I found it nurturing Personally, I enjoyed this book. It was helpful to me considering my personal situation. I did not find it depressing, because (a) I don't think that physical life is the end-all-and-be-all of 'success', (b) I truly believe it is Jane's choice to live or die and I choose not to second-guess her choices, (c) Seth never claimed to be omnipotent and I suspect that Jane did leave the hospital and go home to her cats in an alternate reality. Not this one, though. Anyway, the book helped me drop some personal judgments and preconceptions. And it just felt nurturing.
A thought-provoking finale This book, more than being strictly about health, is a thought-provoking finale of all Seth material to date. I rate this book five stars because of its significance and the emotional impact it had on me. I expected the usual Seth experience from previous books, his clever insights, skipping Robert's italicized comments, etc., and found myself instead witnessing the sad drama of Jane's last months of life. This book was emotionally hard to read and I cried at several points. As a reader, your heart goes out to Jane and Robert.
Jane's decision to give up healing herself and die was a startling shock at the end of the book, specifically because she had Seth, the profound teacher, at her disposal for many years. How could she not heal with such help from Seth, you keep asking yourself. Surprisingly, her way toward health ends up in dying and this makes her the ultimate anti heroine, "failing" the teachings that she herself gave birth to. This is depressing, to say the least.
However, I do not feel either Jane, Seth or the material itself lost credibility in this book. Seth never claimed to be an all-knowing God. He did not determine Jane's life or her decisions. This book makes it obvious how free and in charge of our lives we truly are, literally to the bitter end. This was Seth's ultimate message, he repeated it many times, and this is what makes him credible in my eyes.
When the book ends, Jane dies and Seth's voice is gone forever, you suddenly feel full blast what responsibility you have for your own life. While in the beginning of the material, it was comforting to have Seth validate for you deep-rooted forgotten truths, here, in this book, this comfort is taken away. If you pondered it deeply, you've probably realized carrying the responsibility for your life is a huge challenge and how strongly inclined human beings are to blame something or someone else for their troubles. When you are really hurting and struggling or facing painful conditions, such as Jane did in her last months, this responsibility is difficult to employ. The bottom line is even Seth cannot save you from yourself, the responsibility you have for your life, your beliefs and your decisions. Jane's death or not Jane's death, Seth's principles remain: it is still you with the same old you answering to yourself what being happy or healthy means and how to get there.
Another significance of this book is that it is Jane's and Robert's most personal work. Seth gives some insights of a very personal nature as to why Jane attracted her severe condition and these made me think long and hard about my own problems. It seems you can interpret your diseases as symbolically as you can interpret your dreams. If you know anything about writing, you know what challenge Robert faced turning this material into cohesive work, especially considering the poignant subject matter and his personal involvement in it. He did a magnificent job with the notes, his personality comes to the forefront more than in previous books, and his voice, perspective and editing decisions truly make this work one of a kind. I highly commend him for his decision to release this material and share such an intimate piece of his and Jane's life with us for learning's sake. This book is a celebration of Jane's life and her death as a natural part of it. Telling the story of her death was a missing piece in the entire Seth material and now it elevates it in an important way.
Boring, too much Author, Author,Authour! I love the Seth Books, but this is not one that will take up space on my book shelf. It is really trash and not worth the money. If you are a Seth fan save your money and do not buy this one. If you must read it buy it second hand at a really, really, reduced price.It was primarly about the illnes of the Author and offered not insite in self health.
Jane's Decision... Even though Seth told Jane that she would be coming home, he had to know the truth. Jane was in horrible pain and dying from a terminal disease. Who would want to "live" like that? Sure it's nice to try and cheer someone up, but the bottom line is, Jane's body was failing her, it was time to go. I'm sure Seth was there the second she became spirit.
What No-one Here Is Saying This is an enjoyable book which I should give 4 stars to, but I wanted to grab the attention of Seth fans like myself, and do some intelligent house-cleaning.
On the up side, the book details Jane and Robs relationship during a long hospital stay that ended in Jane's death. They're very sincere, likeable people, and I enjoyed Rob's notes...even his meticulous attention to unimportant details, such as the time Jane received her medication etc. All of this made me feel at times as if I was right there with them in the hospital room. Nice job.
Now, there is a lot of good material here about how to get well, but also some things that make you scratch your head. For the first time, I believe since the sessions began, Seth makes a few mistakes, and has Rob correct certain words or lines. I also found it strange that when a session was interrupted, that Rob had to read Jane what had already been given in order for her to continue...what happened to Seth's ability to pick right up where he had left off? There are many such things in this book that will make you begin, perhaps for the first time, to doubt Seth's (or Jane's) complete reliability.
During the last few sessions before Jane's death, Seth continually reassures Jane that she WILL recover enough to go home again. Then, in the very last session, he states positively that she has not chosen to die at this time. And yet, die she does.
Now, you can find many reasons to keep your faith in Seth's omnipitence intact. You could say he was lying to Jane to encourage her belief in her own wellness. You could say that Jane was weak and on medication and that this affected the accuracy of the sessions. For me, though, there were enough eye-raising aspects encountered in this book, to make me wonder about viewing Seth's work as an absolute authority.
I believe that we do create our own lives. I've proven that to myself over and over, but this idea is not unique to Jane Roberts. It has been included in many teachings around the world for hundreds of years.
I'm beginning to question how accurate trance channeling really is, though. Kevin Ryerson's entities "John" and "Tom" gave Shirley MacLaine dead on information about her life that no-one else could have known, and that fact was really encouraging. Many entities state, however, (including Seth) that accuracy can be affected by many factors.
I've also been wondering about what the experience of channeling is really like. I mean, we are frequently willing to give our faith to quality material that we read, and we imagine that the author is distinctly aware of a separate personality that is undeniably speaking to them. However, Jane had many doubts about Seth, as did many authors about their own spirits. She felt impelled to speak words because various meanings were coming to her mind, but is that the experience that we are imagining it to be? We are willing to give our faith at times when even the author is not willing to completely trust that a discarnate personality is really there. Even at the end of her life, after years of Seth supposedly proving himself in various ways, Jane wasn't willing to trust him when he said she would recover. In fact, immediately after those sessions, she told Rob that she felt that she had chosen to die. So, despite the fact that she wanted to go home so bad she could taste it, and despite the fact that Seth had told her she would go home, she stopped eating, ignored all hope, and died. She didn't even take Seth seriously, and yet thousands of readers, who don't even know what the experience of channeling is really like, are willing to believe completely.
Perhaps, many channelers aren't really channeling either. Maybe it's just a more comfortable way for them to receive psychic information, by subconsciously pretending a separate personality is giving it to them. I wish that Jane and Rob would have done more tests on Seth, even to just verify the accuracy of the psychic stuff. Rob had the habit of explaining to Jane all he wanted to ask Seth before the sessions began, and thereby giving her a heads up...not very scientific. If Seth could go into Rob's mind and explain all of the beliefs behind things that were happening to him, then he surely would know what Rob wanted to talk about, what images were presently in his mind etc. I remember one session, in particular, when Seth told Rob that he could briefly materialize and pose for a painting sometime. If I were Rob, I would have jumped at the chance. It would have proven to Jane, definitively, that Seth was real, or at least that they were able to conjure up some amazing hallucinations together. Anyhow, I think that the offer to pose was in "The Nature of Personal Reality", and I couldn't believe that Rob didn't follow up on that...unless it's in their private material. Anyhow, enough said I guess. If you're a Seth fan, this book will give you plenty to think about.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
