“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In the next session, Seth told Rob that he was doing well and should try the exercise often. The session, the twenty-second, was one of our first spontaneous sessions. (At times, I knew I could have a session, for example, but mentally refused. Two sessions a week were more than sufficient, I thought — I was afraid of going into trance at the drop of a hat.)

That day, I’d received a letter from the publisher-to-be of my first ESP book. While I was alone in the kitchen, doing the dishes, I found myself wondering if Seth might “come through” and comment on the letter. Then, beautifully clear, with rich humor, came the answering mental message: “Are you gluttons for punishment?”

I gently put down the dish I was washing. Was that Seth, or Jane-playing-Seth? How could I tell? I said, mentally, “I’m wondering how the book will do.”

Again the mental words — surely not mine — responded. I can’t afford to give you any predictions at this time, for fear that you’ll distort them, and then it would seem that I was to blame.

He was right, of course. In those days, I’d put him on probation and myself as well. And I never tried to visualize him. I could reconcile a mental voice as a valid and quite safe mechanism of the creative subconscious, as I liked to call it — but an image next to me in the kitchen while I did the dishes? Never!

I always enjoyed the lively art of conversation, said Seth’s mental voice to me.