“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The session was held in our large front room. It was a warm night. The windows were of necessity open and traffic noise was quite audible, but we heard Jane without difficulty. She began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her manner was quite active and she smiled often. Almost immediately her voice acquired a somewhat hard edge that cut through the traffic noise, and she maintained this through most of the session. The “brogue” that sometimes crops up was also quite in evidence.)

(This occurred last Monday afternoon, August 9. Jane happened to need this bit of information for a chapter in her book, and so used it when Seth made it known. She said Seth might have mentioned it during Monday’s session had he not devoted the session to the material on my Aunt Ella.)

(There was a knock on our door at 9:16. Jane stopped speaking but as in the 172nd session, when she was also interrupted, she gave no signs of shock or even discomfort. In a few seconds she was out of her trance.

(Our visitors were a young couple from next door, stopping briefly before continuing on other errands. They do not know about the sessions. After their departure, we agreed that our friends probably sensed that something unusual was going on. We did not ask them to stay. And as Bill Gallagher pointed out, they probably heard the deep Seth voice while in the hall outside our door; upon admittance they saw no one with which to identify such a voice. Also, although the room was well lighted the shades were closed, a practice Jane and I do not indulge in otherwise.

(Jane said she heard the knock itself and was aware of what it meant. As long as an interruption had occurred she decided to take our first break. Her eyes had remained closed during the delivery, and she had remained seated. She had been dissociated as usual.

(Jane resumed in the same deep voice, which now was quite amused, and at a faster pace at 9:35.)

(Jane’s voice hit a louder and stronger note briefly. Again she was much amused. She sat opposite Bill Gallagher. Now, her eyes still closed, she hiked her chair closer, then pointed at him.)

(Break at 9:58. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her voice had been on the deeper side, with the brogue apparent at times. Her eyes had remained closed. She had remained seated.

(Jane resumed in the same manner, her voice rather strong, at 10:10. Again, Seth was quite amused.)

(Grinning, Jane pointed to Bill Gallagher. Her eyes were still closed, her voice a bit deep, her pace fast.)

(Now I saw that Jane’s eyes had opened. She looked around at us all as she spoke, smiling. Her eyes were quite dark, without highlights, almost as though glazed.)

(Break at 10:23. Jane was dissociated as usual. She knew when her eyes opened, she said. As she looked around at us she felt that she saw us once removed, or as through a sheet of glass. To come out of the trance she blinked or squeezed her eyes shut several times. Her voice had maintained its deeper than usual note.

(Jane resumed with her eyes closed, and in the same deeper voice, at 10:31.)

(End at 10:50. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her voice had been good, her pace fast.

(Jane, the Gallaghers and I were discussing the session and related subjects when Seth came through again at 11:00. All of us were in very good humor, including Seth; the session as it continued reflected this, and a rapid-fire exchange resulted in which Jane was in and out of trance at the wink of an eye, so to speak. She manifested this same ability during the 169th session, held in Dr. Instream’s office in Oswego, NY, but I would say that her switching back and forth this evening was more rapid. She said later that it was no effort at all.

(Jane began speaking again with her eyes closed, but they opened at times during the exchange, as they had in the last session, the 176th. Jane has resumed often lately after formally ending a session, as in the 169th, 170th, and 176th.

(Seth began by stating that he liked to sit in with us only as an interested participant, without bothering about notes, etc. Jane, he said, could use the practice of switching focus; and we did have the effect of a conversation among five people instead of four. There follow a few quotes from Seth as I noted them down, with some hints from Bill, Peggy and myself.)

(11:01—Jane was out of her trance. She grinned and waved at us. The conversation revolved around our use of slang, and our speculations as to the source of Seth’s knowledge.)

(11:02—Jane was out of trance again, then went back in at 11:03.)

(Seth had more to say about my life in Denmark in the 1600’s, although nothing factual or involving dates, etc. The sum total of it was far from flattering to me. Jane was out of her trance again at 11:05. She remembered some of the material.

(Jane, smiling, was out of her trance again at 11:11. She went back into it within a couple of minutes to wind up the session.)

(End at 11:14. Jane’s eyes had been closed and she ended upon a note of humor. Her manner had been pleasant and animated throughout. Her eyes had been open at times, and very dark. At times she had switched in and out of the trance state very rapidly—more rapidly than indicated here. It had been no trouble for her.

(This experience reminded me that Jane might try a little experiment of her own the next time such an occasion arose for informal exchange. It was simply that it should be possible for Jane herself to ask Seth questions, then go into trance to answer them. She agreed that it should work, especially if she was capable, as Seth, of carrying on a conversation with three other people, almost simultaneously.

(During this informal exchange, Jane had been dissociated as usual. She now has participated in three such informal exchanges: during the 169th, the 170th, and the 177th.