“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(A.J.’s letter arrived this afternoon, Wednesday, November 25. Since a session was due tonight, Jane studied the letter in the event Seth would choose to deal with it this evening. Just before the session was due she read the three questions aloud. Jane did not feel up to par and was not particularly in the mood for a session.

(Jane and I usually go dancing Saturday evenings, leaving the house at about 9 PM. Shortly before 7 PM Jane told me that she felt herself to be in an excellent mood of pleasant anticipation; she thought she might be trying to receive information, but did not know how to go about it.

(I was working at the time but we decided to take advantage of her mood. It was now dark outside. The night was windy and wet. We turned off the lights and sat at our table by the bay windows in the living room. Shadows were active; the room was rather well lighted by lights from passing traffic.

(First we concentrated on trying to move a small brass ring lying on the table between us, without success. At times the moving shadows gave us the illusion that the ring did move. Next we sat in our living area, away from the windows, and concentrated on our Kennedy rocker. It did not move. Jane asked for help in attempting this from anyone who might be present. She still felt quite strongly her mood of anticipation. Again, the changing shadows gave us the illusion that the rocker did move slightly at times.

(Next, in an effort to “break through” Jane’s mood, we tried a matching numbers test that failed. Then I tried a word association test. I could see well enough to write without turning on lights; the test revealed that Jane was concerned with some associations connected with books, publishers, stories and New York City, but did nothing as far as enabling her to “accomplish” something this evening, at least quickly.

(Now we turned on a closet light and left the door ajar so that the living room was softly lighted. Jane said her mood had leveled off somewhat. It seemed we would accomplish little. We began to exchange random thoughts. Jane did not want to call on Seth and had not since the beginning; she was more interested in obtaining some kind of effects that she could see herself, instead of being the one observed by others.

(By attaining a certain mood, and then talking quietly, Jane had in the past produced the Sarah Wellington and the Malba material. See Volume 1, pages 64, 103 and 127. She had shown rather subtle voice changes each time. For Sarah she had spoken in a rather more childish manner; for Malba she had sounded rather petulant, grown, not too bright and poorly educated. In each case there was no doubt that the voice was Jane’s.

(Jane remembered parts of what had been said. Her mood was now normal. As far as I recall, the personality I spoke with had nothing to say about any reasons for her excellent mood earlier in the evening. Nothing about this being Jane’s way of trying to establish contact with the group, for instance. Jane did not speak at all like Seth, either in manner or inflection. At times her voice sounded so dry it had a rasp.