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Michael, I read one of Seth's books (I think it was the one you are reading now.) when they first came out and Seth was all the fad. ( Well, I think I read part of it as I could not get through it all.) I could never really understand just what he was saying. I am happy to know that I am not the only one who does not see great wisdom in the Seth materials. I watched a YouTube of Roberts in a trance channeling Seth. That only made things worse for me. I won't comment but you and others might want to search for the YouTube of Jane Roberts.

I look forward to your continuing review of the Seth Material. - AOD

Seth has always struck me as an enigma: on one hand, he 'feels' like a genuine spiritual entity who wants to help, in that he doesn't seem to have any ego or ulterior motives. I've always found his simple, nonthreatening, teacher-like demeanor likeable, and some of his sayings about God, reincarnation, and the like have given me plenty of food for thought. On the other hand, he sometimes gives material that sounds almost like gibberish you'd find on a hilarious predictive-text generator.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this review series goes!

AOD,
That makes three of us. I read the first book and then the second. Some of it made sense to me, some left me scratching my head and a lot was just stupid.

Agree that if Seth was talking in parables and metaphors, then maybe the material would be more acceptable. However he often says that what he describes is "literally" the way it works - and what he say is obviously not true in many instances.

I also think that Seth's analogies, when he uses them, are mostly not helpful. He is a poor explainer and often appears annoyed and suffering from a superiority complex.

I read the first couple of books and then ground to halt. Initially I found the writings quite interesting, but not evidential. After a while found them tedious and increasingly hard to follow.

My own take here: I read the Seth books several years ago. I agree with everyone's take here in that some of it is really "far out."

That said, I found "The Nature of Personal Reality" to be Seth's best and most interesting teachings. The basic premise is that we create our own reality. I personally believe that the whole New Age "attraction" theory is derived from this (plus from another circa early 20th century writer whose name I can't recall). The more recent New Age books have kind of warped this concept into making it seem that changing our reality is a lot easier than it is, IMO.

The "Nature of Personality Reality" book, out of several, impressed me the most, and is worth checking out.

I'm still not convinced about Seth. But one thing that impressed me is that the Jane and her husband really did seem quite committed to the "Seth experiment" and weren't in it to make a quick buck. After reading several Seth books, I was pretty convinced of the couple's sincerity.

Glad to see you writing about Jane Roberts, Michael. I’m particularly fond of Seth Speaks. While there are, admittedly, parts that leave me perplexed, large expanses of the book—Seth's discourse on reincarnation comes to mind—were thrilling to me 25 years ago or so, as I was beginning to ponder these things.

I also like her An Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher, purportedly from the spirit hand of William James. I think she's remarkable.

And this makes perfect sense:

“What you call emotion or feeling is the connective tissue between us, and it is the connective that most clearly represents the life force on any plane, under any circumstances. From it is woven all material of your world and mine …”

Here on this plane, we completely misunderstand the nature of feeling, seeing it as an epiphenomenon, a by-product, a perk or a hindrance. I think that feeling—love, to be precise—is exactly what Seth says: the basic building block of the universe.

As silly and New-Agey and maddeningly preposterous as that will seem to many!

I am glad you are doing an in-depth review of this book. I read it many years ago, probably mid-70s. I remember being in awe that such an amazing and insightful entity would find a way to communicate with us.

Since that time ( I was a teenager) I have become a bit more discriminating in what I choose to read and believe. I now have a simple rule-of-thumb I apply toward books of this and similar genres: when I close the cover can I recall anything from the book that benefits me in a specific and practical way?

In the case of the Seth books and others of this category, the answer is a flat and simple 'no'. It is not my intent to demean the opinions of others but the simple fact is that a person could just sit down and make the whole thing up. Throw in a lot of phraseology about 'love' and spiritual laws and such and you've got a channeled book. I'm not saying she DID make it up, I don't believe she did, but I'm saying there is nothing of real or practical value that a person can use in everyday life.

With that said, I am a spiritual person but I have tools available to make my life better. I look forward to the rest of your review. Thank you.

Seems to be some negatively towards the Seth Material. I read them as they came out. I do agree on the superiority complex part. But then again,look at the contortions our various Gods demand. I can say that Seth predicted not just black holes but also " micro" black holes. Well before they were even theorized. Can't remember the particular book. Seth also stated that changing your thinking physically changes your brain. Something only recently proven. Not sure what it all means,but it must be something!

Unlike others here the Seth material has been pretty eye opening for me. I found areas to be hard to follow in the beginning but after revisiting them I was able to piece them into a better conceptual understanding. A lot of the material is highly theoretical and I think this level of detail is very impressive. Some people may not follow this sort of thing very well. I also feel that a con artist would not give themselves this much rope to be hung with. There's just way too much detail and a lot of it matches up to modern quantum physics and the work or mathematician Roger Penrose and others.

That according to Seth you create your own reality is a false statement. This is because it will lead to absurdities. In a sense it all leads to a reduction of the objects to the subject. But what is a subject? It is just a possiblity to see reality, it cannot act, as actions are also objective. Even the slighest thought has connected to it some kind of matter, be it mental or material. These thoughts and the matter that carries it are already objective. This would mean that thought can create thought, as thought is an object. So from there it can be clear that thoughts are a given, they cannot be created by themselves. One thought cannot create another one. So therefore there is such a thing as objective reality in itsself, as also shown in Mathematics. Mathematical laws are not just a creation of your mind, if that is so create other laws then. Mathematical laws are found, not created, so an objective world must have some validity on its own, apart from the subject. This also makes sense as a subject means nothing without an object, they imply eachother, otherwise there would a empty void with only subjects that suddenly starts creating. Seth material can give some interesting insights, but stay critical.

My view is that the noumenal world is objective and consists of pure information. The phenomenal world is subjective and consists of rendered sensory images. This is how it’s possible for mathematical laws to be "found, not created" (they are part of the matrix of pure information). Nevertheless we do create our own (phenomenal) reality in the form of a subjective "bubble" of perceptions.

I disagree that a subject cannot act or that its actions are objective; an action (say, raising one’s arm) exists for us and for observers only in the form of sensory impressions.

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