Looking at the many new self development approaches and theories as well as the criticisms of them by certain religious sects we sometimes wonder how well these recent guides to living embody the time-tested ideals of our civilization. In the Seth Material, I believe we find a clear statement of the values which are implicit in almost every New Age approach to life. By comparing the principles in this philosophy with those of our other major ideologies, we can determine whether they will help guide us in this time of change as well as the older systems of belief have served during periods of marked transition in the past.
The Seth Material is the system of philosophy channeled through the late Jane Roberts, with the assistance of her husband Robert Butts, by an entity named Seth. Between 1963 and 1984, Seth communicated through Jane discourses which have appeared in the twenty volumes that comprise the Seth Material. To date, at least six million copies of these books have been sold. Several of the key works in this series will be mentioned shortly.
The major ideas of the Seth Material are as follows: We create our own reality literally through beliefs we hold. This life is only one of many that we live in a variety of times and places. The experiences both pleasant and distressful which we encounter are no more real than a dream and appear within our lives as educational devices to demonstrate the consequences of our actions. Because the essence of the universe is love, we are safe and taken care of now and through eternity. We have on-going access to information about the nature of reality and our personal lives, but we must use our conscious minds to evaluate this information and to make decisions. Finally and perhaps most important, there is no authority superior to each person's essential self; Seth's words are merely an attempt to present us with knowledge that we ignore when it comes from our own inner beings.
By comparing Seth's ideas with those of Scientific Materialism, Christianity, and Eastern thought, we will see whether this new ideology can be as helpful to us as the older guides to living.
Scientific Materialism
On looking back over my own life, I was interested to realize that I had been brought up between the ages of one and six as a scientific materialist. When they were children, my parents had been instructed in Christian teachings, and had subsequently rebelled against them. In place of these ideas, they had substituted the commonly accepted principles of science: the supremacy of rational thought, the evidence of our five senses, physical causes for physical effects, and a universe without values, meaning or purpose.
A song that was very popular when I was a child contained these lines: "Be sure it's true when you say, 'I love you.' It's a sin to tell a lie." On one occasion, my mother commented decisively, "No, a lie isn't a sin." My mother has always acted in accordance with beliefs she thought were true. When she spoke these words, she was exhibiting her determination not to bow down to any dogma. Certainly she did not raise me with any dogma except the dogma of science.
She was very concerned about germs. I was told not to touch anything I could avoid touching outside the house. Inside of it, humans did little touching of each other. Also, in her personal life, she tried to be totally value free. That is, all that was important was what worked. Consequently, she gave me absolute freedom of choice. No matter what I did, no matter how intensely it upset or pleased her, she tried not to pass any judgment on it unless the consequences were obviously harmful.
The result of this method of child rearing was, I know, the opposite of what she'd hoped. In addition to being a very difficult child to live with, I felt insignificant and vulnerable in a universe where there seemed to be no connections among living beings, where we had no guidelines to assist us to survive.
Scientific materialism as I have understood it contains no assertion of the innate worth of the human being. It tells us that the universe came into being by pure chance. There is no ultimate meaning to any person or activity. We are here by a fluke and are going to end up as no more than dust and ashes.
However, there is an advantage to Scientific Materialism that has assisted me throughout my life and that I find incorporated in the Seth Material. This advantage is its emphasis on the importance of the conscious, reasoning mind. Of course, Scientific Materialism goes too far in that direction; I have come to believe that reason alone is not an infallible guide. But it is vital to our functioning as human beings.
Seth says, "Your beliefs generate emotion. It is somewhat fashionable to place feelings above conscious thoughts, the idea being that emotions are more basic and natural than conscious reasoning is. The two actually go together but your conscious thinking largely determines your emotions, and not the other way around. Your beliefs generate the appropriate emotion that is implied." (Nature of Personal Reality, Chap. 4, Session 620)
Seth's view of the determining function of the conscious mind frees us from the fear expressed by many psychologist and social scientist: that we are driven by innate and destructive forces which we can't control and which will eventually destroy us.
For example, one of the most significant figures in the development of modern psychological thought, Sigmund Freud, asserts, "Men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness. As a result, their neighbor is for them not only a potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity for work without compensation, to use him sexually without his consent, to seize his possessions, to humiliate him, to cause him pain, to torture and to kill him....Who, in the face of all his experience of life and of history, will have the courage to dispute this assertion?" (Civilization and Its Discontents, Chap. 5)
Many concerned and humane proponents of Scientific Materialism attempt to rely on the power of the reasoning mind to cope with this apparently blind, destructive instinct which they assume to be innate in every person. However, reason--as they construe it--has not proved adequate to the task. An increasing number of individuals are realizing that we need a more effective means of dealing with those aspects of our lives which we would like to change, and I believe that we find this more effective means--as well as a persuasive rational for why it works--in the Seth Material.
Later, I will mention some techniques which Seth advocates for making changes in our lives. At this point, I will simply describe the way that he would have us strengthen the power of the conscious mind: by allowing it to incorporate the data furnished by our intuition. Seth says, "There has been a too-great reliance upon the conscious mind--while its characteristics and mechanisms were misunderstood--so that proponents of the 'conscious-reasoning-mind-above-all' theories advocate a use of intellect and reasoning powers, while not recognizing their source in the inner self."
"The conscious mind was [therefore] expected to perform alone, so to speak, ignoring the highly intuitive inner information that is also available to it. It was not supposed to be aware of such data. Yet any individual quite well knows that intuitive hunches, inspiration, precognitive information or clairvoyant material has often risen to conscious knowledge. Usually it is shoved away and disregarded because you have been taught that the conscious mind should not hold with such 'nonsense.'
"Your conscious mind is meant to look into the exterior world and into the interior one. The conscious mind is a vehicle for the expression of the soul in corporeal terms." (Personal Reality, Chap. 4, Session 621)
Christianity
When I was six years old, I contracted spinal meningitis and almost died. To help me regain my health, my grandmother took me from Chicago, where I had been living with my parents, to the warmer climate of New Orleans, where she and my grandfather had their home. My grandparents had through the years come to be like my parents in rejecting Christianity. However, next door to them lived a woman whose daughter went to a nearby Presbyterian Church; she asked me to go with her.
In that church, for the first time, I became aware of a system of belief in which individuals have value in themselves, in which there is a meaning and a purpose to life, in which feelings are considered important, in which the world is pictured as having discarnate beings, as well as those whom we can see and hear, and in which these discarnate beings are ever-ready to assist us. To be told that I was a valuable child of God, that He had a plan for my existence, and that He loved me and wanted me to be happy was a wonderful revelation to me. Because, as Seth says, feelings follow beliefs, I soon, from time to time, began to actually feel loved and happy.
I'm sure that my mother loved me--as did my other relatives in their own way--but, in their value system, love was not a priority. Practical, reasonable, and, of course, kindly behavior was considered important, but deeply felt emotions weren't viewed as productive. Therefore, an important factor in my acceptance of the beliefs of the Presbyterians was that the people in the church were very loving, as so many Christian people are. I felt good being with them.
After my little brother died, I persuaded my mother to return to Christianity, and it has been a mainstay of her life, as well as of the lives of her two sisters. I am grateful to it for support which it has given them--and so many other people.
The Christian emphasis upon the love of God for individuals and upon the importance of love among human beings is also present in the Seth Material. Seth says, "Your existence is based upon the tide of love. And, without your love and desire, you would not be here, and, without the currents of love and desire that tie you to others, you would not be here. . .There are tides of love within you that have sustained you through the centuries." (ESP Class Notes, 10/29/74)
However, at the age of eight, I went to a Catholic convent school for a year and became acquainted with another aspect of Christianity. In this institution, the emphasis was not on love; it was on our innate sinfulness and our need to purify our conduct.
As Christmas approached, a creche was set up in the main room; in the creche lay an image of the infant Jesus. Each evening after supper, those girls who had not spoken in class during the day --and, of course, speaking in class except in response to the teacher was sinful--were entitled to hold the infant. One day, I was able to restrain myself from talking, so I got to hold the little figure.
But my cousin Jeanne was not so fortunate. At the end of the period of testing, she and a number of other girls who had been similarly unable to refrain from talking were completely segregated from the rest of us. We were prohibited from having anything to do with them. Then, periodically they were lectured by the nuns on how wicked they had been. For the sake of Jesus, they had not been able to renounce, for one short day the sinful pleasure of talking in the classroom! Sister Ambrosine even hinted that they would not be permitted to go home for the holidays!
Gradually I came to believe that, if I were to continue to experience God's love, the love of the nuns, and surly the love of any other worthwhile person, I was going to have to repress my feelings or at least to keep a very close watch over them. Because my feelings seemed to be innate in me, I found myself accepting the belief in original sin.
In the convent I attended, the recommended readings were stories of the saints and martyrs. Those among them who underwent the most dreadful sufferings seemed to be those who were most loved by God. Moreover, all physical pleasure apart from that of loving God--turned out to be an impediment to realizing His love or the true love of anybody else. I concluded that, in order to be happy, I would have to suffer a great deal. Indeed, happiness seemed to be relegated almost entirely to the next world, this one being viewed as a means of preparing us to go to heaven when we died. With the salutary purpose of assisting us to get to heaven, God was even said to inflict suffering upon aspiring souls.
Not all Christians, of course, embrace these doctrines. And, even within the Catholic faith, there are salutary counter-tendencies. A story I like is that of St. Theresa of Avila. One cold winter day, after she had been traveling for many miles on foot over rocky roads, she came to a stream, slipped and fell, become covered with mud and drenched in icy water. As she struggled to stand erect, she heard a voice from heaven; it was God. "Don't worry, Theresa. This is the way I treat my friends."
With admirable spunk, she answered, "Small wonder, Lord, that you have so few of them!"
Seth says, "Illness and suffering are not thrust upon you by God, or by All That Is, or by an outside agent. They are a by-product of the learning process, created by you, in themselves quite neutral." "Illness and suffering are the result of the misdirection of creative energy. They are a part of the creative force, however. They do not come from a different source than, say, health and vitality. Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you how to stop suffering. That is its purpose." (Seth Speaks, Chap. 20, Session 580)
For the next thirty years after my experiences in the convent school, I explored the doctrines of various Christian sects. From time to time, I became a devout believer.
Then I would revert to the principles of Scientific Materialism as I kept encountering them among my professors and, later, my colleagues at the university.
The more that I examined the basis for the Christian faith by studying the Bible and the works of Biblical scholars, the more I came to be repelled by some of its major doctrines, such as the eternal torment in hellfire of the "heathen," everyone who hasn't "accepted Christ," those infants who die before baptism, and homosexuals and lesbians. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other early writings which contain Christ's teachings, a new Christian theology has come into existence which is very close to Seth's ideas.
And some Christian sects, like the Society of Friends, to which I belonged for many years, avoided theology entirely! But, during the period while I was still searching for a guide to life, I found Christianity lacking as a humane and reasonable framework of ideas. On the other hand, Scientific Materialism offered no hope for happiness whatsoever--and no love!
When I was in the midst of one of my periodic dilemmas over how to live my life, I attempted suicide, discovered that I could not go through with the act, and ended up in even greater despair. A short time after that event, my greater self must have come to my aid because, while totally alone, I experienced a wonderful sense of overwhelming love, of my personal value, of my connectedness with all beings, and of the meaning in the universe. I was blissful and sure that all things were as they should be.
And, according to Seth, all things, indeed, are as they should be! Far from being born in sin and condemned to find salvation only self-denial, we are basically good and happy beings, and can realize that fact by consciously believing it is true.
Seth says, "You were born into a state of grace. It is impossible for you to leave it. You will die in a state of grace whether or not special words are spoken for you, or water or oil is poured upon your head. You share this blessing with the animals and all other living things. You cannot fall out of grace, nor can it be taken from you."
"You can ignore it. You can hold beliefs that blind you to its existence. You will still be graced but unable to perceive you own uniqueness and integrity, and blind also to other attributes with which you are automatically gifted." (Personal Reality, Chap. 9, Session 636)
Therefore, all that we require for our happiness is within our grasp. The reason for our being in this life is to learn how consciously to manifest what we desire. And, as I will discuss below, what we fail to learn in one existence, we learn in others, and ultimately everyone succeeds.
Seth says, "You are given the gift of the gods; you create your reality according to your beliefs; yours is the creative energy that makes your world; there are no limitations to the self except those you believe in." (Personal Reality, Chap. 22, Session 677)
Eastern Thought
While I was still studying Christianity, I started reading Eastern scriptures, and found in them more satisfactory answers to my questions than I'd found in Christianity. The knotty problem of why some people are born handicapped and in poverty is dealt with by the doctrine of reincarnation. The poor man in one life is a rich man in another, and after he has gone through all his lives, he will have learned the truth about existence. And, unlike Christianity, most Eastern religions place no restrictions upon who can receive enlightenment. Although the Eastern sects may war among themselves, no one says that a member of another sect or even another religion is excluded from the grace of God.
Moreover, there are definite procedures one may follow to grow in spiritual perfection. By utilizing them, many individuals have not only achieved happiness, but have learned how to perform miracles and feats of mind and body which seem supernatural but have a reasonable explanation within the Eastern framework of ideas.
So finally I left my college teaching job in order to devote myself full-time to the study and the practice of Eastern teachings. The place I chose to carry out this program was an ashram in a remote mountain area of Canada. Directed by a German woman who had studied in India under a very saintly man, it accepted both me and my two teenage children.
However, Eastern teachings turned out to be much more limiting that Christianity, and the practices I followed made me very ill. The goal which all of us supposedly were seeking was enlightenment, but the path to enlightenment turned out to be not merely, as is the case in Christianity, self-denial and acceptance of our suffering. We were told that it was necessary to eradicate our individuality by killing all desire and getting rid of ego!
One of the images used was that of an ocean with a wave rising in it. The wave is you or me. The ocean is All That Is. The wave arises momentarily and then falls back into the ocean, so that there is no individuality remaining to it. That relinquishment of all we had been born with was what were to aim for. Every feature of our environment and of our very beings was described as an impediment to the achievement of our goal!
We heard innumerable talks by the Director of the ashram in which she emphasized the three chief virtues that we were to cultivate: gratitude, humility and obedience. Delight in physical or mental pleasures, in relationships with other people, and even in spiritual practices--all of this was viewed as a barrier to progress.
While attempting to thus deny my individuality, I was also engaging in long periods of meditation. The combination of such self-repression with intense spiritual practices resulted in some of the unpleasant consequences which I've subsequently learned are undergone by many people who have followed the Eastern path. (However, meditation coupled with joyful self-expression has been extremely beneficial to me.)
Referred to as Kundalini rising, the changes in one's mind and body which sometimes result from Eastern spiritual practices have sent countless sufferers to a puzzled doctor or a psychotherapist and thence all too frequently to a mental institution. Now there are various agencies which can help such people, but at the time, I merely suffered from an illness which no one could diagnose.
Seth says that Buddhism is closest to the teachings of the Seth Material (Seth Speaks, Chap. 17, Session 568) Buddhism incorporates the Sethian concepts or our multiple existences, of our connectedness with all beings, and of our ability to create our personal and group reality in accordance with beliefs we hold.
However, the Seth material differs markedly from Buddhism and all other Eastern sects in its description of the goal we seek. Seth says that we are not in this life in order to learn how to lose our individuality; we are here to learn how to develop it!
"Your spirit joined itself with flesh, and in flesh, to experience a world of incredible richness, to help create a dimension of reality of colors and of form. Your spirit was born in flesh to enrich a marvelous area of sense awareness, to feel energy made into corporeal form. You are here to use, enjoy, and express yourself through the body. You are here to aid in the great expansion of consciousness. You are not here to cry about the miseries of the human condition, but to change them when you find them not to your liking through the joy, strength and vitality that is within you; to create the spirit as faithfully and as beautifully as you can in flesh." (Personal Reality, Chap. 2, Session 615)
Because the Seth Material thus focuses our attention on this world, it is, much more than Eastern thought and Christianity, a social philosophy. Indeed, since we are linked together as expressions of the love of All That Is, we are happiest when we are helping others!
Seth says, "There is nothing more stimulating, more worthy of actualization, than the desire to change the world for the better. That is indeed each person's mission. . .It is not enough to meditate, or to imagine in your mind some desired goal being accomplished, if you are afraid to act upon the very impulses to which your meditations and imaginings give rise. "
"You can become involved now in a new exploration, one in which man's civilizations and organizations change their course, reflecting his good intents and his ideals. You can do this by seeing to it that each step you personally take is 'ideally suited' to the ends you hope to achieve. You will see to it that your methods are ideal."
"If you do this, your life will automatically be provided with excitement, natural zest and creativity, and those characteristics will be reflected outward into the social, political, economic, and scientific worlds. This is a challenge more than worth the effort. . .I bid each of you success in that endeavor." (The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Chap. 7, session 850, & Chap. 10, Session 873)
The Seth Material
Now comes the happy part of my story: I found the Seth Material. I'd read some of it earlier, but hadn't really taken it in. I came to it again because I was at my wits' end. I had left the ashram, but, due to the continuing pain, I couldn't work and, with a child still to support, had to go on welfare.
I accepted Seth's assertions that I create my own reality, that my desires are my best guide to action, that I should, whenever possible, follow my impulses, that I am worthwhile, and that All That Is expresses Itself in all that exists and consequently cares for every being.
In addition I was impressed with the Seth Material's attitude to killing. The willingness on many Scientific Materialists, Christians and followers of Eastern teachings to take human life and to mistreat animals had all along appalled me. Seth expressed my feelings when he said, "Thou shalt not violate. . ."
"Killing another human being is a violation. Killing while protecting your own body from death at the hands of another through immediate contact is a violation. Whether or not any justification seems apparent, the violation exists." (Personality Reality, Chap. 8, Session 634)
At the same time, the Seth Material encourages me to express my apparently negative emotions, such as anger. In Seth's view, anger is primarily a means of communication. Denied, it builds up and may lead to the violent behavior which is deplored by the proponents of almost every ideology.
Seth: "Let us take a very simple example involving a kind and good man in a fairly ordinary environment within your society. . . Because he is trying to be so understanding our man inhibits the expression of many of the normal irritations that would serve as a natural system of communication between, say, his superior and himself at work, or perhaps with the members of his family at home.
"Simultaneously all of these inhibited reactions seek release, for the manifestation of aggressive feelings set up natural balances within the body itself, as well as serving as a communication system with others. When his system has had enough, our friend may then indeed react with violent behavior. He might suddenly find himself in a fight--initiating one--and the smallest incident may serve as a trigger. He could seriously hurt himself or someone else." (Personal Reality, Chap. 11, Session 642)
Probably the most liberating of Seth's ideas for me was one that is absent from all other major ideologies: there is no authority that is greater than a person's inner self. What other system of belief is so bold as to tell its followers to disregard it and to look within for guidance?!
Seth says, "[Many people] do not need to listen to my voice because they listen to the voices of the oak trees and the birds, and to the voices of their own being. I am a poor imitation of the voices of your own psyches to which you do not listen. I will be unneeded, and gladly so, when you realize that the vitality and reinforcement and joy are your own, and rise from the fountain of your own beings; when you realize that you do not need me for protection, for there is nothing you need protect yourself against. "(Psychic Politics, Chap. 27)
Accepting these ideas set me back upon the road to health.
On line with Seth's suggestions, I also began using affirmations and visualizations, and finding negative beliefs. Being highly motivated, I worked very hard--with gratifying results. I was able to return to gainful employment. In my spare time I started the Austin Seth Center to disseminate the ideas of the Seth/Jane books.
For several years, I operated the Center by myself, offering classes, holding meetings, and putting out a monthly newsletter that gradually increased in circulation. After I organized the first Seth World Conference in 1984, a few other individuals joined with me to convert the Center into a non-profit organization, which I now operate full-time on a shoestring budget.
During the past three years, as our operations have expanded, I have gradually been joined by a small dedicated office staff. In addition to keeping in touch with Seth/Jane Roberts readers throughout the world through phone calls and an extensive correspondence, we publish a 100-plus page magazine, Reality Change, which contains articles about the Seth Material and ways in which people have put its ideas into practice, news of Sethian events, and a list of Focal Persons for Seth activities around the world. And we sell the Seth/Jane Roberts books, tapes and other Seth-related items.
In Austin we hold regular meetings at the Center for discussion of the ideas of the Seth Material and for related activities, such as the channeling of Abraham by the fine medium Ester Hicks. We also organize two annual, international events--the Seth World Conference for a discussion and celebration of the ideas of the Seth Material, and the Intensive Seth Seminar for a careful study of these ideas.
During the past few years, other groups and centers for Seth activities have appeared throughout the world, and several of these groups put out newsletters and magazines and hold Seth Conferences. In 1987 alone, five Conferences were held in North America. In Switzerland, an annual Seth Conference has been put on since 1982. The Australians held their first Seth Conference in 1986; the Netherlands in 1987. The Seth books have been translated into German, Dutch, Italian and Chinese. Information about Seth groups, centers, publications, and events is contained in Reality Change.
Since Jane Roberts' death in 1984, many mediums have said that they are channeling Seth. However, although these other Seths have been a personal help to numerous individuals, none of them has produced material with the breadth and depth of thought of that which Jane Roberts channeled. Thus they have given support to Seth's early statement that, to preserve the integrity of the material, he would speak through Jane alone. (Seth Material, Chap. 9)
My personal experience in moving from despair and illness to zest for life and energy has thus led to my conviction that the Seth Material is the system of though ideally suited to the needs of our present age. It preserves the best in our other major ideologies and helps to reconcile their differences.
In the Seth Material, we have Scientific Material's emphasis upon the importance of the conscious mind--assisted by vital data from the inner self. We also have Christianity's affirmation of the power of love. And the Seth Material offers us the Eastern doctrines of
(1) multiple lives as an explanation of the inequities among the well-born and the handicapped and poor, and
(2) the world around us as our creation in accordance with beliefs we hold.
To these principles, the Seth Material adds the essential prohibition against violating other beings, the encouragement to healthfully release our negative emotions, and the instruction to look within for guidance. This framework of belief seems to me to offer the most constructive approach to dealing with the current challenges that face both individuals and the human race. Moreover, I know of no other philosophy that answers so well such perennial questions as where we come from and are heading, how we can have free will and still live in an orderly world, and why and how paranormal phenomena occur.
However, what I am trying to create in my reality is a society in which Seth's ideas are integrated with those of other systems of belief. Because the material is undogmatic and non-hierarchical, I do not want it to become a separate creed. Rather, I would like to see all faiths incorporating its ideas, so that Scientific Materialists, Christians, followers of Eastern thought, and "New Agers ' have a common framework of belief to unite them as they work together to live happily and to create a better world.
Reproduced from Reality Change Magazine. With standing permission of the author--a dear friend, Dr. Maude Cardwell, 1927 - 1992 For Seth related information visit: http://www.efn.org/~sethweb/
