“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In the next session the following night, Seth launched into the nature of my last trance experience and used it as a stepping stone for his first real discussion of the nature of human personality. As the session shows, Seth apparently decided that it was time to take me in hand. From here on, he would continue to comment on my trance experiments and teach me to regulate them.

Rob was intrigued not only by the material but by Seth himself as he began to manifest his own personality more clearly. My voice had been undergoing changes, becoming more similar to what we now call the Seth voice — deeper, lower, richer in tone than mine and more masculine. But on this particular night, Rob watched, amused, while Seth told him in no uncertain terms what he thought of my experiment — using my own lips to do it! (I’m also including Rob’s notes, as they apply.)

Consciously, you didn’t know what you were up to; unconsciously, you knew very well. This sort of dissociated state can be dangerous, particularly when induced haphazardly, as was certainly the case with you. If I had not happened to look in, you would have been in a great state for the rest of the evening. Or should I say morning?

(Here Jane’s voice began to get louder and to deepen as she paced back and forth. Although there was quite a change, her voice did not reach either the depth or volume of the previous session.)

The fact that you slipped so easily into this frame should remind you of abilities that you had at one time in another life; then you misused them. But without their previous experience, you would not have entered such a state so quickly, with so little knowledge and preparation. When I mentioned homework, I was not thinking of anything so strenuous …

If you recall, part of your mind was conscious in usual terms. You were capable of normal conversation; another part of your psyche was completely dissociated and waiting for your command. It floundered like a wet rag in a foul wind. … Since you were unaware of causing the dissociation to begin with, you were unable to find your blundering way out.

As for the writing, it was by an unorganized, unformed, possible personality of Ruburt’s that merely took the opportunity to show itself and supercede the strong hand that has always dominated it. … Joseph, your part in these sessions is extremely important. Without your participation they could not have begun, nor could they continue. Because of our past alliances, the three of us are closely bound together …

(We took a break here. Rob said that his fingers felt as if they were falling off. It was almost 10:00 P.M. and Seth had been speaking quite rapidly since the beginning of the session at nine o’clock. We started up again in ten minutes, and once more, my voice began to deepen.)

“I really felt that someone else was here, that Seth was looking out the window,” Rob said, when the session was over. “It was … nostalgic.” He told me what had happened.

“Wow, and this stuff …” I was reading Rob’s notes. “ ‘A fragment personality can become an entity.’ What’s the soul, then?”

“Don’t be silly,” I said, loftily. But I’d never read anything like this before, and the idea of fragments and entities was oddly disquieting. “It makes things more complicated,” I said.

Part of Rob’s confidence came from observation. He could see the change that came over me while I was speaking for Seth, and Seth inspires confidence. Rob liked Seth immediately. The two of them set up an excellent rapport. Through me, Seth related to Rob. Almost from the beginning he was an objectified personality to Rob; a visitor regardless of the unconventional situation; someone in whose ideas Rob was tremendously interested. On the other hand, I only knew what had been said when the trance (or the fun) was over. It was a terrific change for me to suddenly have to rely on someone else — even Rob — to tell me what “I” had been saying for a period of two or three hours.

As Seth continued to explain the inner sense and the unseen reality beneath the objective world that all of us know, I began to understand a little of my situation. And, of course, Rob and I both began to experiment with the inner senses. These experiments gave us first-hand information that was invaluable — especially to me. The next session cleared up several points I had been wondering about and gave us several clues as to how the inner senses could be used. It also includes a brief mention of flying saucers that I didn’t delete because of its obvious general interest. Again, Rob’s notes are inserted whenever they help explain the text.

(This morning at breakfast I announced suddenly, to Jane’s surprise and my own, that light was a mental enzyme … We started tonight’s session sitting at the board as usual, without asking questions.)

Rob grinned. “Credit my subconscious then. I didn’t sit down and figure it out. The thought just came to me this morning. There was something I wanted to ask you, though. Why do Jane’s eyes appear to be darker and more luminous when she’s delivering your messages? Our cat’s eyes had that same look in the last session.”

We didn’t realize it at the time, but in these early sessions, Seth was gently leading us down the “garden path” — it became more difficult to think of the world in the usual terms, for example. Even though I had come to no conclusions as to what Seth was or wasn’t, the Seth material itself fascinated me. Its source in Seth made it only too clear that other channels of information and experience were open to us beside those we had known earlier.