“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At 8:00 PM Jane and I both tried psychological time, before taking a brief nap. I experienced nothing that I could recall, but Jane received snatches of tinny music, as though it was being played on an old rickety piano.

(At 8:55, while Jane and I were discussing their visit and information, Bill Macdonnel arrived, to our surprise. He asked to be a witness and of course we agreed. It will be remembered that Bill had participated in the single seance the three of us have tried, on January 1, 1964; and was scheduled to be a witness to the 36th session, March 18, 1964, but couldn’t at the last moment.[See Volume One.]

This passive discipline also allows inner data enough durability to be realized. Mark needs to wait and listen longer when such experiences present themselves. He accepts them, but then in an intellectual attempt to capture them he smothers them to death.

(When Jane began dictating again her voice was quite strong and somewhat deeper, but the phenomena did not last. Within a few paragraphs she was back to a rather normal, slow delivery. Resume at 9:45.)

I can see from your discussions that some short explanations are in order. On your part, Mark, overimpulsiveness merely represents an overcompensation for early aggressiveness. There is certainly nothing wrong with being overimpulsive, but a discipline must also be established.

You have more than compensated now for past errors, not only in this life but in the previous life. Your painting is almost a direct result of a desire for creativity, to balance what was once your destructive personality.

Art of any kind is extremely important as a way of paying off debts, that is psychological debts. When you were a woman, Mark, and wealthy, you gave away money. Now like Joseph and Ruburt, you give away parts of yourself, fragments of yourself, made more or less into living psychological forms that according to your ability are free from not only time, but free from many of the defects of your own present personality.

Paintings, and for Ruburt’s benefit poetry—I certainly don’t want Ruburt to feel neglected—but paintings have their own vitality and exist independently of the artist, and are the result of a spontaneous, free, impulsive burst of giving that asks no return, and as such, because no return is expected, returns are given.

Any art form touches the generations. Karma can be worked out in many ways, and here again we return to Mark’s earlier male oriented, aggressive personality. This time, through the creation of beauty in paintings, he more than makes up for past errors; not only because paintings certainly should possess beauty, but because they instill positive creative thoughts in the mind of the beholder.

The impulsiveness on Mark’s part is in many ways an excellent and usable quality that can be built upon, but discipline of a mental and psychological nature must be used to give him direction, purpose, and a sense of continuity. In his case this is extremely important. He has not married, and as a merry bachelor many times myself, I applaud.

For example, having as a mother a woman who has once been your wife is rather bewildering, and certainly can lead to all sorts of psychological uneasiness. Nevertheless my sense of humor to the contrary, Mark is coming along extremely well. The earlier errors are being somewhat over-compensated for, but he will be the gainer in this respect.

—she was a numbskull, hardly worth your notice, and he came rushing in, to find what? Not his contemporary, your son, but a barrel-chested, white-haired and lecherous, lustful old geezer—

Mark, when he realized who you were, damn near strangled you. But there is a postscript. You went back into the house, weeping at your old man’s fate. Mark grabbed the girl for one revengeful embrace. Ruburt came across the same fields with his horse, led the horse into the barn, and found Mark and his mistress.

You told me this story the next morning when both young men showed up with black eyes, and Mark with a broken wrist. But Mark, out of the goodness of his heart, never told your son who he found first in the barn, and of such small but tasty incidents is the history of the race composed.

You cannot appreciate the whole story since consciously none of you can remember it, but at least I can get a good laugh at your expense.

The painting is in a room with three windows, in a large building. It was not stolen but misplaced. The reasons are many. One of the main reasons is one that has to do with Mark’s own personality and psychological makeup.

Mark’s energy resources are scattered this evening. On another occasion, when he is in better control of them, doubtlessly we will be able to do better. His abilities are vibrant, but the discipline of which I spoke is needed to enable him to focus and concentrate his abilities along constructive and purposeful lines.

May 23rd will represent another, and perhaps the last crisis as far as Miss Callahan is concerned. I would advise Mark to go ahead with his plans to find an apartment, but to look over all aspects of any particular apartment that he has in mind, foreseeing difficulties of a temperamental rather than practical nature with the landlord. This would have nothing to do with practical arrangements, but would rather be a more or less mutual antagonism that would rise up between them in a little time.

(While the three of us were discussing the session, on two separate occasions I had very light indications of my old tingling sensation, which Seth has called the feeling of sound. I hoped they would grow stronger, but they did not.

(While still in this drowsy state, without making a great effort I tried to let the sighting return. I was of course more alert by now, but I have the feeling that I did succeed, partially, in allowing it to return. That is, while I saw nothing definite, I have the feeling that it was right around the corner, just out of my range.

(The second vision came, I believe, soon after the first one. This time I saw within quite clearly a kind of framed screen with rounded corners, such as a TV screen. The vision was of a bald male head, off center on this screen to my right as I looked at it. The border of the screen cut off a portion of the head but I could see both eyes clearly. The rest of the screen, to my left, was empty, appearing to be a milky white blankness.