Poet, novelist, author of the Seth material—Jane Roberts’s books have sold over 7.5 million copies. She was one of the most important psychics of the twentieth century. Now, Speaking of Jane Roberts reveals a woman as fascinating as the material she produced.

Susan Watkins and Jane Roberts were friends for sixteen years. Early on, Seth, the entity who spoke through Roberts, told the two women that they were counterparts, connected in this particular lifetime to work out some shared personal issues. In addition to being a compassionate and sometimes painfully honest look at Roberts’s life—her difficult childhood, her constant questioning of psychic abilities and sources of creativity, her resistance to Seth’s advice, her dramatic struggles with her health—Speaking of Jane Roberts is also a beautiful and applicable illustration of the counterpart relationship. The connection that Watkins and Roberts shared reveals something important about the power and mystery of the connections we all share with the people closest to us.

Watkins also offers original insights into the phenomenon of channeling.

"Being the friend of one of the most important psychics of the 20th century can be a challenge as well as a gift. As such a friend for over 16 years, Watkins sheds compassionate yet honest light on Roberts’ background, her difficult childhood, her resistance to the voice that manifested through her, and her ongoing battles with a debilitating ailment that turned out to be a massively hypoactive thyroid. That she refused all medical attention to her problems until she was nearly beyond help was an unexplainable peculiarity, and yet in spite of physical limitations and extraordinary pain, she continued her work, channeling Seth’s communications and working with other seekers. Watkins is a former newspaper reporter, feature writer, and columnist, and her narrative is flowing, intimate, and revealing. Passages from Jane’s journals, poetry, and other writing reveal even more of the private person that was submerged in her work, and numerous personal anecdotes give life to this almost mythic pioneer of consciousness studies."

NAPRA ReView, March 2001

"Rating: Excellent! . . . Speaking of Jane Roberts is an in-depth look at a friendship, a journey of personal growth, a study of the phenomenon of psychic ability and a confirmation that our lives touch the lives of others every day. Jane Roberts, author of the 'Seth Materials' is well known as a psychic and author. Over 7.5 million of her books have been sold around the world. So who was Jane Roberts? What was behind the author? Susan Watkins and Jane Roberts were friends for 16 years. Who better to tell the world about the woman that Jane Roberts was? But we also learn a great deal about the woman that Susan was and is. Such an openess is rarely, knowingly, seen in an author. Ms. Watkins gives so much of herself, one can only be grateful for her generosity; her use of herself to convey the story is phenomenal and the end result is a deeply personal look into the lives of these women. Speaking of Jane Roberts is just that, with companionable and confiding speech, Susan Watkins invites us into her life with the intention of shedding some light on Jane Roberts. We come away feeling that we have learned something special about Jane Roberts, the person, we also know some of Susan Watkins, and maybe a bit more of ourselves."

Bookreview.com

"Jane Roberts had a unique and perplexing gift. In reading this candid memoir I understood for the first time her complexities as a person and also as an artist. Sue Watkins has written a compelling, moving story of friendship, with all its ups and downs. At the same time she honors Jane Roberts as a vivid individual and a writer."

Susan Thornton, Author of On Broken Glass: Loving and Losing John Gardner

Speaking of Jane Roberts "is filled with very personal and surprising information on the woman who gave us Seth . . . If you have an interest in Jane Roberts's writings or what her life was like, then you must read this book."

Magical Blend Magazine

"Speaking of Jane Roberts is a rich, multidimensional look at one of the true pioneers of consciousness studies. Whether looking at herself or Roberts, Watkins possesses an unflinching gaze. The result makes for insightful, riveting reading."

Lynda Dahl, Author of The Book of Fallacies and Beyond the Winning Streak

"Sue has done a terrific job. Reading her deeply touching memoir of my wife, I felt a very strong, sad, yet brilliant surge of emotion."

Robert F. Butts, Co-creator of the Seth material

"There is a generation of metaphysical readers who recall the woman who channeled the spirit entity, Seth, in the `60s and `70s. The author of this book studied and philosophized with Jane Roberts for over sixteen years and proceeds to explore her mentor as a human being with all foibles bared.

"Roberts regularly taught psychic or ESP classes, besides writing novels, nonfiction, poetry, and the Seth material. She was extremely creative in her own right and productive at that. Because of the Seth involvement, her life direction and possibilities changed. Channeling of spirit entities was a whole new game in those years. The public often reacted suspiciously and 'her work met with much ridicule,' wrote her husband Rob.

"Antagonism shows up in this teacher/student relationship, '. . . on one hand I sought her approval and on the other wanted to be free of its judgment,' states Watkins. The underlying theme of judgment revolves around Roberts pushing Watkins to be a writer "with a capital ‘W.’" The author reveals the personal aspects of Roberts and tries to make sense of her own self in relation to their past together. Watkins succinctly describes her karmic friend: '[I saw Jane as] compassionate, intellectually adroit, gifted with a wonderful "what the hell" playfulness, she was at the same time the most serious, intensely focused person I ever knew, sometimes bluntly so.' Watkins researches aplenty and comes up with various quotes from other sources. Included are thirty-five pages of thorough endnotes.

"For the avid reader of Seth materials, Roberts was always an eccentric mystery. Now, for better or worse, her vulnerabilities are unveiled an we find she is much more complex than the anointed role of Seth’s conduit. A major portion of her energy dealt with her chronic condition of debilitating arthritis. Roberts died from complications of this disease in September 1984.

"Through this memoir, Watkins works out her own emotional issues with Roberts. The reader is left with a sense of sadness and admiration for the courageous life of Jane Roberts."

ForeWord Magazine

Reader Reviews

"Wow! I just finished reading Sue Watkins' wonderful book Speaking of Jane Roberts and, man, was it an eye-opener! I bought the book around 8pm Friday night after finding it at an obscure little neighborhood bookstore I was visiting with a friend; it was such an engrossing read that I could hardly put it down . . . I finished it a little after midnight this morning.

"This book is much more personal than Conversations with Seth, and gives detailed insight into the personal Jane Roberts. Not just the Jane who 'turned into' Seth and dictated books, but Jane the woman . . . in all the roles that womanhood entails (with the important exception of the mother role, which is examined deeply in the book). First and foremost, Jane was human, with all that humanness encompasses.

"I was amazed, and sometimes appalled, at the sheer weight of the emotion contained in the book. You may have read snippets about the relationship between Jane and Sue in other books but nothing . . . believe me, nothing . . . that even hinted at the currents and undercurrents that swirled around them. If you have placed either of them on a pedestal and want them to remain there, my advice to you is: Do not read this book! If you want to think of Jane as a saint and Sue as her devoted acolyte, think again . . . Jane was no saint (and neither was Sue, by her own admissions) and the relationship between the two women was not at all the way I had imagined it.

"I am very thankful that Sue wrote Speaking of Jane Roberts because it knocked down the pedestals I'd placed both women upon and brought them back down to the land where I live and breathe. It also answered many questions I had about Jane's illness and death . . . Somehow, I think I needed to learn things about Jane, the person, so I could move past feeling such adoration and awe as I'd been feeling.

"All in all, this book is a great read and I recommend it highly."

E. Patte Rhak, sumari_song@quest.net

"This book is a must read for all hard-core Seth fans. Sue Watkins, who was very close to Jane Roberts, writes like a dream, frankly and honestly, no holds barred. One of the most difficult things for most of us to understand (those of us who have been reading and utilizing Seth's concepts for years), is how Jane could have lived and suffered so long with the debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis. How, we want to know, could she write those books about creating your own reality, and yet fail so miserably with her own health?

"With a great deal of compassion and understanding, not to mention 20/20 hindsight, Sue peels away the layers of Jane's psyche and reveals the woman who was the true 'mystery person' behind the Seth material. We realize, as we read this memoir, that we knew and understood very little about this amazing woman, and we come away with a lot more compassion for ourselves and our own struggles with our core beliefs. I highly recommend this book, and I will re-read it every time I get discouraged and impatient with myself for hanging on to negative beliefs of my own."

Ellen Gilbert

“Marshall McLuhan coined the famous phrase, ‘The medium is the message.’ As I began reading through Seth's books and Jane's books, I often thought how aptly this applied to Jane.

“It seemed to me that Jane often fought fiercely to preserve her independence from Seth. While I admired her intellectual integrity, I felt that in holding to it so rigorously, she was actually missing out on some of the benefits of applying Seth's ideas in her daily life while having Seth around to coach her.

“Still, it was seemed apparent to me that she had expanded her use of the inner senses tremendously from reflecting on Seth's ideas. That in itself was a testament to the material's validity and I used to point this out to others.

“The death of Jane shocked and saddened me and I suppose I had the same reaction as many readers, "Couldn't Seth have done something? What was the point of the Seth Material if Jane couldn't use it to heal herself?"

“That was only a knee jerk reaction though. I discovered Seth in 1973 and it only now that I am beginning to integrate it into every aspect of my life. I knew how difficult the translation of idea to behavior was and is.

“Reading THE WAY TOWARDS HEALTH provided a sense of closure for me about Jane's death, as it laid out what had transpired in the last days. SPEAKING OF JANE ROBERTS however, helped me UNDERSTAND Jane's death. It painted in stark relief, the beliefs that Jane held dearly to, which manifested her condition and death. No biography could have done that in the same way that this memoir did. Life is not a series of events, it is an interactive dance between thoughts and the experiences that flow from those thoughts. SPEAKING OF JANE, for me, put the Seth Material into perspective.

“Seth SOUNDS nice. His ideas FEEL good. But they also happen to be the governing dynamics of experience. Unless I act as if what Seth taught MATTERS, in the moment, his ideas are only a comforting bedtime story.

“For me, Sue Watkins’s books are an integral part of the Seth material and SPEAKING OF JANE ROBERTS, an indispensible illustration of the incredible value of applying the lessons of don Seth to every aspect of my personal journey.”

Peter Fellows
www.psychicselfdiscover.com