“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane, her ESP book finished and mailed, has some free time for a change. She has copied the 179th, 180th and 183rd sessions to send to Dr. Instream. She also plans to write him a letter. As it developed, she will be copying Part One of this session to send to Dr. Instream also, for even though the session was unscheduled an envelope test developed. Once again parts of the test results were unexpected. The whole test was very interesting; and all the more so because it was Jane’s first before witnesses.

(Our regularly scheduled session for last Wednesday, September 1, was not held because Jane and I had unexpected visitors. A few details here are of interest because the visitors became entangled with the test results mentioned above.

(Our friends in question do not know about the sessions. They visited us at 8:30 PM Wednesday, and before Jane and I realized it session time had come. We like our new neighbors a good deal and did not resent their calling, but we did dislike missing the session. They left us at about 10:30. Jane and I did not consider having a session then; I also thought Jane could use the break in routine.

(I had prepared the usual test envelope that Wednesday afternoon while Jane was napping, as she usually does on session days. When the session did not materialize I saved the envelope for the next session, which I thought would be on Monday, September 6.

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher, who have witnessed several sessions, visited us this evening, Friday, September 3. Our conversation touched upon many subjects. They read the 183rd session, dealing with Jane’s third envelope test. No session had been planned for this evening but as the four of us sat around our coffee table Seth came through at about 10:30 PM.

(Seth told us that he merely wanted to join in the general conversation, as he had during the unscheduled 182nd session last weekend, which the Gallaghers also witnessed. Seth requested that we continue our exchange without notes on my part and without weighty questions. Jane’s eyes were closed in the beginning, her voice average in volume. She was nevertheless quite active in her chair. After perhaps half an hour her eyes opened. They were very dark. She smoked as she talked with us, and at times got to her feet as Seth. This last is something she has not done for many sessions.

(Much was said before the envelope test developed, and this is summarized in Part Two. At about 11:50 PM Seth surprised me by asking if I had a test prepared. I replied that I had and went back to my studio to get the envelope I had readied for last Wednesday’s session, and my pen and notebook. Jane, as Seth, sat quietly talking with the Gallaghers while I was gone; I wondered if the enforced delay would give her time to become nervous.

(Normal lights were on in the living room where we had gathered. Jane took the double envelope. She held it without making any obvious attempts to guess at its contents by feeling. She sat with her eyes closed now and her head down somewhat as she faced the three of us. She did not appear to be nervous, and her voice remained average. Pauses will be indicated. The first paragraph that follows consists of the excerpts I noted down. Begin at approximately 11:51 PM.)

(Jane paused. The following material is verbatim until otherwise noted.)

(Break at midnight. Jane’s eyes now opened. She had been dissociated as usual. She asked me to open the test envelope. She said she had no idea whether the information given was correct.

(Jane herself made the possible connection that the “...unpleasant circumstance... in which a woman was involved,” could be entangled with the day I made the drawing; this being last Wednesday, when we missed our regular session because of visitors. See my notes on page 233. Seth’s information following this statement connected itself with the drawing easily enough, even to the “color gray,” which arises from the shadow effect I achieved in the drawing by using closely-spaced parallel lines.

(Seth came through again at 12:10 AM, as we were discussing possible distortions of the test data. Once more Jane spoke while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her voice was quiet but faster than before, so the following short account consists of the excerpts I noted down. Resume at 12:10 AM.)

(End at 12:12. Jane was dissociated as usual.

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher now left. I thought the session had ended, but as Jane and I sat talking Seth came through once more. The following material still concerns tonight’s test, and is verbatim because once again I asked Seth to speak slowly. Jane’s eyes were closed in the beginning, her voice quiet. Resume at 12:20.)

(Jane paused, then opened her eyes. She lit a cigarette.)

(End at 12:25. Jane was dissociated as usual. She had no visual images that she was aware of, she said, while giving the original test data. As far as she knew she had let Seth through without thinking about anything herself. Again, see my notes on page 233. It appears that many impressions can attach themselves to such a simple thing as a small pen drawing.

(The session ended at 1:10 AM. Through it all Jane had been dissociated as usual. There had been rather frequent breaks. Jane now went to bed, and I began to make notes to supplement what I had already written down. I would like to add here one more piece of information given by Seth, concerning an earlier test, before concluding Part One. This was given after the Gallaghers had left.

(It will be remembered that in connection with the test photograph used in the 180th session, Seth/Jane stated: “...and a border. I think now of a border of flowers...” The test photograph has a white border. Seth now informed me that in the 180th session Jane distorted the information about the border of the photo into a border of flowers because of her personal childhood associations. He said Jane has an early memory of a border of flowers around a garden.

(After tonight’s session Jane said she vaguely remembers a small plot of grass and vegetables, bordered by flowers, maintained by her grandfather in the backyard of her home in Saratoga Springs, NY. This would be quite an early memory for her. She had not made any conscious connection with this memory and the border data given in connection with the second test, however, until Seth mentioned it tonight.)

(The following material is a summary of other topics covered in the unscheduled 184th session, witnessed by Bill and Peggy Gallagher. Some of the material was of course obtained while the Gallaghers were present, and was in actuality intermingled with the test data discussed in Part One. Part Two depends on my memory and on Jane’s to some extent. I am fairly certain of it. Material I recall but vaguely is omitted.

(Almost at the beginning of the session Jane, as Seth, pointed at me and said my head would be clear for the rest of the evening. Hay fever had been bothering me a great deal during the day. Seth said the reason I am bothered more at home than at work, where I feel remarkably good, is that the house dust in the apartment reminds me of house dust at home, and of my mother, when I was a child.

(Seth told me I have improved in my relations with my parents, even though this is hard to see for me, at times. I am doing all I am capable of for them at the moment. In the future I will expand enough to be able to include them in my awareness without fear of personal threat, which impedes me at the moment. My parents need love as a child needs love, unquestioningly, and this I cannot give at the moment. I should not feel guilty at this. My parents visited my brother Loren for four days during the week of August 29 to September 3. Seth said this was more than an ordinary visit as far as the folks are concerned, in that they were looking for the type of love described above from Loren and his wife also. Loren is 45; I’m 46; Jane 37.

(At this time Jane, as Seth, stood up and picked up our cat Willy. Her eyes were open. Her voice was loud also, and Willy immediately squirmed out of her arms and darted away, his ears back. “See,” Seth/Jane said, “Your pussy doesn’t know who his mistress is right now....” Actually, Seth said, Willy knows him well, having grown used to his appearances. Many many sessions ago Willy had occasionally reacted to Seth’s appearance, usually just before a session began, or at the very beginning itself.

(At one point I remarked to Bill Gallagher that I used to have two favorite questions for Seth: “What do you do between sessions?” and “How’s my old friend Frank Watts?” Seth’s answer to my first question was “What do you do?” He now gave essentially that answer when Peggy asked my old question tonight. Commenting on Frank Watts, the personality Jane and I first contacted on the Ouija board to begin these sessions, Seth told me that there were records in town pertaining to Frank Watts, if we would stir ourselves to look for them.

(Seth told me that if possible I should go out dancing as usual with Jane tomorrow night, Saturday, if I felt good enough. As it developed we did not go.

(A few days ago Peggy Gallagher had brought Jane a copy of the latest Cosmopolitan magazine, and suggested that Jane query them about running some excerpts from her ESP book. In view of Cosmo’s drastically revised format, Jane agreed to try. Naturally we wondered how the ESP subject would be received by a popular magazine, and this gave us a chance to try an experiment that we had discussed before.

(This was simply to determine if Jane herself, as Jane, could ask Seth a question, then go into trance and deliver the answer as Seth. Since Jane had been switching focus often tonight, I suggested that now was as good a time to try the technique as any. With a little urging Jane, a little self-consciously, asked Seth about what kind of a reception such a query would get from the editors at Cosmo, whether they would buy such an article, etc.

(Seth stated that the editors at Cosmo would be interested, and that in answer to Jane’s query, which would consist of a chapter from her ESP book plus a letter outlining her ideas on adapting it for the magazine, they would send a letter of interest. Such an article, Seth said, would not be immediately bought by Cosmopolitan, but would eventually. The editors would ask for some changes. In the beginning they would be merely interested. Seth mentioned no time limit concerning the sale.

(This past week Jane learned the editor of Topper magazine that they had bought a short story of hers, The Mission. She was of course greatly pleased by this news. Seth now told us that Jane would sell more stories out of that batch she had written up before starting the ESP book. It will be remembered that Seth had something to say about Jane’s sales of short stories and books in the 104th session. The predictions given in that session 10 months ago are still working out. See Volume 3.

(Yoga exercises are excellent because they teach concentration. Jane, Peggy and I had been trying some earlier in the evening.

(Jane, Seth said, needs a rest after finishing her ESP book. Even a day or two of rest will help, in terms of subconscious value fulfillment. The individual must have such rest periodically, in one form or another. Sometimes such value fulfillment cannot be really attained for years, Seth told us. At other times it is achieved in a moment or two.

(Jane is at loose ends now, and quite restless. She will be calmer when she starts her next project. In the meantime she worries, Seth said, about my opinion of her because the money is slow in coming. She also worries about a delay before her next project is accepted, remembering the long delay between her first novel, The Rebellers, and the acceptance of the ESP book—at least a year. I reassured Seth that I am not worried about Jane or her contributions in any way. Seth told me that Jane is pulling her weight psychically in our household, and that money will follow.

(At one time our cat Willy became sick on the rug, and Seth broke from the discussion to enable Jane to take care of Willy.

(Seth briefly discussed the candle-flame effect mentioned in the 182nd Session, saying the phenomenon was so successful because Jane had no forewarning of it.

(Seth said in answer to a remark by Bill Gallagher about tattoos, that he himself had never been tattooed. Our friend Mark had, however, in his Denmark existence when he was a sailor. Mark is the entity name for Bill Macdonnel. According to Seth, Jane and I knew Mark in Denmark in the 1600’s. Mark, Seth told us, had a large angel tattooed on his chest as a good luck charm, and believed it to be a protection against storms at sea.

(One disquieting subject arose after the Gallaghers had left, and Jane, Seth and I were talking quietly. Seth surprised me by mentioning our neighbor across the hall, Leonard Yaudes. We have known him for several years but he does not know of the sessions. Seth began by saying that the following information was on the edge of Ruburt’s awareness and that he was not very well focused upon it. It had to do with the possibility of an accident or an unpleasantness for Leonard sometime within the next three months. Seth then mentioned the period from September 15 to October 15, after saying that possibly he could focus a little more intently upon the problem.

(At first I had thought Seth meant that Jane and I would be involved in the trouble seen for Leonard, but Seth reassured me by saying we would not. It did not involve a disaster for Leonard, he said, nor a crippling accident; he used the word unpleasant often, and did not commit himself beyond this.

(Any trouble that developed would be the result of present trends involving Leonard, and at this time these trends were so general it was impossible to pinpoint future events with any certainty. If the present trends were changed, the personality of the future trouble would change also. Jane and I know Leonard fairly well, but actually know little of his inner feelings, his friends, etc. We have no idea of what Seth means by trends. I had become concerned about attempting to warn Leonard in some fashion, but Seth said this could not be done.

(In case of a specific predicted event such a warning could be given, and if heeded could head off trouble. Seth told us that in this case there was nothing we could do. The present trend would have to continue before trouble really was a possibility. Nevertheless Jane and I will be alert on Leonard’s behalf, especially between September 15 and October 15.

(The session ended at 1:10 AM. Jane had been dissociated as usual while speaking as Seth. Much of the time her eyes had been open. She had smoked many cigarettes. Her voice had usually been quiet, her pace a conversational one, which means that usually it is a little too fast for me to take notes. Jane felt no unusual fatigue at the end of the session.