You Create Your Own Reality: The Fallacy of Death in the Seth Material Paradigm

Abstract

You create your own reality. Such a compelling statement might appear to derive directly from Transcendentalism, the self-reliant, idealist religious movement championed by Ralph Waldo Emerson early in the nineteenth century; or, its origin could lie in the pragmatist tradition advocated by William James. Instead, the popular clich� "you create your own reality" was coined by the disembodied spirit or "energy essence personality" named "Seth" who was channeled through the mediumship of Jane Roberts (Seth/Jane) during the years 1963-1984.1 It was during these years that Roberts, along with her husband Robert Butts, authored thirty-eight Seth/Jane related books concerned with the nature of reality, time and space, death, reincarnation, and spiritual development.2 Roberts's first book The Seth Material (1963), where Seth/Jane first tells us that we create our reality, launched what can be considered a modern mystical trend within contemporary expressions of metaphysical or New Age spirituality.3 New Age spirituality includes many strata of belief and practice that draw from a variety of religious traditions, but often privileges self-transformation and social reform through healing as well as access to esoteric knowledge through channeled teachers, ascended masters, meditation, visualization, and dream work.4