“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Sue Watkins witnessed tonight’s session. She intended to leave before session time, but Jane invited her to stay at 8:50. Sue’s unexpected presence is a fine example of how spontaneous events can influence a session in a very creative way — as Sue’s notes, quoted later, will show.

(As usual, Jane had no idea of what tonight’s session would include. “Stuff for the Appendix, I hope,” she said. She was in an excellent mood, even a hilarious one. This quality also turned up in the session, in Seth’s funny, over-elaborate requests for me to use just the right punctuation and paragraphing.

(We were late getting started because of my own work in the studio. Talking and laughing, Jane and Sue waited for me to join them in the living room with my notebook. Jane’s delivery was quite brisk, with an occasional short pause.)

(Seth actually made an elaborately humorous request for the dash in the last sentence: Jane, her eyes very dark, leaned far forward over our coffee table and spoke to me in a soft voice.)

(Seth burst out with loud and emphatic humor this time because of the work Jane and I have done in recent weeks as we proofread this book, checking all my notes that are included, and so forth.)

(10:00. Jane’s pace had been fairly good. Her eyes had been closed often, however, which is rather unusual.

(The first thing she wanted to know when she came out of trance was if the session contained new material. I had to tell her I didn’t know; I’d been too busy writing. Nor could I keep all of Seth’s book in mind, even though I was working with the manuscript just now. But then, Jane said, neither could she — and she’d just finished reading the whole thing over.

(A note: Jane was halfway through the final draft of her Introduction to Seth’s book when this session was held.

(Sue said the material had a great deal of meaning for her, and that she now realized that it hadn’t been an “accident” that she’d dropped in this evening. She had much more to say here, especially concerning her impressions of Jane, Seth, and the great energy involved in these sessions. It developed that Sue had begun to experience and formulate some impressions both before and during the session.

(“As I sat here before the session,” Sue wrote, “I got an impression of Seth that I’d never had before. It was as though Jane, Rob, and I were traveling at a certain familiar speed while we were talking, although this has nothing to do with motion. When Seth came ‘around’ just before the session, it seemed that something within Jane began to crank up, to whirl or accelerate faster and faster until a certain incredibly other speed was reached — a part of Jane’s consciousness that is called Seth.

(“At that point the speed was right and things ‘clicked’ somehow. Jane took off her glasses, as she always does. I could almost hear this action; then the Seth personality began to communicate. The Seth Two experience would be an even greater acceleration of this speed, reached at the point of the pyramid effect Jane describes.

(“Even while I told Jane about this during break, I could feel this acceleration begin again, as Jane’s consciousness prepared to continue the communication. It was almost an inside-out process of going into trance, and as I watched Seth a few minutes later it seemed that Jane’s consciousness was rushing past her open eyes, beyond my comprehension of what speed is. I now must wonder how the communication ever gets back down to words.

(“I don’t mean to say by this that I think Seth and Jane are the same personality; rather, my feeling is that this acceleration connects portions of the same consciousness that are normally so diverse as to be two separate personalities for all practical purposes. I can recognize the same feeling of acceleration when I’m writing well myself, or even talking enthusiastically; but the feeling of vast, incomprehensible speed behind Seth’s eyes goes way beyond that. I could sense the notion of speeds very clearly, both in Jane and Seth, and I felt partly carried along by them.

(“When Jane came out of trance it was, again, an almost audible experience for me — a feeling of slowing down from a high airy whine to our normal ‘sound’ or speed. There was a great sense of change. It was as though part of this acceleration was connected with a dimension where sound was more than a hearing thing. It’s a terrific, vital feeling. I could feel it starting up toward the end of each break.”

(Jane resumed at 10:25 at a slower pace.)

And I will give Super-Jane a rest. (Pause, pointing to Sue): This one here is waiting for him to come back, so she can feel the difference.

(10:37. Sue was on the edge of the couch, watching Jane closely as she came out of a deep trance. Once again she talked about the change in Jane’s “speeds.” “A sound goes along with those speeds that I can’t describe,” Sue said. “It’s like being in a dimension where music is the reality — where sound is more than just hearing things. Then when you leave it — “Sue whistled, imitating the Doppler effect of a train whistle receding into the distance.

(When Sue and Jane questioned me about this, I had to tell them that I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary, but then I seldom do during sessions. Concentrating on writing helps close out other effects also. I am always writing, it seems— just as I wrote through most of this break period.

(Again Sue watched Jane expectantly as we waited for Seth to return. “Wow, the acceleration’s terrific,” Sue exclaimed; and just before going back into trance, Jane told us she felt the chair vibrating beneath her…. Resume, with pauses, at 10:57.)

(Pause at 11:00. In a quietly amused manner now, Seth was giving frequent instructions regarding punctuation, etc. Jane’s eyes were closed often.)

(As I wrote, I took a quick look at Sue, beside me. She sat very quietly, watching Jane. Jane’s eyes were open now, her pace faster, her voice somewhat louder.)

(Jane’s voice abruptly grew much louder with the last sentence — an effect Sue and I have witnessed often. This volume was far from her potential when speaking for Seth, however. On some occasions her voice has been so loud that my ears rang. I’ve heard Jane keep up very strong voice effects, with such ringing peaks, for an incredible several hours, and without any signs of strain afterward.)

(When Jane came out of trance, Sue was again “drastically aware of the drop” in Jane’s speed. She also had some visual effects that were hard to describe; in an effort to pin these down, she began adding to her own notes, and these are quoted at the end of the session.

(“Sometimes in ESP class, I could take the whole class with me on a real acceleration adventure, if they could go,” Jane said. She used the contrasting example of trees in a forest, comparing their passive state to the feeling of acceleration, of “being able to go right through the wall” that she sometimes gets. There was more here that I didn’t get down.

(11:25 P.M. Once out of trance, Jane had little to say. “I’m just sitting here, watching you two busy bees,” she grinned, as Sue and I worked on our separate notes.

(“Before break at 11:10,” Sue wrote, “when Seth told me that he was speeding up the acceleration to see if I could perceive it, I had the definite feeling of greater speed and a visual change in Jane’s body. It seemed to become smaller, as though I were looking at it through the wrong end of binoculars. This was again connected with motion, as though the physical frequency was also changed, and Jane’s body was rushing past me, even while staying in the same place.

(“Then when Jane came out of trance at last break, I felt as though a force had been released in front of me, so that if I wasn’t careful I could topple over. And the same thing now, after the session.”)