“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The pointer replied: ASIA WAS WHERE YOU SAW HIM, THOUGH HE WAS IN MANY OTHER PLACES, TRAVELING IN HIS MIDDLE YEARS, DOING PENANCE FOR HIS SINS ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOMS OF THE AGE.

Nevertheless, there is an interaction here which gives chlorophyll its properties. I hope to make this clearer to you, but it involves part of a larger concept for which you do not now have the proper background. … Chlorophyll is a mental enzyme, however, and it is one of the moving forces in your plane. A variant exists in all other planes. It is a mental spark, so to speak, that sets everything else into motion.

This also has to do with feeling, which is also a mover. You must try not to categorize things in old ways, but when you open your mind, you will see a similarity between chlorophyll, as a mental enzyme or mover, and emotion which is never still. Emotion ‘solidified’ is something else again and is perhaps a framework of other worlds. …

Perhaps I may be able to make mental enzymes clearer. … In your own experience, you are familiar with steam, water and ice. These are all manifestations of the same thing. So can a seemingly physical chlorophyll be also a part of a seemingly immaterial emotion or feeling, but in a different form — and, of course, directed into this form or caused to take various forms in response to certain laws — as your ice will not exist of itself in the middle of your summertime. And if I am not to be compared to a symphony, Joseph, you must admit that I do well with a figurative baton.

Why do you find the phrase ‘solidified emotion or feeling’ outlandish? You both understand now that your plane is composed of solidified thought. When your scientists get through with all their high fiddle-faddle, they will also discover that this is the case.

These mental enzymes, to go back to them, are solidified feeling, but not in the terms that you usually use … I have said that our imaginary wires that seem to permeate our model universe are alive; and now if you bear with me, I will say that they are mental enzymes or solidified feelings, always in motion, and yet permanent enough to form a more or less consistent framework. You could almost say that mental enzymes become the tentacles that form material — though I do not find that a very pretty phrase …

The sessions had begun on December 2,1963. This was still only the middle of January of 1964. We were trying other experiments on our own, some like the example given earlier, some entirely different. Mornings, I worked on my book. Afternoons were spent at the gallery. If it wasn’t a session night, after dinner and an hour’s poetry, we tried other experiments. Rob spent a good deal of time typing the sessions, as he still does. He couldn’t do much more without cutting down on his own painting hours, so I often did experiments on my own while he was in the studio.

There was a constant battle, though, as some of our results ran full tilt into my intellectual ideas. In the beginning, I took it for granted that Seth was a subconscious fantasy, personified, because I simply couldn’t accept the possibility of “spirits” or, for that matter, life after death. Then, after it became obvious that the Seth sessions were going to continue, we kept constant check on my personality characteristics and went to a psychologist — as any sane, red-blooded American would do under such circumstances in those days. Seth seemed far more mature and well-balanced than the psychologist, so finally I stopped worrying. Besides, my personality showed no adverse signs of instability. If anything, I was more competent in handling physical affairs. This is not to say that the experience did not cause certain strains and stresses that could accompany any worthwhile venture in an entirely new field.

I do feel strange though, no doubt about it. Rob says I’m just wiggling my fingers.

This is a test taste. How do you like it. It’s all right. Silly. Silly sassy.

My senses were still very acute — vision … and hearing. We decided that since I wasn’t having much luck coming out of the trance, we might as well use it to do some experiments. Besides the handwriting, I tried the typewriter. This frightened me a bit further, since I couldn’t exert enough pressure to use the keys. All this time I felt completely weightless, unable to function in the physical world. Because my motions were so strange, Rob had the impression that my limbs were heavy. To me they were as light as air. I felt completely relaxed and still my senses were sharp and clear as never before. I was able to talk to Rob without difficulty, also. When Rob felt my hand, it was wet and floppy, and my body seemed to have no physical resistance at all.

Rob asked me to read the small print on the inside of a match cover and a few lines from a book — all held out much farther than I could usually read — and I was able to do this quickly and without effort. My sight was much better than it is normally.

While experimenting, we found that I could make a rapid decisive motion if I exerted great mental force. Rob asked me to lift a coffee cup with a normal gesture. (Earlier, he had held the cup while I sipped the coffee.) I concentrated as hard as I could on what he wanted me to do — which seemed hilarious to me, and an impossible task — and then really made a supreme physical effort. As a result, my hand jerked up high, suddenly, and then just as suddenly swung back, banging the cup back on the counter.