“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“Seth, why do Jane’s eyes appear to be darker and more luminous now, when she’s delivering your messages? Our cat’s eyes also had that same look in the last session.”)

Concentration. (Jane dictates:) Yet ego is relaxed. The cat focuses upon one thing at a time even though it has no strong ego. So Jane concentrates while I give her the messages, even though it is not her ego which is concentrating. You get a subconscious focus different in many ways from conscious concentration. In this state the attention is focused inward rather than outward, and it is the inner senses more than the outer that are being exercised. The cat is doing the same thing in his way that Jane is, and in the particular situation you are thinking of his inner senses, that is the cat’s, were focused in my direction.

In practical terms these mental enzymes must of course, and do, give a predictable, more or less dependable result. The reason why they must is understandable. The thing to remember is that this interchangeability can occur and is therefore an ability or property of the mental enzyme in general.

What I am trying to say is that there are apparent rules of cause and effect, but the same causes do not always give the same effects. There is much more that I want to say along these lines. If you will perhaps consider again our wires and mazes, I have said if you’ll excuse the brief reminder, that these imaginary wires are composed of solidified vitality. They are the living stuff of the universe even as they form its boundaries and seem to divide it into labyrinthian ways, like the inside of a honeycomb.

The planes within the tiny wires, that is the planes formed by the connections and interconnections of our imaginary wires, come into the sphere of each different plane and take on the form inherent in the plane itself. Therefore these wires, if we may use a small analogy, will grow thick or thin, or change color completely, like some chameleon-like animal constantly camouflaging its true appearance by taking on the outward manifestations of each neighboring forest territory. Then too, the inhabitants of any particular plane are chameleonlike, animallike. Solidified vitality wires do not look like boundaries or divisions. They appear exactly of the same type as the other materializations on that particular plane.

So complete in fact is the transformation as to be almost in some cases unrecognizable. However, by seeing beneath the camouflage in any one case you see beneath the camouflage in all cases. What these wires are, therefore, that seem to divide our planes and that appear so differently in one plane than they do in another, are solidified vitality whose camouflaging action is determined by mental enzymes.

Now you will understand why I said earlier that sound can be seen and color can be heard. There are many diverse examples along this line. If you will forgive me Joseph, at the risk, and I do mean the risk, of becoming boring, I would like to repeat briefly: Mental enzymes allow the solidified vitality to change its form. If I said this in the beginning before this discussion, it would have choked you to swallow it.

Incidentally I do have access to your conscious and unconscious minds, but only when you permit it. Consciously neither of you are aware of the subtle permission or refusal of permission that you yourselves give. And as far as suggestion is concerned, since you both have been reading along these lines, there is a point where the most suggestible of persons is beyond reach.

I certainly do hesitate to go into your flying saucer question this evening.

It is not complicated in itself, but complicated in the telling. I do want to mention one little point with which you might be concerned or pleased. You are both experiencing at this point, and have experienced in the past, the distorted time element, or so-called foreshortened time that you read about in your books on hypnotism. If you will notice the time by the clock you will see how much material I have given you in something like 15 minutes. I do like to save a few little surprises like this for you now and then.

This is complicated in the telling. As I mentioned they carry their own particular camouflage with them. You recognize it as not your own. Taking off at right angles involves another one of your natural laws which are not natural laws, but seem to be because this is how things look from where you are. I’ll take this up at a later date if I do not go into it in the later part of this discussion.

I do not believe you will have any saucer landings for quite a while, not physical landings in the usual sense of the word. These saucers cannot stay on your plane for any length of time at all. The pressures that push against the vehicle itself are tremendous. It is literally caught between two worlds. This struggle to be one thing or the other is very great on any plane. To conform to the laws of a particular plane is a practical necessity, and at this time the flying saucer craft simply cannot afford to stay betwixt and between for any indefinite period.

What they do is take quick glimpses of your plane—and hold in mind that the saucer or cigar shape seen on your planet is a bastard form having little relation to the structure as it is at home base. At a later date I may go into the inhabitants of that plane more thoroughly, but as it is I am not acquainted with them very much myself. There are so many things that you do not understand that I hope to explain to you. There are other things that you do not understand that I cannot explain to you, simply because they would be too alien now for your regular mode of thought.

Planes can and do intermix without the knowledge of the particular inhabitants of either plane. I want to get away from the idea of a plane being a place. It may be in some cases but it is not always. A plane may be a time. A plane, believe it or not, may be only one iota of vitality that seems to exist by itself. A plane is something apparently divided from the rest of the universe for a time and for a reason. A plane may cease to be. A plane may spring up where there was none. A plane is formed for entities as patterns for fulfillment along various levels. A plane is a climate conducive to the development of unique and particular capacities and achievements. A plane is an isolation of elements where each element is given the most possible space in which to function.

(“Seth, what do you think about Jane talking to the students at Elmira College this afternoon?”)

I didn’t hear her speak. I know she didn’t do as beautifully as she does for me in your own living room, and I am sure she spoke in her own voice. Nevertheless I understand she came up against a Frank Watts in poet’s clothing—a shocking experience for anybody. She always did like to teach, and this ability is one of the carry-through traits of her various personalities.

Yet as always I dislike parting. When I get through with what I should say, then I just feel like saying what I would like to say. I think your progress is coming along very well, and I am pleased. Ruburt is learning a certain discipline and controlled manner that will do his present personality great benefit. You, Joseph, are opening in one way, and gaining an added self-control and confidence in another.

(Tired consciousness sometimes yields good results; so may a clogged-up consciousness. The middle state is usually too concerned with practical matters. Bill Macdonnel should be good in seance sessions, though he is somewhat like mercury, changeable; at times he may not do well, other times good. James Spaziani might be good. [Our landlord.]

(She has not been looking in on us. She could not give name of town in S. Dakota because I was blocking her, already worried about possible failure if I checked on a map. She had lived in frame house, sandy yard, old house. She suggested Rob do same back exercises I am doing since they teach concentration. I didn’t say this at the time, but told Rob later.

(We will get better results if we don’t look for cheap tricks; but even those who do have to have discipline; if you are sincere you need even more. The work with Seth is a lifetime project for us. We will get the material published and inform others. As a medium, I may be able to contact deceased friends and relatives. I will have to try our abilities via trial and error, since they vary with individuals. The York Beach experience was a trigger toward more conscious experimentation on our part.