The other day while going through some of my books, I came upon The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events by Jane Roberts (Seth) and couldn’t help reading it again.

Beginning in late 1963 Jane started to receive messages from a male entity who identified himself as Seth. Jane would sit and go into a trance (altered-state of consciousness) and in would come Seth. Jane’s husband, Robert Butts, would sit and write down all that Seth said verbatim using a form of short-hand he had developed. Later they would type the sessions up and eventually a portion of it ended up published in books. There wasn’t much editing for Jane and Robert to do since Seth went chapter by chapter and section by section, and would even indicate punctuation and where he wanted emphasis. Basically Seth dictated it in finished form. As I understand it, there is a mountain of material that has still never been published.

I’ve read The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events several times, as I have many of the Seth books. I first became aware of Jane Roberts and the entity or personality that she channeled for over 21 years, Seth, in the early 80’s when I picked up her (their?) first book, Seth Speaks. Even back then in my mid 20’s, Seth Speaks wasn’t so much presenting revolutionary new information or ideas to me as it was organizing it; putting form to my thoughts and feelings. As my friend Frank DeMarco’s “Guys Upstairs” say, it resonated.

The following excerpts are from The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events.

If you want to change the world for the better, then you are an idealist. If you want to change the world for the better, but you believe it cannot be changed one whit, then you are a pessimist, and your idealism will only haunt you. If you want to change the world for the better, but you believe that it will grow worse, despite everyone’s efforts, then you are a truly despondent, perhaps misguided idealist. If you want to change the world for the better, and if you are determined to do so, no matter at what cost to yourself or others, no matter what the risk, and if you believe that those ends justify any means at your disposal, then you are a fanatic.

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