“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane and I each noted questions before the session this evening.

(In the 586th session, earlier in this chapter, Seth stated that by the year 2075 the third Christ — Paul or Saul — would have enacted the Second Coming, exerting of course a profound effect upon religion and world history. Jane thought a period of less than a century was much too short a time to encompass so many dramatic changes. She wanted me to ask Seth if she had distorted this data while delivering it.

(Other questions concerned a variety of names for Christ himself. Jane and I had been saving these, and we went over them now before the session. Jane’s pace as the session opened was quite a bit slower than usual.)

(Long pause at 9:17. Jane’s pace was still quite slow.)

(Jane took a long pause at 9:25. Still in trance, she lit a cigarette and sipped a drink.)

(9:35. But instead of taking a break, Jane sat quietly, still in trance.)

(Jane sat in trance so long that I began to ask a question; but then she raised a hand to indicate that I wait.)

(9:40. Jane’s pace had been slow to begin, but had picked up as her delivery progressed. Her trance had been deep. She said she “really went out when Seth started in on the biblical data.”

(I was finding Seth’s information intensely interesting. It was unavoidable in many cases, but Jane said she much preferred not to know anything about the historical period Seth would be discussing. She hadn’t read anything about the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, although I’d explained a little about them to her at various times. Nor is she familiar with the Bible.

(Jane’s attitude about biblical history is in keeping with her feelings about some other facets of her abilities: she has often told me she felt much freer giving a reading for a person when she wasn’t acquainted with him. The same was true when she was trying for the contents of sealed envelopes. She preferred not to know who had prepared them, or their origin, etc.)

(Resume at 10:00. Jane’s voice, as Seth, was a little different from usual. More controlled, perhaps, not quite as jovial or as much at ease.)

The Romans had no clear idea of the number of Jews in Rome at that time. They went by guesswork. The bells on donkeys belonging to the Zealots had upon them the symbol of an eye (Jane, as Seth, pointed to one of her eyes). They came secretly into town, hiding as much from other Jews as from Romans. They were good bargainers and often did me out of more than I deserved to lose.

(Pause at 10:28. Jane’s pace had been slow. The four major Jewish sects known to flourish in the Holy Land at the beginning of the first century were the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Zealots and the Essenes.)

(Seth first referred to his incarnation as a minor Pope in Jane’s ESP class session for May 15, 1971. Some eighteen people were present. The session was recorded, so the quotes that follow are verbatim. Seth was in a high, if somewhat ribald, mood:

(At this writing we do not know which pope Seth referred to. When I came to type up this session I wondered if Seth-Jane’s mention of the third century might be an error. [If so, I hadn’t been quick enough to catch it; I could have asked about it at once.] Since Seth gave A.D. 300 in the class session for last May, I personally think it more likely that his papal incarnation followed this date, taking place in the fourth century. The fourth century encompasses the years A.D. 301 to 400, since our modern computation of time is based upon the assumed date of the birth of Christ. The Encyclopaedia Britannica lists eleven popes and two antipopes between A.D. 296 and 401. Some of the reigns were very brief, some of the dates of tenure uncertain or estimated.

(Of course we would like to learn more about the incarnation in question. As Seth has already indicated, there is a wealth of information here waiting to be acquired. This brings up a dilemma Jane has confronted often: what to investigate out of the many possibilities available at any given time; then, the choice made, how to find the time to carry out the study.)

(10:56. Jane said she’d really been out. As sometimes happens, memory and images connected with the material began to come back to her as we talked. She experienced a sense of expansion, an impression of great crowds. Then she remembered a stinking stall with dirty straw, and “three men wearing dirty brown robes, of pretty rough cloth.”

(Jane sat half in trance, “seeing more stuff now than in the session itself.” It was as though a light within her focused upon one small area. She saw grease or wax from a candle, falling upon one of the robes and staining it. In the stall there were long oval bundles of straw, stacked one upon another “to keep it dry, pretty high up to the roof. Each bundle is tied but not covered.”

(Jane was obviously much more relaxed now than when she’d started this chapter. She was yawning deeply, again and again, her eyes watering. I suggested an end to the session, but she wanted to continue. Resume at 11:19.)

(“We’ll take the break.” 11:35. When I feel that Jane might choose to continue a session, I ask for a break instead of ending the session. It had been a slow delivery, and Jane knew she hadn’t been out long.

(Seth Two is dealt with at length in Chapter Seventeen of Jane’s book The Seth Material. This personality speaks occasionally in ESP class, but relatively seldom in our private sessions. In the outline Seth gave for this book before dictation began, we were told that Seth Two would be explained. Some of our questions for Chapter Twenty had concerned Seth Two also. I’d forgotten both points for the moment — hence my surprise.

(But now, at 11:40, Jane didn’t know whether to end the session, as I’d suggested earlier, or continue. She finally decided to “just sit quietly for a minute.” Then: “I don’t know whether to shut it down or not — it could go on for another hour….” I told her I was game if she was. Seth resumed at 11:45.)

(Pause at 11:51. I now watched a transformation begin to take place in Jane, as our familiar Seth retreated and Seth Two began to come to the fore. At the same time I knew that subjectively Jane was experiencing the feeling of a “cone” or “pyramid” coming down over the top of her head. Jane has often told me that whereas she feels Seth come to her in a very warm and alive and friendly manner, she feels her consciousness going out of herself to meet Seth Two — “up the invisible pyramid like a draft up a flue.” She doesn’t know where she goes or how she gets back. Her body seems to be left behind.

(Jane sat very formally in her Kennedy rocker, her forearms upon the arms of the chair, her feet flat upon the rug. lt was a muggy night; our living room windows were open, and now I became conscious of traffic noise. I heard someone moving about in the apartment upstairs.

(Jane’s eyes were closed, but occasionally they opened slightly. She smiled faintly as she spoke for Seth Two. The voice that began to issue from her was very high, very distant and formal, with little volume or emphasis. Each word was carefully and deliberately, almost delicately, spoken. It was as though Seth Two wasn’t familiar with vocal chords or words, and so took pains to use those mechanisms in just the right way. The contrast between the two Seths couldn’t have been more complete.)

(12:06 A.M. This was the end of the session. As usual when Seth Two speaks, the end was unannounced, and came without any of the warmth and emotional exchange that often involves Seth, Jane, and me.

(Jane’s eyes were heavy. For some few minutes she had trouble keeping them open. She hadn’t changed her position in her rocker for the duration of the delivery, and she’d experienced the usual cone effect. I’d had to ask for a word or two to be repeated when it had been obliterated by a burst of traffic noise.)