“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We will resume dictation. (Pause; one of many.) Consciousness has many characteristics, some of course known to you. Many of the characteristics of consciousness, however, are not so apparent, since presently you largely use your own consciousness in such a way that its perceptions appear in quite other than “natural” guises. You are aware of your own consciousness, in other words, through the medium of your own physical mechanism. You are not nearly as aware of your own consciousness when it is not operating primarily through the mediumship of the body, as it does in out-of-body states and some dissociated conditions.

(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.

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.

(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.)

(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.

(10:55. This may be a tricky point, and it may not. Seth used the word “dimming.” Certainly some of my abilities for physical expression had withdrawn considerably, yet I had remained clearheaded and alert, and, out of habit, thoroughly occupied with trying to use them…. Nor had I become aware of any kind of heightened consciousness, or sudden telepathic or clairvoyant powers.

(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.)

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