“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Last night, Tuesday, I went to bed while Jane was holding ESP class in the living room. It was about 11:30. As I lay dozing I gave myself suggestions that I would recall my dreams in the morning and write them down. Oddly enough, I didn’t mention “astral projection.”

(Since my projection state seemed to be so reliable, I began to think it offered great opportunities. I felt no fear, again, only confidence. I thought that this would be a great time to do something. Now was the time for a fine adventure. I told myself I was willing to try anything — a visit to some other reality, a plunge through the door into the living room, a trip down the street in front of the house….

(Without success, I made several quite conscious and deliberate attempts to “get going,” and travel away from my body. My efforts didn’t break the projection spell; I merely remained hovering where I was. Then I had an idea: I would use the sound of my snoring as an impetus to send myself soaring off into other dimensions, leaving my body far behind me on the bed.

(Deliberately I began to snore even louder, if possible. I wanted to build up a massive sound-impetus that I would use as a propellant, although I didn’t know how this was supposed to work. The strange thing is, I enjoyed both the feeling of lying just above my physical body, and my ability to use the latter to produce sound. This implies a dual consciousness here, since I was aware of both bodies.

(Either I heard my snoring actually increase in volume, or I focused upon it even more acutely. My idea wasn’t working, anyhow. I don’t know whether I would have eventually succeeded in taking off, for Jane now said to me: “Honey, you’re snoring. Turn over,” as she usually does when she gets tired of listening to me. I heard her clearly. I stopped snoring at once, but didn’t move. I don’t remember rejoining my physical body. Finally I nudged her, and with an effort told her something of what had transpired. She thought I sounded as though I was still in a trance.

(The experience gave rise to a couple of questions which I added to the list for Chapter Twenty: 1. My own projection was so enjoyable, but more importantly contained so many potentials, that I wonder why Western man isn’t more aware of these abilities. 2. Why doesn’t he cultivate them and put them to use? I hoped Seth would comment tonight.)

This is to you: You tried the experiment when you did, having an ace in the hole, so to speak, in case you became frightened, knowing full well that Ruburt would be coming to bed. You were ready to try again, however, and picked a slow and easy method, pleasant surroundings, to make it easy for you also, so that you could become familiar with the sensation before you actually did anything too adventurous with it.

No. You began your attempts before, but did not succeed until Ruburt came to bed. The time sense outside the body can be quite different than the body’s. You knew that with one successful experience you would be much more free, and so you chose the best of circumstances.

You could have left the apartment indeed. The snoring was also, however, supposed to be a signal to Ruburt. You knew he would awaken you. This was the original motivation for it. If you did not like the experiment, you see, it would have been terminated. In the meantime, however, you were delighted, and decided upon the noise as a propellant, but Ruburt’s usual reaction to the snoring took place.

(“Number fifty-five: This question comes from the answer you gave to number eleven, when I asked you about the training Jane would need in order to deliver one of the ancient Speaker manuscripts. You said some of those old languages involved pictures and symbols. With your help while she’s in trance, could Jane make drawings of a few picture-words or symbols? I’m just curious to see if she could approximate one of the Speaker languages.”)

(“That would be very interesting.” Seth paused, so I asked, “Can she try it now?”)