“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Since we had been taken by surprise by this development, we had made no plans to record the reading. I hesitated to interrupt, remembering Seth’s comments about the value of spontaneity. Jane’s eyes were open, but much darker and more luminous than usual. At times the almost deafening power of her voice, and its emotional content, were indeed thrilling. At the end of the reading Jane closed her eyes; when she opened them again she was out of the trance. She said she was subjectively aware of the gestures she executed with her left hand, yet she felt the hand was not really hers at the time. She felt that it was a fatter hand, belonging to a much heavier arm. Father Trainor, in the photograph we have of him, was a very heavyset man. Bill Gallagher felt that while she was reading Jane spoke with a brogue. Father Trainor was Irish.

(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.

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.

(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 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.

(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.

(Break at 2:18. Jane was again well dissociated, although she realized her voice had been sounding out. Her eyes closed briefly at the end of the delivery, and when they opened she was out of her trance. In being so preoccupied with noting the great voice effects, I had been, I realized, less observant of the facial changes I had been aware of earlier; but there had been no doubt of the emotional interchange.

(End at 2:48 AM. Jane was dissociated as usual. Again she closed her eyes briefly to bring herself out of the trance. Her eyes had been very dark and luminous all evening.