~Speaking of Seth~

Hi.  Is it worth going through all nine of these Early Sessions books?  I just finished the second one.  While there was some useful material in them, there was (IMO) way too much stuff about Jane and Rob and their friends.  Sometimes it was pages and pages of it.  I don't usually skip pages in books I read, but I found myself doing exactly that with these books.  It was kind of annoying.

If all of the rest of the books are like that, I'll likely skip them.  I want the Seth material, not the minutiae of Jane and Rob's lives.

Quote from: usmaak on November 11, 2021, 12:22:20 AMHi.  Is it worth going through all nine of these Early Sessions books?

usmaak, I bought only 3 of the Earlt Sessions book - the 2nd, 3rd, and 9th.

Quote from: Sena on November 11, 2021, 07:37:20 AM

Quote from: usmaak on November 11, 2021, 12:22:20 AMHi.  Is it worth going through all nine of these Early Sessions books?

usmaak, I bought only 3 of the Earlt Sessions book - the 2nd, 3rd, and 9th.

Thanks.  How did you choose which to buy?

Quote from: usmaak on November 11, 2021, 08:33:59 AMHow did you choose which to buy?

I must have found an interesting quote on Findingseth, and wanted to read more.

Hi.  I'm new to the forum.

I bought all nine of the Early Sessions.  I have read them all except all of the ninth book.  (I had to move, and after moving, I didn't go back to reading the books on a regular basis, which I should.)

I bought the books hoping to find information that wasn't contained in the first book, The Seth Material, and I felt that I did pick up new stuff.

To me, the most remarkable passage in all of the Seth material is the portion about God (All That Is) given in The Seth Material.  That same material is printed in the Early Sessions, but is spread out over several sessions, with lots of other information interspersed.  What Jane and Robert did was they edited the other stuff out.  Seth's ability to seamlessly pick up on a topic after days of not speaking about it was quite remarkable.

Quote from: Caleb Murdock on November 15, 2021, 03:18:50 AMTo me, the most remarkable passage in all of the Seth material is the portion about God (All That Is) given in The Seth Material. 

Yes, Seth taught that Consciousness Units are particles of All That Is, and every human consciousness is made up of CU's. I don't know of any other spiritual system which teaches that.

Actually, the portions of the Early Sessions that I find most interesting aren't the passages about God.  Rather, it is the passages that explain how the CU's form an identity, and how an identity or personality evolves from a simple state to a more complex state in stages.  Here is my blog article on the topic:

https://sethnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/excerpt-from-seth-material-evolution-of.html

Quote from: Caleb Murdock on November 15, 2021, 01:46:25 PMActually, the portion of the Early Sessions that I find most interesting aren't the passages about God.  Rather, it is the passages that explain how the CU's form an identity, and how an identity or personality evolves from a simple state to a more complex state in stages.  Here is my blog article on the topic:

https://sethnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/excerpt-from-seth-material-evolution-of.html

Hi Caleb, thanks for your interesting blog. I haven't read the Early Sessions yet (only TES 1, 2, and the first three or four sessions of TES 3. I think the issue of 'identity', 'I am-ness' vs. 'You-ness) is paramount. So far I could not really come to a conclusion regarding Seth's teachings in that regard. So much depends on the specific books you are reading and the order in which you are working with the materials. The three dilemmas seem to be familiar ground but not from working with the Early Sessions, rather UR (1 and 2). Last year I stumbled over a graphic which turned out to be very helpful, at least in my case. It seems to reflect his teachings provided in NoPR, and possibly some parts of UR as well. While approaching TES 3 a few weeks ago, I realized that these are the sessions where Seth began delivering information about the order in which memories from 'former' lives and former collective experiences figure in our dreams, including their distortions. There seems to be a hierarchy, which is actually reflected in the graphic. (This was the point where I stopped reading - for the time being). Given the graphic I am more convinced than ever that the best approach towards the Seth material is just reading the Early Sessions in the proper order and then concentrating specifically on main issues and key concepts such as identity, personality etc. Others may recommend an entirely different approach of course. In my case this graphic helped a lot. You will see that three kinds of ego consciousness are inscribed for each individual life, an outer one, an inner one and a dream self. The main structure of the graphic is definitely in line with his description of the relationship between the entity and the individual selves in NoPR, amended by information from the Early Sessions (the hierarchy of dream experiences and the implicit order in which they influence our dreams) in the lower graphic.

https://www.gestaltreality.com/2013/05/22/the-multidimensional-self/

Jane Robert's book 'Adventures in Consciousness' contains many illustrations providing more background information on how she visualized for herself the structure of the core issues of identity, ego, personality, probabilities, and the wave/particle issue. I assume the graphics have been produced by Robert Butts. Just having a look at these drawings may help a lot.  However, the task of understanding the Seth material may not necessarily be getting much easier, as she seemed to have developed her own technical terms.

Before I say anything, I need to confess that I haven't read all the books.  My focus has always been on the broader picture, and Seth gave that in the earlier books, all of which I have read.  But when I got to some of the later books, and the information was specific and not broad, I tended to phase out.  I have always meant to go back to those books and finish them.

Those graphics seem kind of complicated to me, but they don't show anything that appears wrong.  The circle at the center would be the inner self, and each petal a reincarnational self, with the reincarnational self extending out of the inner self.  Makes sense.  I didn't read the article, however, I just looked at the graphics.

I am most fascinated by our outer egos.  The ego is that portion of the self that believes it is in control, but is not.  It is the portion of the self that believes that it initiates Action, but does not.  It is the portion of the self that causes most of our social and political problems.

That article looks very erudite.  There is apparently more interest in the Seth material in the world than I realized.  I personally think that the SM should become mankind's next religion; but I don't think it will because Seth, as a personality speaking through a medium, doesn't have enough charisma to found a religion.

By the way, I am not in the habit of referring to the books by their initials, so perhaps when you do that, you could spell the title out at least once.

Oh, let me add something.

Seth was pretty clear (at least as far as I recall) that identity is inviolate.  You may occasionally see some science fiction show in which one of the characters discovers that he has a doppelganger.  The original dies, and the duplicate takes his place, and everything continues as normal.  That kind of scenario is impossible, just as identical twins are not identical because they have unique souls.  Identity and individuality are not transferrable, according to Seth.  Perhaps this is because the consciousness units that form us are all individuals.  In fact, it is a theory of mine that we (and God) take much of our natures from the CUs.

I suspect that the CUs existed before God, though where they come from I couldn't tell you.  It would seem that they arise spontaneously from the void.  (It makes you realize that the universe is a more complicated place than we realize.)  So, some of them came together to form a mind or consciousness.  That consciousness was God, and all the rest evolved in God's imagination.  When you read about the CU's, you may, as I have, start to feel that they are almost magical.  They move with no means of locomotion.  They have consciousness.  They have purpose (to materialize themselves in some way).  They reproduce by division at will.  There truly is magic in the Universe, and the magic is this substance, this energy, which can become anything, which can do miraculous things.

Quote from: Caleb Murdock on November 15, 2021, 01:46:25 PMActually, the portions of the Early Sessions that I find most interesting aren't the passages about God.  Rather, it is the passages that explain how the CU's form an identity, and how an identity or personality evolves from a simple state to a more complex state in stages.  Here is my blog article on the topic:

https://sethnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/excerpt-from-seth-material-evolution-of.html

Caleb, thanks for the link to Perry's blog. I had not previously been aware of it.

Quote from: Caleb Murdock on November 15, 2021, 03:49:43 PMI am most fascinated by our outer egos.  The ego is that portion of the self that believes it is in control, but is not.  It is the portion of the self that believes that it initiates Action, but does not.  It is the portion of the self that causes most of our social and political problems.

As you mentioned about ego in your blog post as well as here, I just want to chime in and share this video "What is the ego" of Aaron Abke:

I must say it is the most accurate, clear and concise explanation of ego for practical purposes that I have come across. Aaron Abke is the best content producers on Youtube I've found. He didn't talk about Seth materials, though. But he talked about RA and ACIM which have a lot of overlap with Seth materials.

Quote from: Tob on November 15, 2021, 03:08:29 PMJane Robert's book 'Adventures in Consciousness' contains many illustrations providing more background information on how she visualized for herself the structure of the core issues of identity, ego, personality, probabilities, and the wave/particle issue.

Tob, thanks for recommending that book.

HB, I listened to about half of Abke's presentation and then stopped.  Some of the things he says make sense to me, and some don't.  Ironically, he sounds a little egotistical to me, especially the way that he sets forth his theories as if they were fact.  I prefer simpler explanations.

My father was an egotistical man who fancied himself to be wise, so I'm a little suspicious of "truth-tellers" like Abke.  Of course, Seth was a truth-teller, but in all of the Material I never heard him say anything that sounded egotistical or pretentious.  I do hear what you might call a "constructive ego" in the Seth material.  Ego seems to be tied into self-awareness, and Seth was certainly self-aware.  But as I said, I never heard Seth say anything that was even slightly self-aggrandizing.

It really isn't fair of me to listen to just half of Abke's presentation, so I'll finish listening to it sometime tonight.

Let me add that I don't pretend to be ego-free.  Indeed, human beings, with the possible exception of retarded people, must have egos.  It is part of the human mind.

I guess each person resonates with different speaker. What you perceive about Aaron as egotistical, I may perceive it as confidence. I have watched few dozens of Aaron's videos, and of course I don't resonate/agree with all of them, but I learnt a lot from them.

Actually I got to know his Youtube channel's name when I deconverted from Christianity and someone gave it to me, and I must say his series "mystical Jesus" is better than any sermon I've listened.

I guess many speakers set forth their theories as if they were fact, even with really humble speakers such as Eckhart Tolle and Rupert Spira, though the way they presented themselves may make you feel better.

No big deal if he's not of your taste. I personally enjoy and learnt a lot from his videos, specially the video about science behind astral projection, but also MindScience series, metaphysic & nonduality series.

Well, I talk about the Seth material as if it is fact, but those are Seth's ideas, not mine, so I see my enthusiasm as devotion, not self-promotion.  I will give Abke another chance.  I might come to like him.  Most of what he was saying sounded right to me, actually -- but I didn't agree with all of his extrapolations.  I didn't mean to shoot him down.

YouTube is an interesting place.  I had a computer with no sound until about three months ago, so I couldn't hear what anyone was saying.  Now I am hearing all kinds of interesting things.  I'll bet there are people on YouTube who are talking about the Seth material.

Quote from: usmaak on November 11, 2021, 12:22:20 AMHi.  Is it worth going through all nine of these Early Sessions books?  I just finished the second one.  While there was some useful material in them, there was (IMO) way too much stuff about Jane and Rob and their friends.  Sometimes it was pages and pages of it.  I don't usually skip pages in books I read, but I found myself doing exactly that with these books.  It was kind of annoying.

If all of the rest of the books are like that, I'll likely skip them.  I want the Seth material, not the minutiae of Jane and Rob's lives.

I say yes! There is a LOT of info in these books you do not get elsewhere... Plus If you do not like one Deb has a section you can sell it off to LOL or give it away or just ask someone here if they want to buy it.

Start with book 1 and work your way up.

Its only a suggestion of course 

If you do not want them yet have you collected all the CD's that come with transcripts? They are AWESOME!

Quote from: Caleb Murdock on November 16, 2021, 03:34:25 PMI had a computer with no sound until about three months ago, so I couldn't hear what anyone was saying.  Now I am hearing all kinds of interesting things. 

Oh, that is beautiful. I have stopped using social media for the most part, only subscribe to teachings or topics beneficial for my development, but not hearing what anyone was saying is another level. How long did you have that computer with no sound?

I remember in my childhood, the best time was actually the nights which had electric cut. All people in the neighborhood would bring their chairs to sit outdoor and watching the moon and stars, the trees, the night, and chat, while the children would play hide and seek, or so.

Because electric cut was the only chance for people to leave their radio and TV.

I'm 71, and I have owned a computer from shortly after they were introduced.  In the beginning, computers were not multimedia devices.  The noises they made were just beeps and computer game sounds.  Because I didn't like the beeps, I got computers without sound for years.  Then, while I was using my last silent computer, I noticed the rise of YouTube and video clips, and that was when I decided I wanted sound.

My computer is new, and it is very fast, with SSDs instead HDDs, and it definitely has sound, and I am enjoying it tremendously. 

Quote from: strangerthings on November 17, 2021, 02:05:40 AM

Quote from: usmaak on November 11, 2021, 12:22:20 AMHi.  Is it worth going through all nine of these Early Sessions books?  I just finished the second one.  While there was some useful material in them, there was (IMO) way too much stuff about Jane and Rob and their friends.  Sometimes it was pages and pages of it.  I don't usually skip pages in books I read, but I found myself doing exactly that with these books.  It was kind of annoying.

If all of the rest of the books are like that, I'll likely skip them.  I want the Seth material, not the minutiae of Jane and Rob's lives.

I say yes! There is a LOT of info in these books you do not get elsewhere... Plus If you do not like one Deb has a section you can sell it off to LOL or give it away or just ask someone here if they want to buy it.

Start with book 1 and work your way up.

Its only a suggestion of course 

If you do not want them yet have you collected all the CD's that come with transcripts? They are AWESOME!

It's hard to sell a Kindle book.

I suppose I can just skip the Jane/Rob/their friends stuff.  I find it all distracting.  Some of it, like almost buying the house, works into the material, but so much is just fluff that seems to me like it would be better in personal sessions.

Quote from: strangerthings on November 18, 2021, 09:29:05 AMHi.  Is it worth going through all nine of these Early Sessions books?  I just finished the second one.  While there was some useful material in them, there was (IMO) way too much stuff about Jane and Rob and their friends.  Sometimes it was pages and pages of it.  I don't usually skip pages in books I read, but I found myself doing exactly that with these books.  It was kind of annoying.

If all of the rest of the books are like that, I'll likely skip them.  I want the Seth material, not the minutiae of Jane and Rob's lives.

I wouldn't skip the books, but you can skip anything IN the books you like. It's not a bible, as you know, just a book with information...and if you are not interested in something, just skip it. It will not disappear and will always be there in case you want to look at it.

The Seth concepts and explanations in these books are EXCELLENT and many are not at all in or not exactly found in the all the other official books.

These are the first explanations and introductios to all of the Seth material. This is where the book The Seth Material was extracted from.

These 9 Early Session books have ALL the experiments they did with Seth to prove to themselves that Seth was real. These can be easily skipped if you have no interest in the minute details. Anything can be skipped. It is and they all will be YOUR books, and no one else's.

As you know, the first session Book 1 is the first Ouija board connection they had.

The next session after the last session of Book 9--begins Seth Speaks. So, these sessions lead right into that first official book.