“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Time may show that this session is one of the most significant to date, as far as demonstrations of the authenticity of the Seth Material are concerned. What I have recorded here is done with the utmost effort towards objectivity. Jane, Bill Macdonnel and I agree as to the contents, and our three viewpoints are herein presented. It might be added that Jane and I have no set opinions concerning the Seth Material. We are engaged in it and with it, and we record what we learn. We do not feel that at this stage any other opinion or attitude is needed. We let the material speak for itself.

(Bill Macdonnel arrived at 8:30 to be a witness. Our cat Willy was quiet for a change as session time approached. Jane also felt nervous. She began dictating on time, in a voice a little deeper and stronger than usual. Her pacing was average, her eyes darkened as usual.)

(Jane had prepared a glass of iced coffee before the session began. Now she lifted it to show Bill and me. At the same time, her voice began to grow some-what deeper and stronger.)

(It will be recalled that Seth has given the name of Bill’s entity as Mark.)

(From my writing table, to my right of the entrance to our bath, I could look easily at Bill as he sat in our Kennedy rocker, facing the bath entrance itself from the other side of the same door. As Jane continued her delivery I noticed that Bill was staring quite consistently into the open bath doorway; yet I did not pay great attention to this, taking it somewhat for granted that Seth would use Bill/Mark only as a talking point relating to whatever subject he discussed.)

(As soon as break arrived, Bill announced that he had seen an image in the doorway of the bath; it was this that had drawn his attention as Jane dictated. Bill asked for a sheet of paper and immediately set to work on a sketch of what he had seen. He is an artist and schoolteacher.

(Jane and I of course looked into the doorway but saw nothing. Bill has seen many images and apparitions during his life, and Seth has in past sessions discussed some of them, and their origin, briefly; so Jane and I were not surprised when Bill said he had another sighting.

(Jane began dictating again in the same strong and very deep voice. Bill continued working on his sketch, saying he was not satisfied with it and would try another. Resume at 9:32.)

(First Jane pointed at Bill as he sat in the Kennedy rocker, working on his sketch of the apparition; then she pointed at me. Bill in the meantime kept staring into the open bath doorway, and as before I could see nothing from my position at the table.)

(Here Jane paused beside Bill and picked up the first pen drawing he had made of his sighting of the apparition of Seth.)

(Jane handed the sketch back to Bill, who continued to stare into the dark bath doorway.)

(Now Jane stood in back of Bill, looking over his shoulder as he sketched.)

(Jane picked the second sketch from Bill’s hand and paced about the room, talking as she examined it. I caught a glimpse of the drawing as she waved it briefly in my direction.)

(Break at 9:56. Jane was dissociated as usual. She ended the dialogue with a laugh at Bill.

(Bill Macdonnel said that the dark bath doorway turned into a foggy white; he then saw the form of Seth’s apparition stand out against this lighter background. The form was mainly a silhouette, he said, without much detail; yet during the first monologue he obtained a strong look or glimpse of the face. The effect was rather like that of a reversed negative. Bill said the face of the apparition was about six feet above floor level.

(Jane by now felt very good, fully recovered from her below-par feeling preceding the session. Clowning around, she moved into the doorway, into the exact spot in which, Bill said, Seth’s apparition was appearing. At this time, this moment, Bill said he could not see the image. I was standing beside the rocker Bill occupied, and both of us were watching Jane as she stood smiling and laughing in the bath doorway.

(Bill Macdonnel and I then noticed at the same time that Jane’s animated features were changing. As she spoke to us, her jaw became more square in outline against her long black hair; her nose enlarged, her mouth acquired heavier and wider lips as they moved with her speech, and her neck thickened. The whole cast of feature became heavier and male. Neither Bill or myself noted any change in her eyes or forehead.

(At our request Jane remained standing where she was; she said that she “tingled” as she stood in the proper spot. She was not frightened, although uneasy when Bill and I first told her of what we saw. There was no doubt of what we did see. The effect lasted for perhaps a minute or two, the room was sufficiently well lighted [although not blazing with light; during her deliveries Jane usually has one 60W light on, but at break we turn more lights on; and if this bothers Jane while talking she automatically snaps them off as she paces about.] and Bill and I had plenty of chance to make sure of what we were looking at.

(I then asked Jane to move a few inches forward. She did, and the effect diminished then disappeared. For me, the change in feature appeared to take place on a plane an inch or so in front of Jane’s actual physical features. This new set of features might have been suspended on a clear screen of some kind; and as I watched them, at the same time I saw or sensed behind them or through them Jane’s real features as I knew them. Bill Macdonnel did not dispute my interpretation of the effect, although I have the feeling he did not see the effect just that way.

(This “hanging before” appearance, it will be remembered, is remarkably similar to the effect I observed when the same three of us experimented with our first and only seance. See the 11th session, page 56. In this one, as Bill, Jane and I stared into a mirror, the reflection of Jane’s head changed in size and shape, and finally appeared to hang in space just forward of the rest of her reflection. That appearance had taken place in much poorer light than tonight’s event, however. This time I could see in detail the changes taking place, and their end. [Session 11 is in Vol. 1.]

(Bill told Jane and me that the “feeling” of the apparition’s form lingered in the doorway even during break, though in a weaker state. He said that the image would at intervals become quite a bit stronger, so that he could then glimpse details. His drawings of Seth revealed a set of rather chiseled features, with the obvious difference of a very large and high cranium. He said he felt the cranium was gigantic.

(I will have photocopies of the two drawings made for insertion into the carbon copies of this record. My personal feeling is that Seth’s enormous cranium in the drawings is a symbolic one—perhaps one pertaining to Bill’s feeling that Seth possesses greater or different knowledge than we do.

(Still not satisfied with his second sketch, Bill set to work to make a few small changes. Willy had quieted down by now. My writing hand felt no fatigue to speak of. Jane began dictating in the same strong and very deep voice. Indeed, she kept up with the voice phenomenon for the whole session, with no apparent discomfort of any kind, and no ill effects afterward. Resume at 10:08.)

(Again Jane picked up Bill’s second sketch. Pacing around the room at a rather fast rate, she studied it and pointed to it frequently as she spoke.)

(Jane gestured toward Bill. She was pacing very fast and her deep voice was booming out.)

(Bill Macdonnel was again staring into the doorway to the bath, making additions to his second drawing of Seth’s apparition.)

(See the 56th session, page 110, for the full material on Bill’s recent illness. Now, again, Jane picked up Bill’s second drawing; she spoke directly to him.)

(At Seth’s suggestion, I again quizzed Bill on his sighting of Seth’s image; Bill verified the notes I had already taken and have included in this record. Once again he emphasized the great rise of the cranium of the image.

(Bill Macdonnel also stated that in his opinion Jane’s voice was at least an octave lower than its usual range. During the last monologue he stated he had seen nothing additional relating to the image in the doorway, and that he was not now seeing it.

(My hand was somewhat tired from writing, but not in bad shape. Jane, Bill and I discussed an experiment the three of us could try while Bill was on his trip. He planned to go to Cape Cod; as soon as he was settled for his projected stay of several weeks, Bill was to write us. He would give us certain times during evening hours when the three of us would try to contact each other telepathically, and make notes of whatever impressions we might receive.

(The following reference by Seth to the mixing of the papers stems from the fact that in reading back some of the notes of the session to Jane and Bill aloud, I had gotten them out of sequence; for a minute or so I had not realized what had happened, and the material had sounded oddly jumbled.)

(For a full explanation of the implications above, see the 46th session, page 35. The barn episode, taking place in the town of Triev, Denmark, involved Jane, Bill, Seth and me.

(It might be added here that this is the session in which Seth refers in a little more detail to Bill’s perception of apparitions, and the mechanics involved. Therefore the 46th session is closely related to this one in that respect.)

(“How about Bill’s trip? Will he have a good one?”)

(Jane pointed vigorously at Bill.)

(“How about Bill’s trip?”)

Bill-Mark. Mark will have, as far as I know, an excellent journey.

(My writing hand was tired, even with Seth’s help. I asked Bill to make a drawing of any materialization Seth might perform for him on his trip.

(This reproduction, combining the two drawings Bill MacDonnel made of the apparition he saw in the 68th Session, was published in 1970 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., in Jane’s The Seth Material. Bill’s first drawing is the smaller of the two.)