“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At 7:30 PM. Jane was resting briefly in preparation for tonight’s session, as she usually does. Idly she wondered how our neighbor across the hall, Leonard Yaudes, would be as a witness. Leonard is a school teacher and knows of our interest in ESP, but not about these sessions. Jane then received the following from Seth:)

(Jane believed she received more, but she was in a dreamy state and could recall nothing upon awakening. At 8:30 she had no idea of what Seth would talk about for the session, but she was increasingly aware of a feeling that Seth wanted her to ask Leonard in as a witness. We thought it too late to explain much to him by then, but by 8:35 the feeling was so strong that Jane knocked on Leonard’s door.

(It developed that Leonard, who previously had told us he would be home for the evening, had just heard from friends and was going out for beer; he was unavailable after all. But Jane felt immediately relieved just because she had followed her impulse.

(But Jane began talking just the same at a few moments after 9 PM, in a voice a bit stronger and deeper than normal.)

And this is also an example of an instance where Ruburt would have blocked me, but this time he did not. My good afternoon instantly confused him since he was well aware of the time. He almost blocked me, changing this to the more ordinary good evening. But as you both can see I had my reason and Ruburt gave me the chance.

(Break at 9:31. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her voice had been fairly strong at the start of the session, but it was tapering off by the time break arrived. She said she heard Seth’s good afternoon greeting just before she gave voice to it, and immediately became alarmed because she couldn’t determine what was going on. This is about the way I felt, also. Resume at 9:36.)

When I speak of the terms electronically and chemically I do so for simplification, since electronics and chemicals are two facets of the same thing, merely manifestations of something else as heat and cold or fire and ice are manifestations of something else. I can exist electronically or I can exist chemically, and there is no contradiction or distortion in this statement. Many such apparent effects on your plane are also but manifestations.

Rarely. There are just too many interconnections. This will have to wait for later sessions. On your plane mental enzymes cause many chemical reactions. On some other planes the mental enzymes are unnecessary, since the personality on a conscious level can work such transformations; and here again we run into an apparent contradiction, because while these transformations occur consciously on certain levels it is also true that the personalities concerned do not have to be conscious of the transformations. But they can be if they prefer.

It is one thing to recognize that your particular camouflage patterns are part of reality and another to realize that there is a reality that is independent of your camouflage patterns. One of my purposes is to enable you not only to recognize but experience this independent reality, and again the use of psychological time in a correct manner will be an invaluable aid.

This last is extraordinarily important and I shall return to it shortly. Through the inner senses, and using a very simple analogy, you would not only see the street as you do or hear the few sounds that drift to your ears. You would actually experience directly the essence of everything within a certain range. This experience would be instantaneous and would, using the analogy, include more than the usual data that you would receive from the outer senses. That is, not only would you be able to feel the air though you were not out in it, not only would you pick up the odors, though ordinarily you cannot do this while you look out through closed windows, but you would literally feel the unitary essences of the trees and branches and hidden birds and insects. You would experience directly the personalities of the inhabitants of the automobiles—the vitality even of the components of the automobiles’ molecules, and “see” (in quotes) the future and the past experience of everything within that particular range of focus. And the range itself would be much larger.

The use of certain drugs has been experimented with at various times through the ages, but these provide merely an undisciplined, intriguing glimpse into what is possible; and for some time in your future they will not be either practical or in the main beneficial, for reasons that I shall go into after you take your break.

As far as these drugs are concerned there are a few points I would like to make. One of your purposes as I have said is to learn to organize energy units and to focus your own energy along those lines. That is, you are the energy that you use. The self-consciousness is not to be blotted out but taken along. It is so to speak to walk side by side with the inner self.

The use of these drugs sweeps the personality off its feet. Often the personality does receive a rewarding glimpse of the inner reality, but more often the ego is merely sent tumbling through frightening images of chaotic phantom realities formed by a suddenly-released subconscious, and with no guide. The experience is often vivid and long remembered, but so unorganized and undisciplined that no inner order is arrived at, no other organization glimpsed, and the ordinary but necessary camouflage footing suddenly dispensed with.

This has happened, although in what you would call primitive societies. Such personalities were more sheltered than they would be in yours. This could result in a temporary, but thoroughly frightening existence between planes that would require utmost caution on the part of the entity. Each plane necessitates its own orientation, and such a personality would have none. If the situation should ever arise I would advise that neither of you experiment with such drugs. Ruburt in particular, but this also applies to you, Joseph, and there is absolutely no distortion in this statement.

It is possible but not inevitable, of course, that continued use of such drugs by certain types of personalities could over a period of time lead to complete disability to manipulate camouflage patterns.

(“Well, I can’t remember the whole context now, but I think you were comparing the inner senses to the outer senses. Somewhere back around the 15th or 16th sessions.”)

(Jane paused in her delivery. I was tempted to say more, but did not because I found it difficult to take notes, and write and ask questions at the same time. I was afraid I’d lose track of the material. I was not satisfied, but said no more.)

I was going to say that discipline is even more important in the use of the inner senses than you might think. It is true that focusing upon the inner reality at times requires a temporary lessening of outer focus, and this would sometimes give the appearance of letting go, but the inner concentration requires discipline and intent. It is quite possible to let the inner and the outer senses operate at the same time. It merely takes practice.

—and this time we have no distortion but a simple mistake I believe in notes. I certainly did not say what I have just seen through Ruburt’s eyes. The error is in one word; not fluent but “inner.” The outer senses are not as fluent as the inner. For some reason the word was either mistaken or transposed, I do not know. The outer senses dealing with rigid camouflage patterns could not be as fluent as the inner senses.

You may have taken the word down wrong but your performance has certainly been excellent irregardless. I am certainly glad that this was caught.

It has. But it has been taken into various doctrines and religions that have grown up about it until it is almost unrecognizable. Bits of it appear here and there, scattered, distorted and misleading. It comes naked and everyone must put clothing on it, which usually ends up as either nonsense or armored dogma.

All religions are distortive. For that matter much of your science is distortive. Both arrive at approximations, at best, of reality. Religion has been the cause of much prejudice and cruelty, but the bomb over Hiroshima was not caused by the Catholic Saint Theresa showering down any roses. The distortions in science and religion have been truly disastrous. I will go into this upon another occasion.

I know. This is as I have said the beginning of a continuing experience. I am pleased that you are contacting others, but do not become impatient or discouraged.

Your next-door neighbor may work out well. Ruburt’s personal feeling is important as far as any witnesses are concerned, and while I did suggest a witness to him tonight the choice of the witness was his. Your choice, Joseph, is of course important here, but someone antagonistic to Ruburt might bother him, which is why I left the choice to him.