“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Instead I took down the gist of their conversation, key words and phrases, and thus captured most of what they said. No major topics of conversation, for instance, were lost. Jane and I also left with Dr. Instream at his home on Sunday evening, copies of sessions 150, 151, 158, 160, 162, 164 and 165.)

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.

I have said this often, but I meet you for the first time: I am indeed no misty-eyed ghostly spirit, materializing in the middle of the night. I am simply an intelligent personality no longer bound by your physical laws. Nevertheless these are limitations, when I must accept these physical laws in order to prove to pompous nincompoops that what we, you and I, know exist does in fact exist.

I will seriously endeavor to do what I can do, considering our circumstances. We need have no worries concerning the personality with whom I work, since there is by now some sort of a rapport that will work for us. My cooperation can be counted upon. It goes without saying that all of this cannot happen overnight, but we shall begin.

For Ruburt’s and Joseph’s sakes, I stayed well within the bounds of propriety. I do not overtly speak out against men who have no imagination, and little concept of any reality but their own. But if we work together, I will reserve for myself the privilege of saying to them what I choose. Otherwise I shall work well within the bounds of propriety. But if they will deal with me, so shall I deal with them.

I will not keep you. Like myself, you are a busy man. But I will see what can be done, and we shall work along those lines, taking into consideration the potential, and quite human, limitations.

(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.

(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.

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.

([Dr. Instream:] “I’m in over my depth... need time to consider what we can do, what your ideas are.”)

We will make definite efforts in that direction. There will be a time lag while I build up Ruburt’s acceptability in this direction, but I anticipate no difficulty. My boundaries are different than yours...we will attempt to discover what we can.

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?

We will consider ways in which we can work within the physical circumstances. I want to also use the potentials in which I can work. I am somewhat sly... I am used to getting around corners. We will indeed try, within our scope of action, to do what we can. I am used to opening eggs without cracking them.

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.

I am somewhat concerned. When Ruburt’s book is published the fact of the sessions will be known. We have not had to deal with this in the past. I make no effort to direct Ruburt’s writings in any manner. What Ruburt has said in his book has been up to him, and therefore we have to deal with the results.