“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(A few minutes later I thought of checking finger circumferences again, as I had with Bill Macdonnel before the 47th session; see page 41. By then the sensation had receded a bit, but I obtained a measurement of 2 ½” for my second finger at 4:50. An hour later the circumference had shrunk a bit, to 2 ”. I feel there would have been a greater difference if I had taken a prompt first measurement.

(Such simple expedients had not, of course, occurred to me. But once Seth mentioned them they seemed most obvious. The fact that I had taken a journey was very surprising to me; I had not thought of my experience in that way at all.)

It will take some time before you will be able to maintain such an experience long enough to make such contact, but if possible give your own name and address, and also ask that whoever you meet write to you. This of course will aid in validity.

Each time you practice with the use of psychological time, you add to your abilities, though results may not always be immediate. There is conditioning involved here, as with anything else, but this represents one of your very highest points so far, and I am certain that you will improve. You show a good deal of ability along this line, and possess an inner willingness to experiment, that will stand you in very good stead.

It is possible to pick the places you will visit. Whether or not you can achieve such purposeful visits at this time, I do not know. However, you can most certainly try. You are further along than even I had imagined, and so it is possible that such purposeful visits are within your abilities now. At all such occasions, try to establish some kind of contact if possible, but do not be discouraged if this is not achieved at once.

For the future, keep still another possibility in mind, that of picking up an object from the location to which you have traveled, and bringing it back with you as proof. This is difficult in the extreme, but it is far from impossible.

The reason that these things are done so infrequently is because the personality-essence finds itself so unable to give up belief in camouflage time and space. You must be convinced, deeply, not only that such feats are possible, but that you can achieve them; and then you must also train yourself to perfect your own abilities.

The transportation is apparent only. In basic terms, as far as your plane is concerned, the body does appear in a new location, but it does not travel between two points, as a vehicle might do. There is a transformation of energy from one location simultaneously to another location.

Psychological time, as I have said often, comes extremely close to the climate in which I have my existence, and which you exist in, but unconsciously. Experience with psychological time, and a continuous familiarity with it, will tell you more than words can about the basic realities of all existence.

Just before the experience of death, timelessness, or the spacious present, begins to be perceived. It is because the ego is tied to its past that it sees the past seemingly rise up. It has the ability to see what is coming, so to speak, but while the frightened ego is still in control it chooses to see only a portion of what is possible, and before the point of death it usually chooses to hide in the past.

(However, something different now entered in when she began dictating again. She had been resting in our favorite chair, the Kennedy rocker. Instead of getting up and pacing again, she began dictating while still seated. Her eyes were closed, and remained so. She rocked gently back and forth, speaking in a normal voice. Since this was a departure from her usual procedure I watched her closely. I thought that if she appeared to be slipping into a deeper trance state it might be wise to interrupt the session. But at no time did I feel that this was happening. Resume at 10:03.)

I have said that this will be a brief session. Until you learn, and you are learning, to replenish your psychic energies, such experiences as the one you had this evening will leave you with a certain weariness. This is not necessary, but in the beginning, I am afraid it is natural.

I am most pleased with your progress, Joseph, and I expect it to continue. Perhaps someday you will bring a handful of sand back from a Florida beach. Not enough to make a beach of your own, perhaps, but a handful in the middle of your living room table would be quite an achievement.

The energy that you use in these sessions, and in your own experiments, need not be your own energy. You are already drawing upon other reservoirs, but this too is an ability in which you are being trained. There is an almost regeneration that will occur, and that is occurring now, to some degree.

(“Good night, Seth.” End at 10:23. Jane said she had been dissociated to a greater degree than ever before while in the rocker, but that it still was not a state of deep trance. She had not been worried. Her thought at the time had been that she wasn’t sure how far Seth would go with the trance state.

(This evening, Tuesday, April 28, 1964, while trying psychological time, between 10:03 and 10:25, I had two brief but interesting experiences.

(In the first one, after lying quietly for some time, and approaching the necessary state [close to sleep yet not asleep, but unaware of my body lying on the bed], I saw myself; I was at a public swimming pool in the summertime, although I saw no one else. I saw myself from the right side, striding purposefully along with vigorous step, carrying over my right arm a neatly folded white towel. Evidently I wore a bathing suit, but it was obscured by the towel, and I could not see its color. I did see my bare torso and lower legs.

(The flooring took a series of long shallow steps down, each step being perhaps two or three inches deep. As I strode along, my right heel slipped off the edge of a step, and I landed flatfooted on the next step with a jar. So vivid was this sensation that my whole body jumped, on the bed, and I was awake. And as my foot slipped and I was shaken up, I was myself; that is I was no longer watching myself. Upon awakening I thought of the Sayre swimming pool, but as far as I know the two settings would not be the same.

(In back of me, to my left and on the other side of the fence, was some kind of long dark building. The fence was also quite long. The scene reminded me of Clute’s used-car lot here in Elmira, but was not it.

(Shirley White, in the summer of 1964, corner of Walnut & Water. She called to me from a car making a left turn off the Walnut Street bridge, by Water St. Jane & I were standing on the lawn by our apartment house. When I heard Shirley call me I had my thrilling sensation. Yet, because the setting was different I was not sure this was it, & doubted the connection. Did not ask Seth. Still not sure, Dec. 1964, but note this down to retain it. This is the only time that I know of, so far, when someone has called me Robert. The manner of the call was very much like my psy-time experience.

(Note that in first experience I saw similar location [later, in Watkins Glen, NY] but did not participate actively—that is, I did not swim. In the second, the location was different, but I heard the calling voice. Distortions account for this?)