“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The Spazianis also related a mutual experience they underwent recently, involving Jimmy’s deceased father. They asked for Seth’s interpretation of this quite vivid happening. Since it is rather involved, I will insert an account of it in the session where Seth takes note of it. This page of the session will also be used for future reference.

(Jimmy’s youngest son, J.J., is six years old. The first time Jane and I saw the two of them, over four years ago, we were struck by the unmistakable similarity between them, not only in physical appearance but in manner. If anything this likeness between father and son has grown with the passing years, until now it is a standard topic of conversation when the Spazianis and the Buttses get together. As Jimmy’s wife Marian said to us this evening at supper: “Well, there must be a few drops of my blood in J.J. somewhere...” Jimmy of course is Italian. Marian is Irish and French.

(Jimmy is obviously proud of this similarity between J.J. and himself. This evening he showed Jane and I a family photograph taken when he was about J.J.’s age, and of course the physical similarity was even then unmistakable. This old family photograph, incidentally, included Jimmy’s father, whom Jane and I had not met, and who is referred to in the following session material.)

(Talking it over at break, we thought that at first we could ask Seth to comment briefly on a very vivid dream I had on Friday evening, October 10, 1964. Then I thought it better to ask for a comment on the vivid experience Marian and Jimmy Spaziani had, concerning Jimmy’s deceased father, recently. We made that the official question. Marian had described the experience to Jane a few days previously, but at supper this evening the Spazianis went over it again for our benefit. And since it is still fresh in mind I will note an account of it below, although Seth does not discuss it in any detail in this session. This account can be used for future reference.

(His mother’s home was dark, of course, and not wanting to disturb her merely to leave the tomatoes, Jimmy left them on the back porch. His father had died a few months ago, and while he stood in the backyard, a place he knew and had loved since childhood, Jimmy thought to himself: “Now, if I could see my father’s apparition, then I could tell Ma, and she’d feel a lot better,” or words to that effect. Jimmy waited beside the dark and quiet house, staring out into the backyard, but he saw and heard nothing unusual. He is well acquainted with the literature on psychic phenomena.

(Being tired, she had gone to bed a little after midnight, instead of waiting up for Jimmy as she usually did. She fell asleep immediately. Unaware of the passage of time, she then was awakened out of a sound sleep, not dreaming either, by a thunderously loud voice which shouted to her or at her: “Good night!” Marian told us this was so real to her, so loud and unmistakable, filling the entire room as with thunder, that she sat bolt upright in bed, fully awake and quite frightened. She had not been having a nightmare, or even dreaming. It so upset her that she immediately went to the telephone to call her husband. That is, she took a short while to collect herself, then put in the call. The voice was that of Jimmy’s dead father; Marian said she recognized it unmistakably.

(Jimmy of course related to Marian his thoughts about seeing his father’s apparition. Doing a little figuring concerning the time, he arrived at the conclusion that Marian had had her experience at approximately the same time he had been standing in back of his mother’s house, thinking about his father. Jimmy speculated that perhaps Marian had received a message from his father, in answer to his wish, even though he, Jimmy, had seen or heard nothing.

Now. The experience involving your landlord, his wife and his deceased father, was a legitimate one; but one that I should like to use as an example for a rather long discussion of questions directly resulting from some recent sessions. That is, the question as to the survival of the physical image after the point of so-called death, and the lingering about the physical plane of portions of the personality.

I do not want to begin an involved discussion this evening. I will say that the mentioned experience did involve a communication of the father and his son, taking place through the cooperation of the wife. I will not continue with this this evening, though I will begin the discussion at our next session if you prefer.

The boy, the youngest son, is also well endowed, with already efficient inner senses. The father did communicate. The living however can within certain limits make it difficult for those personalities who are finished with the physical field, because of a lack of understanding of circumstances. We shall discuss this later.

(This reference to J.J., Jimmy’s youngest son, reminds Jane and me that Jimmy has often mentioned to us that as soon as he began to talk, J.J. started to tell his father about the “playmates” who kept him company through the day. At the time Jimmy was quite intrigued because the only playmates J.J. had were his older brothers and sisters, and these were not the people he was describing. Jimmy states that J.J. related such stories to him up until he was about four years old. J.J. is now six.)

(In between these two sightings I saw a middle-aged man in rolled-up white shirt sleeves, sitting at a kitchen-type table and staring to my right. His profile was to me. He had a definite cauliflower ear. His complexion was ruddy, his hair had a reddish tinge. He did not move. He reminded me somewhat of Bill Macdonnel's father, but it was not him. I also recall a small pencil drawing Bill has done of his father in a similar position, but from a full-face angle.)