“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.)

(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.)

(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.

(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.

(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.)

You have been around... but there Joseph sits. He too has been around. I could tell you much about Joseph and Denmark, but I would not divulge the circumstances in which he was so unfortunately involved.

(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.)

(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.