Jane Roberts Reception and influence When was "The Nature of Personal Reality, A seth book" published? The title jacket of "The Nature of Personal Reality, A Seth Book," published in 1994 (Amber-Allen/New World Library), Which notable people had expressed the effect of seth material upon their own awakening? the most notable thinkers and writers within the movement. Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Shakti Gawain, Dan Millman, Louise Hay, Who was Catherine L. Albanese? professor of religious history at the University of Chicago, What was the idea behind the central focus of the Seth material? for each individual: "you create your own reality." (
Seth filled the role of guide for what related concepts?
Seth filled the role of guide for what related concepts?
Seth's effect upon New Age thinkers has been profound. The title jacket of "The Nature of Personal Reality, A Seth Book," published in 1994 (Amber-Allen/New World Library), contains testimonials from some of the most notable thinkers and writers within the movement. Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Shakti Gawain, Dan Millman, Louise Hay, Richard Bach, and others express the effect the Seth Material had upon their own awakening. In words similar to Williamson's they state: "Seth was one of my first metaphysical teachers. He remains a constant source of knowledge and inspiration in my life." Catherine L. Albanese, professor of 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. She believes it contributed to the "self-identity of an emergent New Age movement and also augment[ed] 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." (Briefly summarized, our beliefs generate emotions which trigger our memories and organize our associations. Eventually those beliefs become manifested in our physical lives and health.) Newport wrote that this foundational concept of the New Age movement was first developed in the "Seth Material." Historian Robert C. Fuller, a professor of religious studies at Bradley University, wrote that Seth filled the role of guide for what Fuller called "unchurched American spirituality," related to concepts of reincarnation, karma, free will, ancient metaphysical wisdom, and "Christ consciousness."  Some writers noted, "Husband Robert Butts stated 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."  The late amateur physicist Michael Talbot wrote, "To my great surprise--and slight annoyance--I found that Seth eloquently and lucidly articulated a view of reality that I had arrived at only after great effort and an extensive study of both paranormal phenomena and quantum physics." CANNOTANSWER
concepts of reincarnation, karma, free will, ancient metaphysical wisdom, and "Christ consciousness."
Dorothy Jane Roberts (May 8, 1929 – September 5, 1984) was an American author, poet, psychic, and spirit medium, who channeled an energy personality who called himself "Seth."  Her publication of the Seth texts, known as the Seth Material, established her as one of the preeminent figures in the world of paranormal phenomena.

Early life and career
Roberts was born in Albany, New York and grew up in nearby Saratoga Springs, New York. Her parents, Delmer Hubbell Roberts and Marie Burdo, divorced when she was two years old. With her only child, the young Marie then returned to her own parents, and the home that the family had rented for a number of years: half of a double dwelling in a poor neighborhood. Marie had begun experiencing the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis by 1932 but worked as much as possible. Eventually, Roberts' grandfather, Joseph Burdo, with whom she shared a deep mystical identification, was unable to support two extra people, and the family had to rely upon public assistance. Roberts' grandmother was killed in an automobile accident in 1936.

The next year, her grandfather moved out of the house. By then Marie was partially incapacitated, and the Welfare Department began to furnish mother and daughter with occasional and often unreliable domestic help. When Marie became a bedridden invalid, it was Jane's responsibility to take care of her. This included cooking, cleaning, bringing her the bedpan, and getting up in the middle of the night to refuel the stove. Her embittered mother would tell Jane she was going to turn on the gas jets in the middle of the night and kill them both. When her mother attempted suicide for about the fifth time, she took sleeping pills and was in the hospital. Jane wrote that she went to the welfare worker and said, 'I can't take it anymore. I've just got to leave.'" Over and over Marie told Jane she was no good, that the daughter's birth had caused the mother's illness, and that she was disowned and considered no longer her daughter.

The persistent psychological abuse and mistreatment by her mother resulted in the young girl's deep fear of abandonment. Such situations increased Jane's sense of not being safe, yet also reinforced feelings of independence, for she did not have to feel as dependent upon Marie as she might otherwise.

Well before she was 10 years old Jane had developed persistent symptoms of colitis. By her early teens, she had an overactive thyroid gland. Her vision was poor; she required very strong glasses (which she seldom wore). For most of 1940 and half of 1941, Jane was in a strictly-run Catholic orphanage in Troy, NY while her mother was hospitalized in another city for treatment of her arthritis. Priests came to the house regularly and support was offered to the fatherless family. Jane's initial bonding to the cultural beliefs of religion was very strong to make up for the lack of a loving, nurturing family. For a time she was left between belief systems.

In the summer of 1945, when she was 16 years old, Jane began working at a variety store. It was her first job. That fall she continued on the job after school hours and on an occasional Saturday. After attending public schools she went to Skidmore College from 1947 to 1950 on a poetry scholarship. Roberts' grandfather died when she was age 19. It was a time of severe shock for her. She began to substitute scientific world view for religious belief.

At that time Jane was dating Walt Zeh, a long-time Saratoga Springs friend. Together they went to the west coast by motorcycle to see Jane's father who had also come from a broken home. Jane then married Walt and continued to write while taking a variety of other jobs, including society editor for the Saratoga newspaper, and as a supervisor in a radio factory. Walt and Jane lived together for three years. It was then in February 1954 while "cutting up, dancing, and raisin' hell at a party," that Jane first met the former commercial artist Robert Fabian Butts, Jr. (June 20, 1919 - May 26, 2008).  The fourth time they met at another party and Jane 'just looked at him and said, "Look, I'm leaving Walt, and I'm going to live by myself or I'm going to live with you, so just let me know."'" Eventually the two left town together and Jane filed for divorce. Jane and Rob married on December 27, 1954 at the home of his parents in Sayre, PA.

Roberts wrote in a variety of genres: poetry, short stories, children's literature, nonfiction, science fiction, and fantasy, and novels. She was the only woman invited to the first science-fiction writer's conference in 1956 in Milford, PA.

The couple moved to Elmira, NY, in 1960, to find steady part-time work – Rob in the local greeting card company, Jane in an art gallery. Now in her 30s, she and her husband began to record what she said were messages from a personality named "Seth," and she wrote several books about the experience.

Seth Material

On a September evening in 1963, Roberts sat down at her table to work on poetry; Butts was in his back-room studio, painting. "It was very domestic, very normal, very unpsychedelic," she would later remember. And then "Between one normal minute and the next, a fantastic avalanche of radical, new ideas burst into my head with tremendous force ... It was as if the physical world were really tissue-paper-thin, hiding infinite dimensions of reality, and I was flung through the tissue paper with a huge ripping sound." When she "came to," Roberts found herself scrawling the title of this batch of notes: The Physical Universe as Idea Construction.

Before this, though her fiction typically dealt with such themes as clairvoyance and reincarnation, intellectually neither she nor Butts believed in extrasensory abilities. Yet soon after this episode, Roberts suddenly began recalling her dreams, including two that were precognitive. Their curiosity piqued, the couple decided to investigate further, and she managed to land a contract with a New York publisher for a do-it-yourself book on extra-sensory perception.

In late 1963, Roberts and Butts started experimenting with a Ouija board as part of Roberts' research for the book. 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. The first seven sessions were entirely with the Ouija board. The three-hour session on the evening of  Jan. 2, 1964 was the first where she began to dictate the messages instead of using the Ouija board.  For a while, she still opened her sessions with the board, but finally abandoned it after the 27th session on Feb. 19, 1964.

Roberts described the process of writing the Seth books as entering a trance state. She said Seth would assume control of her body and speak through her, while her husband wrote down the words she spoke.  They referred to such episodes as "readings" or "sessions."  The 26th session on Feb. 18, 1964, was the first held in the presence of another person—a friend.

On Jan. 17, 1964, Roberts channeled an allegedly recently deceased woman who told Butts that his and his wife's work with Seth was a life-time project, that they would publish his manuscripts, and help spread his ideas. At the 27th session Seth also told the couple how to rearrange the furniture in their apartment which would better suit their energies. Despite feelings of disbelief toward both messages, the couple somewhat reluctantly agreed.  Two days afterward they heard from a psychologist interested in reincarnation to whom they had written three weeks earlier with some session copies enclosed.   The psychologist told them that the very fluency of the material suggested that it might come from Roberts' subconscious, though it was impossible to tell.  He also cautioned that in some circumstances, amateur mediumship could lead to mental problems.

The letter upset her but helped her deal with her doubts. She felt there were no "alarming changes" in her personality.  "I was doing twice the creative work I had done earlier.  I was satisfied with the quality of the Seth Material; it was far superior to anything I could do on my own.  If nothing else, I thought the sessions presented a way of making deeply unconscious knowledge available on a consistent basis."
"Because we were so innocent about psychic literature, we weren't hampered by superstitious fears about such [psychic] phenomena.  I didn't believe in gods or demons, so I didn't fear them.  I wanted to learn.  Rob and I had discovered a whole new world together, and we were going to explore it."

Roberts assumed Seth was a subconscious fantasy, personified because she did not believe in spirits or life after death.  She monitored her personality characteristics and went to a psychologist. But she felt that "Seth seemed far more mature and well-balanced than the psychologist, so finally I stopped worrying. This is not to say the experience did not cause certain strains and stresses that could accompany any worthwhile venture in an entirely new field."

Roberts also purportedly channeled the world views of several other people, including the philosopher William James, Rembrandt, and the Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, through a process she described as using a typewriter to write "automatically."

For 21 years until Roberts' death in 1984 (with a one-year hiatus due to her final illness), Roberts held more than 1500 regular or private "ESP class" trance sessions in which she spoke on behalf of Seth. Butts served as the stenographer, taking the messages down in shorthand he had made up,  having others on occasion make recording of some sessions. The messages from Seth channeled through Roberts consisted mostly of monologues on a wide variety of topics. They were published by Prentice-Hall under the collective title Seth Material.

Over the years, hundreds of people witnessed Roberts channeling "Seth". Some went to the ESP classes Roberts held (Tuesday and some Thursday nights,  Sept. 1967 – Feb. 1975) for an evening, others attended for longer periods. (By this time Jane had given up her gallery work, and was teaching nursery school during part of this time.) Outside of the ESP class structure, Roberts gave many personal Seth sessions to various individuals who had written her, asking for help. She never charged for those sessions; however, at some point, she did charge $2.50 to $3.50 per ESP class of 5 to 40 people. When the books began to sell in sufficient numbers, she dropped that fee.  Book sessions were almost always private, held on Monday and Wednesday evenings without witnesses from 1967 through 1982 (except for Tues and Thurs from Aug. to Nov. 1981).

The material through 1969 was published in summary form in The Seth Material, written by Roberts from the output of the channeling sessions. Beginning in January 1970, Roberts wrote books which she described as dictated by Seth.  Roberts claimed no authorship of these books beyond her role as a medium. This series of "Seth books" totaled ten volumes.  The last two books appear to be incomplete due to Roberts' illness.  Butts contributed extensive footnotes, appendices, and other comments to all the Seth books, and thus was a co-author on all of them.  These additions describe what was going on in Roberts' and his life at the time of the various sessions, annotated in light of contemporary beliefs and materials he and Roberts were reading, described excerpts from some fan mail and letters from professionals commenting on Seth's material about their fields, and, especially later, provided insight as to the many steps of production of multiple books with the publisher. By February 1982 they were still receiving "from 30 to 50 letters and packages a week" from readers of their various books.

Some of Roberts' earlier and later poetry was occasionally included to show how she had touched upon some of Seth's concepts. Roberts also wrote The Oversoul Seven trilogy to explore via fiction some of Seth's teachings on the concepts of reincarnation and oversouls.

According to Roberts, Seth described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused in physical matter," and was independent of Roberts' subconscious.  Roberts initially expressed skepticism as to Seth's origins, wondering if he was a part of her own personality. While speaking as Seth, Roberts at times appeared stern, jovial, or professorial. "His" voice was deeper and more masculine sounding than Jane's and was possessed of a distinct, although not identifiable, accent. 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. Later books continued to develop but did not contradict the material introduced in earlier works.  Some "Practice Elements" were even included on how a  few of the concepts could be practically experienced.

A few contemporary world events were commented upon, such as the Jonestown Guyana deaths and the Three Mile Island accident.

Seth also provided an alternative creation myth to that of the Big Bang or Intelligent Design.

Roberts' father died in November 1971 at the age of 68; her mother died six months later at the same age. In early 1982 Roberts spent a month in the hospital for severely underactive thyroid gland, protruding eyes and double vision, an almost total hearing loss, a slight anemia, budding bedsores—and a hospital-caused staph infection.  She recovered to an extent, but died two and a half years later in 1984, having been bedridden with severe arthritis-like her mother—for the final year and a half of her life. Roberts had spent 504 consecutive days in a hospital in Elmira, N.Y. The immediate causes of her death were a combination of protein depletion, osteomyelitis, and soft-tissue infections.  These conditions arose out of her long-standing rheumatoid arthritis. (Butts believed for some 15 years that in Roberts' case, at least, the young girl's psychological conditioning was far more important—far more damaging, in those terms—than any physical tendency to inherit the disease.) Roberts was cremated the next day, in a process, she and Butts had agreed upon several years earlier.

After Roberts' death, recorded in The Way Toward Health (1997), Butts continued his work as a guardian of the Seth texts and continued to supervise the publication of some of the remaining material, including The Early Sessions, making sure all of the recordings, manuscripts, notes, and drawings would be given to the Yale Library. Butts remarried, and his second wife, Laurel Lee Davies, supported his work during the more than 20 years they were together and helped answer mail and proofread manuscripts. Butts died of cancer on May 26, 2008. Jane Roberts Butts and Robert F. Butts Jr. are interred together in the Wayne County, NY Furnaceville cemetery; however, there is another gravestone with their names on it in the Sunnyside cemetery in Tunkhannock, PA. A number of groups have compiled anthologies of quotes from Seth, summarized sections of his teachings, issued copies of Seth sessions on audio tape, and further relayed the material via classes and conventions.

Reception and influence
Seth's effect upon New Age thinkers has been profound. The title jacket of "The Nature of Personal Reality, A Seth Book," republished in 1994 (Amber-Allen/New World Library), contains testimonials from some of the most notable thinkers and writers within the movement. Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Shakti Gawain, Dan Millman, Louise Hay, Richard Bach, and others express the effect the Seth Material had upon their own awakening. In words similar to Williamson's they state: "Seth was one of my first metaphysical teachers. He remains a constant source of knowledge and inspiration in my life." Catherine L. Albanese, professor of 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.  She believes it contributed to the "self-identity of an emergent New Age movement and also augment[ed] 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." (Briefly summarized, our beliefs generate emotions that trigger our memories and organize our associations.  Eventually, those beliefs become manifested in our physical lives and health.) Newport wrote that this foundational concept of the New Age movement was first developed in the "Seth Material." Historian Robert C. Fuller, a professor of religious studies at Bradley University, wrote that Seth filled the role of guide for what Fuller called "unchurched American spirituality," related to concepts of reincarnation, karma, free will, ancient metaphysical wisdom, and "Christ consciousness."

Some writers noted, "Husband Robert Butts stated 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."

New Age writer Michael Talbot wrote, "To my great surprise—and slight annoyance—I found that Seth eloquently and lucidly articulated a view of reality that I had arrived at only after great effort and an extensive study of both paranormal phenomena and quantum physics."

The Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives maintains a collection entitled Jane Roberts Papers (MS 1090), which documents the career and personal life of Jane Roberts, including journals, poetry, correspondence, audio, and video recordings, and other materials donated after her death by Roberts' husband and other individuals and organizations. Yale University's collection entitled "Jane Roberts papers" occupies 164.08 linear feet of shelf space and is contained in 498 boxes.

Criticism
Roberts and the Seth Material have attracted critiques from outside the paranormal community. The poet Charles Upton, in his collection of essays titled The System of Antichrist, posited that Roberts multiplied the self due to a fear of death.  His opinion was that the Seth texts are based on a misunderstanding of both Christianity and of Eastern religions.

Professor of psychology and noted critic of parapsychology James E. Alcock opined, "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."

Some religious groups have warned their members about the dangers and deceptions of reading channeled messages from Roberts and others. John MacArthur, host of a syndicated Christian talk show, considers The Seth Material to be "a book entirely written by a demon.", while the New Age Urantia Foundation considers the book evidence for "Devil possession." Videos such as Jane Roberts' Seth Speaks is Anti-Catholic Hate Books – Allowed By The Media claimed that Seth was "a demon from hell contacted through a ouija board."

Science writer Karen Stollznow has written that much of Roberts work was "criticized for being a rip-off of Christian and
Eastern philosophy. It comes as no surprise that Seth influenced such authors as Deepak Chopra and Louise Hay."

Since Roberts' death, others have claimed to channel Seth. In the introduction to Seth's first dictated book, Seth Speaks, "he" says, "communications will come exclusively through Ruburt [Seth's name for Jane] at all times, to protect the integrity of the material." In The Seth Material, Jane Roberts wrote: "Several people have told me that Seth communicated with them through automatic writing, but Seth denies any such contacts." At least one person has claimed more recently to channel Roberts.

Complete writings 

Books:

 Roberts, Jane (1966).  How To Develop Your ESP Power.  Publisher:  Federick Fell.  (Later retitled and reprinted as The Coming of Seth.)  .
 Roberts, Jane (1970). The Seth Material. Reprinted, 2001 by New Awareness Network.   .
 Roberts, Jane (1972).  Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. Reprinted 1994 by Amber-Allen Publishing.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1974). The Nature of Personal Reality.  Prentice-Hall.  Reprinted 1994, Amber-Allen Publishing. .
 Roberts, Jane (1975).  Adventures in Consciousness:  An Introduction to Aspect Psychology.  Prentice-Hall.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1975).  Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time.  Prentice-Hall.  .  Poetry.
 Roberts, Jane (1976).  Psychic Politics:  An Aspect Psychology Book.  Prentice-Hall.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1977). The "Unknown" Reality Vol. 1. Prentice-Hall.  Reprinted 1997, Amber-Allen Publishing.  . 
 Roberts, Jane (1979). The "Unknown" Reality Vol. 2. Prentice-Hall.  Reprinted 1997, Amber-Allen Publishing.   .
 Roberts, Jane (1977).  The World View of Paul Cézanne:  A Psychic Interpretation.  Prentice-Hall.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1978).  The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher:  The World View of William James.  Prentice-Hall.  .
Roberts, Jane  (1979).  Emir's Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers.  Prentice-Hall.  .  Children's literature.
 Roberts, Jane (1979). The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression.  Prentice-Hall. Reprinted 1996, Amber-Allen Publishing.   .
 Roberts, Jane (1981). The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events.  Prentice-Hall, .  Reprinted 1994, Amber-Allen Publishing, .
Roberts, Jane (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)).
Roberts, Jane (1981). The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto.  Prentice-Hall.  .  Reprinted 2000, Moment Point Press.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1982).  If We Live Again, Or, Public Magic and Private Love.  Prentice-Hall.  .  Poetry.
 Roberts, Jane (1986).  Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment.  Prentice-Hall, two volumes,  and .
 Roberts, Jane (1986).  Seth, Dreams and Projections of Consciousness.  Stillpoint Publishing.
 (1993).  A Seth Reader.  Vernal Equinox Press.  Compendium edited by Richard Roberts.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1995).  The Magical Approach : Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living.  Amber-Allen Publishing.  .
Roberts, Jane (1997).  The Way Toward Health.  Robert F. Butts (Foreword), Amber-Allen Publishing.  .
 Roberts, Jane (2006).  The World View of Rembrandt.  New Awareness Network.  .
 Roberts, Jane (1997 and after).  The Early Sessions (Sessions 1 through 510 of the Seth Material).  New Awareness Network.  Edited by Robert Butts.  Nine volumes.  .
 Roberts, Jane (2003).  The Personal Sessions.  New Awareness Network.  Deleted session material.  Seven volumes.  .
Roberts. Jane.  The Early Class Sessions.  New Awareness Network.  Four volumes.

Short Stories and novellas:
Roberts, Jane. "Prayer of a Wiser People" in Profile, 1950. 
Roberts, Jane. "The Red Wagon" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1956 (republished 1993, Reality Change Magazine; anthologized in 1975, Ladies of Fantasy).
Roberts, Jane. "The Canvas Pyramid" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1957 (French edition, 1958).
Roberts, Jane. "First Communion" in Fantastic Universe, 1957. 
Roberts, Jane. "The Chestnut Beads" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1957 (French edition, 1958; anthologized in Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves, 1963).
Roberts, Jane. "The Bundu" (novella, sequel to "The Chestnut Beads") in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958. 
Roberts, Jane. "A Demon at Devotions" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958 (reprinted in Reality Change Magazine, Winter 1994).
Roberts, Jane. "Nightmare" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1959. 
Roberts, Jane. "Impasse" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1959 (Spanish anthology edition ca. 1960).
Roberts, Jane. "Three Times Around" in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1964 (anthologized in Earth Invaded, 1982). 
Roberts, Jane. "The Big Freeze" in Dude, 1965 (reprinted in Reality Change Magazine, Summer 1994).
Roberts, Jane. "The Mission," purchased by Topper magazine in August 1965.  (Publication not yet confirmed.)

Poetry Submissions:

"Time" in The Saratogian [Saratoga Springs, NY], 1947 Mar 19.
"Enigma" in The Saratogian, 1947 Mar 19.
"Spring Gaiety" in The Saratogian, 1947 Apr 26.
"Rain" in Profile [Skidmore College literary magazine], December, 1947.
"Pretense" in Profile, December, 1947.
"Code" in Profile, December, 1947.
"Skyscrapers" in Profile, December, 1947.
"Introvert" in Profile, May, 1948.
"Poem" in Profile, May, 1948.
"How Public Like a Frog" in Profile, Fall, 1948.
"Motorcycle Ride" in Profile, Fall, 1948.
"Echo" in Profile, May, 1949.
"Death Stood at the Door" in Profile, May, 1949.
"Compromise" in Profile, May, 1949.
"I Shall Die in the Springtime." Patterns. v.1, n.1, October 1954.
"Lyric" Patterns. v.1, n.1, October 1954. 
"Matilda" in Quicksilver, Spring, 1960. 
"It is Springtime, Grandfather." Epos., v.12, n.3, Spring 1961. 
"The Familiar." Bitterroot. v.1, n.2, Winter 1962. 
"I Saw a Hand" in Treasures of Parnassus: Best Poems of 1962, Young Publications, 1962 (reprinted in The Elmira Star-Gazette, 1962).
"My Grandfather's World." Epos. v.14, n.3, Spring 1963. 
"Lullaby." Epos. v.14, n.3, Spring 1963. 
"Beware, October." Epos. v.16, n.1, Fall 1964. 
"This Wrist, This Hand." Epos. v.16, n.4, Summer 1965. 
"The Game." New Lantern Club Review. n.2, Summer 1965. 
"The Flowers." Steppenwolf. n.1, Winter 1965–1966. 
"Vision." Dust/9. v.3, n.1, Fall 1966. 
"Who Whispers Yes." Dust/12. v.3, n.4, Spring 1969.
"Hi, Low, and Psycho."  Excerpts published in Reality Change, Third Quarter, 1996.

See also 

 Stewart Edward White
 Modal realism
 Counterpart theory
 Eternalism
 New Thought

References

External links

 
 Jane Roberts Papers (MS 1090). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. Includes both published and unpublished materials
 Seth Center Index to the Early Sessions
 Seth Learning Center An overview of titles and related audio clips, New Awareness Network
 Nirvikalpa Archive of over 1500 quotations and excerpts from the Seth Material
 'The Problem of Seth's Origin: A Case Study of the Trance-Possession Mediumship of Jane Roberts' by Paul Cunningham
 List of Seth Sessions by Mary Dillman
 Index of Eleven Seth Books by Sue R. Williams
 Seth Talk - by Lynda Madden Dahl

 
1929 births
1984 deaths
20th-century American poets
American children's writers
American motivational writers
Women motivational writers
American psychics
American spiritual mediums
American women poets
Channellers
Consciousness researchers and theorists
Deaths from arthritis
New Age writers
People from Saratoga Springs, New York
Skidmore College alumni
American women children's writers
20th-century American women writers
American women non-fiction writers
Women's page journalists
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. 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. Jon Klimo writes that the Seth books were instrumental in bringing the idea of channeling to a broad public audience.

Catherine L. Albanese said in the 1970s that the Seth Material launched an era of nationwide awareness of the channeling trend and contributed to the self-identity of an emergent New Age movement.  Study groups formed in the United States to work with the Seth Material, 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 his or her own reality, a foundational concept of the New Age movement first articulated in the Seth Material.

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. 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.

According to Roberts, Seth described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused in physical matter" who was independent of Roberts's subconscious, although Roberts expressed skepticism as to Seth's origins, frequently referring to Seth's statements as "theories".<ref>Chapter 10, The Seth Material, by Jane Roberts (1970).</ref> 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", 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, that each person creates his or her own reality through thoughts, beliefs and expectations, 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; 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".

RealityThe 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 (although Nietzsche wrote some 90 years earlier, on the subject of "Becoming who you are": "We, however, want to become who we are—human beings who are new, unique, incomparable, who give themselves laws, who create themselves!"). 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 the physical environment is constructed and maintained by the inner selves of the individual occupants (including animals). 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 stories and novellas:
"Prayer of a Wiser People" in Profile, 1950. 
"The Red Wagon" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1956 (republished 1993, Reality Change Magazine; anthologized in 1975, Ladies of Fantasy).
"The Canvas Pyramid" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1957 (French edition, 1958).
"First Communion" in Fantastic Universe, 1957. 
"The Chestnut Beads" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1957 (French edition, 1958; anthologized in Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves, 1963).
"The Bundu" (novella) in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958. 
"A Demon at Devotions" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958 (reprinted in Reality Change Magazine, Winter 1994).
"Nightmare" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1959. 
"Impasse" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1959 (Spanish anthology edition ca. 1960).
"Three Times Around" in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1964 (anthologized in Earth Invaded, 1982). 
"The Big Freeze" in Dude, 1965 (reprinted in Reality Change Magazine, Summer 1994).
"The Mission," purchased by Topper magazine in August, 1965.  (Publication not yet confirmed.)

Poetry:
"Time" in The Saratogian [Saratoga Springs, NY], 1947 Mar 19.
"Enigma" in The Saratogian, 1947 Mar 19.
"Spring Gaiety" in The Saratogian, 1947 Apr 26.
"Rain" in Profile [Skidmore College literary magazine], December, 1947.
"Pretense" in Profile, December, 1947.
"Code" in Profile, December, 1947.
"Skyscrapers" in Profile, December, 1947.
"Introvert" in Profile, May, 1948.
"Poem" in Profile, May, 1948.
"How Public Like a Frog" in Profile, Fall, 1948.
"Motorcycle Ride" in Profile, Fall, 1948.
"Echo" in Profile, May, 1949.
"Death Stood at the Door" in Profile, May, 1949.
"Compromise" in Profile, May, 1949.
"I Shall Die in the Springtime." Patterns. v.1, n.1, October 1954.
"Lyric" Patterns. v.1, n.1, October 1954.
"Matilda" in Quicksilver, Spring, 1960.
"It is Springtime, Grandfather." Epos., v.12, n.3, Spring 1961.
"The Familiar." Bitterroot. v.1, n.2, Winter 1962.
"I Saw a Hand" in Treasures of Parnassus: Best Poems of 1962, Young Publications, 1962 (reprinted in The Elmira Star-Gazette, 1962).
"My Grandfather's World." Epos. v.14, n.3, Spring 1963.
"Lullaby." Epos. v.14, n.3, Spring 1963.
"Beware, October." Epos. v.16, n.1, Fall 1964.
"This Wrist, This Hand." Epos. v.16, n.4, Summer 1965.
"The Game." New Lantern Club Review. n.2, Summer 1965.
"The Flowers." Steppenwolf. n.1, Winter 1965–1966.
"Vision." Dust/9. v.3, n.1, Fall 1966.
"Who Whispers Yes." Dust/12. v.3, n.4, Spring 1969.
"Hi, Low, and Psycho."  Excerpts published in Reality Change, Third Quarter, 1996.

Seth Material-related works from other authors:
 Watkins, Susan M. Conversations with Seth.  Moment Point Press, 2005, 2006, two volumes.  and  original version published: Vol. 1 (1980), Vol 2 (1981).
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (1993). Beyond the Winning Streak: Using Conscious Creation to Consistently Win at Life. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (1995). Ten Thousand Whispers: A Guide to Conscious Creation. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (1997). The Wizards of Consciousness: Making the Imponderable Practical. The Woodbridge Group. . 
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (2001). The Book of Fallacies: A Little Primer of New Thought. Moment Point Press. .
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (2012). Living a Safe Universe: A Book for Seth Readers. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (2013). Living a Safe Universe, Vol. 2: A Book for Seth Readers. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (2014). Living a Safe Universe, Vol. 3: A Book for Seth Readers. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Dahl, Lynda Madden (2015). Living a Safe Universe, Vol. 4: Seth and Psychic Health. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Friedman, Norman (1994). Bridging Science and Spirit: Common Elements in David Bohm's Physics, The Perennial Philosophy and Seth. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Friedman, Norman (1997). The Hidden Domain: Home of the Quantum Wave Function, Nature's Creative Source. The Woodbridge Group. .
 Stack, Rick. Out-Of-Body Adventures : 30 days to the Most Exciting Experience of Your Life.  Contemporary Books.  .
 Ashley, Nancy. Create Your Own Reality : A Seth Workbook.  Prentice-Hall Press, 1984.  .
 Ashley, Nancy.  Create Your Own Happiness:  A Seth Workbook.  Prentice-Hall Press, 1988.  .
 Ashley, Nancy.  Create Your Own Dreams:  A Seth Workbook.  Prentice-Hall Press, 1990.  . 
 Watkins, Susan M.  Speaking of Jane Roberts: Remembering the Author of the Seth Material. Moment Point Press, 2001.  .
 Hsu, Tien-Sheng. The Secret to Healing Cancer: A Chinese Psychiatrist and Family Doctor Presents His Amazing Method For Curing Cancer Through Psychological and Spiritual Growth. New Awareness Network, 2011. .
 Kendall, Richard.  The Road To Elmira, Volume 1 : A former student of Jane Roberts recounts his experiences while attending Jane's classes.  Rich Kendall Books, 2011.  ; .
 Helfrich, Paul M.  Seth:  The Ultimate Guide.  New World View Publishing, 2010. .

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.

Other authorship claims
Other authors have written material they claimed was channeled from Seth, especially after Roberts's death. These included Thomas Massari, who founded the Seth-Hermes Foundation and said he had channeled Seth as early as 1972; and Jean Loomis, director of the Aquarian Center in Connecticut.  However, in the introduction to the first book written about Seth, he is said to have conveyed that "communications will come exclusively through Ruburt [Seth's name for Jane] at all times, to protect the integrity of the material". In The Seth Material, Roberts wrote: "Several people have told me that Seth communicated with them through automatic writing, but Seth denies any such contacts."

Criticism
Charles Upton in his book The System of Antichrist, 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 Eastern religions. 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."  According to Robert C. Fuller, Seth 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."  James Alcock wrote "there seems little need to consider the involvement of any supernatural agency."

Psychologist Paul Cunningham of Rivier University, New Hampshire, analyzed the case of Jane Roberts in his 2010 paper "The Problem of Seth's Origin", concluding that "fraud and cryptomnesia are highly improbable explanations" and suggesting that to "emphasize and expect fraud and trickery ... is essentially a misleading, though culturally expectable, response" to such cases.

See also 

 Biocentric universe
 Counterpart theory
 Modal realism
 Idealism
 Many-minds interpretation
 Brane cosmology
 J. B. Priestley's Time Plays

References

External links
 Guide to the Jane Roberts Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library Archival Collection includes both published and unpublished materials
 Seth Center Index to the Early Sessions
 Seth Learning Center An overview of titles and related audio clips, New Awareness Network

Channelled texts
Reincarnation
Paranormal
Works by Jane Roberts Roshan Seth OBE (born 2 April 1942) is a British-Indian actor, writer and theatre director who has worked in the United Kingdom, United States and India. He began his acting career in the early 1960s in the UK, but left acting the following decade and moved to India to work as a journalist. In the 1980s, he rose to prominence for his comeback performance as Jawaharlal Nehru in Richard Attenborough's Academy Award-winning film Gandhi, which brought him a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and reignited his interest in acting.

He has since appeared in numerous British and American feature films and television programmes, with roles ranging from Chattar Lal in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Amit Rao in A Passage to India, Papa Hussein in My Beautiful Laundrette, patriarch Jay in Mississippi Masala and Dhalsim in Street Fighter: The Movie. He won the Genie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the Canadian film Such a Long Journey. Other projects he has appeared include Bharat Ek Khoj, Not Without My Daughter, The Buddha of Suburbia, Vertical Limit, Monsoon Wedding, Proof, Ek Tha Tiger, Indian Summers and Dumbo.

Early life
Seth was born on 2 April 1942 in Patna, Bihar, India, to a Muslim Anglo-Indian mother and a Hindu father. His father was a biochemistry professor at Patna Medical College. He was educated at The Doon School, then did graduate studies in History at St Stephen's College. There, he honed his theatrical skills at the Shakespeare Society, before moving to England for further training. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1965 and started working in British television and repertory theatre.

Career
Seth's first break came in Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured in 1972. Seth entered feature films in Richard Lester's Juggernaut (1974). However, subsequent filmmakers only wanted Seth for limited ethnic roles, so that his career stalled.

Discouraged, Seth abandoned acting and returned to India in 1977, where he worked as a journalist and editor of the quarterly journal published by the India International Centre, Delhi. He took leave from this job after Richard Attenborough asked Seth to play Jawaharlal Nehru in Gandhi (1982). Seth was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the film. Seth subsequently also played Jawaharlal Nehru in Bharat Ek Khoj, a 53-episode series on Doordarshan in 1988.

David Hare met Seth in Delhi in 1982, and asked him to play author Victor Mehta in Hare's biographical play A Map of the World. Seth left his editing job and returned to acting. A Map of the World toured for several years in Australia, London, and New York. After the release of the multi-award-winning movie Gandhi (1982), Seth was much in demand, and when A Map of the World'''s Broadway run finished, his movie career took off. His work in 1984 included major roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and David Lean's A Passage to India. Following that he played a lead in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), and he played Pancks in Little Dorrit (1988).

Seth's film credits in the 1990s included roles in Not Without My Daughter (1991), Mississippi Masala (1991), Street Fighter (1994), and Harish Saluja's The Journey (1997). In 1993, he played the role of Haroon Amir in the television miniseries The Buddha of Suburbia, for which he was nominated a Royal Television Society award for "Best Actor – Male". In 1995, he played the role of Baba in Flight, for which he won the "Best Actor" award at the Sochi International Film Festival. In 1998, he played the leading role of Gustad Noble in the film Such a Long Journey, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

In 2001, Seth appeared in Monsoon Wedding and he has continued working steadily in British and American films. In 2003 he played the lead in the American film Cosmopolitan, which was broadcast nationally on PBS. He also recently returned to mainstream Indian cinema with his role in the 2012 film, Ek Tha Tiger.

Personal life
Seth was married to author Pepita Seth, but they separated in the late 1980s and divorced in 2004. His brother is the retired Indian diplomat Aftab Seth.

Filmography
Film

Television

Selected theatre credits
 A Midsummer Night's Dream A Map of the World (Victor Mehta)
 King Lear (The Fool)
 The Millionairess (The Doctor)
 Amadeus (Antonio Salieri)

References

External links

Roshan Seth at Filmreference.com
Roshan Seth at ScreenOnline
Roshan Seth interview on NPR's All Things Considered'', 3 June 2004

1942 births
Living people
20th-century British male actors
21st-century British male actors
Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Best Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
British male film actors
British male stage actors
British male television actors
British people of Indian descent
Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Male actors from London
Male actors from Patna
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Bihar
St. Xavier's Patna alumni
The Doon School alumni
Delhi University alumni