“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Much of the session was a kind of review, as the 162nd session was, which the Gallaghers also witnessed, with Lorraine Shafer. The material on the construction of matter was gone over. Seth talked a good deal on the cooperation of all living things in maintaining our universe, and of how it’s so very wrong for civilized human beings to kill. He dwelt upon this at some length. I believe a remark Bill made before the session began, about animals, led to this.

(A new physical effect concerned the candle, standing on the table against the wall perhaps three feet from our group. All the windows in the apartment were closed with the exception of one kitchen window, because the night was extremely windy; this wind aggravated my hay fever. The candle burned with a low flame, one perhaps a quarter-inch high. Seth, talking about physical effects, said that he could probably have levitated the small coffee table we sat around tonight, with Ruburt’s help. But Ruburt still needs to develop his abilities further, Seth said. Abruptly the candle flame shot up to a noticeable degree, at least twice its previous height. The increase in brightness was plainly noticeable, causing all of us to look at the candle. Seth then said he had caused the flame to grow. It stayed brighter for several minutes as he continued talking, then died down. Bill confirmed my own thought at the time, that a stray burst of wind had affected the flame. We had no way of knowing if wind was responsible or not; the kitchen window was perhaps fifteen feet away, and around a corner. Seth went on to say that the candle flame would not grow higher again, because Ruburt was alerted to the effect now, and was watching it.

(Seth said my special sensitivity to windy days during hay fever season, [and one I was well aware of], stemmed from an incident that took place while I was traveling to California with my parents when I was about three years old. [This would be about 1922.] On a windy day on the prairie, somewhere west of the Mississippi, but short of the West Coast, I stood by a hill with my parents. My mother and father were arguing loudly. Father threatened to leave my mother and my brother and me. My father also had hay fever. I had had attacks before, but after this incident I had hay fever each year. [I have always had it since I can consciously remember.] When I remarked that my father had got rid of his hay fever, Seth said he gave it to me. Seth said this is a common occurrence in illnesses being passed about among a family group. I identified with my father out of fear, Seth went on, because he threatened to leave me and thus must be all powerful; and since my father had hay fever, I acquired hay fever as a mistaken sign of strength.

(Seth dwelt upon the Tibetan monks who use astral projection, and follow their strict religion, while the peasantry live miserable practical daily lives, without hope for the most part. This is not right. He said the monks use psychic energy, which all of us have available; but they don’t use it for any great ends, and thus are shallow.

(Seth slipped in some personal material on Walter Zeh before “Ruburt catches me in the act.” He prefaced this by saying that we were all friends here tonight, presumably I suppose if the information was considered to be personal. Just before this he had mentioned again the similarity between Jane’s mother and Bill’s mother. Now he said that Walter Zeh had also been an invalid in a previous life, and a female. For reasons he didn’t go into now, Jane owed Walter Zeh a debt, which she has paid in full. Jane had been attracted to him also in an attempt to make up to him, because she hadn’t been able to make up to her invalid mother. In his previous life Walter Zeh had been crippled because of an accident.

(Speaking of the fact that civilized man should not kill, Seth said the whole idea of killing is fallacious to begin with: an enemy who is “dead” is far more harmful than one who is still alive. Here he was dealing with the basic unity of all consciousness again. Killing is not thought of as an end in itself on other planes, he repeated. But it is wrong to kill on our plane when we do consider it an end.

(Just before the Gallaghers left, Seth/Jane’s voice began to grow very loud just for a sentence or two. We all clapped our hands over our ears, and Seth had mercy on us. The voice was somewhat unusual, Seth told us; he himself was not interested greatly in physical effects or proofs, but realized they might be necessary to us, or scientists. He was interested, he said, in effects like the voice, or Jane’s facial changes. There was much that he and Ruburt could do; there was also much they could not do. It depended upon Jane’s confidence to a great extent.