“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

SESSION 158

(Our regularly scheduled session for last Wednesday, May 26, was not held because Jane had developed a heavy cold. The pendulum told her this came about because of her concern over the contract and money matters involving her ESP book. Since then Jane has received her signed contract from the publisher, with money due, and now feels better.

(Peg and Bill Gallagher visited us sometime before 9 PM this evening. Peg is a reporter for the Elmira Star-Gazette, and will do the news story about the sale of Jane’s ESP book. After the conversation had turned to matters psychic, Jane played the tape recording of the Father Trainor episode of last February 11. In Volume 3 see the 131st and 132nd sessions, and the notes on pages 261-63.

(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.

(Her eyes remained closed this time, but she was very active in her delivery, using many voice effects and gestures—the most active, I think, since she began to deliver material while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Jane said later that the presence of Bill and Peg seemed to give her extra psychic energy somehow; that she felt a greet freedom while giving the session that was most enjoyable. Seth has remarked in the past about the special value and character of unscheduled sessions.

(Jane’s voice was rather loud, and it was to become much louder. Seth expressed much amusement at the beginning of the session.)

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 must here express my gratitude indeed that Ruburt deign to allow this unscheduled session, particularly since we missed our own last scheduled one. But I shall not badger him, as I believe indeed he badgers himself enough. I will now take my leave and give you a short break.

(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.

(Seth had also referred to Peggy Gallagher’s undeveloped psychic abilities in the 63rd session. This however is the first session Peg and Bill have witnessed.)

(Jane now took one of the few brief pauses of the session.)

We have had well over a hundred sessions to date, and I have here been once more subjected to the multitudinous and weighty doubts of our stubborn-headed Ruburt.

—of a gullible, pseudomystical type of temperament. Nevertheless I cannot help but grow annoyed when I am literally besieged with the protests meant to insist upon his sanity, the point being that if he is sane, then I must be some nefarious seven-eyed monster. He does indeed give acquiescence for these sessions, and I am indeed fond of you both. I have been aware that you do not care, particularly, for the opinion of your fellow men. But our Ruburt, who has never cared for the opinion of his fellow men, now rises up in great worry. What is he afraid of?

Indeed the answer is only too obvious: the great writer fears to be found out; and why? Because the words he speaks are not his own. He knows only too well the importance of these sessions, and I am not afraid of his ego, for even his ego knows.

I will now suggest your break, and I will discuss to some greater degree data concerning your guests. And if I took time out for this discussion, it is indeed because for once I have grown impatient. For much of this on Ruburt’s part is indeed pretense—not conscious pretense, but pretense. He knows full well not only the importance of the sessions, personally, but he knows the far-reaching consequences of these sessions, and he is indeed quite able to deal with the consequences.

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.

(In Volume 1, see the 68th session for some material on facial changes in Jane.

(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.

I can hardly in one evening undo the distortive errors of a lifetime to date. It would be most advantageous if other sessions were held for the particular purpose of delving into the problem, but this session alone has already prepared the self to know the self, and here the personality will take strides forward. The condition will improve. Of this I am certain.

I myself am in fine fettle. However I realize that I am somewhat freer than you, and I will indeed, my Joseph, end the session at your request.

I am most pleased to meet with you both, and I have no doubt that we shall indeed have other communications in these sessions. There is, Joseph, an importance here that you have not seen, but perhaps at our next session I will make it clear.

My best and heartiest regards to you all. I found this evening’s session most enjoyable. My fondest good evenings.

(We have always thought of the 33rd session as furnishing the most dramatic display of voice changes on Jane’s part, both in volume and a lower register. I would say that tonight’s session saw Jane surpass those voice effects as far as sheer power and staying ability went by some little margin; but I do not think her voice dropped as low. Nevertheless it was very vibrant and strong, and Jane now told us she felt no aftereffects, her cold notwithstanding. She said that before the Father Trainor demonstration she had been concerned about her voice being able to give a session tomorrow night, Monday, let alone tonight.

(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.

(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.

There is much concerning the laws of energy which I have not yet explained to you, and so it is inevitable that our sessions are dependent upon his abilities to utilize energy. He has indeed done very well. But for a while yet we are still dependent upon his utilization of energy.

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.

There is what amounts at times to a wall that separates us, as far as emotion is concerned, and this is our Ruburt’s doing, though of course he does not do it deliberately. Again, the strength and indeed the stubbornness of his ego, made the sessions possible, for without it in the beginning there would have been difficulty in maintaining necessary stability.

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.

And your ideas this evening have been most legitimate. We need still now and then a touch of spontaneity in our sessions, now that the routine is assured, and I hope that we will achieve it.

(During this break, since Jane’s voice had again been very low and dry, almost a whisper, I made the unfortunate remark that her heavy smoking this evening was responsible. This brought on her most spectacular voice display of any of the sessions to date, bar none. She began speaking in a voice that was at least as loud as that used in the Father Trainor experiment earlier this evening, and that was loud indeed. Resume at 2:05.)

There is an emotional action, Joseph, in this session that is important; for our sessions deal with many layers, and I regret that this one layer is at most times neglected. I am endeavoring to give this evening’s session an emotional gestalt that will be an experience in itself, and in itself a lesson.

You may if you prefer cut tomorrow’s session for this one, but I would suggest that you continue with the session as long as you can, for the benefits will more than make up for your discomfort.

Ruburt presently feels no discomfort. He may be slightly tired tomorrow, but that is all. The emotional rapport built up between us will reinforce our sessions in general, and you know how important this can be. I must still work within the realm of his energies, and I do not even now believe that you realize how much more effectively he is using those energies, nor what strains our sessions have put upon his ego, which he has managed to triumph over.

You may take a break. I feel on the one hand that I am overstaying my welcome. On the other hand I know too well that this session will be more than worth your while. I suggest however that you take a break.

We will now close, or begin to close our session.

Therefore, though I sincerely regret, and with deep sympathy for your desires, I will here close our session—but only because I so sympathize with the lamentable weakness of your fingers. I have not been able to come through personally so well in quite a while; and if our situations were reversed I would not shut you off.

I will therefore leave it to you as to when our session will conclude. I have Ruburt, for once, cooperating to a laudable degree; and there is much, seriously, that I can say along these lines. In any case I will not be responsible for five fingers lying weakly on the table, broken and disjointed because I have so misused them. If I were you—

You may now as your prefer, and of course irregardless of my feelings, end the session or take a break.

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

(Actually time plays an important role here. To type up notes from a recording means I have to spend as much time, again, listening to a session. This expenditure is then increased each time I have to stop and rerun a section to pick up a missed word, or because the dialogue simply runs so rapidly, etc.

(I thought of recording this evening’s session earlier, as stated, but did not do so in the interests of spontaneity, a quality to which Seth attaches great value. To be ready to record an unscheduled session we would have to have the recorder set up and ready to go at a flick of a switch, constantly. To date our unscheduled sessions haven’t been that frequent by far, and there are actually few unusual effects to be noted.)

You still have simply no idea, Joseph, of the benefits that you and Ruburt receive through such communications. And unscheduled sessions are apt to be more important at times, in certain ways, than other sessions.

(My writing hand was tired, but since I had decided I could go on if necessary, I said nothing more about ending the session.

I will indeed close, but you will find that the benefits of this session are more long-lasting than either of you can now suppose.

(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.

(And once again, let it be noted that Jane suffered no aftereffects of any kind from this long session. Her cold was not affected either for better or worse. She had no voice fatigue. The next day she was not tired, etc.

(It can also be noted that in the second half of the session Seth made no reference to my watching out for physical changes in Jane, as he had when Peggy and Bill Gallagher had been present. Bill and Peggy had seen changes. I observed my own set of changes later. It is my thought, at least at the moment, that Bill’s observations and my own would not coincide. This may be explained later.)