“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(We had indicated to Dr. Instream last week that we would record a session upon returning home, and ship him the tape for his own use. Jane and I had not used our recorder much lately, so we practiced with it last night, establishing proper distances from the microphone, and volume settings. The session was recorded with the Gallaghers as witnesses, at their home, and turned out well. There follows the little talk Jane gave on tape before the actual session began:

(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.

There are some matters which I would discuss with you, Dr. Instream. They are matters in which we both have some deep concern, and some considerable interest.

I am as I told you an educator, and as such my main concern is with education, is with ideas. I want to tell you exactly what you want to know, and if you will hear me then to a large measure you will have to accept some of my terms, for I am quite willing to accept some of yours. Much of this has to do with your idea of the theory of suggestion. If you would read some of our material, it would then become obvious to you that mental suggestion is indeed the basis upon which all reality is founded.

Therefore it is not overplaying the point to say that all psychic phenomena is caused by suggestion. For my dear doctor, without suggestion, without automatic and continuous suggestion, no human being would breathe one breath. I am indeed happy to be able to speak to you in this manner. There are several points that I would like to cover this evening, for I have you here now, you see, where you cannot talk back to me.

Now. In the dream state it would be impossible for the dreamer to prove the existence of the familiar street outside of his familiar door. His attention is momentarily directed toward a different sort of reality. The ordinary trees outside of his window do not exist for him. It would be highly difficult to ask a man while he dreamed to prove the physical reality of the bed in which he slept, or the bedside table which was at his head, or to prove the existence of the wooden floor upon which the bed rested. Highly difficult indeed, for such objects do not exist for our dreamer.

All right now. You may be interested to some degree, dear Doctor Instream, in the sort of personality through whom I speak. I wanted a personality who was at the same time both intelligent and intuitional. I wanted an ego which was well balanced, healthy and strong. Yet I also wanted a personality which would allow itself the spontaneity necessary, and the inner freedom, so that such communications could take place. A personality without basic stability would not serve my purposes, and a personality that was too rigid in its beliefs and abilities would not serve my purposes well.

I will, and can, give you evidence of telepathy, and what will this prove? It will not prove my existence, not to those who will not accept it. They will say merely that Ruburt is clairvoyant, and Ruburt has telepathic powers. If I materialized in full sight of twenty good and weighty witnesses, what indeed would this prove to those who would not accept the proof?

It would prove nothing to them. They would indeed insist that twenty good and worthy witnesses were under the influence of suggestion.

Again, if I stood clear as day in the middle of a meeting room, with twenty fine and sturdy, respectable fuddy-duddies, what would this prove? They would swear that they were under the effects of suggestion. I will, I will for my own amusement, give you in the future many—not one but many—clairvoyant effects. Again, for my own amusement.

I will now suggest that a break be taken, if you will bear with me once again; I look forward to the more friendly conversations which will occur between us in the future. For such formality indeed, and such mechanical limitations, do not allow me to achieve that friendly informal attitude that I would prefer, and I enjoy answering your questions, for in many ways you are indeed a man such as I was.

(Jane’s voice again climbed the scale in volume. It became very loud and strong, rising and falling. During some passages, up until break time, the volume of sound she produced made my ears ring. I would say that in these passages she exceeded the effects produced in the last part of the 158th session. It will be remembered that the Gallaghers were witnesses to the first part of that session.

I am also quite aware of the cruelty that would be involved if I led you on in this endeavor without due consideration. I can only tell you that I appreciate both your objectivity and your beliefs. I will do my best, my dear doctor, to satisfy you in both respects. You may call it chance. You may call it if you choose coincidence. You may name it in whatever way pleases you: nevertheless, it is because of my personal rapport with you that I will bother with any displays at all.

If I did not feel such a rapport with you I would not bother, for it is nothing to me one way or another if my existence be accepted or rejected. My concern is with the material I am presenting.

It would be unfair of me to back upon an elderly gentleman’s desire for immortality, and I would never stoop to such a practice. I was myself an elderly gentleman, and I understand too well the soul-searching aspects of such a reality. You may therefore be assured that I will not play on such human limitations. I will under all circumstances never take advantage in any such manner.

I say this only to let you know that I understand any innermost doubts that you might have concerning the possibility that others would so take such advantage. I thoroughly enjoyed our brief meeting. Our conversation indeed was most beneficial. I appreciated the give and take. This may not sound like a very scientific document, yet in many ways it may be more scientific than you imagine, for its effects will indeed be felt.

(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.)

I am concerned because I want the theoretical material to be widely distributed. I am not primarily concerned with giving effects or proofs of my existence. I know that I exist as you know that you exist. How would you feel if someone asked you to prove your existence? If you answer this question honestly, then you will see that I am far from being as irascible as it may appear. I bend over backward to understand. I bend over backward, and this is most difficult for me. (Strong.)

Now. Because I have been called upon to give a voice display, so shall you see that I can do so. (Very loud and strong.) You will also find at the end of this session that Ruburt’s vocal chords are in no way fatigued; and I can so speak here for hours, nor would this bother Ruburt in the slightest degree. If such a display serves to convince you of my validity then so shall it be. I find it difficult to imagine that you need such childish play to convince you of that which you already know. (Loud and strong.)

If I sound theatrical, if I sound irascible, kindly remember that to make my point I work with disadvantages and distortions which would make you speechless. I do sincerely understand your true sympathy. As I said earlier I feel a rapport. Nevertheless I feel that I must indeed make my position clear.

([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.”

(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.

(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.

(Our bank account would never go below $700.00.

(Jane’s poetry and my paintings were good, and would achieve their own kind of immortality.

(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.