“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(A session had been mandatory Monday evening, February 5, since we’d scheduled it for an out-of-state visitor some time ago, but we didn’t feel much like it when the time came. Jane and I were saddened Monday morning to discover that our black cat, Rooney, had died unexpectedly during the night. We’d taken him in as a stray kitten some four years ago. I buried him in the garden. As far as we knew, this neighborhood had been his home territory.

(Because of his particular disposition, Rooney had furnished ideal companionship for our other cat, Willy, who is several years older, and Jane and I had often speculated about the special relationship between the two. Willy had always been the boss. Rooney, incidentally, can be seen in a photograph with Jane on the jacket of The Seth Material, hard cover edition.

(Monday evening’s session concerned the use of hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD, as therapy; no book dictation was involved. Actually, once Jane began speaking for Seth the session went very well indeed, and lasted until midnight. Our visitor is to send us transcripts of the tapes he made. At day’s end Jane and I were exhausted.

(Seth had already given the heading for Chapter Ten, but as we sat for the session now I reminded Jane of her questions about group souls, as described at the end of the 637th session. It was another unusually warm night; we had a window open, and were aware of traffic noise. Jane’s delivery was comparatively fast to begin with.)

(“Okay.” In retrospect, Jane and I had been wondering if Monday’s session should have consisted of book dictation — yet Seth was putting that material to use tonight….)

5. An aside: This was unexpectedly interesting. According to Seth, Emerson is one of the “Speakers” — personalities who, both in the physical state and out of it, speak to man through the ages, reminding him of inner knowledge so that it is never really forgotten. Check Jane’s Introduction to this book, the notes for the 623rd session in Chapter Five, and (added later) the 653rd session in Chapter Thirteen. Also see Chapter Twenty in Seth Speaks.

Next chapter. (As Seth, Jane sat quite motionless in her rocker for well over a minute. Her eyes were closed. She’s often told me that she isn’t aware of such long pauses while in trance.)

You grow and live through deaths that happen in you constantly, and travel through births within your lifetime that you do not comprehend. (Jane leaned forward for emphasis:) Such massive doses of LSD chemically activate all levels of cellular memory to such an extent that in certain terms they are no longer in charge of themselves, and the memories can then emerge unpredictably when the system is under stress. The fine biological and psychological alliance is now weakened.

(“So are we.” Tam Mossman, Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall, has notified her by telephone that within a few days she will receive a contract for the publication of this book.)

(End at 11:55 p.m. “Now I’ve got all this energy left over,” Jane said, after quickly coming out of trance. “I feel it going through me. I could go for a long walk or play badminton — or even have a session,” she joked.

(It isn’t contradictory to say that Jane did have energy, even though she was tired. At midnight she sang a short song to me in Sumari. The song was very clear, lyrical and restful; I had been in a low mood today and now she tried to cheer me up. As always, I thought she seemed transported as she sang so beautifully, sitting in her rocker with her head tipped back and her eyes closed. She uses real power in Sumari at times, then contrasts it with very delicate passages. Her breath control is excellent. She’s had no musical training.

(Jane discusses Sumari in her Introduction to this book. She’s included a selection of Sumari prose and poetry in the Appendix of her novel, The Education of Oversoul 7, which Prentice-Hall is to publish this fall.)