“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(We had no real opportunity to talk with Dr. Instream until Sunday evening at his home, after the symposium was over. During our discussion Dr. Instream revealed that he had mailed the sessions listed above to his friend Dr. Gardner Murphy, at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and asked for his opinion. Jane and I answered Dr. Instream’s questions as well as we could, and made an appointment to attend his Monday morning class at the college. This was to be followed by lunch with him before we left to visit my brother Bill in Rochester.

(To digress a moment: As predicted by Seth in the 168th session of July 7, Jane and I did find ourselves involved with three men in particular, one of whom is younger, at the symposium. Two of these men are physicians in their fifties, with whom we became rather well acquainted at lunches, etc., and exchanged addresses. The third man is a psychology instructor at the college, perhaps in his late thirties. On Saturday evening he leafed through some of the Seth material briefly, then pronounced it the work of a clever schizophrenic. This upset Jane briefly but she recovered well. During our Sunday evening visit, Dr. Instream demolished the young psychologist’s diagnosis rather easily.

(Dr. Instream talked of bringing a couple of others into the sessions but did not mention them to us by name. He stressed that it was best to be very careful about inviting others to participate. Also he mentioned that he would like an example of voice effects on tape, as long as we had a recorder, and we discussed mailing the tapes to him from Elmira. Jane then went back into trance as Seth again at 2:48.)

(Jane came out of her trance at 2:53, ending on a humorous note. Dr. Instream said that the impression he had of Seth was of a very mature and capable mind. He was interested in getting this impression on tape because the Seth voice itself reinforced this feeling. Seth, he said, possessed tremendous insight.

(Dr. Instream said that he had been thinking of the possible damage that publicity could do to the sessions.)

(Dr. Instream said it was best to pursue a policy of denying nothing, to ignore the criticisms and go our own way. We should avoid personal polemics in the field and not get involved; just as he has always gone his own way. Jane, as Seth, sat listening intently. She nodded.)

Nevertheless, he recovered rather quickly. The experience did him much good... a practical example... had it not happened now, a much more vicious attack would have occurred at a later date.

(Dr. Instream said that people often do get hurt, when instead they should be protected. He knows Dr. Rhine and another director personally, and voiced suspicions about their methods.)

[The other director] is too much concerned with his own personal image. He does not want to be involved with anything that may fail... this is a personal concern of his. His ego is such that it makes him, in a strange manner, often prevent the sort of effects that he seeks. He asks too much, and receives too little. He will always be that way.

(Dr. Instream agreed with Seth’s brief sketches of Dr. Rhine and the other director. He said that Dr. Rhine’s sweetness had led him into traps where his controls were not rigid enough during experiments, that his disposition was of the type that would not make him crack down. On the other hand, the other director was too strict. Dr. Instream used these examples to point out how important the correct methodology was in trying to obtain proofs in psychic investigations.