The Seth Material is a collection of metaphysical texts
dictated by the American psychic Jane Roberts to her husband from late 1963 until her death in 1984. The words were purportedly
suggested to Roberts by a discarnate entity who called himself Seth, who she said took control of her body and spoke through
her. 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, other than A Course in Miracles. Professor of psychology Jon Klimo writes that the
Seth books were instrumental in bringing the idea of channeling to a broad public audience. Other authors have written material they said was channeled from the Seth entity, especially after
Roberts' death, including 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. Study groups have formed across the United States to
work with the Seth Material. Catherine L.
Albanese, a professor of American Religious History at the University of Chicago, 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. John P. Newport, in his study of the impact 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. According to historian Robert C. Fuller, professor of religious studies at Bradley University, the Seth
personality filled the role of guide for what Fuller called "unchurched American spirituality," including the topics of reincarnation,
karma, free will, ancient metaphysical wisdom, and "Christ consciousness."
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History
In late 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband, Robert Butts, experimented with a Ouija board as part of Roberts' research
for a book on extra-sensory perception. According to Roberts and Butts, on December 2, 1963, they began to receive coherent
messages from a male personality who later identified himself as Seth. Soon after, Roberts reported that she was hearing the
messages in her head. She began to dictate the messages instead of using the Ouija board, and the board was eventually abandoned.
For 21 years until Roberts' death in 1984 (with a one-year hiatus due to her final illness), Roberts held regular sessions
in which she went into a trance and purportedly spoke on behalf of Seth. According to Roberts, the Seth personality described himself as an "energy personality essence no longer focused
in physical matter" who was independent of Roberts' subconscious, although Roberts herself expressed skepticism as to Seth's
origins, frequently referring to Seth's statements as "theories". The Seth personality said that he had completed his earthly
reincarnations and was speaking from an adjacent plane of existence (or "system of reality" or "universe", all terms which
the Seth personality used). The Seth personality described himself as a "teacher", and said that the information in the Seth
Material is given to every generation of humans. Unlike
the psychic Edgar Cayce, whose syntax when speaking in trance was antiquated and convoluted, Roberts' syntax and sentence
structures were modern and clear when speaking as Seth. Roberts often sat in a rocking chair during sessions, and she would
occasionally smoke cigarettes and sip beer or wine. Afterwards, she would usually not remember the contents of the session,
and she would have to read the transcript or be told what Seth had said.
Now we have the entire "Seth Speaks" online! Click the link
on the sidebar, "The Book" |
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