“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Offhand, I do not recall any instance where Seth has eliminated a session entirely. But I can think of many instances where a succeeding session has been cut short in compensation.)

For reasons of convenience on your part, completely unscheduled sessions would not be practical. With your permission, we may attempt to take better advantage of such peaks of activity in the future, but if and when we do we will still maintain a general practice of not holding more than two sessions a week.

There is little real danger of this, but a state of dissociation is a state of dissociation, and this must be kept in mind. There is however a distinction here which he is already beginning to recognize. It is simply that he becomes vulnerable, or more sensitive, to inner data in a dissociated state, regardless of what causes the state to come about.

In any state of dissociation any individual is more sensitive to inner data. This sensitivity varies in accordance to the ability of the individual in general in this line, which is why I make the point. In an intimate gathering of close friends, if a few glasses of wine are drunk, and if Ruburt happens to then be increasingly aware of inner data, there is not anything out of the way in holding a session, if this happens only occasionally. Indeed a judicious (underline judicious) use of wine is somewhat beneficial, but never to be overdone, and this is very important.

I mention here as example the evening when Ruburt’s father and his woman visited. You and Ruburt had been drinking, but to no great extent more than usual. The woman, unfortunately, was not as restrained in her drinking habits.

Now. Ruburt was in a splendid state of dissociation. He was also emotionally and intuitively attuned because of his father’s visit, and in an inner state of irritability, meaning excitability, which often accompanies dissociation. There is an outer aloofness, but an inner sensitivity to different stimuli.

I was perfectly willing to hold such a session. I knew your reluctance, but you see I did not truly appreciate considerations that were strong with you, and as you recall I did not come through. But this was in deference to you and Ruburt personally. To me the social entanglements and—ah—possible social disagreeabilities did not exist.

I would always catch any real possibility of danger. I would catch any occurrence that would be strongly disagreeable if it were actually going to occur. I would know beforehand, but I am not necessarily aware of what you might consider possibilities in that line, unless I use particular effort, so these possibilities are not considered by me. In the particular instance that we are discussing, if such a session would have led, if held, to a strongly unfortunate situation, then I would know in advance, and not hold such a session.

There must be an agreement on both of your parts or the session will suffer. Dissociation opens or makes available lines and possibilities of communication, but there is no necessity that they be used at any given time or instance.

(See the unscheduled 82nd session. In this one Seth for the first time mentioned that Jane should work full time at her writing. This was August 27. By the end of September she had left the gallery where she had worked part time four years. This move was not dictated wholly by the Seth material, but certainly this played its part. Since leaving the gallery and buckling down to work, Jane had received many very favorable letters from publishers. Invariably they comment on the much improved quality of her work. This improvement has seemed to blossom like magic, and we feel that the time when Jane begins to sell her work regularly will soon arrive.)

(This, I can testify, is certainly true. In recent weeks alone, my work has improved remarkably; I am objective enough about it to be able to see this. In several recent paintings I have solved problems, almost effortlessly it seems, that I have been contending with for years. It may be coincidence that the studies are finally paying off, but it is also interesting that it should happen at this particular time. At times while working recently, I have had an almost magical ability to achieve whatever it was I wanted to do.)

My best regards to you both. I am in the mood for capering, but I will stick to my word like a gob of glue. Good evening to you both.

(Seth’s remarks about the recorder point up the reason we do not use it to routinely record the sessions for later transcription. Not only would I sit through the session with Jane even though we were recording, but in doing the transcription I would have to expend an equal amount of time listening to the session again, plus the time necessary for typing, and starting and stopping many times.)

(November 3, Tuesday, 11:30 AM: Not much of anything. I saw a mechanical gadget of some sort, quickly but not clearly enough to describe. I don’t know what it was.)

(I put in my usual morning writing hours 8:30 to 11:30 and then tried psychological time according to schedule, from then until noon. I set the alarm clock, lay down in the bedroom, closed my eyes and relaxed without giving myself any suggestions except that for complete relaxation. Was in good relaxed state but nothing was happening or anything. I said to myself, “Am I really going to make a good sale soon?” [meaning a book or story] and the words, “Evelyn’s grandmother,” sprang to mind. I figured that was meaningless and ignored it.

(Then I was angry because I had been frightened but was still cautious and didn’t want to get in over my head. Told myself then that I could travel anyplace safely and return safely but that I would go slowly; that I was safe and confident and would welcome such a valid experience. Feeling resumed of bed disappearing beneath my hands. Strong red color behind closed eyelids. Feeling of heat in head, shoulders, back of neck, and then cold in same places. Sense of expanded radius inside closed eyelids. Then felt as if legs, arms, belly...dissolved, I guess is the best description. Feeling of suspension but not of motion. Then the alarm rang, yet still I lay there, had some slight difficulty in opening eyes but did so. Even with eyes open feeling of being suspended continued. Felt some resistance [on chest?] against rising, but decided it was not wise to experiment beyond normal time limit, and got up.

(Was left with light feeling [not a weakness or anything], feeling as if I could rise up bodily, and quite definite sensation of having an empty space above my wrists. Took our cat out though, sat on steps waiting for Rob to come home from work; feeling diminished. Got lunch, told Rob what happened, left house for walk to post office to mail manuscript, and to grocery store. During lunch very slight but noticeable lightness in wrists and hands. Mentioned it, but didn’t think it at all important. Intended to do my errands, come home and write from 1:30 till 4:30.

(Left; started way home. By now, however, felt as if lightness rose through body, and this changed so that suddenly I felt as if lower part of body had dissolved completely, up to chest. No muscular knowledge of carrying bag with three quarts of milk, and book and cigarettes that I’d purchased at all. Suddenly worried; realized for the first time that I wasn’t in state of something like just plain extraordinary good humor or good health or ordinary but unusual exuberance. First, I was aware that I felt as if body had dissolved below chest; but then thought that it really might have. Went up curb on Church St.; beyond doubt it took no effort at all; the usual effort you feel in lifting feet for steps. Shoes bothered me though; they seemed heavy, holding me down. I know this is silly, but felt scared that if lower part of body was dissolved; and all that was left was chest and shoulder and head region, then I would just fall down; a chest, shoulders, and head on street. Didn’t think I was going to do this; but the image popped into my head. By this time, worried to some degree but still enjoying the delightful...suspension...looked from Walnut Street through yards, to my own windows that showed through trees. Noticed that it seemed that I was floating by...rather than walking. Afraid I might...leave body or something...unprotected in street. Got home. Told Rob. He made me drink coffee, had me sniff ammonia.

(When she returned home her eyes were very clear, her skin color good, her pulse normal. Her hands also felt normal. Her manner was quite smiling and relaxed and at the same time surprised. I was not concerned particularly, except on the general score that in these experiments I prefer to make haste slowly. She had no trouble talking, although as she walked about at times I noticed a lilt to her step; at other times her knees would bend a little more than usual, as though her legs were rubbery; but to no great degree.

(I made her coffee, which she did not seem to want very much. The ammonia capsule we tried as an experiment; we did not think she needed it, but we wanted to see what effect the pungent odor, being a kind of shock, would have. It had none that we could detect, except that Jane coughed briefly. I talked of a cold shower but we did not try it.

(The effects took some time to wear off. She first began to type up her copy on the experiment at about 2:30 PM, but appeared too relaxed to want to exert much effort in this direction. She had no trouble with coordination, [could type easily enough, etc.] as she had in the January episode, when she could not even use a pen effectively for a time. I felt that even at its height she understood the state she was in, and was not alarmed. She agreed with me that she had overdone it, however, and we spent some time discussing ways in which either of us could appreciate the first warning signals, and halt any experiment that involved too much, too fast.