“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(On Tuesday, November 24, we had as dinner guests Dee and Joe Masters. They no longer live in Elmira. It will be remembered that Seth has discussed both of them at various times in past sessions. Until about a year ago Dee was Jane’s supervisor at the art gallery. Some predictions concerning them will be found in the 63rd session for June 17, 1964.

(Jane and I tried some ESP experiments with Dee and Joe, and obtained good results. In one of them Dee achieved a light trance state. I have notes on the proceedings, and will include them in the record should Seth ever discuss them at some point in the future. Seth was not involved in Tuesday evening’s activities in any way.

(At this conference Jane, A.J. and three other science fiction writers formed a group they called “The Five.” Letters were exchanged for some little time. In her letter of November 12 Jane asked A.J. a few questions about The Five. A.J. replied on November 22, stating that before he could answer Jane’s questions he would like Seth’s answers to three questions: “When was the last time you grew up?”, “What do you love?”, and “When is the self born?”

(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.

(The session turned out to be one of the slowest I can recall. Jane began dictation on time and in a normal voice. She spoke very slowly and with many pauses. Again her glasses were off, her eyes dark as usual. Her pacing was also quite slow. A.J.’s letter lay on my writing table.)

That was the last time that I grew up, in what was a town called Triev.

(In the 4th session, December 8,1963, Seth stated he lived in Denmark three centuries ago, and that Jane and I did also. According to Seth Triev no longer exists. It was situated near Eastern Roads. The use of the word Roads in this connotation may have a maritime meaning. See Volume 1 of The Early Sessions.

(Break at 9:28. Jane was dissociated as usual. She said she felt all right while delivering the material, but not as good during break. Her rate of delivery was so comparatively slow that perhaps half as much material as usual came through.

(Break at 10:02. Jane was dissociated as usual. She now said that she felt much better than she had before the session began. She still stuck to her very slow delivery however.

I am going to end our session. For your information Joseph, I was born in that existence in the year approximately 1486, and lived most of that life in the town called Triev, in the eastern part of the country, as a merchant dealing in spices.

I was indeed rather spicy myself. My kindest regards to Ruburt and yourself, and my regards to the man who asked that the questions be given to me. He lived two other lives, one in Spain approximately 1341, and one in England in the 1800’s; this one as a banker in London. He as a personality has often been in the position of being distrustful of strong elements of compassion within himself in this life—

(End at 10:50. Jane was dissociated as usual. She felt much better than when the session began. Note that the date of Seth’s birth, given as 1486, is probably wrong. Jane and I think it should be 1586. I did not catch this during the session and so did not ask about it. From material given in various sessions we think the date of Seth’s death, given as 1655, is more likely to be correct. If Seth had been born in 1586 he would have been 69 at his death in 1655. I will ask about the discrepancy in the next session.)

(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.

(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.

(Nor was there this evening. Sarah and Malba were of course female. I believe the voice and the personality Jane used or displayed this evening was largely male. We sat on opposite sides of our coffee table. Jane’s back was to the light source and I could not see her features clearly. Her voice never became loud. Instead it acquired a very dry and light and hesitant quality. She used many ahs and ums and other such bridges, but I felt that these reflected the personality’s manner rather than Jane’s groping for the next word or phrase.

(Jane began speaking in this manner as we exchanged idle conversation. I was not aware of any sharp point of transition. As soon as I did become aware that a change in her state had taken place I began to ask more pointed questions. What follows is my reconstruction of our conversation. I did not attempt to make notes. We merely exchanged words in a normal manner and at a normal rate.

(I never did obtain any hints of identity. I tried three times specifically; and each time in a most dry and amused, even pleased way, the personality said firmly that Jane and I could not be told why at this time. I learned that three were involved in the watching. The group had not been with us very often in the past. They knew Seth. They said he was an educator, and that they were also. One of the more interesting points the spokesman made was that much instruction was passed on to our plane of existence through dreams; this when the ego was more relaxed.

(In a most amused way the personality said he and the others did not think much of our fumblings around with various tests this evening. The group was not with us when we tried moving the ring; it was with us when we concentrated upon the rocker. “A corridor had been open” then. I did not ask for predictions and none were volunteered. Future contact was a possibility. The group was “interested” in watching our progress with Seth. They thought Seth was “all right” as a teacher. We could not be told now why they must remain anonymous. Although some instruction was given to personalities on this plane through dreams, it was difficult because of the ever-guarding ego. They were able to accomplish more in the way of education after personalities had left this plane.

(The foregoing sums up the bulk of our conversation. The nameless personality announced that he and his fellows would leave us, and a moment later Jane had left the state. It did not last more than fifteen minutes, and was finished by 9:15 PM.

(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.

(The closest I came to getting any kind of personal information were a few remarks about our Denmark existence, three centuries ago. But here I was politely told I would not even be informed as to whether the connection was family.)

(November 27, Friday, 11:45: Feeling that some part of me was leaving the body, very slowly and gently through the head, rising and curling up outside my body. Not alarming.

(November 30, Monday, 8:15 PM: Quite a few glimpses of male and female faces and figures. One was very good: the figure of a heavy-faced man, smooth-shaven, well dressed in a tan topcoat, in the act of bending to his left, as though to pull out a chair. Several different women.

(Also, quite definite and with some duration, I had the feeling that my hands were once again crossed upon my waist, when in actuality they lay at my sides as usual. At one point here the definite feeling was that my thumbs especially were extending themselves through the tips, toward each other in an effort to meet across my body.