“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.

(We lunched with Dr. Instream at Howard Johnson’s, adjacent to the campus. This interlude was longer than we had anticipated, and after the talk had dealt with matters psychic for some little time Jane announced that she felt uneasy. She thought Seth could give a session. Dr. Instream then suggested that we go to his office where it would be private and quiet.

(This is but the second session we have held outside of Elmira, the other being the 89th, of September 19,1964, held at my brother’s home in Rochester, NY, before three witnesses. Jane was now a little concerned at having a session away from home and in daylight. At the same time she had wanted to hold a session for Dr. Instream, feeling this would explain more about the sessions than any other method could.

(Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her eyes remained closed for the entire session. Her voice was stronger than normal, and echoed somewhat in the crowded office. At times it became louder, but never approached the volume of the 158th session, for example. Her pace was rather fast, and she used many gestures while speaking as Seth. I had to ask Seth to slow down several times during the first part of the session.

(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.

(Dr. Instream asked Jane how much of the delivery she could remember, and Jane replied that she retained a generalized memory of what had been said. Dr. Instream said the voice effect was somewhat unusual, and questioned us about Jane showing fatigue afterwards. We told him that Jane had little if any fatigue after such displays, no matter how long they might last, and referred him to the 158th session as an example. This session was among those I had left with him Sunday evening.

(Dr. Instream said that Jane was in a light trance during her delivery, and that automatic speech was involved. Our conversation then turned to the matter of scientific proofs and related subjects. This was also one of the subjects we had discussed at lunch, leading of course to Seth’s subject matter in the delivery just concluded.

(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.

(Times noted indicate when Jane was in trance and when she came out of the state. When she remained in trance while Dr. Instream was speaking she listened to him intently, sitting with her eyes closed and her head cocked forward. Her voice was fairly strong as before, and very briefly at times it hit a stronger volume. She resumed as Seth at 1:59.)

In the past I saw no reason to dominate these sessions with any particular effects. That was not my main concern. I will however at our sessions try to manage a greater variety of effects. The particular voice effect, for example: This is nothing difficult, it proves nothing. What would it prove?

(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.

The increase in voice will not produce fatigue. It never does. Also, there is no invasion of Ruburt. The personality with whom I am working is intelligent. For reasons that I will explain much later, it was necessary that I align myself with a personality who is both intelligent and intuitional. I do not want to shove the ego aside. I have no need or wish to shove the existing personality aside. We get along well.

(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.)

(A case in point, Dr. Instream continued, was our meeting with the young psychologist on Saturday evening. See my notes on page 132. Dr. Instream said to forget such encounters. Jane again nodded in agreement, and her voice again became stronger briefly.)

The meeting between the two was indeed upsetting to him.

(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.