“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] Jane was very relaxed as she sat in her rocker. [...] The cats had been fascinated by this phenomenon for several minutes; just as Jane went into trance they lost patience and started to leap up at the insect. And although she began the session slowly, Jane proceeded right along with it.)

(Just before she took a nap this noon, Jane received a letter from a man who explained that he’d married a woman with genetic deformities of her hands. [...] Jane plans to inform him that he and his family are doing much better than they know.

During her nap, Jane had a little out-of-body experience that she described to me as soon as she got up. [...] Jane had more to say, but I didn’t write it down at the time. [...]

When I began putting together Seth’s dictation for Dreams, and adding Jane’s and my own notes, plus excerpts from other relevant sessions, it soon became obvious that the entire work was going to be too long for one volume. [...] At first I was sorry for the reader’s sake to think of Dreams being interrupted, yet glad for myself, for in addition to presenting Seth’s book dictation I was given the space in which to develop those other personal and secular themes of Seth’s, Jane’s, and my own that I think add even more dimensions of meaning to Dreams.

[...] Now this long line of 1’s may seem to stretch out indefinitely (Jane spread her arms wide), or may seem (Jane clapped her hands together) to snap together into one. [...]

[...] Without warning Jane stopped speaking; her head fell back against the rocker. [...] Jane nodded okay to my question, and slowly she came out of trance. [...]

(Jane said she “came down” easily though. [...] Jane said that each number in the front row was in the middle of an endless row, from left to right. [...]

[...] Once again most of Jane’s sentences ended on an upbeat inflection.

[...] Jane spoke while sitting down, with her eyes closed and in a rather rapid manner, throughout the session. [...] This manifestation reminded me somewhat of the deeper voice effect Jane showed in the 172nd session. In that session Seth stated that it would become natural and easy for Jane to speak in that manner.)

(On Sunday afternoon, August 8, Jane and I attended the funeral of my Aunt Ella Buck in Wellsburg, NY, a nearby small town. [...] I had seen very little of Aunt Ella over the years, and Jane had met her twice, as best we can recall. [...]

(Here Jane’s voice began to deepen and grow a bit louder. Jane knows rather little about my family history. [...]

(As stated before, Jane met Ella twice, both times rather briefly some years ago, and has no idea how much she remembers of the visits subconsciously. Jane met Ella’s husband Wilbur once; he died a few years ago. [...]

(Sunday night while we had company Jane and I got out the recorder on the spur of the moment; to our surprise we found that it worked perfectly. [...] Recently Jane and I had been talking about putting the recorder in shape again so we could record some more sessions. [...]

[...] This time Lee Wright seemed to respond to Jane’s suggestions; these suggestions were not specifically directed at Lee, but were generalized statements designed to set a mood, etc. In both of these instances Jane appeared to act as an agent or catalyst. [...]

[...] After the second effect he wanted Jane to continue. I felt that enough had been done for a start, and Jane acceded to my wishes.)

(Once again throughout the session Jane delivered the material while sitting down, and with her eyes closed. [...]

(A note: After the session Jane told me that she knew what Seth was going to tell me when I had finished the painting under discussion. I asked Jane just how she knew this; was Seth telling me one thing, and Jane another; did Jane divine the information from Seth as he spoke through her, or what? [...] But as Seth told me about the painting Jane knew what he was to tell me.)

(Before the session tonight Jane and I discussed the excellent manner in which Seth was able to relate to the various people who have witnessed sessions. [...]

(Before the session I told Jane, half jokingly, that she should publish a Seth Reader, said volume to contain Seth material on many subjects, presented in a rather more simplified way.)

(A couple of days ago we began to collect the sessions given by Seth in Jane’s ESP class in a separate category. [...]

(Actually, the session might better be called a Jane/Seth session, in that Jane’s own consciousness was often uppermost, riding upon Seth’s underlying and steadying influence. [...] As we sat at the kitchen table discussing her work, Jane felt that she could go into a trance state that was her own for a change, instead of being in “just” a Seth trance. [...] Then Jane proceeded to come through with much evocative material on dreams — our second reason for excerpting the session for Mass Events. [...]

[...] Going over these two sets of material was routine; nothing had to be returned, and in each case Jane called Tam Mossman at Prentice-Hall to give her approval and to make a few suggestions for changes. She’s worked each day at her third novel on the adventures of Oversoul Seven, and has heard often from Sue Watkins about Sue’s progress with her book on Jane’s ESP class: Conversations With Seth.¹ And with all of her other activities, Jane has held four sessions since the 14th: two personal ones, and two [842–43] on matters other than book dictation.

[...] Some refugees have already reached the Elmira area, where we live, and upon checking a map Jane and I were surprised to see that we’re only about 130 airline miles north of Harrisburg. [...] “Strange,” I mused to Jane, “that of all the nuclear power plants in the world, we end up living that close to the one that goes wrong….”

2. Much of Jane’s trance material on how individuals use dreams personally came through in answer to a question of mine that we’d often speculated about lately: If most people do not remember their dreams most of the time, of what use can their dreams be to them? [...] Here are quotations from the answers Jane gave while in trance today:

(Jane’s sight has improved, as well as movement in both arms and other places. [...] Jane also read a couple of recent sessions herself, and marched right along through them for the most part — better than she has been doing by quite a bit.

(4:36 p.m. I read the session to Jane. [...] Maybe we are learning some things, Jane. [...]

(Jane called last night. [...]

(“Seth was right,” Jane said with a smile as soon as I gave her the news. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. For the last several minutes, I had become increasingly aware of some of the now familiar sensation Jane and I label as “fat hands.” [...] Jane’s hands were not affected although they had been in the last session.

(By 8:45 PM Jane was nervous as usual before a session. [...] Jane began dictating in a rather quiet voice, and maintained it for most of the session. [...]

[...] Again for a first break, Jane was fully dissociated. [...] Jane felt that what came through was close enough but still left a lot to be desired.

(Last week, Jane had awakened with the lower left side of her jaw badly swollen. [...] The swelling was now gone and Jane felt all right, though she planned to see a dentist for an X-ray to check upon any possible bad tooth. [...]

At 11:35 tonight Seth briefly referred to my second recent psychic experience, and to Jane’s. Both involved more “conventional” ideas, and both involved perception of my deceased mother in her own nonphysical state. (Jane’s happened on Monday afternoon, December 9, while mine took place this afternoon.) Jane’s was especially clear, featuring a communication from Stella Butts — who was seemingly quite “herself.” [...]

(Jane’s material on strands of consciousness² had actually developed because of my experience involving my father while I was in an altered state of consciousness. That episode had upset me to some degree, but Jane’s discussion of the subject in Politics, plus a few comments Seth made in ESP class last night, helped me put the affair in a more objective light.

[...] Then Jane read her notes on strands of consciousness, which — I can add later — also found their way into Chapter 12 of Politics. Seth soon returned in class with the following comments; he referred to Jane’s ideas mainly, yet as he talked I began to understand my experience with my father and his after-death situation as I perceived it.

[...] Jane and I came to realize that even her students tired of the unending process of writing letters (even about subjects they’re interested in) week after week. [...] Nor, we learned, did some of those who wrote Jane relish receiving a reply from someone else. [...]

[...] Jane was okay in 330, already turned on her back when I got there. [...]

[...] When I got to 330 Jane told me that Karina had been moved to a rest home in Wellsburg, a small community a few miles east of Elmira. [...]

[...] Jane started to read yesterday’s session. [...]

[...] A new girl — probably a floater — took Jane’s temperature — 98.4.

(Jane said tonight that she still feels a strong emotional charge in connection with the idea of the “dead” returning in those stereotyped, banal terms. Yet, although Seth has said very little to date about ghosts, hauntings, and possession [we link them together], it doesn’t seem that Jane’s early family experiences have led her to set up any blocks against such topics. [...]

[...] Jane’s delivery had been average; and, she said now, the session would be a short one. [...] When Seth came through again in a few minutes he said, humorously: “Tell Ruburt I said ‘Happy Birthday’” — then gave a page of material for Jane on another subject. [...]

[...] When Jane finished with certain challenges, Seth remarked, “… there will be a ‘birth’ of seemingly new concepts, simply because his [Jane’s] old mental barriers kept him from making certain important connections, and an increasing system of communication between waking and dreaming states.”

(Today is Jane’s birthday. [...]

[...] In June, with no hard feelings involved on anybody’s part, Jane withdrew Emir from consideration at Prentice-Hall when the decision was made there to publish the story in two volumes; on July 12, Eleanor Friede at Delacorte Press accepted Emir for publication as a single book. [...] Jane completed Seven Two in August, and set to work preparing the manuscript for Tam. Late that month — unbelievably to me — I finished my own work on Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality, and immediately began to type the final draft of the sessions; as I finished groups of sessions I mailed them to Tam every few days, while at the same time collaborating with Jane on the table of contents for the book. [...] Jane finished typing her manuscript for Seven Two on October 3, and I helped her correct that book for mailing on October 9. My own mailings for Volume 2 continued until the 21st of the month, when at last that very long project was completed and out of the house in its entirety for the first time. [...]

(Now another event took place in October 1978 that is most important to Jane and me: Sue Watkins received the go-ahead from Tam Mossman to write a book on the ESP classes that Jane had conducted for some seven and a half years, from the fall of 1967 to February 1975. [...] It’s a project that Jane herself never figured she’d do, but wanted done — and Sue, who was a class member, is talented psychically herself, has a newspaper and reporting background, and is ideally qualified for the job.¹ (Conversations, we think, is sure to be published before Mass Events, since Tam is supposed to have Sue’s manuscript in hand by January 1980, for publication in the fall of that year. Even assuming that Seth will finish dictating Mass Events later this year [1979], Jane and I will still have too much work to do on it for publication in 1980.

(Jane’s poem can also serve as a symbol to show that she hasn’t held a session for Mass Events for 42 weeks, or since giving the 830th session last March; indeed, the summer, fall, and winter of 1978 have passed, and we’re into the next year [and a very cold and stormy one it is, so far]. [...] Those sessions, whether private or not, are of course more than double in number the 22 sessions Jane has given for Mass Events [not counting tonight’s]. [...] I’ll continue our chronology here, then, by describing many of our professional activities since last March, and follow it with Jane’s own account of at least some of the reasons for the long interruption in book work.

(Resuming our chronology: On October 24, 1978, Jane worked out the Table of Contents for Seth’s Psyche, and started her Introduction for it on the 26th; we mailed Psyche to Tam in sections as we put the manuscript together, and finished with that endeavor on November 9. On November 14 Eleanor Friede visited us to renew an old friendship and to go over Emir with Jane. [...] Jane and I are still going over it.

(During second break I had wondered if there was much similarity between the various manifestations of the Eve egos, and the relationship between Jane and Seth, when Seth was temporarily dominant. I now asked Jane if Seth might not talk about this, rather than deal with our interpretations of the envelope data. Jane resumed at a good pace, smoking, her eyes opening often, at 10:51.)

(“…Ruburt’s connection now: An impression of forgiveness…” We believe this refers to the recent death of a priest whom Jane knew as a child. Jane received a photograph of him in the mail the other day.

[...] Jane and I haven’t met Mrs. Berry and do not know if she is tall. [...] Jane may have associated top with tall, as she did quick with first in the opening impression.

[...] We think this also refers to the death of the priest whom Jane knew in her childhood. The photo of him that Jane received in the mail the other day is actually a halftone reproduction bearing the priest’s portrait and a heavy black border all around. [...]

(As Seth says, a remarkable and instant liking sprang up between F. Fell, Jane and me when we first met in his office. Jane and I were surely surprised, and suspect that Fred was also. A couple of weeks after our return from New York City, Fred wrote Jane a glowing letter.)

(Just before tonight’s session Jane and I had been discussing her excellent results in part two of the 363rd session. Jane achieved these mostly on her own, and wondered whether the Seth personality would gradually fade away as “her own” abilities increased.)

(I wanted more data re the car’s trouble and cure, but wasn’t sure it was a good idea to ask Jane more specific questions at this time. [...] After the session I asked Jane to keep in mind that the car could be discussed again.)

(In recent weeks Jane’s abilities have seemed to be developing at an accelerated pace.)

[...] Jane came out of trance without shock. [...] Jane resumed, sitting up again, at 10:00.)

[...] Once again Jane spoke for Seth while seated on the divan. [...]

(When Jane got mad at me after supper tonight.

(Jane was now beginning to recline on the couch once more, while speaking. [...]

[...] Now Jane came through with several pages of material for herself. [...] Seth, here, adds to our understanding of Jane’s reactions to some of the challenges she took up 11 years ago. His material is also an extension of much that he gave in the 679th session for Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, when he discussed the early background of the probable Jane who chose to live in this physical reality, and how that Jane began to contend with her strongly mystical nature. [...]

6. In this particular case, subsequent correspondence seemed to confirm that the energy sent out by Jane had indeed been on target; its recipient reported quite beneficial results. [...] Jane and I do our thing by ourselves. [...] There could be many reasons why the receiver would benefit from attempts to give that kind of assistance, though; one of them being the simple knowledge that someone else — the “sender,” Jane — cared enough to try to help. [...]

From its owner Jane and I borrowed the one incomplete class tape that had been made. [...] While Jane had been straining to compress a long syllable into something recognizable, the tape picked up little except distracting background noises: class people coughing, or moving about or shuffling papers; the sounds of traffic … But Jane and I take class events as they come. [...]

(After supper this evening Jane received from Seth [without subjectively hearing his voice] information that the session would contain material about “probability clusters.” [...] But not until Seth began discussing the subject did I realize that Jane had tuned in to it herself following last Wednesday night’s session. [...]

[...] Jane was quite well dissociated for a first delivery, she said. [...] Most of the time Jane sat with her head down and her hands raised to her face, as during the Instream and envelope tests.

(Jane was curious about the Instream object. [...] Jane and Bill’s wife Peggy had been present but hadn’t paid much attention to our talk.

[...] As is the case also, Jane did not do well on the resumption of such experiments.

[...] By this time of course recriminations were beginning to fly back and forth by phone, although this did not involve Jane and me. [...]

I now reminded Jane that John Smith had knocked on our back door at suppertime tonight. [...] I told Jane I felt that regardless of John’s evocative visit Seth would have mentioned my eye phenomena tonight, given his subject matter for the session. [...] Jane agreed.)

(Last Saturday evening Jane and I met here at the hill house with a group of people who used to attend Jane’s old ESP class. [...]

Jane was very relaxed after supper. [...] After the program ended at 9:00 I explained to Jane out of my own limited knowledge how particle accelerators—“atom smashers”—work. [...]

“No, it’s just that before that program I felt he had a lot of complicated material to give, and I couldn’t get it afterward,” Jane replied. [...] Actually, I feel like I’m in a trance,” Jane said with unwitting humor, “but not the right one….” [...]

[...] I heard them scrape across Jane’s lap. Jane’s eyes snapped open and she cried out. [...] Jane clearly did not know what had happened exactly; she appeared to be dazed. [...] Indeed, Jane smiled as she began speaking again. [...]

(I have just finished an oil painting of two heads, male; one of the characters appealed greatly to Jane, and had since the beginning. [...] The head Jane likes is of a blond man, quite heavyset and evidently of a massive build. [...] Jane does not care much for the other head in the painting, although as I worked on the picture I was as much intrigued by this head as by the other.

[...] Our cat Willy had several times jumped up on Jane’s lap as she spoke. Since this disturbed Jane’s trance state to some extent, I had been trying to keep him away from her.

(Jane was upset about her work this evening, so much so in fact that she would have missed the session had I not been too lazy to go dancing. [...]

(Jane now said she picked up something about my mother and dishes. My father, Jane said, had to go to a meeting of an organization like the Lions Club. [...]

(Jane now said my mother had talked with Dr Martin’s wife Emma on the telephone earlier in the day. [...] Jane said she “was sort of aware of a dress, and a telephone conversation between your mother and Emma.”

(A bit later Jane saw my mother in a gray dress with a pin and pearls. She was smiling and happy, Jane said, and went to the meeting also. [...]

[...] (Smile.) With Jane, now, they represent the resources of the subconscious. [...]