Seth Session 604 (from the Yale Archives)
Wednesday January 12, 1972, 9:19 p.m.
This compilation may only be used for private study, scholarship, or research.
(Notes on an abortive projection attempt; I lay down for a nap after supper on Friday evening, Jan 14. I used the bedroom in apartment four. We had been working long hours on our own, and I had been putting in overtime at Artistic, so I was quite tired. I dozed for a few moments upon laying down, then came awake to find myself with the unmistakable feeling of floating halfway to the ceiling of the bedroom.)
(The sensation was quite definite, and quiet strange. For I still felt my body against the bed – I lay face up, covered by a blanket – as though my body was pasted to the bed. In other words, I floated in the air, bed and all, quite pleasantly. There was no fear or panic. Instead I hoped to continue the experience into something greater.)
(Shortly after I became aware, Jane began to do the dishes. The geography of our kitchen in apartment four is such that noise can evidently seep through a closet wall in the bedroom and so is quite easily heard. Jane made noise handling the dishes, I heard the water run,etc. In addition she turned on her radio. Even though she kept it on low volume, I heard it. I told myself these things would not distract me. I lay without moving a muscle, trying to encourage further developments without straining. The floating free sensation continued but I wasn’t able to develop it further.)
(I nearly always use suggestions re projection when I lay down. I believe my tiredness tonight helped the state. Now I sent Jane messages that she would leave me undistracted, but nothing developed. The feeling lasted for well over a minute, I would estimate; finally it began to diminish or fade out, and I fell asleep again. Upon writing this, I now recall that immediately upon laying down I drifted into a rather complete, if brief, dreaming state – but I cannot recall the dream. But I went form the dream into the projection.)
(Peculiarly, I had no feeling of being detached from my physical body – that is, I didn’t feel I was bodiless, hovering above it; I had taken the bed up with me, you see. I felt the bed and I were several feet above the floor. I wanted to try turning over astrally, and I wanted to try reaching up toward the ceiling astrally, to see if I could touch it. I didn’t move at all, though, because of the noise form the kitchen. I managed to hold the state while considering the kitchen interference, but was concerned lest any attempt at movement on my part would break the spell entirely.)
(The session this evening, Wednesday, developed rather spontaneously out of several factors that combined almost effortlessly. The recent Sumari developments involving both of us played a part. So did my studying of photos of Baalbek, the first century AD Roman ruins in Lebanon. The enormity of the stones in these buildings left me amazed; I didn’t see how blocks weighing 1200 tons could be moved without machinery, let alone fitted into place over twenty feet up on foundations, etc. The pictures were truly awe-inspiring. I came across them in one of the books on ancient history that Shirley Bickford, one of Jane’s students, brought for us to consult on the very ancient civilization, Sumeria, in Meapotamia, from 4000 to 2000 BC, I believe without consulting dates.)
(Jane and I hadn’t believed there was any connection between Jane’s Sumarian development, and Sumer, since the Sumari, as explained in recent sessions, had never been physical in our terms. Tonight’s session went into this, to our surprise.)
(Shortly after supper this evening, Tom Milligan, a former student of Jane’s brought us a copy of Saga Magazine for Dec. 71. It contained an article by our friend Otto Binder, entitled “Ufo’s Own Earth and All Mankind!” This article touched upon many ideas we are interested in, and quoted astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, among others, re the ownership of the race idea. We spend some time discussing it. We had no opinion particularly, beyond remembering that according to Seth the whole question of the race of man and its origins, and doubts concerning theories of evolution, was vastly more complicated than was generally believed. Seth’s ideas of time give us quite a different approach to these ideas also.)
(In the NY Times tonight I read an article, with pictures, of the Mars probe currently underway by our Mariner spacecraft. Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University was quoted in the article. Dr. Sagan was also quoted in Otto’s article, regarding the ancient Sumerian – Akkadian legends and UFO’s, to our surprise. The question that has always bothered me is brought up – why does our history only go back five or 6000 years ago, when Homo Sapiens appeared some 50 000 years ago as an established species?)
(In addition, I have always doubted the block and tackle idea used in constructing such massive, enormous wonders as Baalbek. With this goes my questions concerning the ability of sculptors to do the marvelously intricate carving adorning all of these buildings, on such an enormous scale. I have always wondered just how it was possible, with the few tools then available, according to our history, to do this work. It seems beyond the tools scope. I would delight in seeing it duplicated today, using identical stone, tools, etc., with time trials.)
(Thus, all of these points came together tonight and resulted in the session. In the beginning Jane’s pace was rather slow, her eyes closed often. The session was held in her study in apartment four.)
Seth: “Now good evening.”
Rob: “Good evening, Seth.””
Seth: “The message for tonight is: you are not owned.
“Now, your human stock did not all originate solely from your planet. I never told you that it did. In that respect your ancestry is indeed varied. Some of the information given in my own book, by inference, should have made that clear.”
(By coincidence – Seth’s book has just come back to us from Prentice Hall for us to go over the copy editor’s suggestions before it is set in galleys, which we will see in April. But we haven’t had time to reread the manuscript.)
Seth: “Evolution, as it is thought of, had many different aspects in those terms. There were three or four beginning points. Do you follow me?”
Rob: “Yes.”
Seth: “There were then visits from others in other planetary systems. In that regard this is quite natural. Your own relative isolation is far from the average. The legends, many of them, therefore, were of course chronicles of quite legitimate physical events, describing phenomena for example for which natives had no adequate vocabulary. They were forced to describe what they saw by making comparisons with objects and events already familiar to them.”
(Jane’s pace, as Seth, was now quite a bit faster.) “Some such visitors, in your terms, were more evolved than others. All, however, would appear as superhuman in contrast to those civilizations that encountered them. There were some deliberate experiments, that were in fact far more dangerous to the experimenters, always in which the experimenters tried, in one way or another, tried to advance man’s knowledge.
(9:29) “It is not nearly as simple as that, however. There is not a one-line development. By the time that feasible inter-system space travel is practical, the psychic abilities are developed to a very high degree. One is necessary for the other. Therefore, it became much more feasible to approach earthmen during their dream state, when their natural fear reactions were somewhat minimized, and where the danger to the visitors was far less.”
(It was so hot in the room that I asked Seth to wait while I turned the heat off. I also opened a kitchen window. Jane sat quietly in trance.)
Seth: “Out of body encounters were used as a matter of course. The visitor could appear and disappear then without fear of pursuit. Civilizations were often warned in advance of natural disasters that were apparent to the visitors with their greater viewpoint.
“Such warnings were either given in the dream state of the earthmen, for the reasons given or often in some secluded place, for often the visitors would be attacked. During these eras, in your terms, the Speakers often acted as go-betweens. Often warnings of disaster were not followed. Some warnings were misunderstood, then, as punishment by the gods of ‘moral misdoing.’
(9:36) “The whole moral code idea was originally tailored for the current scene as it was encountered, told in terms that the natives could understand.
“The pyramids, the huge boulders etched out (I think Seth refers here to Baalbek; I didn’t interrupt to ask.) All of this was done in one way or another through the use of, a knowledge of, both coordination points in space (described by Seth in his own book) and the use of sound. (Also described to some degree.) There were instruments that released sound, and directed it in the same way, say, that a laser beam does with light.
“Drawings of some of these exist in primitive Sumerian cave renditions, but the drawings are misinterpreted, the instrument is taken for another. No one knows how to use the instruments. There are a few in existence, in your terms.”
(The Sumerians were a pre-Semetic race inhabiting the lower Euphrates valley; their empire dated from about the 4th millennium BC. They were probably the Biblical Shinar. Their country was called Sumer, etc.)
Seth: “The Sumarians (spelled) left the memory of their existence in the Sumerian culture (spelled. This is the connection Jane and I hadn’t believed existed.) They initiated it, though they did not direct all of its activities, nor were they responsible for the distortions of their teachings that often resulted. There is a difference then between Sumarian and the culture in the books. Your Sumarian were behind the culture – they initiated that particular civilization.
“I will be clear. Your Sumarian showed earth people at that time how to communicate, how to initiate crafts, gave them all the fundamentals upon which a civilization then could be based. The Sumarians, your Sumarians however, were not of human stock at that time.
“Now. Your Sumarians have become human stock in those terms at other times. it is not a point of them trying to invade a native stock. They simply understood the nature of individual existences. Therefore, they are able to choose from various physical systems those in which they would like to have experience.
“They maintain their inner knowledge and integrity, and are born within any given system. They always use their native abilities and talents to help the system, working very strongly in psychic or creative endeavors.
“I do not necessarily mean that they are consciously aware of their affiliation. This is an individual matter. They are often inventors, always then involved with the initiation of new ideas or discoveries. All of this follows inner patterns that are specifically human in your terms. Humanity therefore has its own characteristics, and no ‘outside influence’ can go counter to these, but must work with them.
(9:50) “When it seems that great discoveries come, and then are lost through the ages, perhaps to be rediscovered, it simply means that man’s own nature was not in harmony with them, could not use them properly. Whenever aggressiveness became too misguided it automatically caused the loss of powers or discoveries that could be used to destroy the planet.
“This is a natural aspect, the self-protective principle that operates within earth life as you know it. On occasion discoveries were given before their time, and promptly lost, only to be rediscovered ages later.
“The problem comes when you try to categorize consciousness or being. The out of body state, in greater terms, is a far more natural state than in the body. You adopt and make a body. You do this now without even knowing that you do so, but a body can be made from the camouflage of any system, constructed easily when you know how to do it.
“Space suits are, therefore, an inadequate, clumsy memory of an inner ability to clothe the inner self with whatever camouflage is at hand, to merge with the elements of an environment in such a way that you become a living part of it.
“The Sumarians – Your Sumerians (spelled) did this when they initiated the culture spoken about in your books. Their sense of time is completely different, as however your own is innately. It is difficult to explain this, but keeping in touch with a civilization for several thousand years of your earth time, would entail perhaps the same amount of time and effort a man might take in his profession over a period of five to ten years, so the relativity of time is important in that context.
“You may take your break.”
(10:01 – Jane’s pace had been good, her trance good also. I had trouble in some instances deciding in the copy which spelling to use – Sumerian or Sumarian; in some instances my quick decisions were in error, I came to believe as I typed up this copy, so as can be seen I made changes. Jane read them over, and agrees that this copy is now as Seth meant it to be.)
(I told Jane at breakfast that I needed a capsule definition of Sumari and she said that last night in ESP class Seth had commented that the Sumari was a “federation of consciousness.” We get the duplicated transcript of each ESP class the following week, so we do not have the record for last night’s ESP class session, for 1/11, yet.)
(During break I referred again to the photos of the massive ruins of Baalbek in one of the books Shirley Bickford lent us. I explained to Jane my feeling that the amazingly intricate stone carving, particularly the bas-relief work, seemed beyond the abilities of the hammer and chisel. Jane broke in to tell me that this carving was done by small instruments that used inaudible sound waves: these radiations softened the stone, she said, so the work could be performed. She didn’t know where this data came from. If from Seth it wasn’t obvious to her.)
(Resume at 10:20)
Seth: “Now – Are you ready for me?
Rob: “Yes.”
Seth: “Basically – in your terms now – there is no such thing as an isolated, independent earth stock, in that consciousness did not suddenly erupt from the physical behavior or characteristics of your planet, or in any other.
“As you know, consciousness comes first, and then forms the physical materializations of it. Those consciousnesses who picked physical materialization choose to operate under certain conditions that then appear as the natural characteristics of a species to you.
“They accept certain characteristics, and while experiencing existence within them must follow along the roads they’ve chosen. Hence earlier I spoke of the natural bent of humanity, of all those, then, who choose existence within you particular planetary existence.
“Consciousness is not local, and it never was.
“You have always been Sumari. This simply means that your consciousness has certain bents of its own, interests and abilities and specializations. The word Sumari characterizes a certain kind of consciousness simply for means of identification in your terms.
“I told you once that there are clumps of consciousness. This does not mean that consciousness is not individual and separate, but that it also has a great ability to congregate, to reach out in affiliation, to share knowledge and experience, and to combine itself in ever-changing patterns while still retaining its basic identity and integrity.
(10:29) “To have explained this to you when we began our sessions would not have been possible. (Pause.) Now give us a moment. (Long pause.)
“Space and time are constructions of ideas. They do not appear physically, as say a table or a chair, yet they seem to define both a table and a chair, in that you cannot easily conceive of a piece of furniture, for example, existing except in the medium of space and time.
“The ideas of space and time are constructed in different ways in various systems. In some they appear as natural phenomena, for example as various classifications of objects, in some as variations of sound or light. You find it exceedingly difficult to consider existence at all without space and time, yet basically consciousness is independent of both.
“The ideas of space and time emerge only when consciousness adopts camouflage, only when it becomes wedded, in other words, with a physical type existence. Time and space are both creations of consciousness, in other words, and vehicles of its expression.
“Matter is a classification. As explained in my book, various levels of concentration can be used as platforms leading you out of focus, into other time schemes. Time is like color. You are merely focusing upon one hue. (10:39)
“Your present civilization and the ‘old’ Sumerian (spelled) civilization, exist at once, then simultaneously, but to speak to you about these I must use a time sequence you understand. If it were understood that these civilizations exist at once, then you would not be so surprised that they ‘were’ able to build structures that you cannot build in your now.
“Your now and their now exists now.
“In the present physical area in which it seems to you that a physical civilization once existed, that civilization still exists. You cannot meet it though you stand at the same spot, because of the ideas of time that separate you. The civilization in flower, and the ruins, coexist. The living ancient Sumerians pass the modern tourists without seeing them, even as the tourists walk in the middle of the old Sumerian marked places and see only ruins.
“Much of this could be explained in mathematical equations that presently escape you. Your own consciousness is contemporary with the ancient Sumerians (spelled) as well as with your current selves in your terms.
(10:46) “Think of countries existing simultaneously now on your planet. There are differences in language and culture, and it takes a certain amount of earth time to travel through space to visit them. In the same way all times exist at once, with their peculiar customs, and in your terms within the same space that you know.
“You have learned how to make roads through space, but not through time on a conscious level. There are intersections in time and space, however, that you have not recognized. I am speaking in your terms, hopefully to make this simpler. (Pause.) Times exist then as surely as places. You think of time as moving toward something, and of space as relatively stable.
“It does not occur to you then that you can get to times, as you can get to places. (Pause at 10:53.) All of this is highly difficult to explain. I do not mean for example that time, each moment, is a finished and done thing to be visited. While time is not moving in a particular direction, in your terms, each moment explodes outwards, or expands outward in all directions.
“Space and time as you understand them ripple through each other. They do not behave as you think they do, however. Presently you understand your existence only as it intrudes into three dimensions. Its own activity is in many other dimensions however.
“The Sumari, therefore, appear in or intrude into the three dimensional system from other dimensions.
“Now you may take a break or end the session as you prefer.”
Rob: “We’ll take the break.”
(10:58. Jane’s trance had again been very good. Now she talked more about what she had said at last break, concerning the carving done on stone that had been softened by instruments employing sound. Only a very sophisticated instrument was used, she said, to soften the top layer of the stone so that it was “like frosting which could then be easily carved. The instrument might have done both the softening and the carving.”)
(But first of all,” she added as we continued to talk, “either that instrument or another one was used to isolate the top layer of the stone from the rest of it so that it wasn’t weakened.” We had been discussing the very intricate and extensive bas-relief carving pictured on the door frames and lintels of the ruins at Baalbek in this instance – not, say the in-the-round carving shown on columns,etc.)
(Ack-a-sond-a. This is my phonetic interpretation of a word Jane got regarding the instrument in question, whether from Seth or not she didn’t know, as at last break. The sound wasn’t audible to human ears. The instrument “sort of looked like – I can’t really do it – the shape I’m getting is of a very rough pistol shape…All you had to do was aim it. That was just for the small stuff.”)
(Resume at 11:15)
Seth: “Now. Matter was manipulated through sound. Some remnants of spaceships became temples. Some visitors were seen to die, and later seen again recovered, hence the Egyptians’ sureness that the individual survived death.
“Because of space travel a visitor might come as a young man, and return some 40 earth years later still appearing as a young man, leading to the idea of immortality and eternal youth of the gods.”
(Such effects would grow out of the operation of Einstein’s relativity postulates, etc.)
Seth: “The Olympic gods were perhaps the most amusing of man’s attempt to deify space travelers. Mixed in here strongly were the ideas of gods mating with earth women. (Pause.)
“In some respects the over enthusiastic use of the sound was responsible for the flood mentioned in the Bible, and other literature. It was for this reason that many attempts were made to warn against the impending disaster. The use of sound was important at various times in irrigating dry areas, quite literally by pulling water from a distance.
(11:22) “There were several characteristics that proved difficult, however. Literally, the sound traveled further often than was intended, causing consequences not planned upon. Great finesse was important. Sound was also used after irrigation to speed up the flowering of plants, and to facilitate transplantation to other areas. It was also utilized for medicinal purposes in operations, particularly in bone and brain operations.
“Verbal sounds were often stereotyped simply because the effect of sound was understood in its effects upon the body. Many ideas that are considered superstitious had a quite legitimate basis, therefore. Sound was used to locate one also, and to break someone down. It was also used to locate gas pockets.
“This is a difficult subject. For the movement of heavy tons of rock for example different techniques, using sound and precise mathematical calculations were necessary. Many civilizations grew and flourished in fertile areas simply because the people knew how to make them fertile and to keep them that way.
“Now you had better end the session. My heartiest regards to you both.”
Rob: “Thank you very much, Seth. It’s been extremely interesting. Good night.”
(11:32. Both of us were quite tired. There was much more data available, we knew, but we were to weary to get it.)
Rob’s Notes:
I read the 604th Session to ESP class on Tuesday, January 7, 1975. After I’d read some pages, George Rhodes held up a drawing he’d made of the ankh and asked Seth – who had come through – – if the sound instrument was the ankh, or at least shaped like it. Like a pistol if held sideways. The “barrel” would emit the sound ray and the mechanisms and controls would be in the short arms.
Seth told George he was quite right. The passage will be included in the class transcript for 1/7/75 that we’ll get next Tuesday, and I’ll try to remember to attach a copy of it to this session.
ankh (angk), n. (Egypt. ankh life, prosperity.) A T-shaped cross surmounted by a loop, used as a sacred emblem, symbolizing life; – called also crux ansata.