“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(One possible ride Jane might have taken with another was obviated when she decided not to lecture to Dr. Freudenberger’s class at NYU in White Plains, NY. Jane was offered a ride there by an ESP class member, and this would have been on a Wednesday. Note that at the start of this session Seth agreed with Jane’s decision not to lecture to Dr. F’s class, without saying why.

[...] Jane had a feeling of four other people in a car, with us, but couldn’t be more definite. [...] A bit later Jane thought of Claire Crittenden, who is out of town, again without knowing why.

[...] (Jane drew in the air, eyes open.) Imagine a superstructure of a circle, put together like a pie, except that each segment is also in itself a globe, and that this structure is in itself an exterior one, the multidimensional equivalent of the pie’s crust or the apple’s skin.

[...] Jane easily emerged from a deep trance, she said. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. The last line of the session sums up pretty well Jane’s new attitude concerning the sessions, experiments, etc. [...] The recent difference seems to be that Jane is evidently able to put the realization into effect more efficiently now.)

(This leaflet had a good emotional connection to Jane, since a very few days before we went to the bureau she had a dream concerning an atomic attack, radiation, contamination, etc.; in the dream she saw a building and a floor plan that were very much similar to the actual layout of the local bureau. The data contained in the leaflet closely paralleled the dream; therefore Jane was quite pleased to discover stacks of these leaflets at the motor vehicle bureau. [...]

[...] As usual Jane took the experimental envelope, the 31st, from me without opening her eyes. [...] Now Jane sat quietly for a moment; she held the envelope to her forehead as she spoke briefly, then lowered it to her lap.)

(Jane’s grandfather died at the age of 67. [...] Later Seth corrected the distorted data, telling us Jane too would live that long.)

[...] Jane’s Seth voice had once more been a bit stronger and deeper, but not at all loud enough to attract any attention. I told Jane something that I’d wanted to mention—that it would be great if she could get to turn in bed by herself. [...]

(I didn’t even have to ask Jane if she wanted a session. [...]

[...] I made sure I let Jane know how much I appreciate getting these sessions, and her own physical healing processes.

(Jane had been able to rotate and raise and lower her arms just as well this afternoon as she had yesterday. [...]

To obtain this verbatim record: In the first few sessions Jane and I sat facing each other with the board on our laps, and with a desk close beside me on the right. Jane always kept both hands on the pointer. [...]

Now even when Jane delivers an answer via Seth that may be five typewritten pages long, she never repeats herself, loses track of what she is saying, uses the words “uh,” “er,” etc., or changes in any way what she had said. [...] It is as though Jane, in giving the material, is reading from an invisible script, so sure and straightforward is her delivery. [...]

All answers obtained through the Ouija board, and later through Jane’s dictation, are in caps. [...]

This rather cumbersome method was greatly simplified as soon as Jane began to dictate the bulk of the sessions. [...]

(Jane now added the information that the concept of action reminded her of the “red chair episode.” [...] Jane as Seth was talking about a sale of her work, which has not even yet taken place: “A woman might have something to do with one sale, through influence. [...] After the session Jane was able to give a more detailed description of the red leather chair. [...]

[...] Jane spoke while sitting down and with her eyes closed, in a low clear voice and with quite a few pauses. [...]

(Jane now took a very long pause.)

[...] Jane was well dissociated. [...]

(Tonight as we waited for the session to begin I showed Jane my three recent dreams that I was interested in having Seth comment upon: July 7 [Sayre], 17 [reincarnation and Debbie Janney], and 19 [Jane recovering overnight]. Jane looked them over again, although she’d read them this afternoon. [...]

(This afternoon while I was out doing errands, Jane had a rather strong if not lengthy experience that seemed to encompass an emotional understanding of Seth’s material in the last session [for Monday]. [...] As we talked about it, each from a somewhat different angle, Jane ended up saying the experience seemed pretty “prosaic” after all in retrospect—yet at the time it had been pretty powerful.

[...] Jane knew it had been a shorter session. [...] I do think Jane is still somewhat reluctant to deal with reincarnation. [...]

(No session was held last night: Jane wanted to rest and also watch a 3 hour synopsis of the TV show Dynasty while she caught up on the mail. [...]

(I stood waiting many minutes while Jane struggled to get up. [...] When Jane finally admitted she couldn’t make it, I went back out to the kitchen to do the dishes and close up the house for the night. [...] “Please don’t holler at me now,” Jane said. [...]

(I should take a moment here to note that Seth has said this before, and that Jane has referred to it also. I for one haven’t had any such feelings, since from the very beginning of our relationship I’ve always felt certain that in Jane I’d found the ideal mate—an achievement I’ve considered most fortunate, one I’d hardly dared dream I’d manage to do. [...] I’ve always been intensely proud of Jane’s achievements and abilities, and glad to be able to participate in them to whatever degree. [...]

(Our difficulties made themselves known with a vengeance when I pushed Jane into the bathroom in her chair after 10:30 PM: because for the first time, she failed to be able to get up from her seat on the john, and back to her chair as I stood waiting. [...] The ultimate fear had manifested itself, then: Jane was no longer able to maneuver in the bathroom. [...]

[...] Jane had done well. [...] I told Jane the session was very good, and she sighed with relief. [...]

(Jane was rather relaxed tonight—again—but decided to try for the session. [...] But Jane didn’t mention any of those events.

But as I type this material two evenings later [on Friday], I can note that Jane didn’t paint at all. Instead she continued to work on her own God of Jane. [...]

1. Originally Jane said “world” here, where I’m sure Seth wanted her to say “universe.” [...] Occasionally Jane or I may recast a sentence of Seth’s, but this isn’t necessary even once per session. [...]

3. I’ve known Seth planned to discuss evolution—that sensitized subject—ever since Jane tuned into the title of his new book a couple of months ago. [...] Better wait, I told myself and Jane, until we had an idea of how Seth is going to handle his own material on evolution.

(At 9:20 PM Jane said she “felt Seth around. [...] Jane had read the last session while she ate. [...]

(“It’s a real funny feeling, as though the sound could break through into the living room,” Jane said. I said I thought I understood what Seth was doing: in light of the material we’d been getting, he was giving Jane the experience of that ancient time and our present time, showing that both are simultaneous. [...]

[...] “I wanted to take a break,” Jane said. [...] Jane’s gestures thus indicated the large open center area of the room, as though she was reaching over a wall almost. [...]

[...] Jane’s pace had been slow for the most part, and she said she knew it. [...]

(End at 7:55.”Every once in a while,” Jane said, “he gets warm and emotional, and it always throws me. [...] I’m amazed…” I could see that even after an hour Jane had tired somewhat, so I said good night to Seth aloud and ended the session. Jane had shown no voice or hand phenomena, nor had she any feeling of nervousness before the session began.

[...] But Jane asked me to get pen and paper, so the session got under way in our living room. [...] There was a moderate darkening of Jane’s eyes.)

[...] If Ruburt, or should I call him her, Ruburt, Jane-if Ruburt-Jane feels slighted since I address you so much more frequently, it is because your mouth is free to answer.

(“You’re a good kiddo,” was the ultimate compliment that Jane’s very reticent grandfather could pay her. He died in March, 1948, when Jane was 19.)

(This evening Jane checked with her pendulum technique, and learned that it would be best for her to sign the contract as it stands. Mr. Fell has already made some changes in the contract, as requested by Jane. [...]

(For many months now both Jane and I have followed a practice of making perhaps half a dozen predictions for the following day. [...] It is great fun to make them, and was Jane’s idea originally.

(Jane has received her contract for her ESP book from Frederick Fell. [...]

(Again Jane spoke while sitting down and with her eyes closed, in a normal voice with some pauses.)

(I hadn’t deliberately planned that those notes would do that, yet in retrospect I was glad they had—especially in the unprecedented response Jane was getting from her Sinful Self. [...] The Sinful Self’s material is too long and complicated to describe here, except to say that it contains the Sinful Self’s own view of reality and its relationship to Jane’s background and work, it’s regrets, its defensive attitudes, its questions, and its genuine puzzlement that man has for so long —perhaps for most of history, indeed—persisted in the creation of and reliance upon such entities as the Sinful Self. [...]

(Jane has also had some very vivid dreams in connection with this material, although she hasn’t written them down and actually cannot recall much about any of them. [...] I’ll attach a copy of the Sinful Self’s material to this session if Jane ever types it in duplicate. [...]

[...] Seth’s suggestion that Jane ask the Sinful Self for its comments of the female sex and sin were very acute—for today Jane has received several pages of material from the Sinful Self on that subject. [...]

(“I almost have the feeling that you’re not supposed to have a session tonight,” Jane said at 8:19. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. [...] Jane was concerned about blocking the nightmare data, wondering if it was perhaps clairvoyant. [...]

(Besides involving Jane and me, the nightmare also involved members of both our families. Jane was now surprised to learn it had been necessary for me to shake her out of the nightmare last night; she had thought she came out of it spontaneously.)

(Jane was smoking as the session began and her eyes soon began to open. [...]

[...] Jane was well dissociated, her manner very active, eyes open often, smoking, etc. [...]

This whole miniature tempest is almost enough to make one wonder: How come those other people made their “Seths” known after Jane began to speak for her Seth, and to publish the Jane-Seth material? [...] But to claim to speak for Jane’s Seth per se, as a means of expression, is quite another thing….

[...] Later tonight I want to offer a little more about this overall development—but people speak for their Seths entirely without Jane’s permission. Jane is most concerned that she and I protect the integrity of the Seth material in its unique and original form.

Concerning Jane’s understandable desire to protect her work, long ago she published some very clear statements about that. [...] And in her introduction to Seth Speaks (1972), she quoted Seth from the 510th session for January 19, 1970: “While my communications will come exclusively through Ruburt (Jane) at all times, to protect the integrity of the material, I will invite the reader to become aware of me as a personality….”

Even in God of Jane, which was published in 1981, Jane presented some relatively late material from Seth to show that he doesn’t independently communicate with others. [...]

(I had prepared a test envelope to give to Jane during the 181st session, of August 25, but did not do so because of the short session. [...] I came across the calendar beneath a stack of books and on the spur of the moment decided to use it for the test, wondering whether this type of cut and dried subject matter would have as much emotional pull for Seth/Jane as the subject matter of the first two tests. [...] Jane was out of the house when I prepared the usual double envelope.

[...] During break Jane sat on it while she smoked a cigarette. The break was rather long, and Jane had started on her second cigarette. [...] Jane has yet to speak from the prone position for any amount of time. [...]

[...] She is now dead, and Jane and I never met her. Bill has told us very little about her, other than that she was an arthritic cripple like Jane’s mother is. [...]

(During break Jane mentioned that Seth had not yet discussed my vision, noted on page 223. [...] I had discovered that I was reluctant to break into the material when it was going so well, and when Jane gave such an indication of involvement with it. [...]

(It will be noted that in the 12th session, January 2,1964, Seth, without being asked by us, stated that he “knows” Jane’s old friend, Father Trainor. Father Trainor was an Irish Catholic priest who visited Jane and her ill mother regularly, for years, during Jane’s grade and high school days. [...] Jane has a photograph of him.

(As a check I suggested later that Jane try reading a different poem, one not read by Father Trainor, to see if she could summon this powerful new voice at will. I wanted to see if something Jane had no emotional involvement with, via memory, could also be used to summon voice changes. [...] To begin with Jane could not consciously summon nearly the volume of voice, and within a few lines she was so hoarse she had to rest. [...]

[...] Jane was well dissociated. Once in a while Jane and I have discussed extra sessions, but usually we do not have the time, particularly when other experiments like the one involving Father Trainor crop up. [...]

(This afternoon Jane and I met a friend of John Bradley’s, Mrs. Lorraine Shafer, Horseheads, NY. [...]

(Jane, not interrupting her delivery, had shaken loose from Willy’s most persistent assaults several times by now. [...] He gave voice to several loud cries and finally succeeded in anchoring himself upon one of Jane’s legs. [...] Jane paused and picked him up. [...]

(Although Jane had slept she was still tired. [...] Jane stood up, dumping Willy to the floor. [...]

(Seth made this session very brief, since Jane and I were quite tired by the time it began. [...]

[...] At 8:15 Jane lay down for a nap, and upon awakening at 8:45 experienced her sensation as described on pages 309/310. [...]

(By 8:50 Jane felt definite stirrings from Seth, which pleased her because she didn’t have to wonder about how she would do this evening. [...] But at 8:55 Jane surprised me by beginning to dictate. [...] Jane began to pace rather rapidly.)

(By 8:45 Jane was nervous, but not as much as usual. [...] Jane took this as a sign that she is using whatever abilities she may have, and is not practicing subconscious fraud.

(Jane also reported that twice within the past two days she had received “flashes” in the third person, to the effect that our bed, temporarily in the living room, should be moved to my empty studio in the back of the apartment if we are still here next winter. The messages were to the effect that “Ruburt’s psychic energies could be dangerous if he [Jane] does all his living in one room.”

[...] Jane said Seth was going strong tonight, and was apparently quite pleased. Jane had awareness of her surroundings but still felt like “taking off.” [...]

[...] Jane still sat with her palm up. [...] Then a second set of fingers began to rise up over Jane’s own fingers. Now it could have been easy enough for Jane to bend her own fingers into this position, but here the three of us now saw the second set rising up long and white. Moreover, this second set had the fingernails on top. Had they been Jane’s own fingers, the nails would have been on the undersides and invisible.

“Then suddenly Jane announced in a firm clear voice, ‘Watch the hand.’ It was a command, and I knew that Seth was with us. Jane felt her hand grow cold. With considerable relish Seth, through Jane’s voice, described in detail each effect that followed—so that, he said, there would be no doubt as to what happened.

“Seth now had this cold inner light suffuse Jane’s wrist and palm to an even more remarkable degree. [...] The white crept up Jane’s arm to the sweater, and bled down her fingers, until all semblance of shadow was gone from the arm and palm. Then to end this part of the demonstration, Seth had Jane place her hands side by side on the table, so that we could plainly see the difference between the two. [...]

[...] Watch, for I’ll change Jane’s image and replace it with another,’ Seth said. And Jane’s image did begin to change. [...] And then the head in the mirror tilted, and looked down, while Jane herself sat with her head erect, staring straight ahead into the mirror.

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. The pace of the dialogue had been quite fast, and Jane’s voice had acquired some volume. [...]

(Just before tonight’s session I told Jane I hoped Seth would clear this matter up. [...] It was Jane’s initial contact with the Frank Watts personality, through the Ouija board, that led to these sessions. [...]

[...] From March 24 to April 2, Jane and I received a total of 21 visits from 16 different individuals. [...] Some of the visits lasted for hours and left Jane very tired.

(Jane had told me that during my illness she hadn’t felt Seth around. [...] I was concerned about Jane bearing the brunt of this, however.)