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David R. Hawkins, M. D., Ph. D.
There seems to have been some edit wars around this writer. The article was deleted again.

Commentary on Jane Roberts
This commentary was deemed not suitable for the Jane Roberts page.

Commentary on Jane's trance process

"My Psychic initiation really began one evening in September, 1963, however, as I sat writing poetry. Suddenly, my consciousness left my body, and my mind was barraged by ideasthat were astonishing and new at the same time. On return to my body, I discovered that my hands had produced an automatic script, explaining many of the concepts I had been given. The notes were even titled - 'The Physical Universe as Idea Construction'." [2] So began the exploration in consciousness that brought Jane Roberts to fame. Jane Roberts provided an important supplementary perspective to her Seth Material writings by through her commentary about the process.

At the top of the discussion is the remark from the Introduction to Seth Speaks: "I do not believe that I could get the equivalent of Seth's book on my own. The best I could do would be to hit certain high points, perhaps in isolated poems or essays, and they would lack the overall unity, continuity, and organization that Seth has here provided automatically... The whole creative venture may be the initiation of a personality, Seth, who then writes books. Seth may be as much of a creation as his book is. If so, this is an excellent instance of multidimensional art, done at such a rich level of unconsciousness that the 'artist' is unaware of her own work and as much intrigued by it as anyone else." (2)

Most writers have to come to terms with the states of mind necessary to produce their work. On one end of the spectrum, Writer's block afflicts some severely enough to completely halt efforts for varying lengths of time. Jane's process was rarely susceptible to this problem. See thus typical note by her husband: "Jane has been taking something of a rest for the last month or so... Occasionally Jane wondered what effect, if any, the break would have on Seth's book. However, after giving me some very astute data about my painting, Seth resumed book dictation very smoothly at 9:33 - just as if there hadn't been any time lapse from February 11 to March 18 (1970)." [3]

Jane falls in the middle of the range for overall writing speed. It is important to agree on the units of time measurement. Her output per year is solid enough, though that measurement obscures another remarkable feature of her the Seth process. For the hours actually spent working on Seth Material, her word/hour rate is near the top. Two factors combined toward this result. First, she had the transcription services of her husband who used a shorthand system of his own devising to record the material accurately. Second, the quality level was consistently so strong in each session that virtually no time was needed for content revising. Robert Butts' timestamp notes remain among the best documentation of writing times in the world.

Footnotes

1. ^ Session 718, The Unknown Reality, Vol. 2, by Jane Roberts (1979). ISBN 0-13-938852-4 2. ^ Introduction, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. Amber-Allen Publishing. ISBN 1-878424-07-6 3. ^ Note to Session 518, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. Amber-Allen Publishing. ISBN 1-878424-07-6

Spinoff Copy of Seth Material Page
New Age pages seem to have some real trouble with Wiki rules. I believe this tends to do with problems finding "non-primary" comments in detail. Below is a copy of one of the last large versions of Seth Material out of respect for Caleb Murdock for his effort despite the problems he has had with WP admins. Caleb, you are welcome to work on this spinoff copy if you like.

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The Seth Material is a collection of metaphysical texts dictated by the American author 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 other than A Course in Miracles. According to professor of psychology Jon Klimo, the Seth books were instrumental in bringing the idea of channeling to a broad public audience, more so than any prior writer other than Edgar Cayce, who died in 1945.

The Seth Material was purportedly dictated, not by Roberts herself, but by a discarnate entity who called himself Seth, whom Roberts "channeled". Roberts described the process of writing the Seth Material as entering a trance state during which the Seth personality assumed control of her body and speak through her. These episodes are variously referred to as "readings" or "sessions".

Other authors have also written material they claim to be channeled from the Seth entity, especially after Roberts' death, including, among others, Thomas Massari, who founded the Seth-Hermes Foundation and claimed to channel the Seth entity as early as 1972. Jean Loomis, director of the Aquarian Center in Connecticut, has claimed to channel the same "Seth". Study groups have formed in various locations around the USA working with the Seth Material, similar to groups working with the teachings of other "channeled entities" (for example, White Eagle, Ramtha and A Course in Miracles).

Catherine L. Albanese, a professor of American Religious History at the University of Chicago, stated that in the 1970s the Seth Material "launched an era of nationwide awareness" of the channeling trend and directly contributed to the "self-identity of an emergent New Age movement and also augmenting its ranks." John P. Newport, in his study of the impact of New Age beliefs on contemporary culture, described the central focus of the Seth Material as the idea that, for each individual, "you create your own reality". He wrote that this foundational concept of the New Age movement was first articulated in the Seth Material. According to historian Robert C. Fuller, professor of religious studies at Bradley University, the Seth personality filled the role of guide for what Fuller called "unchurched American spirituality", including the topics of reincarnation, karma, free will, ancient metaphysical wisdom, and "Christ consciousness".

History
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 later identified himself as Seth. Soon after, Roberts reported that she was hearing the messages in her head. She began to dictate the messages instead of using the Ouija board, and the board was eventually abandoned. For 21 years until Roberts' death in 1984 (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 "channeled" messages, 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, Roberts' trance personality, Seth, 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 "channeled" books were published verbatim with only minor editorial corrections. This series of "Seth books" eventually totaled 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 Fulfilment. Robert Butts contributed notes and comments to all the Seth books, and thus was a co-author on all of them.

According to Roberts, the Seth personality described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused in physical matter" who was independent of Roberts' subconscious, although Roberts herself expressed skepticism as to Seth's origins, frequently referring to Seth's statements as "theories". The Seth personality said that he had completed his earthly reincarnations and was speaking from an adjacent plane of existence (or "system of reality" or "universe", all terms which the Seth personality used). The Seth personality described himself as a "teacher", and said that the information in the Seth Material is given to every generation of humans.

While channeling Seth, Roberts' demeanor was notably different from her usual demeanor, as reported by witnesses who included Butts, friends, acquaintances and students. The Seth personality 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. Roberts often sat in a rocking chair during sessions, and she would occasionally smoke cigarettes and sip beer or wine. Afterwards, she would usually not remember the contents of the session, and she would have to read the transcript or be told what Seth had said. 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.

Summary
The core teachings of the Seth Material are based on the principle that mind creates matter, and that each individual creates his or her own reality through thoughts, beliefs and expectations,  , and that the "point of power" through which the individual can effect change is in the present moment.

The Seth Material discusses a wide range of metaphysical concepts, including the nature of God, referred to in the Material as "All That Is" and sometimes "The Multidimensional God" (who takes its form in many parallel or probable universes); the nature of physical reality; the origins of the universe; the limitless nature of the self and the "higher self";  the story of Christ; the evolution of the soul and all aspects of death and rebirth, including reincarnation and karma, past lives, after-death experiences, "guardian spirits", and ascension to planes of "higher consciousness";   the purpose of life and the nature of good and evil; the purpose of suffering; multidimensional reality, parallel lives and transpersonal realms.

Existence and The Self
The Seth Material says that human beings have 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 or "entity" is a gestalt consisting of the inner self, various selves that the entity has assumed through past existences (physical and non-physical), plus all the currently incarnated selves, and all their probable counterparts." According to Material, 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.

The Material states that human beings exist 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 universe, where the inner self resides and 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 Roberts referred to them separately for the sake of explication. The Material states that 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.

Wouter Hanegraaff, Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, states that Roberts' views (when speaking as Seth) on the nature of the self have been influential to other new age authors (some of whom use the term "Higher Self" to refer to the same concept), and that Robert's terminology has been adopted by some of those authors. Hanegraaff states that Seth uses various terms to refer to the concept of the "Self", including "entity", "whole self", "gestalt", and "(over)soul".

Reality
The Seth Material says that all individuals create their own circumstances and experiences within the shared earthly environment, similar to the doctrine of responsibility assumption. This concept is expressed in the phrase "you create your own reality", which may have originated with the Seth readings. The inner self is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the individual's physical body and immediate physical environment, and the unfolding of events is determined by the expectations, attitudes and beliefs of the outer ego, that portion of the self that human beings know as themselves. Both productive and unproductive attitudes are translated into reality, and thus one of the tasks of the individual in the physical system is to learn how to direct his or her thoughts in positive directions.

The books discuss the idea that the physical environment is constructed and maintained by the inner selves of the individual occupants (including the animals). The inner selves project, en masse, a pattern for physical reality which is then filled with energy, as needed, by each individual. All events are also produced in the same manner. The energy which is used in these acts of creation is the inexhaustible energy which emanates from God. Since all things are composed of energy, and since energy is always active, change and transformation are constants in the universe, and nothing remains the same from one moment to the next. According to the Material, identity seeks permanence, so there is a constant attempt on the part of individuals to create environments that feel permanent; the Earth is one such place. According to the Material, time moves slowly in the physical universe, and thus creates the illusion of permanence or gradual development. Even amidst constant change, however, identity is never lost.

Furthermore, the Material says that the physical universe is one of a multitude of universes or systems of reality, some physical in nature, some mental, and some completely foreign to human concepts. Each has its own natural laws, and each is as valid as any other. As in the "many worlds hypothesis", this physical universe has a multitude of probable renditions. The Material states that all probable events are actualized, if not in the known universe, then in a probable universe or the dream universe. There are, as examples given in the Material, probable universes in which the dinosaurs still exist, and probable universes in which Christianity did not develop. According to the Material, each individual has many counterparts within the probable renditions of the universe, not all of whom have the same name, occupation or personal relationships. The Material further states that all systems of reality are, to some extent, camouflages, as 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.

According to the Seth Material 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 Roberts, as Seth, referred to as the "spacious present". Therefore, a person's incarnations in different time periods are actually lived simultaneously, not consecutively. The Material states that communication among the various past, present and future selves occurs during "the dream state", and that time only appears to exist in a linear form because of limitations inherent in the physical human brain. Therefore development, expansion, growth and change do not require time in order to occur.

Birth, souls and reincarnation
According to the Seth Material, a soul may enter the fetus any time from inception to birth, and may not fully join with the new body for a considerable period of time. Souls who enter the fetus at birth may have a strong inclination towards physical existence, or may have a pre-existing relationship with the mother, or may be anxious to complete unfinished experiences in the physical realm. 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 the Seth Material, there is no actual death in the universe; even the cells of the fetus reincarnate.

The Seth Material includes reincarnation as a core principle, but unlike some religions, states that cause-and-effect does not operate from life to life (although all lives are interrelated in various ways); human beings do not reincarnate as animals; and reincarnation does not end in a state of nirvana. The Seth Material states that each individual must experience fatherhood, motherhood and childhood, and thus must incarnate at least twice; the maximum number varies, depending on the temperament and the needs of the individual. According to the Seth Material, human beings never reincarnate as animals. The Material states that there is a period of rest between incarnations, and that individuals will sometimes 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. Another unusual contention of the Seth Material is that, in this system, a soul can have multiple concurrent incarnations, with multiple individuals living simultaneously as part of one individual soul.

God
The Seth Material states that there is a God, whom it describes as a "primary energy gestalt" and a "psychic pyramid of interrelated, ever-expanding consciousness". The Material generally uses the term "All That Is" instead of God, while using the term "God" to describe the traditional Judeo-Christian concepts. According to the Material, God is composed of self-replicating and inexhaustible mental energy which permeates the universe and forms all things, including all individuals. As the energy does this, it carries the consciousness of God with it. Thus, the consciousness of God occupies all things and is omnipresent. God, therefore, is a gestalt of all existence, as in Pantheism and Panentheism. 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. Since the consciousness of God occupies all things, God experiences each life that is lived, including the failures, triumphs, perfections and imperfections of each individual. According to the Material, God wishes to experience existence in all its forms and ramifications, and through its creations is able to do this. Since reality is ever-changing, God is also dynamic and ever-changing. The Material states that the portion of God that forms each individual is the "personal God". Hanegraaff writes that "theology/cosmology of the Seth Material" presents an explicit example of God as the "'generative source' of reality".

According to the Material, the individuals who exist within God, though part of God, have free will and self-determination. They also have the creative powers of God, though those powers are masked by the root assumptions of physical reality. Since the mental energy of God forms all things, all material things have life and consciousness, though of an order that is not perceptible to human beings in their present state of development. The atom is a means by which the mental energy of God can be materialized. Roberts, speaking as Seth, said that 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 other Gods, each presumably aware only of its own existence.

Creation
The Seth Material states that God had a beginning, and there was a Creation, though the version told by Roberts differs markedly from the Christian version. In the early development of God, the universe existed in a state of potentiality within 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.

Relationship with Christianity
According to the Seth Material, Jesus Christ exists as part of the Christ entity, a highly evolved entity who exists in many systems of reality. At the time of Christ, the Christ entity incarnated as three individuals: John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul or Saul of Tarsus. Each was to some degree aware of his role in founding a new religion (although Paul was not aware of his role until after his conversion to Christianity). Roberts said that Jesus was not physically 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. According to the Material, the crucifixion of Jesus occurred as a non-physical event, created by "extra-dimensional artists". This event was then translated into the physical plane, and it now exists within history as if it had physically occurred.

The Material states that Paul of Tarsus 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 will not identify himself as Christ or be seen as Christ, since his appearance will undermine organized religion, Christianity included. The Material states that Paul 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.

Criticism

 * Charles Upton in his book The System of Antichrist, which critiques the New Age movement, argues that the reason Jane Roberts multiplies the self in many ways is due to a fear of death, and that the Seth texts are based on a misunderstanding of both Christianity and of Eastern religions. Upton also acknowledges that "traces of valid esoteric doctrines can be found in the Seth teachings."
 * The implied influences of Eastern mysticism and philosophy are also highlighted in Astrology and Psychic Phenomena by Terry Holley, E Calvin Beisner and Robert M Bowman Jr, who say "Husband Robert Butts admitted that similarities exist between Seth's ideas and those of various religious, philosophical, and mystical doctrines from the Near, Middle, or Far East . . . and we've done a little reading on Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen, and Taoism, for example, not to mention subjects like shamanism, voodooism, and obeah."
 * Psychologist and critic of parapsychology James E. Alcock has concluded: "In light of all this, the Seth materials must surely be viewed as less than ordinary. There certainly was the time and talent for fraud to play a role, but we cannot discriminate between that possibility and the possibility of unconscious production— At any rate, given these circumstances, there seems little need to consider the involvement of any supernatural agency."