Exploring Mass Events: Introduction

By Thomas J. Sherlock

I intend, through a series of articles, to explore Seth’s The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, chapter by chapter. I have been prompted to embark on this exploration by unconnected threads: contemporary world events and my current exploration of another Seth book. In light of recent events such as the tsunami, Katrina, current events such as the cyclone in Myanmar cyclone and the China earthquake (51,000 dead to date), and impending events such as the divisive, dramatic, U.S. presidential election, a review of Mass Events and the psycho-mechanics behind world events seems timely. I have also been lead to explore Mass Events as a result of a similar exploration I am conducting with The Nature of Personal Reality at NewWorldView.com. In an e-mail exchange with Paul Helfrich, steward of New World View, I had asked what would be a logical follow-up to NoPR. While I contemplated The Nature of the Psyche, Paul recommended Mass Events.

Mass Events is subtly presented to the reader with three quotes in the front matter. In the first quote, a disclaimer (disclosure?) is tendered: “We have never told anybody to do anything, except to face up to the abilities of consciousness”. In other words, do not simply sit on your laurels expecting the world to happen around you without your input, without action on your part. You are a powerful being; take responsibilities for your life and you consciousness abilities. The second quote follows with a caveat: “if you are seriously worried about a physical condition, go to a doctor”; and, in the same quote, a reminder regarding your health: “when you have a headache … trouble with your sinuses … hay fever … remind yourself that your body does indeed have the capacity to heal itself.” Finally the reader is presented with a challenge: “Let us each dare/ to open our dream’s door,/ and explore/the unofficial thresholds,/ where we begin”. So, let us begin.

Jane Roberts, the writer, begins her introduction to Mass Events with wit by saying: “A trance is a very private phenomenon” (p. 5). However, this trance occurs in a “physical world of shared events”(p.5). Jane then shares elements of her private life with the reader. She brings up the death of her cat, Billy, touches upon her personal work with “heroic impulses”, describes her subjective experience in receiving information for a subsequent Seth book and lauds her husband Rob Butts for his role as midwife, bringing the Seth material to the public world and for spurring her on. She also references elements of the shared world which have become a part of her private existence, such as her glass of wine, cigarettes, the mass-produced table (emphasis mine) and the tape recorder. And Seth will discuss “in depth how our private realities merge into mass experience” (p.6) and “shows how each of can contribute to the mass reality” (p. 6) for “we are the events in which we participate” (p.7). Jane is a nexus from which she is able to journey into other, inner realities and venture out in to the physical, public realm. She speaks of having a psychological alliance (p. 9) and a psychological bond (p. 9) with Seth. She closes the introduction explaining that the Seth sessions rise from the private lives of herself and her husband (and perhaps Seth’s too). And she reiterates that Seth provides a continuum of existence that spreads from privacy to public life.

Impulses

While paying homage to one of the more revered of Seth expressions: “You make your own reality”, calling it “one of the cornerstones of Seth’s material” (p. 7) Jane notes that in Mass Events, Seth develops this idea deeper and wider, “maintaining that our private impulses are meant to provide the impetus for the development of our own abilities in a way that will also contribute to the best interests of the species and the natural world as well” (p. 7). In fact, much of Mass Events is “concerned with the purposes of our impulses” (p. 7) and it “is an introduction to our impulses, those we follow and those we deny” (p. 8) Impulses should not be ignored because they are creative (p. 8) and the language of the psyche (p. 8). And we should heed our impulses, because Seth reminds us, after all: “we are of good intent.” (p. 7)

Mincing Words

Jane uses different words and phrases to convey the concept of the public space: the physical world of shared events, the physical world of events that we all share together (p. 5), mass experience, the public arena, our world, (p. 6), our civilizations, society, mass reality, global actions, the species (p. 7), world events (p. 7, p. 11), the psyche of the people, of the species itself, the people (p. 9), public world, mass arena of events (p. 11). Jane also infers mass events: mass-produced table (p. 5), Jonestown mass suicides (p. 6).

The idea of public events as being shared reduces the sense that they are objective occurrences disconnected from our private lives. It also evokes the realization that what is happening out there is intimately tethered to our own private lives and that we have an influential participation in mass events. This stream of sharing can also be found throughout the introduction. Jane speak of wanting to share Seth’s “new, vaster philosophical structure with their readers (p. 8) (emphasis mine), and that the introduction is her sole conscious contribution to the book (p. 11) (emphasis mine). May we all make conscious contributions to our world of shared, mass events.

An Emerging Conscious Creative Lexicon for the MidShift¹ Community

In Jane’s introduction to Mass Events, I have encountered some terms which have become quite familiar within the conscious creative colleges of Seth, Elias, Kris and others. There are terms which have taken on new connotations and associations in an effort to express the language of the psyche and to translate or interpret the Shift and the Exploration of our Greater Reality. The word “focus”, for example, can be defined as the lifetime or focus of attention of essence (our higher self) (Elias, session 1120), or in common vernacular, a past life (Kris, private session). Jane first uses the term as we might understand it outside of conscious creation while still hinting at Elias’ definition: “even if I was focused elsewhere and my consciousness turned inward”(p. 6). This could be considered a foreshadowing of the word used later in the introduction as understood by many in the midshift community: “it’s quite legitimate to say that I’m a focus of his [sic] (Seth’s) consciousness” (p. 10). The word “discount” is another example: “Not that such material wasn’t often distorted, or just as often discounted” (p. 10). Here Jane is referring to intuitive disclosures or “our deepest unconscious knowledge about ourselves” (p. 10). The word “discount” is frequently used by Elias and has at least once recently been used by Kris on Kris Radio (Your Own Inner Friend, 15 May 2008). Often used in the phrase “discounting yourself”, it can be considered the opposite of “appreciating yourself”.

Loose Ends

Some comments made by Jane Roberts have left me wondering. I do not discern the solution within the problem. On page 7, she refers to “you make your own reality” as one of the cornerstones, where normally a cornerstone is singular. So what are the other cornerstones and how many are there? Four? Perhaps Mass Events will reveal some more. In page 5, Jane writes: “So technology, with all of its implications, is never really too far away.” Which implications is she referring to? Perhaps the answers to these questions are irrelevant, for, just like Jane and Rob, I am still learning how to ask the right questions (p. 8) And maybe these comments of Jane are not essential because “The point of all of this is [sic] the exploration of human consciousness, its ranges and scopes.” (p. 10).

Notes

• ¹ Term inspired by Opan’s own term “Midshift Earth”