“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

During this period I was trying the psychological time exercises suggested by Seth, and often, just when I got started, Miss Cunningham would interrupt me. One day I went into the bedroom where it was quiet, closed my eyes, lay down and began clearing my mind of thoughts for my psy-time exercise. Several times Miss Cunningham came to mind: I wanted to ask her doctor about her condition but hesitated because I wasn’t a member of her family.

If you will use psychological time as I have told you, you will get immediate first-hand experience with many facets of reality which take me pages to explain with the use of words. [...]

[...] The psychological time exercises suddenly took on greater significance. [...]

Miss Cunningham stayed in the nursing home for a short time when the family was notified again that she was unmanagable, and that other arrangements would have to be made. [...] Not wanting to commit her, the relatives returned her to the apartment, in care of a part-time housekeeper.

The action performed within the dream; the location; the lack of specific location; the time in which the dream appears to occur; the apparent movements through time within any given dream; the emotional content; the surface psychological content; the work done within the dream; the familiar persons spoken to; the unfamiliar persons spoken to; the relation of the dream to past events and to events immediately preceding sleep; the dream events in relation to future events; messages that are given or sent in sleep.

Your psychological-time experiments will serve you well in the future in relation with these endeavors. [...]

This business of primaries and secondaries will concern us for some time, and in more ways than you suppose. [...]

And now, if Ruburt worries that he does not carry his share of the work load, because you spend so much time typing our sessions, then the work of typing the dream experiences, both his and your own, shall be his. [...]

This next may sound Pollyannaish to an extreme, but he should make it a point to help another human being in any small way, without expecting thanks, three times a week. I do not suggest, you see, that he do this on purpose daily, lest it develop psychologically into a self-sacrificial ritual. And I also most strongly suggest that three times a week in a very quiet, disciplined but positive manner, he makes it a point to express himself when any matters arise where he holds a diverse opinion from the one being presented.

(Jane and I have not yet resumed the study of psychological time, although frequently as we are drifting off to sleep we will have brief experiences. [...]

I am not suggesting for example that five sessions, or four, be held in a week at this time; only that sincere requests should not be automatically denied because they do not fall within the scheduled time. [...]

[...] She began dictation on time in a rather normal voice, and at an easy rate. [...]

Ruburt’s experience in psychological time today represented a legitimate attempt to dissociate his awareness from physical matter, and was a sign that he is embarking upon another fruitful period of activity.

(Jane said there is little to say about her psychological time experiences, other than that she felt she was making a guarded attempt to lift out of her physical body.

[...] Finally when Jane went to the post office just before closing time today to claim the package, it proved to be lost again, this time on the premises. [...]

By the time we are finished, we will have some excellent evidential material. By the time critics’ voices become noisy we will be ready to show what we can do. [...]

This value, or this particular extension of self to include other self experience, is one of the attributes that can be expected through the use of psychological time. It is an attribute that is independent of and free from your physical as well as clock time. You should remember the difference between physical time and clock time—I have given them to you.

(She said she also had the feeling the quality of this material had something to do with psychological time, yet in a way that had nothing to do with gaining time. [...]

It should be obvious that although an idea is born in time, after its conception it is free from time in a way that a spider’s web can never be free from time. [...]

All things in good time, and believe you me, we shall have some good times. [...]

[...] Last week he began and finished an excellent short story, and finished an outline, as well as holding our sessions, and beginning once more his psychological time experiments.

(These notes are taken verbatim from Jane’s notebook, listing her recent experiments with psychological time:

(She began dictation on time, again without her glasses. [...] At the same time Jane’s pacing also picked up speed.)

I would not take up session time for this material except that my suggestions, if followed, will be most helpful. Also to him a note: even his adolescent, seemingly-undisciplined times were disciplined, giving notice of continuing ego strength, balanced and sometimes over-balanced by intuitional development, in that he never ceased writing from the day that he began.

I would also suggest Joseph, that will all due respects, that within your crowded schedule you find time now and then for your psychological time experiments. [...]

[...] I do not speak in any of these matters as far as definite times and places are concerned, nor do I intend to. [...] The material will see wide circulation; and at a time when you are both able to handle such circumstances.

[...] Jane saw her at 3 PM, mail time. Jane has been picking up Miss Callahan’s mail as suggested, and also sometimes manages to look in on her at another time of day.

[...] Any so-called travel through time involves then a traveling through such intensities. [...]

(While trying psychological time on January 25 and January 27, Jane achieved her now customary state of lightness or “ecstasy” to a fair degree.

[...] This is the first time Willy has paid any attention to Jane for many sessions.

[...] There are various reasons, which I have not yet given you, that allow for the traveling of the self through physical space and time. [...]

This electrical pattern is the personality, with all the experiences of its earthly time. [...]

(Jane has been back on a regular schedule of psychological time now for a while, on the restricted twenty-minute schedule set by Seth. [...]

[...] She said she felt like opening her eyes a couple of times, or rather that Seth did. Her voice was rather dry and hoarse at times but was not strained, and became no worse during the session. [...]

[...] She blinked several times without closing her eyes for any length of time, then she was out of her trance.

These cannot be recounted, again, in one evening; nor would such a performance serve any purpose at this time; listed, so to speak. [...]

(Following Seth’s recent okay, Jane has begun trying psychological time on a fifteen-minute basis, either in the afternoons or evenings. [...]

[...] A moment point basically consists not of any particular given time division, but is within your system a convenient term that expresses or represents the range of reality that can be conveniently embraced without undue strain.

[...] I had originally suggested the day after his birthday to end his smoking habit, simply because it would be relatively easy for him at that time. [...]

[...] All time structures within them represent the range of action which can be conveniently perceived.

Some of this material will take some getting used to but I wanted to give it to you now; and perhaps you will see how important the use of psychological time can be to you. [...] There is more I will say later along these lines, but your experience with psychological time will to some degree help you to see through the walls of past and future. [...]

For the same reason you are also obsessed with the idea of cause and effect, with the illusion of successive time bringing forth the other. Here we have two of your most basic idea camouflage structures: your conception of time as a succession, and your idea of cause and effect.

Any time, any one time, that you can behave in a manner that suggests that one of your cherished limited laws of the universe does not exist, then you can be certain that the so-called law does not exist, at least not in any basic manner.

In your terms, the rate at which you discover the facets and realities of the spacious present becomes your camouflage time. [...]

(Jane said she thinks her practice with psychological time experiments had much to do with the ease with which she put herself into a good state, since she achieved it in about five minutes. [...]

Again, I recommend that you continue your walks, and that Ruburt put his psychological time experiments once more on a regular basis.

[...] Our Ruburt is indeed at times heavy-handed. At times he badgers you, but his remarks concerning the importance and indeed the strength of joy, should be well taken.

[...] It was late in the day before she discovered this, and she just had time to make the rounds of the stores, all of whom reported nothing found and turned in. [...]

A disease of course is not brought about at any particular point in time, but is latent, and merely becomes perceivable enough to cause danger at what approximates a particular point in time. Psychologically there exists within a given individual the latent leaning toward a multitudinous variety of so-called diseases, these tendencies being picked up through early conditioning and environment.

I am pleased that Ruburt has begun his psychological time experiments again. [...]

(She was still upset as session time approached, and had been unable to take her nap before the session. She wrote out a list of half a dozen questions concerning the nodule, and left it lying on the table as session time came. She began on time, again without her glasses, and at a normal speed with some pauses. [...]

[...] In it he said that although he was not sure, he thought Jane’s schoolgirl friend, Marie Tubbs, now living in Florida, may have been in childbirth at the time of Jane’s dream, with a possibility that the water bag had broken during birth. [...]

[...] You will both be on the upgrade, though you have been now for quite a while, Joseph; and you will, I imagine, discover a resulting dimension in your experiences with psychological time.

(While trying psychological time I had the following experiences:

[...] By the time break arrived, her delivery had become quite slow and deliberate. [...] She resumed in the same manner; indeed her delivery became even slower and more careful and deliberate, so that at times she would pace from one end of our living room, where we hold the sessions, to the other end before voicing the next word. [...]

[...] But the amount of material obtained will alone show that Jane spoke very slowly for much of the time. [...]

[...] Consider using psychological time. You have experiences within a few physical moments of physical time, experiences that are entirely independent of your time structure.

[...] Had I realized how tired she was the session would not have been held; both of us have been extremely busy lately and cramped for time. [...]

(Jane and I had been quite puzzled at the visitors of this afternoon and supper time. [...]

[...] In awake-seeming dreams you are indeed awake, within of course a different psychological framework. [...]

(Jane has not been experimenting with psychological time since Seth suggested she stop at the time of her prolonged trance state of March 15.

I am going to suggest also that Ruburt continue with the procedure as far as psychological time is concerned, that is, that he lets it go until I tell him otherwise. [...]

Your reactions at such times are not good for yourself, and your reactions are not good at such times for the conditions which bring them about. [...]

[...] At no time however did I blame a virus, feeling that the real cause was psychic, thus permitting the virus to come to the fore. [...] As time passed, and while I pored over several daily New York City newspapers plus Elmira’s daily paper, I came to realize to a small extent that poor expectations on my part had much to do with my falling ill.

[...] It would be advantageous for him, just when he begins the practice of psychological time, to suggest to himself that the work of the day is of primary importance. [...]

Ruburt almost saw your sick friend’s clasped hands, during psychological time just before falling asleep the other evening. [...]

(Talking about distortions during last break, I had been reminded that many sessions ago Jane-Seth had stated first that [my brother] Loren had been three times a woman, then three times a man in a following session. [...]

[...] Jane had visited her a couple of times through the week, and Miss Callahan now recognized her when she saw her. [...]

(At times Jane gets “feelings” about the physical condition of an individual, whether it is a friend or someone she passes on the street. [...] She has felt other psychological states also, and now notes them down when they occur. [...]

[...] Helen told us she has dreamed of her husband many times, but felt this particular experience was something other than a dream; she stressed its clarity, its reassurance and simplicity.

She is balanced on a thin line of normalcy at this time. [...]

[...] These operate quite as effectively through distance; and for that matter, though less often, through time.

(We have been resting from trying psychological time since August 12th. [...] It might be noted that although Jane’s hand rested in mine at the time, she was not aware of any change in feeling or sensation on my part.)

(What did develop was that my boss at work, at 11:50 AM, called me on the phone–he happened to be at the company’s other plant on Elmira’s southside at the time–and asked me to put in more time on the job as a regular routine. [...]

(I like the part-time arrangement I now have at Artistic very much. It gives me time for myself in the afternoons to paint—an arrangement that I have learned is very necessary, even vital, to my well-being both physically and mentally. [...]

(Both of us were busy as session time approached. During the day–Jane’s vacation has another week to run, while mine ended today–Jane had remarked several times that she doubted there would be a session tonight. [...]

[...] As I have said, so-called space travel will be mainly divorced from vehicles, and the use of psychological time is the very first step in this direction.

(At 8:30 PM Jane and I tried psychological time, before the session which was due at 9 PM. [...]

[...] Because I was using the word light for the first time in these experiments, [with a rather ill-defined idea of levitation in mind, after Jane’s attempts], I also told myself I was not afraid. I repeated these few words a few times, but do not believe I put myself in any kind of a trance, although at the time I took the precaution of reminding myself I could snap out of it any time I wanted to.

(At the time I noticed my hand phenomena, our cat Willy began to [...] At the same time, Jane said that she thought she felt Seth stirring about, since all of us had talked about him constantly for some time now. [...]