“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

SESSION 21

(Saturday, Feb. 1, while doing some other art work, I had a vision. This was of my present younger brother Dick during his life in England in 1671. I saw very clearly the front upstairs bedroom in which he slept, and the bed in which he died as a boy of 9. I made a very quick sketch of this mental picture with a ballpoint pen. Jane and I both liked it, so I matted it. When this session began I had the drawing propped up on the bookcase so Jane could see it easily as she paced back and forth.

(At the start of the session our cat Willy became very frisky. As we sat at the board preparatory to greeting Seth, Willy jumped up on it; from there he vaulted up on the bookcase, knocking the sketch to the floor. As I retrieved it Jane began to receive Seth within. After Seth spelled out his greeting, Jane rose and began to dictate. She exhibited no voice or hand phenomena this evening, merely the darkening of the eyes.

(Break at 10:20. Jane said that at times she is still afraid she’ll give contradictory information involving past sessions—wrong dates, etc. “Besides, I can’t keep all those names and places and so forth straight. I don’t want to get all mixed up; so I hardly ever read the material between sessions.”

You are silly sometimes, Joseph. For shame. From the information you have been given before, and from the above paragraph, you should know that you are in contact with your own entities, in that the mind is a portion of the entity to begin with. I have told you that communication between a present personality and the entity is carried on by means of the inner senses, and I have told you that in these sessions you use the inner senses. Surely then the question answers itself.

I made a remark, after sessions I’m afraid, to Ruburt one evening—I couldn’t resist—to the effect that you would both be better off if you would think in terms of your entities. Do not think of your entities as foreign alien individuals ready to gobble you up. Even though I speak jokingly of assimilating my poor Frank Watts, this is not the case at all.

(There came a knock on our door just as I finished asking this question. This was our first interruption during a session. Our living room opens on the hall entrance so we thought we could be heard through the door. Jane broke off her dictation; not knowing exactly what to do we answered the door.

(It was now 10:45. We asked John if he could come back later, explaining that we were doing some research on ESP for Jane’s book. John thanked us but said it would be too late and that he would see us next time. He said he believed in ESP. Both Jane and I were glad to see John, and later we discovered that both had the impulse to ask him to stay, but did not for fear the other would rather not. And of course Jane and I were wondering what effect, if any, the interruption would have on her ability to continue the session. But John no sooner closed the door upon leaving, than Jane resumed dictating.)

(Break at 11:07. We talked about having witnesses to these sessions occasionally. We also discussed my idea, mentioned some days ago, that in the beginning of these sessions we had actually contacted Frank Watts rather than Seth. Jane resumed dictating at 11:17.)

I believe that you are far enough along so that you could work with an observer present, providing the observer was someone with whom you felt comfortable. This is as you wish. That is, it makes no difference to me. If Ruburt becomes uncomfortable, then of course you would not have a good session. Since I make no effort to control Ruburt in any way, I have no idea how he would react.

Frank Watts, dear inquisitive Joseph, is resting, and he needs it. You are right in supposing that I ran after him, grabbing his shirttail so to speak, in our beginning sessions. And yet, you see, it was easier for him to make contact for me in the beginning than it was for me to do it myself. He was simply more open to your plane. There are many things, naturally, that I have not explained to you simply because of the time involved on your part. Needless to say there is great fluidity and variety and challenge on the part of personalities and fragments and personality fragments.

Upon this depends, to a large extent, the strength of any sort of a fragment, and this ability as much as any other is a limiting factor also. This is a matter into which we have not yet gone. It is nevertheless important, and one of the basics with which some of our later sessions will be concerned.

Do you want to take a break? I mention this for Joseph, because his fingers seemed cramped. In any case I believe we will close tonight’s session. I am tempted to carry you further along the lines which we have just begun. However I do not feel it would be a good idea so late in the session. You will see that we have covered a good bit of material here. And I certainly hope I have set Joseph right as far as Frank is concerned.

You needn’t. He is doing very well for himself. And now, dear friends, good night. I will of course continue the session if you want me to.