“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This first part of the session is verbatim as usual, until the interchange between Seth and Dr. Instream began at 1:59. Here the pace began to speed up as the two talked back and forth, and in the interests of spontaneity, and because this was a new development in the sessions, I made no attempt to slow Seth down, nor to record every word Seth or Dr. Instream spoke.

We are working here indeed with human limitations. However, within the range of human limitations there is indeed much that can be done.

I will indeed see what experiments can be made, working within the limitations that are, unfortunately, what we now have to deal with. At a future regular session, I will endeavor in a more specific manner to discuss what can be done here, and what cannot be done. We can do much, much we cannot do. But since we do understand both the potentialities and the limitations, then we can indeed make the best of what we have.

(Up until this point I had made a verbatim record as usual, and had thought the little session in Dr. Instream’s office ended. An exchange now developed however, that was new to us in the sessions, involving Jane, Seth, Dr. Instream and myself. The pace quickened to some degree, and as stated before I made no effort to interfere with the spontaneity of the session. Unless otherwise noted what follows is the exchange between Dr. Instream and Seth only, and reports the gist of their conversation as taken from the notes and quotes I made on the spot. Nothing is included here which depends on my memory alone.

([Dr. Instream:] “I’m out of my depth here, Seth... spontaneity is important....”)

([Dr. Instream:] “Yes... the trouble is our human limitations... our methodology is important to us here... if we are to get others to listen to us....”)

I will not endeavor to go into this in any detail at this time. We will work within these limitations and see what we can do. The human is not innately limited... the waking state, as I have said often, is as much a trance state as any other state. Here we merely switch the focus of attention to other channels. All that is required is that we switch the attention... consider merely that all types of awareness are trance states... consciousness is the direction in which the self looks.

Irregardless of our particular interests, I look forward to long conversations with you on less formal topics... like yourself, I am independent. We have many fields of common interests... the personality should always be considered in an elemental way as patterns of action. It is never stable. When you attempt to tamper with various levels you change it. When you crack an egg to discover what is inside you ruin the egg. There are other ways to get inside the egg, and they are not too difficult to do... you have the sort of mind, Dr. Instream, that will be of great benefit to us here. We do not need a hammer to crack the eggshell. I am an egghead, but I do not need a hammer to be cracked.

There is much here to be studied about personality. From your viewpoint the information available to you can be practically endless. There is much to be learned about perceiving other realities. Trance states are only a beginning. The self is made of action. Teaching the self to expand is most important, and the ways are not difficult... this is what makes the experiment interesting. This is not beyond human abilities. The structure of the personality makes this possible.

([Dr. Instream:] “Some very interesting possibilities here....”)