“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“Serves you right,” I said, grinning. Seth referred to me as Ruburt and to Rob as Joseph, saying that these were our entity names. The entity is the whole self who experiences many reincarnations. I didn’t like either name too well, so we used to joke about them. We didn’t have time to say much, however, because Seth came back in about ten minutes. During the break, Rob had made a remark about solidified emotion, and Seth began by saying:

Because we were so innocent about psychic literature, we weren’t hampered by superstitious fears about such phenomena. I didn’t believe in gods or demons, so I didn’t fear them. I wanted to learn. Rob and I had discovered a whole new world together, and we were going to explore it.

One night while Rob was busy in the studio, I decided to experiment with a crystal ball. Since I didn’t have one, I substituted a lovely blue bottle which was filled with water and into which I stared intently for a good half hour. Just as I finished, Rob came out to see what I was up to. According to him, I had been too quiet.

Rob asked me what was wrong. I answered that I felt odd and unlike myself. My body then was very light — weightless to me, anyway. I wasn’t conscious of any muscular weight or pressure at all. My arms and shoulders felt like water or air. Rob told me to get up. He was beginning to look worried. But I could hardly rise from the chair. He had to help me to the couch. I didn’t feel physical enough to move.

I could tell that I was heading into a very deep trance state. On the one hand, I was tempted to go along with it, since I was supposed to be experimenting. Along the way I was able to maintain my present state, without going deeper, but I didn’t know how to snap out of the present state.

Rob made coffee for me. I didn’t believe I could lift the cup. When I finally did, my motions were extremely slow, as in a slow-motion motion picture. Rob made me drink two cups of coffee. He had me stand with my head out of the kitchen window in the cold night air, but nothing seemed to help. I just seemed to be in a weightless body in which I had little interest. By now I was rather frightened, yet I thought that I could snap out of it if I really exerted all of my will power — or knew how.

Jerry went alone and no matter why he did it … no reason is necessary. You didn’t care really. Fortissimo Alleggro. The notes are long overdue. Tell Mary so. She will want to know and it is important. Hannah.

Applied suggestion by Rob would have snapped me out of this state easily, but we didn’t know that at the time. As it was, the condition lasted about three hours, ending only when we went to bed, past midnight. By then I was no longer frightened but merely curious and trying with one part of my consciousness to find out what the other part was up to — and how it went about its business. Finally, I fell asleep, expecting nothing but exhausted slumber for the rest of the night.

Astonished, I saw the two men still standing there. Surely, I thought, this was some trick of perception! I was still dreaming and didn’t realize it, perhaps. But I pinched myself and rubbed my eyes. Then, quickly, I closed my eyes and reopened them. The men were still there! As far as I could tell, they were perfectly solid and fully three-dimensional. There was nothing ghostly about them.