“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.

(There were a few new bits and pieces of information throughout the session. One is to the effect that although Seth’s contact with Jane and me is his first venture into education on our plane, [which he had told us many sessions ago], he is also in contact with other groups on other planes. These other groups are not physical in our terms. Seth said that these other groups also have their wrongs, as we have ours. Killing is not one of them however, nor are wars.

(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.

(Peggy asked Seth about a recent dream in which she saw numbers in various corners. Seth named the numbers as 4 and 2; the month of April was represented by 4, with 2 being that day of the month. He did not say what this meant however.

(Seth told Bill he subconsciously blamed his father for his mother’s condition, after Bill remarked that whenever he and his father were together for a few minutes they would end up arguing. Also, when a small child Bill had overheard a sexual encounter between his parents, in which his mother cried out. Bill took it to mean his father had hurt his mother. Later when his mother fell ill, Bill made the subconscious connection with her illness and this earlier incident, and blamed his father for his mother’s illness.

(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.

(Seth made one short remark I would have liked to question him further on, to the effect that we would have plenty of go-arounds with “your parapsychologists.” He did not elaborate.

(Walter Zeh is a fragment personality, and a disturbed one. Because he had been an invalid in a past life, he tried to slow down Jane’s development in this life to a crawl. Yet Walter has learned much and is doing very well.

(Seth said he had unfortunately been involved with some other groups on our plane, in seance gatherings. He spoke very harshly of such “idiotic” gatherings and personalities. At the same time Seth stated he was not a spirit, although if he materialized in the middle of the floor we would pay more attention and not take him for granted.

(A Freudian slip that Jane made in reference to her own mother in the past tense, “was,” whereas Seth wanted Jane to say “is,” was duly noted. Jane, he said, would be perfectly happy never to see her mother again.

(Toward the end of the session Seth said he thought the object Peggy has been carrying in her handbag has “something to do with rock,” and that a man had somehow been connected with it, or its origin. The problem here is getting the information through Ruburt, without distortion. See the 180th session. The Gallaghers said nothing about the object at this point, nor did I. Later at break I forgot to ask them about it.

(Bill and Peggy agreed that Seth’s material on his parents seems to fit them psychologically, although some of the information given concerning Bill’s subconscious feelings toward his father was a surprise to Bill. At one point Seth asked Bill to not say so much when he answered a question, because this led Ruburt to start to actively and consciously consider the material and to make his own interpretations, which could be distorted. Seth also asked Bill not to tell us any more about his family relationships; presumably so that more material Seth came through with in future sessions could be checked with Bill’s knowledge, as in the blue dress and the bookkeeping incidents.

(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.

(Bill’s mother had lived a previous life in China. Bill’s family was involved in very complicated psychic relationships. Bill told Seth he thought that on the whole his ulcer is a little better since he and Peggy had first attended a session, the 158th, of May 30,1965. Seth told Bill the ulcer is a parasite, and that he no longer needs it.

(The session had been going for perhaps half an hour when Bill suggested to Peggy that they leave because the hour was growing late. He felt tired. Seth then said he would wake Bill up, or get him interested, and he proceeded to do this by launching into the discussion on Bill’s mother.

(So far man’s behavior has him headed for destruction rather than survival. Seth repeated several times that for civilized man to kill is wrong. An animal in the jungle killing for food is one thing. To kill for the sake of killing is another. When a wild animal kills, the killed is replaced in the natural scheme of things. No gap is left, and the balance of nature is maintained. When man kills he rips out a part of himself that he has created. Man will stop killing when he realizes this, and that death is not an ending but a change of form.

(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.

(Seth told Bill and Peggy, in connection with the subconscious construction of their individual worlds, that they really lived in many worlds at once. At the end of the session Seth told the Gallaghers he had deliberately given the information about Bill’s mother being a bookkeeper and liking the color blue, in order to show them that valid information had been produced, no matter what its source.