“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“This is Jane Butts, speaking in my usual voice. My husband, Robert Butts, and I live at 458 West Water St., Elmira, NY. The date is July 19,1965, the time is about 8:30 PM. The following Seth session, number 170, is being recorded at the home of Bill and Peggy Gallagher, Pine City, NY, with them as witnesses.

(“The recorder is operated by my husband. It is a Sears Silvertone. The Tone and Volume One controls are set as far to the left as possible during recording. The Volume Two control has been set at 4, and unless otherwise noted this setting will not be changed for the rest of the evening, whether I am speaking as Seth or myself. I am sitting between five and six feet from the microphone, and will keep this position throughout the session. The entire recording is being made on Monaural One, Side One and Side Two.

(“Breaks during the session will be indicated by my husband announcing the time. The next time you hear my voice it will be 9 PM, and I will be speaking as Seth.”

(Jane had felt for several days that Seth would address the session to Dr. Instream, and so he did. Jane’s eyes remained closed for the entire session. She began the session while sitting down. More or less as I had anticipated, she began speaking too rapidly for me to take notes effectively, although at times during the session I was able to keep up with her. Peggy Gallagher also took notes. Thus this session is taken from the tape itself, largely, and necessitated replaying it several times.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

If you will read the Seth material you will also find that there are other reasons why I speak through Ruburt.

(Seth has discussed the God concept and related subjects in the following sessions, among others: 31, 51, 62, 66, 81, 95, 97, 115, 135, 147, 149, 146, 151.)

(I did not know exactly how many feet of tape were left on our recorder, due to inexperience, yet saw that the session would have to end before too long or we would run out of tape first. Although Seth/Jane started out in a relatively quiet manner on this last delivery, another voice display, perhaps even better, began to develop. Jane resumed the session while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her pace was faster, and after a few sentences she rose to her feet once more. Resume at 11:29.)

(Jane’s voice had been slowly growing in volume since last break. Seth now pulled out more stops than ever before, I believe. The voice display now became deafening. My ears rang, off and on, for the next few paragraphs. I saw Peggy and Bill blinking. Jane merely stood in front of her chair, head thrown back. As stated before she exhibited no strain in producing these stunning effects. The electric eye on the recorder closed, meaning that it was recording, as far as I know, at maximum volume.)

([BG:] “This is Bill Gallagher. I want to verify the fact that the 170th Seth session was held in my home on Holden Road, where it was witnessed by my wife and myself on July 19,1965, from 8:57 to 11:45. What you hear on these tapes has in fact occurred, and Jane was within view at all times; and I don’t know what else I can add, other than the fact that it was a very astounding presentation.”

([RB:] “This is Robert Butts again, speaking two days later on July 21st. I would like to add that the 170th session, which you have just heard, and which formally ended at 11:45 PM last Monday, July 19, resumed that night at midnight. It involved an informal exchange between Jane, Seth, Bill and Peggy Gallagher and myself, and lasted until about 1:30 AM. Our tape was almost exhausted and so it was not recorded. Seth also stated he did not care particularly to have it on tape, or have notes taken. During this exchange Seth was in an excellent good humor. I joked with him about the voice display, and he responded with another which was both stronger and longer-lasting than the one on tape here. Our ears rang, really, before it was over. And when it was over at last, and we were all weary, Seth, or Jane, was as capable as ever. Jane had no voice strain or fatigue that we could detect. Seth said he could continue until dawn, and I believe it quite possible. Jane just threw her head back and let the sound come out.”

(The session resumed without preamble at midnight. Our active discussion after I had finished with the tape brought it about, and it involved an exchange between Jane, Seth, Bill and Peggy, and myself, in the manner of the 169th session held in Dr. Instream’s office.

(Although Seth said to forget about notes, I found myself making a few after a few minutes, out of habit. Peggy also made some, and what follows is taken from these two sources; nothing is included here that is not touched upon in the notes. Seth talked at a normal rate, and neither Peggy nor I made a serious effort to get it all down. Some of the material was a repeat, in a more informal way, of what Seth had said during the session itself. During this exchange it was obvious that Seth was enjoying himself immensely. More than once he referred to Bill Gallagher as his favorite Jesuit, and this is getting to be something of a standing joke between Bill and Seth.

(None of us asked questions that might lead to totally new, unfamiliar material that we might wish later was recorded. Bill wanted to ask Seth to comment on the God concept, but thought this was a complicated subject. He settled instead for a question pertaining to a large wooden Tibetan statue he and Peg had purchased in Ithaca, NY. To our surprise this subject developed a few complications of its own.

(Seth was rather loathe to discuss the statue at first, but kept throwing out bits of information about it in between his protests. During this time Jane remained seated, her eyes closed. The statue, of a mythological or Godlike being in a sitting position with its arms upraised, did come from Tibet, Seth said—a small area in a southwestern corner of the country. I asked him for the name and he said he did not think Ruburt could pronounce it. The closest he could come via spelling was S-w-a-s-o-o-w-a-n. Swasoowan.

(The statue originated in the 12th century, and its name is not the same now as it was, Seth said. The statue represented the God of the Universe. There is some information on it in a book in the Elmira Library. The word Sense is involved here, Seth said according to my notes, although it may need translation. I do not remember why.

(Seth said that originally the statue was accepted as a gift by a missionary, a Father Hogan, in payment for healing the daughter of a chieftain. Father Hogan was 46 years old. It was carried by him to a shop in Hong Kong and sold. Father Hogan was a Jesuit. Seth said the statue is not an original dating from the 12th century; this one dates from the late 18th century. [Bill Gallagher later verified this, telling us that a professor of Tibetan art at Cornell University, in Ithaca where they had bought the statue, had so stated. Ithaca is some 35 miles northeast of Elmira, NY.]

(The statue was taken by an American from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1905. Seth was not positive about the date. He mentioned 34th Street, and I believe referred to New York City. A man named Bryant purchased it in San Diego, for his daughter, and transferred the statue from there to New York by nefarious ways. Seth then called Bill a romantic Jesuit.

(I joked with Seth about the great voice effects, and Seth agreed that he had not yet reached the peak in voice effects, at least as far as volume went. Whereupon Jane rose to her feet again and treated us to a voice display that in my opinion exceeded to some small degree the voice effects we had taped this evening. This was a prolonged display that lasted more or less for the balance of the session, and seemingly could have continued until dawn without effort on Jane’s part, just as Seth said. The volume of sound hurt my ears at times.

(Seth said again that he considered such effects childish, but that it would be a small sacrifice to make if it helped to get the material across. Again he dwelt upon the difficulty of proving immortality. No matter what he did, people would say it was trickery. He still maintained that he could offer proof that would be sufficient, in time. He repeated again that he could not play on Dr. Instream’s desire for immortality in order to arouse his interest in the material.

(What I think could be a very important point now came up when Peggy asked Seth about the question of proofs. Seth said that proofs she would accept would not be accepted by science. One proof to come, he said, would involve very strong facial changes in Jane during sessions. When I asked if these could be photographed he said yes.

(During most of the above dialogue, Seth spoke in a very loud and strong voice; Peggy estimated it could be heard for a city block.

(To recap: Seth also said, referring to photographic proof of facial changes in Jane, that if she took the photographs for instance [Peggy is a reporter for the Elmira Star-Gazette], she would be accused of collusion with Jane and myself.

(Referring again to the question of immortality, Seth said that all of us in the room knew what it was like to be old men, and that some of us had also been old women. He did not get more specific on this last point.

(The Seth endeavor is well worth our while. Seth said he would arrange things so that I spent no more time writing up the material than I do now. He also bellowed that he would one day speak in an auditorium filled with psychologists.

(In answer to a question of Bill Gallagher’s, Seth said Bill did well to refuse a promotion that would have necessitated his moving to Detroit. [Bill also works for the Elmira paper, in advertising.] Seth said that Bill was on the right track, that once he gets his physical problems straightened out, meaning his ulcer, he will be doing very well.