“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(No session was held last Wednesday, June 3.

(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.

(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.

(There is more to follow; for as this experience waned it was replaced, or led into, an event of a different kind. This one was new to me, and most interesting. Subsequent notes, and Seth himself, explain what transpired as the session progressed. I’ll say here that the new effect involved the gradual loss of my ability first to spell, and then to write….

(Just before the session I had commented on the peaceful evening, which was very warm.)

(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.

(By 9:12 I began to spell an occasional word incorrectly. To show what was happening I’m including, in parentheses after the corrected word, some of the mistakes my notes contain.)

(I caught myself omitting the word “not” from the last sentence, and was quite aware by now that something was up. More and more I had to make a deliberate effort to get the notes down correctly. In the material below, I couldn’t think of some of the symbols I used and had to write the words out.)

(9:21. I had a lot of trouble getting the following sentences down. Many of the words were misspelled, some so much so that I crossed them out and quickly tried again — with the humorous result that the corrections also contained errors. My vision was by now very clear.

(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….)

(For “beforehand” in the paragraph above, I wrote “byeborehoune,” then crossed that out and tried twice more. I now made a determined effort to spell correctly and write clearly. It helped. It was something like coming out of a deep sleep and immediately making a strong effort to focus in physical reality.)

(By now I was sitting tensely on the edge of our couch, bending over the notebook as it lay on the coffee table before me. This is a position I seldom use — perhaps I thought it would help me really grapple with this experience. I asked Seth to wait a minute.)

(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.

(When I started to explain to Jane why I had to stop, I discovered that on top of everything else I was having trouble speaking coherently. Seth then returned briefly, with a broad smile. From memory I recall his saying:)

(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.

(Thus, I had experienced altered states of seeing, writing, spelling, and speaking this evening — all facets of course of my physical means of communication. Sitting in the glare of the brilliantly lit room, I described everything in detail to Jane, including the vision effects of earlier years. She wondered if my loss of communicative abilities was also related to my father’s senility and his own physical retreat. I didn’t know. I hadn’t experienced anything unusual involving him recently.

(Slowly I resumed work on my notes. I was most anxious that Seth explain all. And he was right: by 10:30 I was much better. I caught up on the notes finally and told Jane I was ready for the session to continue. Now we received the most interesting data of all — that pertaining to my curious lack of alarm at the events of the evening. Resume at a faster pace at 10:47.)

In our demonstration, to which of course Joseph gave his permission, he allowed his consciousness to retreat, and to some degree began to cut off its physical expression. He was not aware consciously of his permission, simply because this kind of demonstration could not be held if the normal waking consciousness knew. It would automatically be frightened. As I spoke about the dimming of consciousness, Joseph then experienced it.

(Now, I was having no trouble taking notes.)

Give us a moment. This was an exercise, actually, in the manipulation of consciousness. Close to death, this same sort of thing happens in varying degrees when the consciousness realizes that it can no longer express itself through the mediumship of the body. If the dying person overidentifies with the body then he can easily panic, thinking that all expression is therefore cut off, and for that matter that his consciousness is about to be extinguished.

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.

We will be dealing now, after what I hope is suitable background material, with some chapters on the nature of existence after physical death, at the point of death, and involving the final physical death at the end of the reincarnational cycle. It was important that you understand something about the nature and behavior of your own consciousness before we could begin.

Now: You also drew upon some knowledge, Joseph, from past experience in our demonstration, when in your final illness motor function was impaired. This was in Denmark. The last note is an aside, rather than strict dictation.

(According to Seth, the three of us were involved in Denmark in the 1600’s. I was a landowner, Jane was my son, and Seth was a spice merchant. See Chapter Twenty-two.)

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?

(11:36 P.M. “Good night, Seth.” Again, I had minor trouble spelling a few words after the last break. That was all.)