The Seth Material is a collection of writing dictated by Jane Roberts to her husband from late 1963 until her death in 1984. Roberts claimed the words were spoken by a discarnate entity named Seth.Roberts, Jane. ESP Power. 2000; Stack, Rick. Out-Of-Body Adventures. 1988; Hathaway, Michael R. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Past Life Regression. 2003, p. 208; Watkins, Susan. Conversations With Seth, Book 2: 25th Anniversary Edition. 2006. The material is regarded as one of the cornerstones of New Age philosophy, and the most influential channelled text of the post–World War II "New Age" movement, after the Edgar Cayce books and A Course in Miracles.Talbot, Michael. The Holographic Universe, 1991; Hanegraff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, SUNY Press, 1998, pp. 122–126; Hammer, Olav. Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. BRILL, 2004, p. 342; Upton, Charles. The System of Antichrist: Truth and Falsehood in Postmodernism and the New Age. Sophia Perennis, 2005, pp. 169–173. Jon Klimo writes that the Seth books were instrumental in bringing the idea of channeling to a broad public audience.Klimo, Jon. Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources. North Atlantic Books 1998, p. 22.
According to scholar of religion Catherine Albanese, the 1970 release of the book The Seth Material "launched an era of nationwide awareness... [of c]ommunication with other-than-human entities... contributing to the self-identity of an emergent New Age movement".Albanese, Catherine L. A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. Yale University Press 2007, p. 501. Study groups formed in the United States to work with the Seth Material,Larson, Bob. Larson's Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2004, p. 484. and now are found around the world, as well as numerous websites and online groups in several languages, as various titles have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Dutch and Arabic.
John P. Newport, in his study of the influence of New Age beliefs, described the central focus of the Seth Material as the idea that each individual creates their own reality, a foundational concept of the New Age movement first articulated in the Seth Material.Newport, John P. The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview: Conflict and Dialogue. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 1998, p. 165.
History
In late 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband, Robert Butts, experimented with a ouija board as part of Roberts's research for a book on extra-sensory perception.ESP Power, by Jane Roberts (2000) (introductory essay by Lynda Dahl). Roberts and Butts claimed that they began to receive coherent messages from a male personality on December 2, 1963, 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's 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.Other Lives, Other Selves: A Jungian Psychotherapist Discovers Past Lives, by Roger Woolger (1988).
According to Roberts, Seth described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused in physical matter"Chapter 1, Session 511, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, by Jane Roberts (1972). who was independent of Roberts's subconscious, although Roberts expressed skepticism as to Seth's origins, frequently referring to Seth's statements as "theories".Chapter 10, The Seth Material, by Jane Roberts (1970). Roberts claimed that Seth indicated he had completed his earthly reincarnations and was speaking from an adjacent plane of existence. The Seth personality described himself as a "teacher",Chapter 1, Session 511, and Chapter 2, Session 514, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, by Jane Roberts (1972). and said: "this material has been given by himself and others in other times and places, but that it is given again, in new ways, for each succeeding generation through the centuries."
Unlike the psychic Edgar Cayce, whose syntax when speaking in trance was antiquated and convoluted, Roberts's 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 claimed to not remember the contents of the session, and she would often read the transcript or ask what Seth had said.
Summary The core teachings of the Seth Material are based on the principle that consciousness creates matter,Chapter 1, Seth Speaks, by Jane Roberts (1972); "Consciousness creates form. It is not the other way around". that each person creates their own reality through thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. And that the "point of power", through which the individual can affect change, is in the present moment.
It discusses a wide range of metaphysical concepts, including the nature of God (referred to as "All That Is" and "The Multidimensional God"); the nature of physical reality; the origins of the universe; the nature of the self and the "higher self"; the story of Christ;Fuller, Robert C. Spiritual, But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America. Oxford University Press 2001, p. 60. 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; the nature of good and evil; the purpose of suffering; multidimensional reality, parallel lives; and transpersonal realms.
Nature of the self According to the Seth Material, 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. Reincarnation is included as a core principle.
Wouter Hanegraaff, Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, says that these ideas have been influential to other new age authors (some of whom use the term "higher self" to refer to the same concept), and that Roberts's terminology has been adopted by some of those authors. Hanegraaff says 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, or inner ego, 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. "If you want to change your world, you must first change your thoughts, expectations, and beliefs." Or, more succinctly: "You get what you concentrate upon. There is no other main rule".
The books discuss the idea that a living network of panpsychism constructs and maintains the physical environment via the inner selves of the individual occupants (including both living and inert matter).Session 610, The Nature of Personal Reality, by Jane Roberts (1974). The inner selves project, en masse, a pattern for physical reality that is then filled with energy, as needed, by each individual. All events are also produced in the same manner.
Complete writings of Jane Roberts
Books (1966). How To Develop Your ESP Power. Publisher: Federick Fell. (Later retitled and reprinted as The Coming of Seth.) . (1970). The Seth Material. Reprinted, 2001 by New Awareness Network. . (1972). Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. Reprinted 1994 by Amber-Allen Publishing. . (1974). The Nature of Personal Reality. Prentice-Hall. Reprinted 1994, Amber-Allen Publishing. . (1975). Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology. Prentice-Hall. . (1975). Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time. Prentice-Hall. . Poetry. (1976). Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book. Prentice-Hall. . (1977). The "Unknown" Reality Vol. 1. Prentice-Hall. Reprinted 1997, Amber-Allen Publishing. . (1979). The "Unknown" Reality Vol. 2. Prentice-Hall. Reprinted 1997, Amber-Allen Publishing. . (1977). The World View of Paul Cézanne: A Psychic Interpretation. Prentice-Hall. . (1978). The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher: The World View of William James. Prentice-Hall. . (1979). Emir's Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers. Prentice-Hall. . Children's literature. (1979). The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. Prentice-Hall. Reprinted 1996, Amber-Allen Publishing. . (1981). The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. Prentice-Hall, . Reprinted 1994, Amber-Allen Publishing, . (1995). The Oversoul Seven Trilogy. Amber-Allen Publishing. . Edition: Paperback; May 1, 1995 (originally published as three separate books: The Education of Oversoul 7 (1973); The Further Education of Oversoul Seven (1979); Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time (1984)). (1981). The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto. Prentice-Hall. . Reprinted 2000, Moment Point Press. . (1982). If We Live Again, Or, Public Magic and Private Love. Prentice-Hall. . Poetry. (1986). Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment. Prentice-Hall, two volumes, and . (1986). Seth, Dreams and Projections of Consciousness. Stillpoint Publishing. (1993). A Seth Reader. Vernal Equinox Press. Compendium edited by Richard Roberts. . (1995). The Magical Approach : Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living. Amber-Allen Publishing. . (1997). The Way Toward Health. Robert F. Butts (Foreword), Amber-Allen Publishing. . (2006). The World View of Rembrandt. New Awareness Network. . (1997 and after). The Early Sessions (Sessions 1 through 510 of the Seth Material). New Awareness Network. Edited by Robert Butts. Nine volumes. . (2003). The Personal Sessions. New Awareness Network. Deleted session material. Seven volumes. . The Early Class Sessions. New Awareness Network. Four volumes.
Short fiction "Prayer of a Wiser People" in Profile, 1950. "The Red Wagon" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1956 (republished 1993, Reality Change Magazine; anthologized in 1975, Ladies of Fantasy: Two Centuries of Sinister Stories by the Gentler Sex edited by Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis) "The Canvas Pyramid" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1957 (French edition, 1958) "First Communion" in Fantastic Universe, 1957 "The Chestnut Beads" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1957 (French translation, 1958; anthologized in Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves, edited by Gordon R. Dickson, 1963) "The Bundu" (novella in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1958 "A Demon at Devotions" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1958 (reprinted in Reality Change Magazine, Winter 1994) "Nightmare" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1959 "Impasse" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1959 (Spanish anthology translation ca. 1960) "Three Times Around" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1964 (anthologized in Earth Invaded edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, 1982) "The Big Freeze" in Dude, 1965 (reprinted in Reality Change Magazine, Summer 1994)