“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(After this our conversation turned to what Seth might say about the origins of Bill Gallagher’s ulcer. The ulcer had bothered him all day while Peg and he attended a family gathering. Jane announced that she felt the rapport in our group was favorable, that Seth could hold a session now if we requested it. Not long after this she asked me to get my notebook. The session then began with Jane sitting in the same chair, facing us.

Without carrying us into a long and lengthy session, it would be impossible for me to go into the complicated relationships involved in the psychic history of the personality whom I will here call Manuk, which is the male as he now sits before me. The solution of the problem is in his hands, and recognition on the part of the ego, which has not assimilated past knowledge, will do much to settle his condition.

I want here, Joseph, to make one note for our own benefit, that should be included with our material on the nature of action, if indeed our two visitors will for a moment forgive me. Are you ready?

(Jane, smiling, leaned forward in her chair, eyes still closed, to question me solicitously. Actually, I was just about managing to keep up with her speed of dictation, but disliked interrupting to ask her to slow down since Seth was obviously in a rare mood—as witness his hopping, almost excitedly, from one topic to another. This manner was far different than our usual quiet, almost sedate sessions. Certainly Seth, or Jane, felt a keen enjoyment.

For your benefit, my dear Joseph, I am seeing to it that Ruburt is in good condition. Far be it from me to add to his considerable burdens.

(I had been trying to keep an eye on Jane’s features, but her speed of dictation kept me too busy for more than an occasional glance. I had noticed nothing striking, certainly, or out of the ordinary, since Seth requested that I watch her. Resume at 12:00.)

—potbellied Buddha image, nor indeed any manifestation of your conception of a ghostly spirit that drifts in out of the night. It is only your own ignorance, and if you will excuse me, the superstition of the multitudes, that would give you the idea that I am some ghost of a nether world.

Are you ready for me?

Tonight’s session, Joseph, is a rather important one, and the woman who is attending our session is also quite important, in that her abilities are helping me to come through with, I might say, crystal clarity.

(I was quite pleased that in spite of the fast and furious pace of most of the session, my writing hand was holding up remarkably well. I didn’t know whether Seth was helping me out or not; he didn’t mention it in those terms, and unfortunately I neglected to ask.

(Jane and I talked for a few moments after Peggy and Bill said good night, and I then walked back to the studio to put these notes away. I heard Jane call me out to the living room. When I reached her she was again sitting in the Kennedy rocker; she asked me to get my notebook once again.

(This time I sat at our living room table in my old accustomed place. Jane began to speak from the rocker but had uttered only a few words when she got up and took a chair at the table with me. I saw that her eyes were now open, and very dark and luminous. She was staring right at me. It will be remembered that in the 157th session Jane had mentioned that she felt Seth might try to have her speak with her eyes open soon, and while in a deep trance. In that session also, Jane had felt very restless, perhaps presaging such a change.

(Jane’s glasses were off as she looked at me, and she was also smoking. Her voice was very dry and quiet; at the time I thought this was because her cold was finally interfering with her voice, but events will show how wrong I was about this.

(I felt an immediate intimate involvement now that was quite new to me in the sessions. I would say this subjective feeling was enhanced because Jane was not actively pacing about as she used to with her eyes open, but sitting comfortably at table with me. I also knew that she was in a deeper trance. The direct stare of her eyes, very large, very dark, was at times disconcerting. This effect of course was heightened, now, because I began to feel that I noticed a change in her features.

(In trying to be objective, I can say that perhaps the change I became aware of was partly observed, partly subjective. Jane’s features were quite animated. Whereas I had not observed any changes in the first half of the session, I now thought her features lost some of their feminine characteristics and became more angular and drawn, as though a masculine presence was making itself seen deliberately. I believe her facial planes appeared to be somewhat older to me. I felt that possibly I was being observed by a masculine personality through the eyes, deliberately. The sense of involvement with a personality other than Jane’s usual one, which I know so well, was quite strong. I was, actually, more concerned with trying to decipher what change I was observing, than wondering if there was a change to be seen.

He has realized for a while that it would be possible for me now to speak while we—that is, he and I so cooperated that his eyes were open, and yet his trance was deep, much deeper than in our early sessions, where the exterior circumstances might appear the same.

(Jane had been staring steadily at me while she spoke, and this in turn impelled me to look at her as often as I could while I wrote. Her posture in the chair was an easy one except when she leaned forward to make a point, yet the feeling I had of another personality being entwined with hers persisted. I was discovering that it took some getting used to.

I will take advantage when I can, that is when Ruburt allows me to make contact so well.

(Break at 1:39 AM. Jane was well dissociated and did not remember any of the material. Her voice was practically a whisper now. When she stopped dictating her eyes closed, then blinked several times. When she looked at me again she was out of her trance.

I regret that you must be so involved in your notetaking. This evening’s session, all in all, will be most beneficial to Ruburt, and I hope it will be beneficial to you. I must work along the lines of his development. This involves us in many circumstances that are necessary. I cannot get around him as far as his abilities are concerned. I will not push him. We would lose in the long run. The spontaneity of the whole night’s adventure, including the Father Trainor episode, was advantageous. He, Ruburt, is basically with me all the way, but he has Jane to contend with.

I have been with you this evening in a manner which has not been possible lately. We have been involved in variations of the trance state, while at the same time anxious to continue our material, so that the two ventures have been tied into one. It has taken me a while indeed before we could reach this point of more intimate communication.

Since we are involving you in such additional work, I will leave it to you to tell me when you are tired. Do you want to take a break?

(Actually I was getting tired. It was one of those situations in which it was easier to keep going, however, than to stop and then start again. My writing hand felt a kind of numb fatigue, and my eyes burned from cigarette smoke; but Seth/Jane, staring at me and smiling from so close by, seemed set and able to go on forever.)

(Through this delivery, as before, I was still markedly aware of a change in her features that I thought probably part physical, part subjective. It was as though the Jane I knew so well had taken a step away from me and allowed another personality to come forward, bringing with it some slight physical change and a much greater psychological change. I was still intrigued that Jane could be in such a deep trance, yet so active and responsive in talking to me. She had no memory of the material.

(Jane laughed as she finished the sentence. She stared intently at me as though daring me to ask her to be quieter. Her voice now surpassed by a good deal the Father Trainor experiment. It was not a deeper voice particularly.)

(The strange thing here was that by now even I realized that Seth could do just what he said he could, that he still had not hit the top of his, or Jane’s, ability to produce a really stunning effect. I have no real way of measuring the magnitude of what I was hearing, beyond stating that it enveloped me completely. I not only felt that everyone in the apartment house could hear the voice, but that it was audible on the street. I am still surprised that no one banged on our door and asked for quiet.

(Now, also, the voice had dropped somewhat in register. Jane grinned and leaned toward me.)

(Since Seth was obviously having such a good time needling me, I very nearly yielded to temptation and told him to pull out all the stops as far as voice effects went. I was curious to see what he could really do, through Jane. But I didn’t have the nerve, considering the hour and other people.)

(Although I was tiring I was ready to go along with Seth’s request to keep going. I thought Jane looked good. She appeared to feel no fatigue particularly, and was greatly interested in questioning me about what I had seen and heard.

It is this impossibility of speaking in normal tones, in normal conversation with you, and indeed with Ruburt, that does annoy me at times. If you knew of our histories in detail, it would not surprise you, and there would be much more that you would understand.

You blackmail me with your human limitations. Why do you not utilize your recorder to a greater degree, particularly for such unscheduled sessions?

(And even now, at the end of the session, I had been still strongly aware of something different about her, of a strong emotional involvement and immediacy. Her voice, her mannerisms in speaking, the steady way she stared at me, all contributed to this feeling.