“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Perhaps the affairs of this evening were set in motion several days ago, when Jane and I voiced the thought that we might try an ESP experiment of some kind on Sunday night. This, of course, provided we were alone.

(Through last week, also, Jane had enjoyed a burst of painting activity after a rather long time away from it. She enjoyed herself doing these pictures very much, and we discussed them at length. She sensed a conflict between what she wanted to portray, and her limited technical abilities in getting the actual images on canvas. I thought her work was better than ever, surprisingly so, and that her ideas were good and her extremely personal handling of them in paint very fresh. Jane persisted in thinking of her paintings as childish.

(We had company after supper. Before this couple left, Bill Macdonnel dropped in. Jane, Bill and I were eventually left alone, and since Bill is also an artist, the three of us joined a rather animated discussion of Jane’s latest work. It lasted for perhaps an hour.

(Here, I would like to call attention to my dream of September 18, 1964. See page 47. Seth has discussed this dream in considerable detail, without saying much about the opening sequence of the dream. In this opening sequence, Jane, Bill, the members of the Potter family, and myself, were gathered in a living room. I was pulling out some of Jane’s drawings and paintings and showing them to Bill, and Jane, Bill and I were animatedly discussed them. Particularly did we express surprise over their high quality. It then struck me this evening that the discussion between Jane, Bill and I, over Jane’s new work, bore some rather remarkable parallels to that opening dream sequence, and I wondered whether that portion of the dream could have been clairvoyant. Seth may comment on this in the next scheduled session. The main difference between the dream and “reality”, of course, is that the Potter family was not present this evening.

(It will be recalled that at various times Seth has said that Bill Macdonnel has much natural psychic ability, and that it is largely untrained. Seth stated that Bill was gifted in many lines of psychic ability, among them the perception of apparitions. Seth also stated that Jane and I did not see as much as we might because we were both too “fussy” about what we would allow ourselves to see.

(Now as the discussion progressed the three of us sat in the living room around our coffee table, staring into the open bath door and exchanging half-joking remarks about apparitions. Bill then announced that he sensed the “feeling of a form” within the doorway, in the same manner detailed in the 68th session, except not to that degree. Jane and I could see nothing, as before.

(I would like to say here that recently Jane had remarked, several times, that she would feel better if she herself could see some physical evidence of psychic phenomena. She had not seen the apparition, nor of course had I, and she had not been able to see the change in her features, again described in the 68th session. Even though I reminded her that she was the prime mover in the sessions, she still expressed the wish to “see something” that would “prove” to her that the material was legitimate. We both remembered of course that long ago Seth had said in no uncertain terms that he was not in favor of demonstrations for demonstrations’ sake, and that he would not perform on call.

(Since the subject had been under discussion for some time by now, so that a certain mood or feeling might be said to have been engendered, Jane remarked that she could feel Seth “buzzing around.” This announcement did not mean much to us, and we paid little attention. Instead we tried to discern the form Bill said he could see in the doorway. We did not succeed.

(I then became aware, at 11:00 PM, that Jane had fallen silent. She sat on the divan, her legs drawn up beneath her, across the coffee table from me. Her expression was smiling but fixed. She stared at me. I saw that her eyes had grown very dark beneath the lower lids, a rather peculiar manifestation that cleared up shortly after she began dictation. Jane held a cigarette but seemed to be unaware of it. She had taken her glasses off.

(I had an impulse to try to get back to my studio to get some paper and a pen; this was followed by another impulse—to forget about notes for a change, even though Jane was obviously about ready to give a session. I followed the latter course, since she seemed unconcerned about whether notes would be taken. Bill and I waited. Jane began dictation in a rather strong voice that was pitched somewhat lower than normal, and maintained it for the whole of the session. She remained seated throughout. As soon as she began to speak she closed her eyes, and to my continuing surprise she kept her eyes closed throughout the session, except for one brief instant that shall be mentioned later. There followed a rather strange procedure, for when Jane addressed either Bill or myself she kept her eyes closed but faced the pertinent one, and gestured in the correct direction also. After a while one tended to forget that her eyes were closed, since there was no evidence of confusion on her part. In addition, the closed eyes played a part in an interesting little development that will also be mentioned later.

(As Jane delivered the above material in quite an animated fashion, Bill picked up a piece of paper lying on the coffee table, and Jane’s pen. He made a quick sketch on the back of the already used paper and passed it to me. I saw that he had roughed out Jane’s features, stressing her closed eyes. I also saw that he had drawn, upon the closed upper eyelid, an iris, thus superimposing upon Jane’s closed eye an open one. I nodded to Bill to show that I understood that he was seeing an eye or eyes upon Jane’s closed lids.)

(Telling us about his recent dream and apparition experiences, Bill had mentioned that at times when his eyes were closed he was aware of the feeling of a white light, or glow, that varied in intensity at different times. Jane was interested in this description because it tallied with an effect she attains quite often in psychological time experiments—this feeling of a light within, even though the eyelids are squeezed tightly shut. At times Jane has seen images after the appearance of this inner light, but Bill has seen only the light. I have experienced this type of inner glow on a few isolated occasions, but have seen few images in this manner.)

(Jane smiled broadly, gesturing as she sat upon the divan.)

(See Jane’s psychological time experience of October 30, page 102.)

(I did not think to note the time the session ended, but certainly it was within half an hour. Jane said Seth knocked her out quickly, and that it was her deepest trance except for the self-induced one of January 10, 1964. See Volume 1, page 83. Yet as usual she could hear herself speaking, although she could not follow the sense of what she was saying, nor did she try to.

(Jane spoke with her eyes closed throughout except for one instance. Her cigarette had burned very short; stabbing her hand toward an ash tray on the coffee table, she struck it a glancing blow on the rim and knocked it aside. Her eyes popped open for an instant.

(Bill Macdonnel explained that the superimposed eyes he saw upon Jane’s closed lids had no pupils, but resembled instead eyes clouded by cataracts. He also said that whenever Jane spoke to me and gestured in my direction, the eye effect followed, yet I noticed nothing unusual in Jane’s features. For Bill this effect began when Seth first mentioned him in the session.

(Seth mentioned the physical effects often throughout the session, hence my repetition of this. He did not say anything, however, about what kind of effects he would produce. Jane spoke at a somewhat faster rate than usual, although had I been taking notes I believe I could have kept up for the most part.)

(Bill’s first sketch of the effect he saw on Jane’s closed eyes during the session.)

(After the session Bill finished for Jane and me the “press-release” kind of account about his gallery that he’d worked on while we talked before the session. This can be used for radio and newspaper publicity. He signs his paintings by his middle name, Cameron. Bill wrote:

(From Jane’s psychological time notebook: