Mary Dillman-Seth Research Project-Yale Library Collection

[Deb]

Mary Dillman has spent more than a decade researching the Jane Roberts document collection archived at Yale University. While continuing archival research, she is also now interviewing people who knew Jane and Rob, including former ESP class members. These interviews, as well as documents, photos and audio tapes, are forming an ancillary collection for eventual use by other researchers.

Mary's web site, Seth Research Project, has several PDFs of lists available for download, including:
a List the Seth Sessions; Index of Personal Sessions; Index of Early Sessions and an Indices of the Seth Books and Jane Roberts books.

An excerpt from her web site:

My name is Mary Dillman, and my desire is to see the ideas in the Seth material reflected in my world. My personal life goal is to understand and use the ideas to the best of my ability. In doing so I do not feel it necessary to denigrate the truth of others, or insist that my way is the only way. I am merely following my own inclinations and recognizing the authority of my own being. Living the ideas is my way of thanking Jane Roberts, Robert Butts and Seth for the magnificent body of work they produced.

I have been researching the Jane Roberts Papers archived at Yale University Library since 1998. This is an independent project and was started because of an immense desire to follow my dream. It seemed to be my "job" and I was led to it by following my impulses.

The following blog post is worth reading in its entirely—click on the title to visit the page. It tells what her mental process was while trying to decide how to follow her heart to pursue this project, how she had to diligently examined her own beliefs and how she utilized what she learned from the Seth materials to create the reality she is now living. This woman is a true inspiration!

October 25, 1995 was my first visit to the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, home of the archived Seth material, to look at the Jane Roberts Papers. It was an incredible experience and from that moment I was hooked. I started spending vacation time in New Haven pouring over the material that I loved so much. In my first journal entry regarding the visit, I recorded that I had felt almost overwhelmed to be able to peruse the documents. What a joyous experience! It also seemed extremely important to me that all the Seth material be on computer, in chronological order and with the ability to be sorted by subject. After my first few visits I realized that some of the material I was reading had already been published. This led to further research between visits to Yale to identify which regular and which deleted sessions appeared in the books. It soon became evident to me that my time with the material and in Yale's library was truly my value fulfillment, and I desired to do it full time.

Then the "but I can't because" excuses started flowing. I didn't know how I could leave my job and the security of my days without winning the lottery jackpot. My life was comfortable and I was able to travel to all the SethNets and spend vacations at Sterling Library. In addition to my fairly well-paying job, I always maintained a huge credit card debt. This was a way to keep myself in control and avoid anything totally spontaneous or outrageous. After years of reading the Seth material, was I still afraid of my spontaneity?

Thank you Mary for what you're doing! You realize, of course, you're the only person on the planet that's doing what you're doing...?

You act upon those that you know and those that you do not know in ways that no other individual can ever act.

[Deb]

I recently came across some old info on the papers stored at Yale. From an old Facebook post by Laurel, Rob's second wife:

February 8, 2007

Dear SethJaneRoberts Group,

I am posting some information today regarding the Yale University
Archives; some information for Researchers for your information.
This is not a complete listing of information, for that you may want
to visit Yale's web site at www.Yale.edu. Yale has a very large
archive.

Rob has sent many xerox copies of the Seth Sessions and of many of
the Journals of Jane Roberts, and the papers of Jane Roberts and
Robert Butts to Yale University already.

Robert Butts is the owner of his Seth Material, and owns the
copyrights of all of the papers, and of the Seth Material.
He retains ownership of the Seth Material, it is not owned by Yale
University, so questions that you have regarding publication, as
Yale is mentioning here, are something that Rob may answer for
himself.

Yale's wonderful archival work, and painstaking caretaking of the
collection of the copies has been so valuable to so many people
already, you may want to visit Yale at some time.

--Laurel

[Deb: information posted below the original post was just copied & pasted from the Yale Library website. You can see more information on the collection here: http://discover.odai.yale.edu/ydc/Record/3460556 ]

[Deb]

From Ron Card on Facebook:

...ron speaks...Jane and Rob were beginning to think ahead, making plans for the eventual disposition of the voluminous Seth material so as to have a good home and the material would be available for generations to come.

Tam Mossman, Jane's assigned editor from Prentice-Hall, had graduated from Yale, and his influence resulted in "copies" of the texts of the material to reside in the Sterling Library archives.

Understand that Yale had no interest whatsoever in the "hardware" physical objects of the Seth era, that is, for example, Jane's chair, the Ouija board, and the extensive artwork of Rob and Jane and other objects of association.

When Rob passed, his widow, Laurel Davies-Butts, retained all the Seth-related objects and the art and more. Yale had their many thousands of copies of the texts. Yet, Rob and Jane had desired a good home for the physical object portion of their estate.

Fortunately, that good home and the preservation and protection of much of the estate objects exists in my "Seth Museum Collection," obtained by arrangement and loving agreement with Laurel, and I recently displayed my collection at The Seth House in Elmira for Rob's 100th Birthday celebration event on June 20, of this year for all who attended to see, touch and experience. So I strongly feel that I am doing my part to make the material that I have available for study and research by lovers of Seth, and on that count, I hit the mark.

From: Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment, Volume 1, Chapter 2, Session 887 for December 5, 1979.

Rob Notes: "Even though making our wills led us to think of our deaths, in ordinary terms, still that making implies both order and things accomplished during our lifetimes. We have achieved a situation beneficial to all—for Jane's will and my own each declares that upon the death of the survivor of the two of us, our estate is to be donated to the Manuscripts and Archives division of Yale University Library, in New Haven, Connecticut. Our physical effects, even including the hill house and the car, are few. But our creative work is everything, and so it, and whatever pertains to it, go to a place where all will be preserved and protected, yet made available for study by researchers and lay people alike as it is transmitted there.

The collection will include our family trees; my father's journals and photographs; Jane's and my own grade-school, high-school, college, and family data; our youthful creative efforts in writing and painting; the comic books and other commercial artwork I produced; our early published and unpublished short stories; my original notes for the sessions; session transcripts, whether published or unpublished, "regular," private, or from ESP class; tapes, including those made in class of Jane speaking for Seth and/or singing in Sumari; our notes, dream records, journals, and manuscripts; our sketches and paintings; Jane's extensive poetry; our business correspondence; books, contracts, and files; newsletters about the Seth material, published in the United States and abroad (independently of Jane and me); the greater number of letters from readers—in short, a mass of material showing how our separate beginnings flowed together and resulted in the production of a joint lifework.

To make the copies I plan to install equipment here in the house, so that I can work at the job whenever I have a minute. The task will take lots of time—perhaps several years—and I may have to hire help; it will cost us something to copy the many thousands of papers for the library. Others are to duplicate tapes and photographs for us."

Note from Deb: While the intention was to have a copy of everything created by Jane/Seth and Rob in the library archives, there are some things being found that probably did NOT get copied and sent to Yale. Mary and Laurel are working on sorting that out.

[dougdi]

I would love to see the unpublished Robert Monroe session, I would expect some very interesting material. Do you think that would ever see the light of day?

[Deb]

I wonder. I also wonder how things like that didn't get into the Deleted Sessions books. I'll ask Mary if she knows where it is. I see it didn't even have a session number. I'm guessing because is was a personal meeting with Monroe.

Laurel has some things that have never been published and I keep trying to encourage her to do it. Expense is the problem, although I bet she could raise money with a Go Fund Me and go print on demand so there's no financial risk to her. I think there are enough people who would be interested in seeing unpublished materials, that they would contribute.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb,

Thanks for posting this. I find this background information to be really interesting.

I also agree with dougdi, I'd really like to read that Robert Monroe session.

As I recall, Jane and Rob had several other interesting visitors over the years as well; Richard Bach for instance. It would definitely be interesting to be able to read about these other sessions as well.

-jbseth

[Deb]

Yep, I hear you. There is a little more information about the Richard Bach session here and there. Here are a couple of quotes below. The actual session he sat in on was Session 618, which is in NoPR. Not sure if any of that was "deleted" -- or if he had personal communications that were not numbered like the Monroe one (I can't remember) and not published elsewhere.

I have the Time magazine that showcased Bach. It's been a long time since I read it, but I think he mentions in it some information he got from Seth. There is a link to the scanned article here: https://speakingofseth.com/index.php?topic=416 I'll take a look at session 618 later today.

I'll email Mary Dillman and ask her if she knows anything more about the Monroe and Bach sessions.

"(Richard Bach and his editor, Eleanor Friede, who witnessed the 618th session for September 28, 1972. [...]"
—TPS2 Deleted Session October 2, 1972

"(Richard Bach, the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, left this morning after having been our guest since Monday, the 28th. He called Jane last Friday from his home in Bridgehampton, New York; he wanted some insights into his writing of Seagull; Richard attended ESP class last night, and heard Seth, Sumari, etc."
—TPS2 Deleted Session August 30, 1972

• "(The session was witnessed by writer Richard Bach and his editor, Eleanor Friede. [...]"

• "(Some notes added later: Dick Bach felt that he didn't really write Seagull himself. [...]"

• "(Now here are some near-verbatim quotes from the information Seth gave Dick Bach and company on the evening of September 27, 1972: "Information does not exist by itself. [...]"

—NoPR Chapter 3: Session 618, September 28, 1972

[dougdi]

Hey Deb, that would be great! Seth and Monroe were both very influential in the formation of my spiritual beliefs. I was lucky to meet him in his last year during my trip to the Monroe Institute, an incredible experience!

Doug

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Deb, thanks for directing me to the 1972 Time article about Richard Bach and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I didn't realize that anyone still had a copy of this. It was very interesting. Thank you for keeping it alive and available to us on the forum.


I just read this Time article and in the article, the writer does briefly talk about Seth. The Seth information, which is about 2- 3 paragraphs long, can be found at the end of page 65 and the beginning of page 66 of this article, where page 66 was the last page of the article.

According to this article, Bach was, "nervous about acting as a vehicle for what he long thought of as an alien force that gave him Jonathan."  Furthermore, in this article it says that Seth told Richard that, "Jonathan was not alien but came from one of Bach's aspects."

I've just recently been rereading sections of Part 2 of Jane's book, "Adventures in Consciousness" where Jane discusses the idea of "Aspects".  In this book, Jane states that she believes that Seth, Seth 2, Oversoul 7, Cyprus and "Helper" were all different aspects of her entity.

-jbseth

[jbseth]

Hi Dougdi,

If you don't mind too much, would you mind sharing with us on the forum what your experience was like at the Monroe Institute. I've always been intrigued by this. I too have been a big fan of his, I've read all 3 of his books and several by others having to do with the Monroe Institute.

If you'd rather not do this, I understand. I definitely don't want you or anyone here to feel pressured into doing something that they'd rather not do.


- jbseth

[Deb]

@jbseth I also ended up reading Sess. 618 this afternoon, and towards the end Rob supplied what he felt was what Seth said to Bach just about verbatim. Interesting you mention aspects, because it was mentioned there as well with also a nod towards the Aspects book.

I bought that Time magazine maybe a couple of years ago. I'd seen the cover before, didn't realize it was still out there but I found it on eBay and the price was right. It's ironic (or synchronistic) that the person who was the original subscriber to the magazine was in Denver. With eBay, it could have come from anywhere in the country. I really do need to find a big used book store here and look for Seth goodies.

And @dougdi, yes please if you're willing to share your experience at TMI, please do. It would be great if you'd start a new topic about it if you're open to sharing. I came across Monroe before I found Seth and was totally fascinated by what they were doing at the Monroe Institute. It was more money than I was willing to spend for the week-long immersion, but I promised myself that for my 60th birthday I would treat myself. But... I instead opted for a horseback riding week in the English countryside and a visit to Russia (no regrets). I tend to be spiritually dense when it comes to meditation, ESP, etc. and didn't think it would a successful week for me at TMI. I somehow got my hands on the audio for The Gateway Experience, but I didn't get anything out of it. Maybe I should try again.

But I haven't completely given up on the idea of TMI. Funny, but a few years ago, on the spur of the moment, I won a trip to Virginia for, among other things, a visit to Polyface Farms. It didn't occur to me until I'd been there a couple of days that I was within a 30 minute drive of TMI. So I drove out there (it was a beautiful drive) and was able to look around a bit. There was nothing going on at the time, very quiet. I bought a couple more Hemi-Sync CDs in the gift shop and spent some time exploring the property (LOVED the big rose quartz stone).

I'd love to know what you did there, your experiences and take on it, and your thoughts about Monroe himself. But like jb said — no pressure. Just enthusiasm.

[dougdi]

Ok, it's coming! It's a long post, I'll start a new thread. I just want to proof read what I wrote first.

Trying the Gateway Voyage at home would be very difficult without the setting and assistance you have during a week there. It's pricey but it's like a vacation at a resort with food and lodging included.

I'll be posting my experiences as soon as I finish and proof!

Doug

[Deb]

I'll be posting my experiences as soon as I finish and proof!

Awesome! Just so you know, most of the time I write my posts in a text editing program and then copy & paste it here on the forum. I think most of us do that, it makes it easier.

[dougdi]

That's what I did, I posted in Seth and Other Teachers, move it to a better section if it's best somewhere else.

[Deb]

OK, here's the latest straight from Mary Dillman:

The Bob Monroe session is not at Yale. Laurel can't find it - but I know it is in the papers somewhere.  When she gives me access to papers, it is obvious that things have become misfiled (not by Rob) so info from him is somewhere in her house. It is the most requested session and Laurel knows that I am very interested in it.

Richard Bach info is at Yale from September 27 and 28, 1972. That information is unpublished though - as you know. I hope to see it published someday with other unpublished sessions.

[dougdi]

Hey Deb, that's good to hear there's a chance at seeing this session. Thanks for asking.
Doug