“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At 8:30 tonight Jane and I discussed Seth’s progress on his book. Jane was somewhat concerned. She wasn’t reading the book now, but she realized Seth wasn’t following, literally, the outline he’d given for it before he began dictating it chapter by chapter. I told her I thought Seth was presenting it just as he wanted it done; she agreed that she might as well relax and just let it come out.

(I would now like to describe two effects, one of Jane’s and one of mine, that took place almost simultaneously some few minutes before the session began. In addition, my experience blended into another one after the session started — but more about that later.

(Jane faced the painting as she sat in her Kennedy rocker, but my back was to it because of my position on the couch. During the several times I turned to look at it I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Jane told me that Joseph, representing my own entity, smiled broadly at her in a way the painting actually doesn’t. The expression in the eyes changed first, the smile spreading from them down to the mouth. The forehead didn’t move. It was as though the painting became abruptly alive, although the painted head of Ruburt did not change.

(Tonight’s experience wasn’t that intense. I first realized its onset at about 8:50, and at once began to give myself suggestions to minimize it because I didn’t want to alarm Jane by delaying the session. At the same time Jane began to describe the smile she perceived in the painting; I could see the painting well enough when she asked me to check it, although my vision effect was still building. My suggestions were very beneficial, though, and by session time at 9:05 I realized that not only had my experience gone as “far” as it was going to go, but also that it was on the retreat. By 9:15 the last traces of it were gone and my vision was clear.

(By the time I wrote the last sentence I was aware — again, without being upset — that it was taking me just a little longer than usual to come up with my abbreviations or symbols for such common words as “does,” “as,” and “even.” This action of course should have been automatic. But visual interference was now lifting considerably.

Now your consciousness is telepathic and clairvoyant, for example, even though you may not realize it. In sleep when (whene) you often presume yourself to be unconscious (unconsious) you may be far more conscious than you are now, but simply using abilities of consciousness that you do not accept as real or valid (valed) in waking (waping) life. You therefore shut (shup) them out of your conscious experience (experiencl). Consciousness, yours and mine, is quite independent of both (poth) time and space. And after death you are simply aware of the greater powers of consciousness that exist within you all the time.

Since they do, of course, you can discover them now and learn to use them. This will directly (dreactly) assist you in after-death (agter) experience. You will not be nearly so startled by the nature of your own reactions (reactone) if you understand beforehand for example that your consciousness not only is not imprisoned by your physical body, but (bud) can create other portions at will. Those who “overidentify” their consciousness with their body can suffer self-created torment (tortment) for no reason, lingering about the body. Indeed, quite the forlorn soul, thinking it has no other place to go.

You are, as I said earlier, a spirit now; and that spirit has a consciousness. The consciousness belongs to the spirit then, but the two are not the same. The spirit may turn its consciousness off and on. By its nature consciousness may flicker and fluctuate, but the spirit does not.

I do not particularly like the word “spirit” because of several implications attached to it, but it (ot) suits our purposes in that the word does imply an independence from physical form.

Turning it off does not extinguish (expetnrise) it in the way that a light (like) disappears (disappeares) when a switch is turned. Following the analogy (aneleogy), if consciousness were (werse) like (light) a light that belonged (belenge) to you, even when you switched it off, there would be a sort of twilight, but not darkness (darkners).

(9:35. Again I quickly fell way behind. When I found myself writing “ichstantale” for “extinguished,” I gave up and asked Seth for a break. It came at once. I was nonplussed. I was clearheaded but unable, literally, to continue taking notes. Still I wasn’t alarmed.

(With those words understanding came quickly, although the effects didn’t lift that easily. I made many errors talking to Jane, but the vocal difficulty never matched that of the spelling or writing. At first Jane was very concerned at my experiences before and during the session; she told me later that at this point she almost decided not to continue the session. She finally believed my reassurances, however, and realized that I was all right physically.

(Seth suspended dictation on his book at my request, but during a brief interlude suggested that I have Jane turn on the rest of the lights in the room when she came out of trance. Then, I was to imagine my consciousness growing brighter and brighter, filling the room like light; I would find that all of my abilities would soon return. I wasn’t able to remember some subsequent information.

(But Seth wasn’t through work on his book yet. The following material shows the relationship between my vision effects and the events in the session itself. It’s very interesting that I would choose tonight, of all nights, to try for visual data, although in recent days I’ve been inquiring mentally about subjects for my next oil painting. I haven’t said anything about this to Jane.)

The blurred areas represented a confusion of vibrations. You could not get the material visually in physical terms, though you were trying to, but you could not receive it as internal vision either at that point. Instead you ended up almost with a displacement. There was always a sense of motion in the background that was interpreted visually as an unsteadiness, a massing of blurs.

Now you acquiesced in our experiment earlier this evening, when Ruburt and you spoke at the [supper] table. Ruburt was telepathically aware of the arrangement, though not at a conscious level. The smiling portrait that Jane saw was your work in a way. Ruburt was aware of the arrangement for the demonstration, but was also somewhat alarmed at the particular way you would choose to interpret the experience. The smiling portrait was to reassure her — Jane now rather than Ruburt. You sent the reassurance. Ruburt picked it up from Joseph. Do you follow me?