“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I made no attempt to take notes, nor did Peggy. What follows is my reconstruction from memory, made immediately after the session ended. I kept my notebook beside our bed also, and whenever I thought of something to add I did so, up until noon of the next day. Jane then read the notes and suggested any corrections she happened to remember. Peggy and Bill did most of the talking during the session. They are reading the early sessions now, and so what developed was a rather condensed review of some of the main tenets of the material, for their benefit.

(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.

(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.

(I told Seth I hadn’t felt like going out dancing tonight because of the windy weather, and that I thought Jane would be disappointed. I had wished some company would drop in. This was just before darkness fell. As soon as the Gallaghers entered, they told us they had thought about us while eating dinner in Ithaca, NY, some 30-odd miles away, and had decided to stop by just in case we were home, even though it was Saturday evening. Seth said there had been telepathic communication between us, and as near as we could calculate we had been thinking about each other at roughly the same time.

(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.