Since Roberts' death, others have claimed to channel Seth. At least one person has claimed to channel Roberts herself.
In mid-2008 I took a portion of the Jane Roberts article on Wikipedia and spun it off into its own article called the Seth Material. The idea was that the Seth Material, as a subject, was important enough to stand on its own. However, it wasn't long before the article was attacked by other editors, mainly atheists and Christians. In late 2008, when the attacks began, there were other editors who liked the article, and the article came through mostly unscathed. But in 2010 there was another round of attacks, and the Christians and atheists gained control of the article. The primary attackers were the editors Verbal (a Christian) and BullRangifer (an atheist). In the process of gaining control of the article, Verbal enlisted the aide of a biased administrator named EdJohnston to get me banned from the article. Once I was out of the picture, they promptly cut the article down by about 75%.
While doing a search recently, I found my original article intact in two locations on the internet. It occurred to me that since I have my own blog now, there was no reason not to put the original, uncensored article here. Before I do, let me say a few things about Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia on the internet that anyone can edit. The original idea was noble enough: There is a huge amount of knowledge in the general public, and this was a place where the public could share that knowledge. Jimmy Wales, the founder, once said that Wikipedia could become the repository for all the information in the world. But the idea didn't really work. At first everyone excitedly wrote articles and shared what they knew, but conflicts developed pretty quickly. There was no requirement that an editor actually know something about the subject he was editing. Editing wars erupted (among editors who wanted the articles to say different things), and the editors who won the wars weren't always the ones with the most knowledge. Rather, the editors who won the wars (and still win them) were the ones who knew how to bend Wikipedia's rules to their advantage. Eventually a class of editors evolved who were more interested in censoring the encyclopedia than expanding it (since censoring requires no knowledge). At the same time, a new standard evolved which said that a good article is an article which is concise. But if all the articles are now concise, who decides which information gets included and which information gets left out? The self-appointed censors do, of course.
If you decide to get involved in Wikipedia, it is important to know some things about the self-appointed censors (or "deletionists" as they've been dubbed by some editors). The censors/deletionists are people who have made Wikipedia their hobby. They spend hours making edits every week, sometimes as many as 30, 40 or 50 hours. For some, it has become their full-time job. But who has so much knowledge that he can make 40 hours worth of contributions to an encyclopedia every week? The answer is: no one. After exhausting their knowledge on the few subjects they are familiar with, there is nothing for such editors to do but to start changing and/or deleting other people's writing. To feel like they are doing something worthwhile, they spend their time conforming articles to Wikipedia's rules. The problem is that Wikipedia's rules are vague and can be interpreted in many ways. Thus, if one of these wiki-addicts (as I call them) has a bias for or against some subject (as many of them do), the rules can be twisted to support the editor's biased edits. Sadly, these censors, deletionists and wiki-addicts are now the largest contingent on Wikipedia. Authors like myself, who have a lot of knowledge to share on a few subjects, are being driven away. What's left are the editors who have little knowledge, but who know what they don't like. All of the administrators (none of whom are paid) fall into this group of wiki-addicts. Instead of protecting the encyclopedia's knowledge base, the administrators spend their time refereeing the editing wars, and few of them care whether the information in the encyclopedia is accurate or complete.
Let me add that there is a struggle going on to determine the "world view" of the encyclopedia. Since Wikipedia is the only encyclopedia freely available to the public, many editors have come to see it as the de facto standard of man's knowledge. And since mankind loves to do nothing more than fight over ideas, the fighting on Wikipedia is often fierce. If Wikipedia is the first place where most people go to get their information, editors can control the opinions of readers by controlling the content of the articles. This happens both by deleting information that editors don't like, and by emphasizing information that editors like. In my estimation, the deletionists are mostly conservatives. This isn't surprising since censorship is a well-known tool of conservatives (in the guise of fascists) all over the world. Thus, if a Christian editor believes that a person must be "saved" to get into "heaven", that editor may feel threatened by, and may try to censor, an article which describes a theory in which everyone is "saved" by default (as the Seth Material does).
The editing wars on Wikipedia have ironic consequences. Articles about subjects of importance, such as science, religion, philosophy, historical events, etc., may end up incomplete or biased, while at the same time you will find a plethora of articles on every unimportant topic imaginable: new products, food recipes, video games, hair styles, etc. Thus, you will find a complete and accurate article on Canon's latest camera model, while the article on America's greatest psychic is little more than a stub.
Personal rivalries frequently pop up on Wikipedia, and editors will often struggle to get other editors thrown off of articles, or thrown off of Wikipedia altogether. If you see Wikipedia as a microcosm of the world, as many editors do, then these struggles can get very personal and take on a life-or-death quality. Since the Seth Material article was the only article that I cared to edit, Verbal's successful attempt to get me thrown off the article completely killed my interest in the encyclopedia. It made me feel rejected, and it also gave me a feeling of being horribly wronged since I knew more about the subject than my attackers did, and since I had drafted most of the article. It was like being fired from a job (though I never spent more than a few hours a week on Wikipedia). And I'm sure that Verbal and BullRangifer felt very triumphant once I had been "expunged". In my opinion, such personal and gratuitous struggles are not good for anyone, and for this reason I now view Wikipedia as a negative presence in society. It has become one more place, one more venue, for people to fight in. And since the articles aren't always accurate, I now believe that it would be best if Wikipedia just closed altogether. There are other sources of information on the internet (and in the library) that are more reliable than Wikipedia.
The lesson that I took from this experience was to publish my writings in venues I control, such as this blog.
Clearly I am biased towards the Seth Material, but I nonetheless did my best in 2008 to write an article that was informative and impartial. The article that I wrote included all the basic tenets of the Material (a logical thing to do since the article was about the Material), but the Christians and the atheists didn't like that. As I write this, the articles about Jane Roberts and the Seth Material have had most of the information cut from them, whereas the article about the Amazing Randi (a debunker of psychics and a favorite of atheists) is longer and more complete. Yet the contribution that Jane Roberts made to society was vastly more valuable than the contribution that the Amazing Randi is making.
In short, if you get involved in Wikipedia, you can expect it to be a frustrating experience. You can expect to end up in a lot of fights; and if you actually make positive contributions to the articles, you can expect to see your writing changed or deleted, often by writers who are less skilled. As a reader, you should be aware that many articles are incomplete (having been censored), and that some articles may be biased in subtle ways. When Wikipedia started, the original idea was that all points of view should be represented. Now, however, points of view that are not mainstream are routinely expunged from the articles, and the point of view that remains is the one that is the most conventional.
In reproducing my original Seth Material article below, I have eliminated the footnotes (which I didn't have time to verify), and I have also fixed some of the language. In addition, I have added back blocks of quotes from the Material itself. The quotes probably don't belong in an impartial article, but I think they convey the flavor of the Material. Since the article is now mine alone (on this blog, at least), I see no reason to bend over backwards to be impartial. Thus, the article here may be slightly more biased than the one that originally appeared in the encyclopedia.
Seth usually referred to God as "All That Is", but I used the term "God" throughout the article because using Seth's special term might have been considered biased by other editors.
* * *
The Seth Material
The Seth Material
The Seth Material (sometimes referred to herein as simply the "Material") is a collection of metaphysical texts dictated by the American writer and psychic Jane Roberts (May 8, 1929–September 5, 1984) from late 1963 until her death. The Seth Material is one of the cornerstones of New Age philosophy, and has been described as the most influential channelled text of the post-World War II "New Age" movement. The Material was purportedly dictated, not by Roberts herself, but by a discarnate entity who called himself Seth, whom Roberts "channelled". Roberts would enter a trance state during which Seth would assume control of her body and speak through her. These episodes are variously referred to as "readings" or "sessions". Roberts also purportedly channeled other personalities, including the philosopher William James, the painter Paul Cézanne, and the painter Rembrandt; but she is best known as the psychic who channeled Seth. In addition, Roberts wrote poetry, plays and novels under her own name, as well as her own non-fiction thoughts on metaphysical subjects.
In late 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband, Robert Butts, experimented with a Ouija board as part of Roberts' research for a book on extra-sensory perception. According to Roberts and Butts, on December 2, 1963 they began to receive coherent messages from a male personality who eventually identified himself as Seth. Soon after, Roberts reported that she was hearing the messages in her head. She soon began to dictate the messages instead of using the Ouija board, and the board was eventually abandoned. For 21 years until Roberts' death (with a one-year hiatus due to her final illness), Roberts held regular sessions in which she went into a trance and purportedly spoke on behalf of Seth. Butts served as stenographer, taking the messages down in home-made shorthand, although some sessions were recorded. These messages from the Seth personality, consisting mostly of monologues on a wide variety of topics, are collectively known as the "Seth Material". The Material through 1969 was published in summary form in The Seth Material, which was written by Roberts with substantial excerpts from the Seth personality.
Beginning with the 511th session in January, 1970, the Seth personality began to dictate his own books. Roberts claimed no authorship of these books beyond her role as medium; and according to Roberts and Butts, these "channelled" books were published verbatim with only minor editorial corrections. This series of "Seth books" eventually totalled ten volumes, although the last two books appear to be incomplete due to Roberts' illness. The list of titles includes Seth Speaks; The Nature of Personal Reality; The Nature of the Psyche, Its Human Expression; The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events; The Unknown Reality; and Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment. Robert Butts contributed notes and comments to all the Seth books, and thus was a co-author on all of them.
The Seth personality described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused in physical reality" who was independent of Roberts' subconscious, although Roberts herself expressed skepticism as to Seth's origins. The Seth personality said that he had completed his earthly reincarnations and that he was speaking from an adjacent plane of existence (or "system of reality" or "universe", all terms which Seth used). He described himself as an educator whose task was to impart the principles set forth in the Material to the current generation of human beings.
The Seth personality's demeanor was notably different from Roberts', as reported by witnesses who included Butts, friends, acquaintances and students. He was at times stern, jovial or professorial, and he frequently assumed a distinct accent which was not identifiable. Unlike the psychic Edgar Cayce, whose syntax when speaking in trance was antiquated and convoluted, Roberts' syntax and sentence structures were modern and clear when speaking as Seth.
Sessions were held at regular intervals, usually two per week. For a period of years Roberts conducted one, and then two, ESP classes in addition to the regular sessions. With the exception of the classes, Roberts gave few readings to the public and was mostly focused on publishing the Material in printed form, as well as on publishing her own work.
Tenets of the Seth Material
The Seth Material covers a wide variety of topics, including the nature of physical reality, the origins of the universe, the theory of evolution, the Christ story, the nature of God, and the purpose of life. The Seth personality made the following assertions, among many others:
* The physical universe is one of a multitude of universes or "systems of reality", some physical in nature, some mental or spiritual, and some completely foreign to human concepts, each with its own natural laws, and each as valid as any other. All systems of reality are, to some extent, camouflages since all beings have an existence which is independent of any system. The number of systems is infinite since new systems come into existence constantly. No system of reality is closed or finite; energy and information pass through all systems.
* As in the "many worlds hypothesis", our physical universe has multiple "probable" renditions. Any event or action which is likely to occur in one probable universe will be actualized in that or another probable universe, or in the dream universe or in some other system of reality. There are, as examples given by Seth, probable universes in which the dinosaurs are still alive, and probable universes in which Christianity did not develop. Each individual has many counterparts within the probable renditions of the universe, not all of whom have the same name, occupation or personal relationships.
* Each human being has many spiritual layers, most notably an "outer ego" which interacts with the physical world, and an "inner ego" or "inner self" which is concerned with the mechanics of constructing the physical world, and which existed prior to any incarnations. The entire self (which Seth referred to as an "entity") is a gestalt consisting of the inner self, the various selves that existed from lives in prior universes, all the currently incarnated selves, and all their probable counterparts. According to Seth, human beings are generally unaware of the inner self, although it comes through as intuition and the "inner voice" that many people believe they hear. At death, the outer ego lives on and continues to develop; it takes its place as part of the gestalt that forms the entire entity, but it is free to evolve and to develop new associations.
* Each human being exists in four universes or "planes" simultaneously: the physical universe, which is the result of coordinated mass mental projections on the part of its inhabitants; a dream universe, which is created in the same way but has less rigid natural laws; an adjacent electrical or mental universe, where all mental activity occurs; and an anti-matter universe of which Seth said very little. The various portions of the self, and the various universes, are all aspects of a single whole, though Seth referred to them separately for the sake of explication. Ultimately, there are no boundaries to the self just as there are no boundaries to any system of reality. All portions of the self contribute to dreams, which continue when the outer ego is awake.
* The physical environment is constructed and maintained by the inner selves of the individual occupants (this includes animals). The inner selves project, en masse, a pattern for physical reality which is then filled with energy, as needed, by each individual. The energy which is used is the inexhaustible energy which emanates from God. Because all things are composed of energy, and because energy must always be active, change and transformation are constants in the universe, and nothing remains the same from one moment to the next. Identity, however, seeks permanence, so there is a constant struggle between the desire for permanence and the necessity of change. Time, which is essentially illusory (see below), has the effect of slowing the perception of experience, and thus creates the illusion of permanence or gradual development. Even amidst constant change, however, identity is never lost.
* All individuals create their own circumstances and experiences within the shared earthly environment. The phrase "you create your own reality" was frequently used by Seth and may have originated with him. As stated above, the inner self is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the individual's physical body and immediate physical environment, but the unfolding of events is determined by the expectations, attitudes and beliefs of the outer ego, that portion of the self that we know as ourselves. There is, in a sense, a feedback loop between the two in which the expectations of the outer ego are actualized by the inner self. Both productive and unproductive attitudes are translated into reality, and thus one of the tasks of the individual is to learn how to direct his or her thoughts in positive directions. In a private session given to a friend of Jane Roberts, the Seth personality said:
"You must watch the pictures that you paint with your imagination, for you allow your imagination too full a reign. If you read our early material, you will see that your environment and the conditions of your life at any given time are the direct result of your own inner expectations. You form physical materializations of these realities within your own mind.
"If you imagine dire circumstances, ill health, or desperate loneliness, these will be automatically materialized, for these thoughts themselves bring about the conditions that will give them reality in physical terms. If you would have good health, then you must imagine this as vividly as in fear you imagine the opposite.
"You create your own difficulties. This is true for each individual. The inner psychological state is projected outward, gaining physical reality -- and this regardless of the nature of the psychological state. ... The rules apply to everyone. You can use them for your own benefit and change your own conditions once you realize what they are.
"You cannot escape your own attitudes, for they will form the nature of what you see. Quite literally you see what you want to see; and you see your own thoughts and emotional attitudes materialized in physical form. If changes are to occur, they must be mental and psychic changes. These will be reflected in your environment. Negative, distrustful, fearful, or degrading attitudes toward anyone work against the self."* Reincarnation is the rule, although many misconceptions abound. For example, human beings never reincarnate as animals; cause-and-effect does not operate from one life to the next (although all lives are interrelated in various ways); and reincarnation does not end in a state of nirvana. Each individual must experience fatherhood, motherhood and childhood, and thus must incarnate at least twice; the maximum number varies, depending on the temperament and needs of the individual. There is a period of rest between incarnations, and sometimes individuals will occupy other planes of existence before returning to the Earth. When an individual's reincarnational cycle is over, the individual moves on to other systems of reality. There is no heaven or hell, only continued existence in various environments of the individual's choosing.
* The majority of souls who are reincarnating enter the fetus shortly before, during or after birth. If the mother is considering an abortion, the soul will be aware of that and can choose not to incarnate. If the soul enters the fetus and the fetus is then aborted, the soul continues on to other lives. Some souls seek the in utero experience and do not wish to be born. According to Seth, there is no actual death in the universe; even the cells of the fetus reincarnate.
* Time and space are "root assumptions" of this plane of existence; i.e., they are essentially illusory, and both the past and future coexist with the present in what Seth referred to as the "spacious present". Therefore, a person's incarnations in different time periods are actually lived simultaneously, as opposed to consecutively. Communication among the various past, present and future selves occurs during the dream state. Time appears to exist in a linear form because of limitations inherent in the human brain. Development, expansion, growth and change do not require time in order to occur.
* There is a God, whom Seth referred to as "All That Is" and described as a "primary energy gestalt". God is composed of self-replicating and inexhaustible mental energy; this mental energy permeates the universe and forms all things, including all individuals. As it does so, it carries God's consciousness with it. Thus, God's consciousness occupies all things and is omnipresent. God is therefore a gestalt of all existence, as in pantheism (a gestalt is a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts). For this reason, it can be said that only one individual exists in the universe, and all other individuals are contained within the greater Whole. Seth said, "All faces belong to God." Since God's consciousness occupies all things, God experiences each life that is lived. God wishes to experience existence in all its forms and ramifications, and through its creations is able to do this. God is therefore dynamic and ever-changing and shares in the failures, triumphs, perfections and imperfections of its creations.
* According to Seth, the individuals who exist within God, though part of God, have free will and self-determination. They also have God's creative powers, though those powers are masked by the root assumptions of physical reality. Since God's mental energy forms all things, all material things have life and consciousness, though of an order that is not perceptible to human beings in our present state of development. The atom is a means by which God's mental energy can be materialized into objects. According to Seth, God does not know of any others like itself, but assumes that something -- possibly another "primary energy gestalt" -- came before it. If God sprang from another like itself, then the possibility exists that there are many Gods, each presumably aware only of its own existence.
* God had a beginning, and there was a Creation, though it differs markedly from the Christian version. In God's early stages, the universe existed in a state of potentiality within what Seth referred to as God's dreams. The agony of knowing the potential of the universe, yet not being able to express it, compelled God to find the means to actualize its dreams. Additional impetus was provided by the individuals in its dreams, whom God had imbued with life and consciousness, and who clamored to be made real. In a passage of the Material addressed to Robert Butts (who was an artist), Seth said:
"The first state of agonized search for expression may have represented the birth throes of All That Is as we know It. Pretend, then, that you possessed within yourself the knowledge of all the world's masterpieces in sculpture and art, that they pulsed as realities within you, but that you had no physical apparatus, no knowledge of how to achieve them, that there was neither rock nor pigment nor source of any of these, and you ached with the yearning to produce them. This, on an infinitesimally small scale, will perhaps give you, as an artist, some idea of the agony and impetus that was felt.
"Desire, wish and expectation rule all actions and are the basis for all realities. Within All That Is, therefore, the wish, desire, and expectation of creativity existed before all other actuality. The strength and vitality of these desires and expectations then became in your terms so insupportable that All That Is was driven to find the means to produce them.
"In other words, All That Is existed in a state of being, but without the means to find expression for Its being. This was the state of agony of which I spoke. Yet it is doubtful that without this 'period' of contracted yearning, All That Is could concentrate Its energy sufficiently enough to create the realities that existed in probable suspension within it."* Christ is a highly evolved entity who has existence in many systems of reality. However, Christ has the same relationship to God that all other individuals do -- i.e., he is part of God. At the time of Christ, the Christ entity incarnated as three individuals -- John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul or Saul of Tarsus -- and each was to some degree aware of his role in founding a new religion (although Paul/Saul was not aware of his role until after his conversion to Christianity). Seth said that Jesus was not crucified, and that it is not in the nature of enlightened individuals to sacrifice themselves. Rather, a willing and deluded surrogate, who believed himself to be the Messiah, was substituted in Jesus' place, and it was this surrogate whom Judas betrayed (and who was then crucified). Jesus was then able to be "resurrected" because he had not actually died. Seth said that the crucifixion of Jesus did occur as a shared psychic event, but it did not occur as a physical event.
* Paul/Saul will reincarnate in the 21st century to correct mistakes that he made that set Christianity on the wrong course, and a period of spiritual awareness will ensue. Paul/Saul will not identify himself as Christ, and some will view him as the anti-Christ since his appearance will hasten the decline of traditional Christianity, along with other organized religions. Paul/Saul will be known as a psychic; he will strive "to straighten out Christianity, which will be in shambles at the time of His arrival", and he will form "a new system of thought when the world is sorely in need of one". The events surrounding the return of Paul/Saul will substantially be complete by the year 2075, but the ensuing changes to society will take a century to unfold.
Posthumous Publications
In 1996, sessions 1 through 510 of the Seth Material (the "early sessions" which preceded the dictation of the Seth books) were published posthumously by Robert Butts in nine volumes, along with seven volumes of previously unpublished personal messages which accompanied the later sessions. Roberts' and Butts' manuscripts, notes and recordings were donated to the Yale University Library. Robert Butts remarried and lived in Sayre, Pennsylvania until his death in May, 2008.
Since Roberts' death, others have claimed to channel Seth. At least one person has claimed to channel Roberts herself.
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