“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

SESSION 68

(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.

(Today we had made an initial payment towards acquiring the Birch house, dealt with so extensively in the 65th session. We were both pleased and excited over this. Before the session was due Jane said she felt exhausted and nervous; she reported Seth had been with her at times during the afternoon, “buzzing around,” as she put it, while she thought about the house.

(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.)

There is one point from our previous discussion that should be added to. It is in terms of a clearer definition. You call matter living or dead according to quite arbitrary designations. We have a step further here to take. In our last session, I mentioned that you considered live matter to be action in motion.

(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.)

(By now Jane’s voice was even lower and stronger than it had been a minute ago. Already the change was more drastic than it had been for many sessions. Her voice did not boom out, and was still recognizable as her own;yet the change was great, and I wondered if it might be even more dramatic. The presence of witnesses usually calls forth a little extra on Seth-Jane’s part as far as voice phenomenon is concerned. The 63rd session, when John Bradley had last been a witness, had also seen some voice changes; but they had been mild compared to this.)

(By referring to the floor plan of our living room at the end of this session, the placement of the three of us can be quickly determined. Seth, making the above statement, gave no suggestions as to what might transpire. Jane’s delivery was unbroken as she paced about the room at a rather fast rate. Her voice was also quite strong and deep, much deeper than usual, yet she spoke without apparent effort or surprise.

Incidentally, I would like particular attention for the session, as the material will be of particular value.

(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.

(For one who felt poorly at the start of the session, Jane now said she felt fine. Seth had “knocked her out quickly.” Our cat, Willy, now became active as break wore on, and as he has done for most recent sessions. Willy began to stalk through the apartment, crying out; it was a cool night and no bugs were to be seen. Willy behaved in quite a scary fashion, looking all about him.

This is the first time that I have attempted to approach in this manner during a session. I am pleased that I have been perceived, and I have been observing you from my own vantage point.

(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.

(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.]

(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.)

I would also suggest before the session ends that you ask Mark once more what he saw, for the record, as well as including the excellent representation of me in the record. I also suggest that you notice the change once again in Ruburt’s voice; and if I perhaps sound severe, it is only the result of the transition. I can do best along this line in the presence of particular individuals who cooperate with me in the effort.

(I had heard a door slam next door, since it was a nice night and our living room windows were open. In the summer Jane likes the windows open, sessions or no, although I find traffic noises bothersome at times.

(We live on the second floor. The offices of Dr. Levine, our friend and physician, are perhaps forty feet away, on the ground floor of a house that he owns. The side entrance to his suite is directly opposite our windows, and we often see Sam Levine coming and going. He does much night work, and his office lights have many times been burning while a session was in progress.

(Sam Levine knows about Seth but has never attended a session. He has been invited to. He has expressed neither belief nor disbelief; he has also listened to part of the tape recording we made of Jane when delivering the 25th session. See page 183. Someday Jane and I intend to put the pressure on Sam and make him attend a session, no matter how busy he is. [Session 25 is in Vol. 1.])

(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.)

(My writing hand by now was somewhat tired, since it had been a long fast session. Jane resumed dictation in the same deep voice, using many gestures as she paced about the room. Resume at 11:01.)

I am going to end the session very shortly.

I hope to go into the reality and existence of these sorts of various space-perspective-images much more deeply. We have had a most fruitful session. I wish to thank Mark once more for my representation, and I also ask him to take my advice to heart.

That was my allusion to the many Marks, earlier in the session. I had intended to show you the way in which these Marks would be multiplied, and the manner in which physical worlds multiply indefinitely, and seemingly without end.

I only want to add a few simple explanations here. There definitely was a change in Ruburt’s features. I will go into the reasons behind this in another session.

(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.)

All in all, I haven’t had such a good time at a session in months.

(End at 11:59. Jane was dissociated as usual. She felt much better, she said, than she had before the session began. Seth was full of hell, Jane said; he really enjoyed himself giving the session; and the concept of his enjoyment as she sensed it within was, in turn, enjoyable and “funny” to her.

(Jane maintained her deep voice up to the end of the session.)

(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.)

(From 1960 to 1975, Jane and I [and Willy!] lived in a second-floor apartment, No. 5, at 458 West Water St., in Elmira, NY. Here’s my July 1964 diagram of the apartment’s living room, where the activities in the 68th session took place.)