“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(1. As we sat waiting for the session to begin, Jane told me that the face of Joseph, in my oil painting of Ruburt and Joseph,^* smiled down at her from its spot on the living room wall. When Jane became aware of the smiling effect she looked away from the painting, then quickly back at it. The effect was still there, she said; it lasted for perhaps two minutes, until just before session time at 9.

(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.

(At times the interference had covered a wide enough area so that I had a difficult time seeing the drawing paper before me, for instance, or the pencil I felt in my hand. The shimmering varied in intensity. On one occasion I lay down and closed my eyes simply because it was easier to do this than anything else. Such effects lasted half an hour at the most, usually less.

(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.

(For the first time I conceded to myself that perhaps I ought to ask Seth to slow down, while realizing his pace was slow to begin with. I didn’t ask him what was happening. That worthy stared at me through Jane’s eyes without a sign that anything unusual might be taking place in the session….)

(9:28. The difficulty I had been experiencing with my spelling abruptly returned to an even greater degree. Along with the misspellings and the crossing out of words, I now had to worry about simply keeping up with Seth’s rather slow pace. For the first time I thought of asking for a break, yet I still wasn’t alarmed. I had trouble with the whole paragraph.)

Such a belief in extinction, such a certainty that identity is about to be blotted out in the next moment, is a severe psychological experience, that in itself can bring about unfortunate reactions. What happens instead is that you find consciousness quite intact, and its expression far less limited than it was before. Joseph chose subconsciously to interrupt those methods of expression he was using at the time simply so that their interference would claim due notice.

(11:06. Jane’s pace had been considerably faster this time. In the last paragraph, I had a bit of difficulty spelling just two words. Resume more slowly at 11:20.)