“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.

(The effect, which always reminded me of a mirage, began with a smallish, bright sawtooth pattern of light just to the right of my direct line of vision. Now, with memory of almost-forgotten episodes returning, I knew that this brilliant, shimmering pattern could spread so that as I looked at an object it would be obliterated, even while I still had peripheral vision.

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).

(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.)

(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.

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.

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.

(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 earlier vision experiences were unsuccessful preliminary attempts on an unconscious level to pick up images of models for your paintings. In the blurred dark portion, the models would have appeared. Do you follow me?

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?