The Magical Approach: Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living

«What magicians we all are, turning darkness into light, transforming invisible atoms into the dazzling theater of the world,» — Jane Roberts abre el volumen con un poema fechado en 1979 que llama magos a todos: el verso pasa de la oscuridad a la luz y de los átomos invisibles al teatro del mundo

«pulling objects, (people as well as rabbits) out of secret microscopic closets, turning winter into summer, making a palmful of moments disappear through time’s trap door.» — en el mismo poema, Roberts enumera los actos del mago cotidiano: sacar objetos y personas de armarios microscópicos, volver verano el invierno y desaparecer momentos por la trampilla del tiempo

«We learned the methods so long ago that they’re unconscious, and we’ve hypnotized ourselves into believing that we’re the audience,» — Roberts sostiene en el poema que los métodos se aprendieron hace tanto que son inconscientes, y que el aprendiz se hipnotizó a sí mismo para creerse público

«so I wonder where we served our apprenticeship. Under what master magicians did we learn to form reality so smoothly that we forgot to tell ourselves the secret?» — el poema cierra con la pregunta por el aprendizaje y por los maestros bajo los cuales se aprendió a formar la realidad sin decirse el secreto

«I know what happened, and yet consciously I’ll never grasp all of the psychic ramifications involved.» — Robert F. Butts, en el foreword, distingue entre saber lo que pasó y captar conscientemente sus ramificaciones psíquicas

«Even though it’s simultaneous, according to Seth, I needed “time” for my long journey of recovery.» — Butts consigna la simultaneidad del tiempo como doctrina de Seth y a la vez declara haber necesitado tiempo entrecomillado para recuperarse: el desacuerdo queda dentro de su propia frase

«Looking back from my position within the framework of simultaneous time, I’m amazed to see that another ten years passed before the publication» — Butts habla desde dentro del marco del tiempo simultáneo y aun así se asombra del paso de otros diez años

«I know that my wife lives within me now, as I do within her “where she is now” — just as we shared ourselves with each other throughout the nearly twenty-nine years of our marriage.» — Butts sostiene que su mujer vive dentro de él y él dentro de ella, con el mismo verbo con que describe los veintinueve años de matrimonio

«Each one of us is an immortal portion, a spark of endless perception and beauty and feeling — and yes, of conflict and denial at times — within this probable reality that we’re all creating together, even when we don’t know we’re doing it!» — Butts enuncia lo que sostiene sobre la persona: porción inmortal y chispa de percepción dentro de una realidad probable que todos forman sin saberlo

«I watch with awe as within this reality each one of us expresses as best we can our creative understanding of this wonderful mystery.» — Butts cierra el foreword con lo que dice ver: cada uno expresando como puede su comprensión creativa del misterio

«Life goes on, then, only it’s different. Of course my feelings, while being unique in that they’re my own, are intimately bound up with those of everyone else. How could it be otherwise, since no one can live in true isolation?» — Butts niega el aislamiento: sus sentimientos son propios y a la vez están ligados a los de todos los demás

«In our case though, Rob and I usually have no direct audience (not that we can see anyhow), and those few hours spent in trance have an impact on my husband and me — and upon the world — out of context with the actual time expended.» — Jane Roberts, en la introducción, declara que las sesiones no tienen público visible y que su efecto sobre ella, su marido y el mundo no guarda proporción con las horas empleadas

«These beside my own twelve books. Seth doesn’t answer mail though, or do any typing, and so as a result of those trance hours Rob and I spend a good deal of our conscious energy dealing one way or another with the effects of that trance life.» — Roberts distingue esos libros de los doce suyos y describe el reparto: Seth no contesta cartas ni mecanografía, de modo que la vida de trance consume energía consciente de los dos

«In the summer of 1980 I missed Seth sessions for nearly two months.» — Roberts fecha la interrupción de la que arranca el volumen: casi dos meses sin sesiones en el verano de 1980

«I asked for some ideas from my “natural spontaneous self,” and on August 5, 1980, I dreamed that a moving van with me in it was itself being moved by a larger vehicle ahead of some planned time. There was a squabble over seating arrangements which was finally resolved.» — Roberts cuenta que pidió ideas a lo que llama su yo espontáneo natural y que la respuesta vino en el sueño del camión de mudanzas del 5 de agosto de 1980

«I took that to mean that I would shortly be on the move again creatively, and to be prepared, so I had Rob help me move all my writing materials from the small breezeway where I’d finished The God of Jane, into the new patio back room, as a gesture of being ready to start over.» — Roberts lee el sueño como anuncio de un movimiento creativo y actúa en consecuencia mudando sus materiales de trabajo: la interpretación y el acto van juntos

«The pieces of the world fell neatly into their proper places. The pictures of the moments clicked together as they usually do, each instant precise, yet leading into another.» — Roberts describe la textura del día en que empieza el libro: las piezas del mundo encajando y los instantes precisos que llevan uno a otro

«Something in his words struck me in a new fashion. Rob and I often discussed such subjects. He was saying that we were immersed in “magic” no matter what we called it, that manifestations of telepathy, and so forth, were just places where our magic “showed.”» — Roberts recoge la tesis de las notas de su marido: que se está inmerso en magia cualquiera sea el nombre, y que la telepatía y lo demás son los sitios donde esa magia asoma

«For some reason as I finished reading … I felt inspired. Or rather, I felt an inner psychological motion happening — a movement as definite, yet subtle as the shadows that flickered on the floor. A change of balance — a vital but usually-hidden psychic action that instantly changed me and the afternoon.» — Roberts enmienda su propia palabra: no inspiración sino un movimiento psicológico interior, tan definido como las sombras del suelo, que cambió la tarde

«My feelings “clicked;” the incident was significant; and it seemed to fit in too perfectly and meaningfully into the events just previous, as if saying “yes, you do operate magically” … and this is an example of how those perceptions work.» — Roberts adjudica sentido al episodio de la cámara: lo lee como ejemplo de que se opera mágicamente, y no como coincidencia

«If Rob hadn’t come in at that point, I wouldn’t have known that my thought about cameras had anything to do with his thoughts or activities at the same time. So how often do our thoughts relate in one way or another to the thoughts of others?» — Roberts saca del episodio la pregunta que lo generaliza: sin la entrada de su marido no habría sabido que su pensamiento se relacionaba con el de él, y cuántas veces pasará sin advertirse

«Seth’s “Framework 2” would be this magical area, of course, I thought. Yet except for the beginning of that (part) of Seth’s material, Framework 24 never really got through to me emotionally.» — Roberts identifica el área mágica con el Framework 2 de Seth y a la vez confiesa que ese material nunca la había alcanzado emocionalmente

«The magical orientation to reality would include intellectual activity. That went without saying, but the way of relating to life would be completely different too; the way of dealing with problems or health difficulties; of achieving goals and so forth would be drastically different.» — Roberts acota el alcance de la orientación mágica: incluye la actividad intelectual, pero cambia el modo de relacionarse con la vida, con los problemas y con la salud

«The magical orientation might be in direct conflict with our training in this and most present cultures. But it would be part of our natural way of looking at the world — a way that has been overlaid by our belief in the “rational” way of doing things.» — Roberts sitúa el conflicto en la cultura, no en la naturaleza: la orientación mágica es el modo natural, tapado por la creencia en el modo racional

«That way was proving to be not so rational at all, incidently.» — Roberts objeta al modo racional con una frase de paso, dejando la objeción sin desarrollar

«and who should know more about “magic” than Seth? Didn’t he emerge magically to begin with?» — Roberts hace de la aparición misma de Seth el argumento de su competencia sobre la magia

«It was okay. After the layoff, there was Seth poised psychologically once again (for over the thousandth time).» — Roberts describe el regreso de Seth después de la pausa y lleva la cuenta: más de mil veces

«Then I took off my glasses, “turned into” Seth, and began to speak. Bare legs propped up on the coffee table Rob sat, pen poised, and the session started.» — Roberts describe el paso al trance con verbos de acción simple —quitarse los lentes, convertirse en Seth, empezar a hablar— y sitúa a Butts con la pluma lista

«My hunch is that because of my state of mind — interpreting Rob’s dreams, and my reading of his notes, I was in a particular kind of correspondence with» — Roberts propone la explicación como conjetura, no como hecho: interpretar los sueños de su marido y leer sus notas la habría puesto en correspondencia con él; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 20

«him, or with his state of mind, that facilitated the inner communication.» — continuación de la conjetura anterior: es el estado mental del otro lo que facilita la comunicación interior

«Suppose — just suppose — I couldn’t start up again or I lost the knack as suddenly» — Roberts consigna su propia duda antes de la sesión: que no pudiera empezar de nuevo o perdiera la facultad; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 21

«as I’d acquired it (17 years before)? Or Seth spoke gibberish? I didn’t really worry that such things might happen, but I was uneasily aware that they could.» — continuación de la duda anterior: que Seth hablara sin sentido, cosas que no la preocupaban de veras y que sabía posibles; la guarda anticosido se apaga por el paréntesis con cifra de años, releído en el crudo

«Jane Roberts writes in The God of Jane: “Since late 1963, I’ve clocked approximately 4,000 hours of trancetime, during which the Seth sessions have been held twice weekly.» — la nota 1 a la introducción cita a Roberts en otro libro suyo, The God of Jane: la cuenta de horas de trance desde finales de 1963 y la periodicidad de dos sesiones por semana

«My trancetime is more concentrated than regular time. I’m not unconscious but conscious in a different way, at another level …» — Roberts, citada en la misma nota, describe el trance como tiempo más concentrado y como consciencia de otro modo, no como inconsciencia

«This state of perception has nothing to do with classical pathological dissociation; and its products — Seth’s five books — display a highly-developed intellect at work and give evidence of a special kind of creativity.» — Roberts, en la misma cita, niega que el estado sea disociación patológica clásica y ofrece como prueba los libros producidos

«In those trance hours I ‘turn into someone else.’ At least I am not myself to myself; I become Seth, or a part of what Seth is.» — Roberts formula el cambio con reservas sucesivas: se vuelve otro, o al menos deja de ser ella para sí misma, y es Seth o una parte de lo que Seth es

«I don’t feel ‘possessed’ or ‘invaded’ during sessions. I don’t feel that some superspirit has ‘taken over’ my body.» — Roberts niega tres descripciones corrientes de su estado: posesión, invasión y superespíritu que toma el cuerpo

«Instead it’s as if I’m practicing some precise psychological art, one that is ancient and poorly understood in our culture; or as if I’m learning a psychological science that helps me map the contours of consciousness itself …» — Roberts propone en su lugar dos analogías, arte psicológico antiguo y ciencia psicológica que cartografía la consciencia, y las deja las dos como comparación

«after all this time, I’m finally examining the trance view of reality and comparing it to the official views of science and religion.» — Roberts declara tardío su propio examen: comparar la visión del trance con las oficiales de la ciencia y la religión

«But the energy and power of this wave carries me above and below usual reality, sweeping me into contrasts that are microscopic and macroscopic by turns.» — Roberts añade el límite de la imagen anterior: la ola la lleva por encima y por debajo de la realidad usual, entre contrastes microscópicos y macroscópicos

«The Seth books present an alternate map of reality with a new diagram of the psyche … useful to all explorers of consciousness.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Deepak Chopra, que llama a los libros de Seth mapa alterno de la realidad con un diagrama nuevo de la psique

«Seth was one of my first metaphysical teachers. He remains a constant source of knowledge and inspiration in my life.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Marianne Williamson, que declara a Seth entre sus primeros maestros metafísicos

«I would like to see the Seth books as required reading for anyone on their spiritual pathway. The amazing in-depth information in the Seth books is as relevant today as it was in the early ‘70s when Jane Roberts first channeled this material.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Louise Hay, que pide los libros de Seth como lectura obligada y llama canalizado el material

«Seth’s teachings had an important influence on my life and work, and provided one of the initial inspirations for writing Creative Visualization.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Shakti Gawain, que atribuye a las enseñanzas de Seth una de las inspiraciones iniciales de su propio libro

«The Seth books were of great benefit to me on my spiritual journey and helped me to see another way of looking at the world.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Gerald G. Jampolsky

«As you read Seth’s words, you will gain more than just new ideas. Seth’s energy comes through every page — energy that expands your consciousness and changes your thoughts about the nature of reality.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Sanaya Roman, que atribuye a la energía de Seth un efecto sobre quien lee

«Quite simply one of the best books I’ve ever read.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Richard Bach

«To my great surprise — and slight annoyance — I found that Seth eloquently and lucidly articulated a view of reality that I had arrived at only after great effort and an extensive study of both paranormal phenomena and quantum physics.» — blurbo de solapa firmado por Michael Talbot, que dice haber llegado por su cuenta a la misma visión de la realidad tras estudiar lo paranormal y la física cuántica

«BOOKS BY JANE ROBERTS The Rebellers (1963) The Coming of Seth (How to Develop Your ESP Power) (1966) The Seth Material (1970)» — encabezado de la lista de obras que el volumen imprime en su aparato, con los tres primeros títulos y sus años; la guarda anticosido se apaga por los años entre paréntesis de la lista, releída entera en el crudo

«Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul (1972)* The Education of Oversoul Seven (1973)» — en la misma lista, los títulos de 1972 y 1973; el asterisco marca la coedición posterior, y los dos primeros tienen ficha propia en el corpus; la guarda anticosido se apaga por los años entre paréntesis de la lista, releída entera en el crudo

«* New editions co-published by Amber-Allen/New World Library, 1994 and 1995.» — la nota al pie de la lista explica la marca de un asterisco: las nuevas ediciones coeditadas por Amber-Allen y New World Library en 1994 y 1995; la guarda anticosido se apaga por los años, releídos en el crudo

«© 1995 Robert F. Butts © 2011 Laurel Davies-Butts Co-published by Amber-Allen Publishing and New World Library EDITORIAL OFFICE: DISTRIBUTION OFFICE: Amber-Allen Publishing New World Library» — la página de derechos, con los dos titulares del copyright y la coedición, y el reparto de oficinas entre la editorial y la distribuidora; la guarda anticosido se apaga por los años sueltos, releídos en el crudo

«All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.» — la reserva de derechos del editor, con la excepción del reseñista que cita pasajes breves

«BF1301.S377 1994 133.9′3–dc20 94-22091» — la signatura de clasificación y el número de control de la misma ficha catalográfica, que fechan el registro en 1994; la guarda anticosido se apaga por las cifras de año, releídas en el crudo

«but the pressures of Jane’s illness, and of our producing other books, kept us from publishing it quickly. Then Jane died in 1984, at the age of 55. I was 65.» — Robert F. Butts, en el foreword, da las razones del retraso de la edición: la enfermedad de Roberts, los otros libros en curso y la muerte de ella en 1984

«Janet Mills, the publisher and editor for the new editions of Jane’s books, suggested that I write a bit about the situation.» — Butts nombra a la editora que le pidió el foreword y explica por qué el volumen lleva uno

«She’s worked as a researcher of Jane’s material for The Magical Approach — the book she has “most dreamed of working on.”» — Butts acredita a Laurel Lee Davies como investigadora del material de este volumen y cita su propia frase sobre el libro

«Laurel has been Seth’s “metaphysical apprentice,” as she recently put it, for fourteen years now.» — Butts repite la fórmula con que Davies se describe a sí misma ante Seth

«Janet told me, after publishing the first two reprints, that she “would like to publish all of the books at once.”» — Butts cita a Janet Mills sobre el plan de reeditar la obra entera de Roberts

«Without Anne Marie’s untiring help, I question whether I’d still be in publishing.» — Butts atribuye a la agente literaria Anne Marie O’Farrell el haber hallado a Janet Mills y a Amber-Allen

«I’m still not finished with the duplication of Jane’s and my papers for Yale University Library.» — Butts declara en curso la copia de los papeles de ambos para la biblioteca de Yale

«I’m very fortunate that the help of all of those I’ve mentioned, and of others, too, is enabling me to keep the promise I made to Jane on her deathbed ten years ago, when she asked me to publish all of her work.» — Butts declara el encargo del que salen estas reediciones: la promesa hecha a Roberts en su lecho de muerte

«For some time now Rick Stack and I have discussed a most intriguing project: the private printing, by Rick, of the complete transcripts of those first 510 sessions that Jane held before the publication of The Seth» — Butts anuncia la impresión privada de las 510 sesiones anteriores a The Seth Material; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 16

«Material in 1970. This will be a massive job. The set of eight volumes will be called The Early Sessions, and will be sold by subscription only, at least in the beginning.» — continuación del anuncio anterior: la colección se llamará The Early Sessions, serán ocho tomos y se venderán por suscripción

«As Seth I’ve produced five previous books: Seth Speaks; The Nature of Personal Reality; The “Unknown” Reality, Volumes I and II; The Nature of the Psyche; and The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, and Seth is halfway through a sixth book: Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment.» — Roberts enumera en primera persona los libros producidos *como Seth* y el sexto a medio hacer: la fórmula pone la autoría en ella y el nombre en él

«See Appendix A for Jane’s material on how some of her own thoughts “relate in one way or another to the thoughts of others.” Included also are excerpts from Seth’s material on a different prediction experience of Jane’s.» — la nota 3 a la introducción remite al apéndice A y habla de Roberts en tercera persona, mientras la nota 5 de la misma serie habla de Butts en tercera persona: el bloque no lleva una sola voz y la ficha no la arbitra

«Robert F. Butts (1919–): Jane Roberts. 1969. Oil on panel, 12½ x 10 in. Jane had been speaking for Seth for six years when she posed for me. I don’t regard my unsigned effort as being a finished work. It was just the best I could do at the time.» — pie de la primera lámina, firmado por Butts: el retrato de 1969, la fecha en que Roberts llevaba seis años hablando por Seth, y su propia reserva sobre el cuadro sin firmar

«Seth is the “energy personality essence” Jane speaks for while in a trance or dissociated state. Since he calls Jane by the male-oriented name of her larger or whole self, “Ruburt,” it follows that Seth also calls her “he,” “his,” and “him.”» — la nota 1 a la sesión uno, en la voz de Butts, define a Seth como la esencia de personalidad energética por la que habla Roberts y explica el nombre masculino Ruburt y los pronombres que de él se siguen

«It’s true, following the enthusiasm we felt when Seth first described Frameworks 1 and 2 three years ago, that Jane and I haven’t consistently tried all that hard to draw from that overall concept the results we think we consciously want.» — Butts consigna en nota que ni él ni Roberts se habían esforzado de veras por sacar del Framework 2 los resultados que decían querer

«Then, in a private session held on the evening of September 17, 1977, Seth came through with a very exciting concept called ‘Framework 1 and Framework 2.’ Jane and I were so struck by the practical, farreaching implications of this proposition that we began a concerted effort to put it to use in daily life. Briefly and very simply, Seth maintains that Framework 2, or inner reality, contains the creative source from which we form all events, and that by the proper focusing of attention we can draw from that vast subjective medium everything we need for a constructive, positive life in Framework 1, or physical reality.» — Butts se cita a sí mismo en sus notas de apertura para Mass Events: el Framework 2 como fuente creativa interior de la que se extrae lo necesario para el Framework 1; la guarda anticosido se apaga por las fechas del tramo, releído entero en el crudo, y el troceo parte *far-reaching* en el fin de renglón, de modo que `span()` la devuelve fundida

«SESSION TWO THE RATIONAL APPROACH. SCIENTIFIC HARDBED REALITY. THE INTELLECT AND THE MAGICAL APPROACH. AUGUST 11, 1980 8:43 P.M., MONDAY» — encabezado de la sesión dos, con su título, su fecha y su hora; la capitular de la apertura queda desplazada al margen como *(T*

«oday I bought Jane a “water cushion” to aid in her sitting difficulties, but upon filling it after supper we didn’t think it would work. I also bought her three kinds of underclothes to try …» — Butts abre la sesión dos con la crónica doméstica del día; el troceo pierde la capitular *T* de *Today*

«Jane delivered the above paragraph of material as Seth with much emphasis and conviction, as she has for much of this session. I think it excellent, and plan to make copies to pin on my studio wall for easy reference.)» — Butts anota entre paréntesis, dentro de la sesión, la convicción con que Roberts dictó el pasaje anterior y su propia intención de pegarlo en la pared del estudio

«As soon as she was out of trance I told Jane the session was an excellent one. I was also quite irritated, because Seth’s information had the ability to make things seem self-evident; from that point one was always left wondering how anything so basically clear and simple could be so easily missed and/or misinterpreted by those who most dearly wanted to put it to use.» — Butts anota su propia irritación al salir Roberts del trance: la información de Seth vuelve las cosas evidentes, y eso deja preguntándose cómo se pasan por alto

«The thing is, I really believe the information is good, and that it can work, that basically it’s the best kind of information people can get.» — Butts declara en la misma nota su creencia en el material, con la reserva de que es su parecer

«From my dream notebook: “Dream, very early Tuesday morning, June 10, 1980. “In vivid color: I lived in my parents’ house at 704 North Wilbur Avenue, in Sayre, Pennsylvania. I was my present age, 61. That the house had long been sold, that my parents had died in the early 1970s, and that Jane and I had been married for 26 years and lived in Elmira, New York, were irrelevant in the dream.» — Butts reproduce en nota su propio cuaderno de sueños y fecha el sueño de los Brenner el 10 de junio de 1980; la guarda anticosido se apaga por las fechas y los años del tramo, releído entero en el crudo

«As Floyd and I cut across the court I saw that the Brenner’s lawn was despoiled with a mixture of animal and industrial waste, like pollution. ‘What’s that?’ I exclaimed to Floyd, as I saw a large dark shape near the hickory tree. At first shock I thought it was a deer that might have been killed by a car the night before, say.» — Butts narra en su cuaderno el núcleo del sueño: el césped de los vecinos manchado de desechos y la forma oscura que toma por un venado atropellado

«Then to my amazement I saw that the supposed animal was actually the broken remnants of a hollow, life-sized metal statue of a deer that had stood for years in the front yard of a house on Harrison Street, in Sayre, at the other end of town.» — Butts consigna el giro del sueño: lo que parecía animal era la estatua metálica de un venado que estuvo años en otro punto del pueblo

«On July 23, 1980 — 13 days after I had my dream — the writer of a story in the Elmira Star-Gazette described how the Brenner family won an out-of-court settlement of over $10,000 from the Borough of Sayre and a large store owned by a well-known supermarket chain. The store is located a couple of blocks from the Brenner home, and just off North Wilbur Avenue. Construction at the store had overloaded sewage pipes and caused them to back up after rain storms, filling the basement of the Brenner house with sewage several times.» — Butts data el suceso que sigue al sueño y lo describe por el diario local: el litigio de los vecinos por el desagüe desbordado; la guarda anticosido se apaga por las fechas y cifras del tramo, releído entero en el crudo

«Seth refers to a portion of the notes I wrote on the afternoon of August 5, 1980 — the day before Jane held her first session on The Magical Approach:» — Butts fecha en nota el origen del libro: sus propias notas del 5 de agosto de 1980, la víspera de la primera sesión; la guarda anticosido se apaga por la fecha del tramo, releída en el crudo