A CONVERSATION WITH SONNY LANDRETH (continued)

PM: Like yourself, and I believe our mutual friend Sam Broussard, and I think Steve Conn, too, I'm a huge fan of the important work of Jane Roberts. [Roberts was a medium and a writer who channeled the teaching of a non-corporeal entity named Seth, from 1963 to her death in 1984. It's absolutely amazing material.]

SL: Oh, are you really?

PM: Yeah.

SL: Oh, absolutely.

PM: Can we talk about her impact or influence on your life?

SL: Sure. That's really a nice surprise, because most interviews I do, they don't even know who Jane Roberts is. I can't think of one who ever has. So you're probably the first.

PM: It's a shame--

SL: It is.

PM: --because her work is so amazing.

SL: It's incredible.

PM: Well, her work--or his work, however you say it.

SL: However, yeah. It's kind of complicated.

[laughter]

PM: But yeah, I mean, the Seth material she wrote.

SL: Well, you know what, I remember seeing the very first book she wrote called How To Develop Your ESP Ability, or something like that. And it was a lark. As the story goes, her publisher just wanted her to try something different, and write something that was non-fiction and dealing with the psychic world. And she was very skeptical about it, but wrote this book. And that's what started the whole thing. Of course, they went back later and they changed the title of that book. I forget what it was when they revised it.

But then that led to The Seth Material, then Seth Speaks. And by that time I'd heard about it from another friend of mine who'd read the book. And I said, "Well, what the heck." And I guess this was probably--I was living in Colorado. I think it was '74. Because by the time I moved back here in '75, I was headlong into all of it. Yeah, I was playing these gigs in [laughs] like Little Rock, Arkansas, and between the sets--we'd play all night, play six hours a night--

PM: [laughs]

SL: --and during the breaks, I would be sitting out in the hallway reading--what was it?--Unknown Reality.

[laughter]

SL: And I thought, "Well, what a paradox. Here's a parallel here, just the reality," but I'm [laughs] dealing with it, I'm reading all this stuff. People would say, "What are you reading?" And I'd say, "Oh, it's psychology"--best way to put it.

PM: "Psychology," yeah, that's as close as I'm going to tell you what it is.

[laughter]

PM: What's the name of that book we're talking about? Unknown Reality?

SL: It was a two-volume book. It came out in the mid 70s.

PM: And The Nature of Personal Reality.

SL: That was my favorite.

PM: I mean, that's the linchpin, I think.

SL: Me too--and actually, one that Robert Butts published after her death, Dreams and Projection of Consciousness. I really liked that one a whole lot, too.

PM: I haven't read any of that for some time, but I was reminded of it when I started thinking of Sam and all that. And then I saw Jane Roberts on your site, and went, "Oh, that's right, Sonny and Sam are big Jane guys."

SL: Yeah. One night we got drunk--many, many, many, many years ago. We were all but getting in the car to drive up there to go see Seth [laughs] from Lafayette, Louisiana, about two o'clock in the morning. We're 25 years old or something, I don't know.

PM: And then you turned around at some point?

SL: No, I don't think we ever got to the car.

PM: [laughs]

SL: I don't think we got quite that far. I just remember looking at a calendar and everything. That was funny.

PM: Is Robert Butts [Jane's artist husband, also her devoted transcriber] still alive?

SL: I've wondered about that, but I don't know. I always, of course, think about him, and wonder, because he was older than she was. And she had rheumatoid arthritis and died way younger than she should have. But he was older, so he's got to be up there if he's still alive.

PM: Now, I remember Sam, ten years ago, giving me some tapes, that Seth had allegedly moved into a space where he was being channeled by hundreds of people.

SL: I have a hard time swallowing that.

PM: It didn't work for me.

SL: Well, mainly just because to protect the integrity of the material, Seth would just always say he'd never do it through anyone else.

PM: Right.

SL: And I don't know if there's another way to put that in a different context of what he meant, but that's the reason I was also kind of skeptical about any of that.

PM: Yeah, I kind of jumped ship at that point, and just said, "Well, I'm going to stay with these books right here."

SL: I mean, if it's for real or not, who knows.

PM: Right.

SL: As the years go by, and sort of catering to the hard realities of day-to-day living, it certainly numbed some of the enthusiasm of being at that point in time. But it's still very much at the core for me of what I believe and what's inspired me.

PM: Yeah. I think if I go back there, and I think I will, I'll find that a lot of the material still resonates and still applies.

SL: Oh, I know it. I've had this mental picture that one day I will do that very thing. I have a couple of friends, one in particular here in Lafayette, he's still into it. And there are some other books I haven't even read that he'd gotten. And he's just real enthusiastic about Seth still.

PM: Are there other spiritual paths that resonate for you besides the Seth material?

SL: Not as much as that. I read all the Carlos Castaneda books--

PM: Me too, every single one.

SL: --just for the sheer entertainment and enjoyment, if nothing else.

PM: We're birds of a feather in those areas.

[laughter]

SL: I'm telling you.

PM: I don't know why everybody reads just two Castaneda books. Come on, it's all about six, seven, eight and nine. Those are the hot ones.

SL: Oh, I know. I've read every one of them. What did you make of his death?

PM: I just don't know.

SL: You know who has the lowdown on that is [David] Lindley, and I've always meant to ask him that.

PM: Are you kidding me?

SL: Henry Kaiser told me that a couple times. [another great guitar player...]

PM: Are both Kaiser and Lindley major Castaneda guys?

SL: I think Lindley and Carlos were friends.

PM: Get the f**k out of here! So, I've got to interview Lindley and find out about Castaneda.

SL: I'm not sure who it was--was it Henry Kaiser telling me that? Who else would that have been? Somebody said, "Oh, yeah, you should ask Lindley, they were pals," it was kind of like that. I never knew, you know, about Castaneda, whether he made all that up or not, but he definitely had a source of inspiration for it. But I certainly had my doubts about it, too. Who knows?

PM: It's hard to believe that he made that up, that he was a good enough writer to make it up.

SL: Well, that's true. I've thought about that, too. And I also would see parallels with Jane Roberts' work. So I don't know, it's hard to say. And yet it seems like he wouldn't have died the way he did, he would have just sort of gone on into the next realm--

PM: If he could have.

SL: Yeah, but who knows?

PM: It doesn't matter what you know, it matters what you do.

SL: But I will say this about it, I always was interested by the fact that he never catered to any commercialism other than his own books. I think he went on the Tonight Show once.

PM: He did? [laughs]

SL: I think he did. He went on there once, and basically said, "No, I don't want to see"--oh, what's the actor's name in Zorba the Greek?

PM: Anthony Quinn.

SL: He said, "No, I don't want to see Anthony Quinn playing Don Juan."

[laughter]

SL: He would never give up the rights to movies.

PM: Oh, that's funny.

SL: There are very, very few interviews, that I know of.

PM: That's amazing. "I don't want to see Anthony Quinn playing Don Juan," that's a scream.  continue

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