December 18, 1974

December 18, 1974 while looking for something else yesterday. It fit in so well with the visit last Friday evening, concerning authority versus our interests, that I asked if Seth would comment on both the visit and that four-year-old session this evening.)]

Now: you should reread Ruburt's library material in the [Cézanne] book, on authority and creativity, for it is excellent.

Authority, generally speaking, is necessary for society's survival---but it does not exist of itself. Authority is always vested in a person, organization, or whatever, by other people for a variety of reasons. But overall authority is meant to insure continuity, the status quo. It will always be "undermined" by creativity, and the search for another, newer version of reality.

You both grew up under certain authorities---the personal authority of the parents, and the greater authority---or Ruburt at least---of the church and state. For you, the church had little authority, but the state is vested with authority that must uphold the composite idea of reality generally held.

That particular authority of state, community, government, is a conglomeration of religious, scientific, and cultural opinions that are taken more or less as fact. Around them are grouped the universities and academies, the social organizations, down to the PTA or the Lion's Club.

In a manner of speaking, the stability of that authority, however misguided, provided a relatively safe framework in which you could both grow into maturity. Many new versions of reality appear first in art or fiction, and in such a way new ideas are spread through a society, while no threatening advances are made upon the world of fact. In any society, as young people come to maturity, they begin to weigh their individualistic version of reality against the adult authoritative one, and in one way or another, as they attain adulthood, they change the system to whatever degree.

The authoritative world offers security and a certain amount of safety even in the spreading of new ideas, provided they remain in the artistic realm. Most people settle for following authority---particularly in the rofessional aspects of their lives, the community affiliations, and so forth, while here and there insisting upon a kind of private creativity that does not threaten the larger beliefs of the structure.

Fellowship is important even to the animals, and your species is highly social. To be ostracized, for example, is no small matter. That is why individuals with ideas counter to the system band together in groups of all kinds, whether or not their particular ideas happen to agree with the group with whom they become affiliated. At least they are not alone.

Often they form their own small authoritative structure. Within it certain ideas predominate that are taboo outside.

Academic people do like structures, and to some extent mass learning experiences of course require them. At certain times universities are avant-garde, and in other periods of history they are instead highly conservative. Contacts with so-called authorities are good for both of you, so that you can see that such authorities are simply people. You expect more of them than you do others, because you are still blinded by the ideas of authority.

Your friend---Professor "Crazies"---thought himself on the one hand very avant-garde to come here, and on the other he felt the need to protect himself, to maintain the stance of a professor. You should indeed have spoken more freely, but you also should have seen him simply as an individual, and not as a symbol of a school, or a structure, or as a scientist.

(9:52.) Now when you freely communicate ideas that are threatening or frightening, or even strange, [to some extent] you are attacking the heart of the authoritative structure. You are telling it to change, when all of its instincts, you see, are to maintain stability, and in your country, at least, that stability has been large enough and flexible enough so that you are being financially rewarded, to whatever degree, for promoting ideas that run counter to the deepest beliefs of that system.

When this happens, you become part of a creative surge. Enough people are interested, or the books would not be read, so emotion grows. Many of those people, however, in say businesses or professions, would automatically try to grasp the new ideas with one hand, while rotecting themselves from any consequences with the other: "I know these ideas seem crazy, but -" or, in the case of your professor, "I collect my crazies, but those people are authentic."

You can best help in such situations by treating each person as an individual. Do not expect too much. To expect too much is to grant authority a basic authority that it does not possess.

Again, that library material fits in excellently here. The ideas that we are promoting would indeed change your society---and [to some extent] they are ---for they are altering your readers' ideas about reality, and challenging the concepts of science, religion, and to a lesser degree, of government itself.

Again, you both intended this. You knew it would be difficult. You began before our sessions even, in your private lives before you met. Many individuals come into a world for the purpose of changing it for the better, and there is no more efficient way of doing that than by the romotion of ideas---for no exterior altered circumstances can ever be applied from without unless the inner foundations have been laid.

You are in your ways conscientious persons. You would have ordinarily returned your stock to the earth in terms of children, and yet instead decided upon bringing forth a new birth of ideas, so that your extended family is the family of your readership. Those readers teach their children, and so you help create a new mental and psychic atmosphere that in physical terms will long outlast this life.

Ruburt dislikes authority. He lived under the authority of Welfare, as well as the church. That dislike was to serve as an impetus, as it did, but the adult should see---the adult Ruburt---that there is no authority in those terms. There is nothing to fight in those terms.

The authorities are simply people doing their best to preserve a status quo---with which many are already dissatisfied. Their authority becomes a trap for them, for to preserve it they must keep themselves in ignorance.

(10:10.) The dissenting factions in your own country are quite healthy, for they are held together by a string of authority that loops and unloops, yet is flexible enough so that many completely contrary ideas can dangle side by side.

Religious authority, when completely exercised, can be disastrous, for it sets up an unyielding set of principles as absolute truth, and any dissension is considered dangerous. (Amused:)

With my nearly forgotten experience as a minor pope, I can say I would trust a crooked politician far better than a holy but fanatic religious leader.

In the deepest of terms, each person must be his or her own authority, and equally respect but not bow down to, the same innate psychic authority within each other living individual. That should be the basis for your democracy.

Now in our sessions I must unfortunately try to explain the greater aspects of reality in terms of a Framework 1 culture, with its psychic conventions. I must go against the authority, not only of the so-called straight system, but against the authority of the conventionalized occult in its multitudinous variations.

There , I lived in the land people called Atlantis in your ast. The Atlantis, however, as it is known in myth and pseudo-fact, is a psychic structure from the future that sheds its light backward into the past, and illuminates not one but several past cultures, which taken together, become in your terms a conglomerate Atlantis.

The Atlanteans, so-called for example, are supposed to be coming back now. All concepts and ideas in the first place, referring to a continuous forward progression of time distort all reincarnational experiences as a rule. It is almost impossible to describe some of what I know. Simple facts to me sometimes appear quite clearly in the material I give you---but then I perceive that the particular information escapes you completely. I can say that I traveled in Rome at about the time of Christ. To me there is no contradiction between that statement and the statement that the reality of that Rome is even now being affected by present, current concepts and beliefs. The past changes, even as in your terms, say, a river does---only the changes go out in all directions. Atlantis is as real as tomorrow is---and that is a loaded statement.

(10:23.) Give us a moment... When you speak of reincarnation, the past is usually considered, as you have yourself often noted. I told you that [in certain terms] this was the last life for each of you, your breaking-off points. But that does not mean there are not future lives in earthly terms for you. If all of your lives are looked at like a Ferris wheel, then this is the seat you are in when you get off, though some of the other boxes or seats may be labeled future or ast.

[In certain terms] then, and following a given line of robabilities, in future lives you know the outcome of your work now, and you can also ask for advice from your future selves, who are very actively interested, since their reality is so involved with your own.

If it were not for such facts, then again in certain terms these present sessions would not be held. Whenever you come into difficulties, it is because you are still relying upon Framework 1's authority, in which normal cause and effect operates, in which problems are solved by exaggerating them, and in which magical changes or alterations are considered out of context to normal living. "Magical" changes happen all the time. Your very existence is proof of that, for it is a mystery to Framework 1's understanding. Framework 1 looks to time, and particularly the past, as authority.

Ruburt's condition can change overnight, in literally dazzling improvements, if only the "authority" of Framework 1 is forgotten---as it is so often in your creative lives.

I have said what I wanted to say. I will end the session unless you have a question.

("I guess not.")

(Loudly:) Then I bid you an authoritatively fond good evening.

("Thank you very much.")

(10:37 PM.)

[THE SETH AUDIO COLLECTION]

[RARE RECORDINGS OF SETH SPEAKING] through Jane Roberts are available as MP3 Digital Downloads or on CD's. These Seth sessions were recorded by Jane's student, Rick Stack, during Jane's classes in Elmira, New York, in the 1970's. The majority of these selections are not ublished in any other book or format. Volume I, described below, is a collection of some of the best of Seth's comments gleaned from over 120 Seth Sessions. Additional recordings of Seth are also available. For the complete collection, see our free catalogue or browse our website.

[Volume I of The Seth Audio Collection] consists of six (1-hour)

cassettes plus a 34-page booklet of Seth transcripts.Topics covered in Volume I include:

• Creating your own reality -- How to free yourself from limiting beliefs and create the life you want.

• Dreams and out-of-body experiences.

• Reincarnation and Simultaneous Time.

• Connecting with your inner self.

• Spontaneity­--Letting yourself go with the flow of your being.

• Creating abundance in every area of your life.

• Parallel (probable) universes and exploring other dimensions of reality.

• Spiritual healing, how to handle emotions, overcoming depression and much more.

FOR A FREE CATALOGUE, or to ORDER Seth audios or books, please visit our website or call us at the phone number given below.

www.sethcenter.com [NEW AWARENESS NETWORK INC.]

[Email address: ]

(Phone (516) 869-9108 between 9:00-5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday EST]

[Books by Jane Roberts from Amber-Allen Publishing]

[Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.] This essential guide to conscious living clearly and powerfully articulates the furthest reaches of human potential, and the concept that each of us creates our own reality.

[The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know..]

In this perennial bestseller, Seth challenges our assumptions about the nature of reality and stresses the individual's capacity for conscious action.

[The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events.] Seth explores the connection between personal beliefs and world events, how our realities merge and combine "to form mass reactions such as the overthrow of governments, the birth of a new religion, wars, epidemics, earthquakes, and new periods of art, architecture, and technology."

[The Magical Approach: Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living.] Seth reveals the true, magical nature of our deepest levels of being, and explains how to live our lives spontaneously, creatively, and according to our own natural rhythms.

(The Oversoul Seven Trilogy (The Education of Oversoul Seven, The Further Education of Oversoul Seven, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time).] Inspired by Jane's own experiences with the Seth Material, the adventures of Oversoul Seven are an intriguing fantasy, a mind-altering exploration of our inner being, and a vibrant celebration of life.

[The Nature of the Psyche.] Seth reveals a startling new concept of self, answering questions about the inner reality that exists apart from time, the origins and powers of dreams, human sexuality, and how we choose our physical death.

[The "Unknown" Reality, Volumes One and Two.] Seth reveals the multidimensional nature of the human soul, the dazzling labyrinths of unseen probabilities involved in any decision, and how probable realities combine to create the waking life we know.

[Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, Volumes One and Two.] Seth discusses the material world as an ongoing self-creation---the product of a conscious, self-aware and thoroughly animate universe, where virtually every possibility not only exists, but is constantly encouraged to achieve its highest potential.

[The Way Toward Health.] Woven through the poignant story of Jane Roberts' final days are Seth's teachings about self-healing and the mind's effect upon physical health.

[Available in bookstores everywhere.]