Jane Roberts was an author, poet and psychic who wrote a number of books including The Education of Oversoul Seven and Adventures in Consciousness. She and her husband, artist Robert F. Butts, were the authors of the Seth books.

The Seth Material

In late 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband Robert Butts experimented with a Ouija board as part of Roberts' research for a book on ESP. According to Roberts and Butts, on December 2, 1963 they began to receive coherent messages from a personality who eventually identified himself as Seth. Within weeks, Roberts began to hear the messages in her head and to dictate them, and the use of the Ouija 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 channelled messages from Seth. These messages, consisting mostly of monologues on a wide variety of topics, are collectively known as the "Seth Material". Beginning with the 511th session in January, 1970, Seth began to dictate his own books through Roberts. This series of "Seth books" eventually totalled ten volumes, although the last two volumes appear to be incomplete due to Roberts' illness. The list of titles includes The Seth Material (written by Roberts with excerpts from the Material); Seth Speaks; The Nature of Personal Reality; The Nature of the Psyche, Its Human Expression; The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events; The Unknown Reality; and Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment.

Seth claimed to be a soul or "energy personality essence" who was independent of Jane Roberts' subconscious, although Roberts herself remained somewhat skeptical until the end of her life. Seth said that he

Much of the Seth Material is considered radical. For example, Seth contended that time and space are illusions and that both the past and future are accessible from the present; that each person lives many lives simultaneously, rather than consecutively; and that each person creates his own circumstances and experiences within the shared earthly environment, similar to the doctrine of responsibility assumption. In an argument reminiscent of the "many worlds hypothesis", Seth said there are multiple realities, each as valid as any of the others.

Worth noting is the fact that Seth is one of the few metaphysical sources having an open attitude towards sexual orientation. Seth said, “Only a basic bisexuality could give the species the leeway necessary, and prevent stereotyped behavior of a kind that would hamper creativity and social commerce. That basic sexual nature allows you the fulfillment of individual abilities, so that the species does not fall into extinction. Man’s recognition of his bisexual nature is, therefore, a must in his future.”

Unlike Edgar Cayce, perhaps the most famous psychic and medium to precede Jane Roberts, Roberts gave few readings to the public and was mostly focused on publishing the Material in printed form.

In 1996, sessions 1 through 510 (the "early sessions" which preceded the dictation of the Seth books) were published posthumously by Robert Butts, along with six volumes of previously unpublished personal messages given to Roberts and Butts by Seth.

Since Roberts' death, others have claimed to channel Seth; at least one person has claimed to channel Roberts herself.

Non-channeled books

Jane Roberts wrote a number of books not dictated by Seth, which discuss the

In addition she wrote poetry, short stories and novels.

Quotations from Seth

• "Nothing exists - neither rock, mineral, plant, animal or air - that is not filled with consciousness of its own kind. So you stand amid a constant vital commotion, a gestalt of aware energy, and you are yourselves physically composed of conscious cells that carry within themselves the realization of their own identity, that cooperate willingly to form the corporeal structure that is your physical body", Seth/Jane Roberts.
• "You create your reality according to your beliefs and expectations, therefore you should examine these carefully. If you do not like some aspect of your world, then examine your own expectations", Seth/Jane Roberts
• "Do not personally give any more conscious consideration".."to events that you do not want to happen. Any such concentration, to whatever degree, ties you in with those probabilities, so concentrate upon what you want..", Seth's 891st session.

Quotations from Jane Roberts, not dictated by Seth

• "What we need is a whole new myth of man and his beginnings, one that leapfrogs local gods and places God inside his creatures, within creation. We need a god as blessed or flawed as its creations, a whole new cosmology giving birth to a God that is male and female, Jew, Arab, American, Chinese, Indian; that is within each individual alike; that is not parochial and not man's alone; a god that is within stones and stars; a god-goddess big enough to be personified as a Buddha, Christ, Isis, Athena, Muhammed-animal god, insect god, tree god; each seen as a local symbol standing for an unexplainable reality that is too super-real to fit our definitions. We need a new myth, imaginative and creative enough to leap above our puny facts. What boldness, to create a new race of the gods, glorifying individuality, seeing each as a unique personification-not sterile righteous lords sending down condemnations and handing out impossible edicts, but gods saying "Life is good. That's why we're alive, and alive in you!" We need father, mother, grandfather, grandmother gods, niece and nephew gods, aunt and uncle gods- boisterous joyful divine families, mating among themselves and with us, singing of the beauty of the lovebed, appreciating the moments formed like solitary jewels from the vast necklace of infinity.. The Book of the Gods- I'd like to write that, and The Book of the Universe, in which people-gods or god-people rise from nonphysical to physical life because they want to, because they dreamed in their solitary godhoods of green grasses and soft flesh and yearned to be born as men and women; flinging their godness into bodies joyfully, recklessly, come what may. And maybe, in between lives, they wander on the shores of inner rivers, planning their "future" lives with great excitement, creating them as a writer does his book, plotting crises and achievements, challenges and glories-then, once on earth again, changing the stories, making surprise endings, each character alive, remaking the plot; with each life forming a new dimension of actuality, providing greater knowledge of honor and love, and a new marriage of the soul with the seasons. For if the gods didn't love the evenings and the dawns, why would their creatures?" Jane Roberts, Psychic Politics

Selected writing

• Roberts, Jane (1974). The Nature of Personal Reality. Amber-Allen Publishing. ISBN 1-878424-06-8
• Roberts, Jane (1981). The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. Amber-Allen Publishing. ISBN 1-878424-21-1

External references and links

• The complete works and other unpublished from Jane Roberts and Seth are there stored to read and copy
• Publisher of Roberts' non-book Seth sessions.
• . Inactive group.
• - An introduction to the Seth material and Jane Roberts from a personal perspective.
• - Dale Mann’s take on the Seth material, with an abundance of Seth quotes. Jane Roberts