“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I thought she might be unhappy about a letter she received last Monday from the Macmillan Co. of NY, in which they stated that they liked her book of poetry, The Fence, very much, but could not publish it due to their restricted list of poetry, having abandoned for the time being their projected series of paperback poetry books. The fact that Macmillan stated they thought another publisher would take on The Fence, had not, I thought, particularly cheered Jane, at least at the moment.

(She began dictation on time, again without her glasses. Her voice was but a little stronger than normal, her pacing regular, her eyes dark as usual. Her delivery in the beginning was rather slow and interspersed with pauses, but after a page or so it began to pick up speed, until she had me writing at a pretty good rate. At the same time Jane’s pacing also picked up speed.)

Were he not so honestly and unfortunately ill-disposed, the affair would be highly ludicrous. Last week he began and finished an excellent short story, and finished an outline, as well as holding our sessions, and beginning once more his psychological time experiments.

(Here Jane laughed, then took a long pause as she paced about the room. The remark of mine to be discussed was one I had made around supper time, and I was now rather surprised to see it crop up in the material.)

Rather frequent informal relationships are more practical than occasional formal ones, and Ruburt is already involving himself, again, in the satisfying for him diversified household chores, which are also a break from strict mental work. Even in winter time I will suggest he take walks, and these should be for pure enjoyment. Hammering at his subconscious as he does on his few walks negates their purpose. Too much of a good thing. After all, his subconscious would like some rest too. He is such a hammerhead in this respect.

I would not take up session time for this material except that my suggestions, if followed, will be most helpful. Also to him a note: even his adolescent, seemingly-undisciplined times were disciplined, giving notice of continuing ego strength, balanced and sometimes over-balanced by intuitional development, in that he never ceased writing from the day that he began.

He is face to face with himself, with his abilities, ambitions and limitations, now, with a whole day more or less to work toward his goal, and he feels great urgency. This is fine, a driving force, but his strength comes from among other things his very personal involvement with nature, and from his contemplation of it. Time devoted to what appears aimless thought and speculation will also bear its fruits.

(These notes are taken verbatim from Jane’s notebook, listing her recent experiments with psychological time:

(October 13, Tuesday, 11:15 AM: Fleeting, forgotten images. As I first lay down, heard noise outside. Feeling struck me forcibly that it was caused by Marian Spaziani [our landlady]. Definite feeling, not a hunch, so strong I waited for her knock, which didn’t come. Thought I was mistaken. At noon someone in hall. It was Jimmy, Marian’s husband. He had been working around the house for some time.

(October 16, Friday: Didn’t try Psy-time, but lay down on bed for a nap, being tired. Exactly the same thing happened as yesterday, except that this time I saw a different light fixture, off to the left of my inner vision. Again, it was so clear I was almost sure eyes must be open, but they were closed. Again, fixture bore no resemblance to any in room.

(For myself: I haven’t begun regular experiments with Psy-time yet after the long layoff, but plan to soon. In the meantime I have had many fleeting experiences, usually soon after going to bed. The most recent came as I sat on the bed preparatory to lying down. It was dark of course, but I saw very clearly the figure of a blonde young woman in riding clothes, facing to my left. She was sitting down. Her clothes were brown. I saw this image as I was in the act of lying down.)