“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(While at work last Thursday, September 9, at 11 AM, I had a vision of the type described on page 223. This time, while bending over my desk, I saw with inner vision a rusty opened sardine can lying on a worn wooden shelf. The colors were very vivid, the detail needle sharp. I saw clearly if briefly the flecks of rust on the can and the grain of the wood. The scene was lit by strong sunlight from my left, so that long shadows were cast to the right by the humble can.

(Earlier in the day I prepared the 7th envelope test for the session tonight. This time I picked a negative I had taken during our vacation in 1964 at York Beach, ME. The subject was the Driftwood Hotel, situated but a stone’s throw from the beach. This place has strong emotional attachments for Jane and me. It will be remembered that it was in the dancing room of the Driftwood that Jane and I saw the personality fragments we had ourselves created, on our vacation in York Beach in 1963. See the 9th session in Volume 1. We had this experience several months before these sessions began. See the sketch of the negative on page 255 of this Volume 4.

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher were witnesses for tonight’s session, and the session was held in our large front room. Traffic noise was not a problem, the windows being closed because of the cool night. Jane began speaking while sitting in her favorite Kennedy rocking chair. Her eyes were closed, her voice good but not loud, her pace a little fast. She used few pauses, and sat much of the time learning forward with her hands clasped before her and her head tilted down slightly. She began speaking at 8:59.)

I am going to speak this evening concerning our dream reality, although I promised our guests earlier that we would discuss the God concept. However we took valuable time out in order to put our Ruburt in line, and so we are somewhat behind.

I spoke in a recent session concerning the connection between distance and emotions. The true reality of distance as you know it is dependent upon the intensity of emotion, and has nothing to do with your idea of space. The emotion which is intense is felt at its peak as present in time, and immediately here in terms of distance.

Emotions take up a certain amount of what we call psychic space within the personality’s awareness. As the intensity of the emotion fades, so it seems to you that it recedes in time. But this is an illusion caused by the limitations of your outer senses. Now. In the dream state the outer senses are to a large degree restrained in their activity. Therefore the dream state more clearly represents the actual nature of time. Intense emotions within the dream state are experienced as present time, and the personality moves easily through these emotional intensities without experiencing the sense of passing time, although any given dream may contain within it its own time element.

The dreamer is not aware of the actual passing of physical hours. He is only aware of the interior time element as it appears within the framework of his dream. The personality will be seen to operate in some manners that would be considered quite normal, if he were in the waking state.

(Break at 9:20. Jane was dissociated as usual for a first delivery. Her eyes had remained closed. Her pace had picked up as time passed, and by break her delivery was quite fast and businesslike.

(Break at 9:57. Jane was quite well dissociated, she said. Her eyes had remained closed. Her pace had been fast, her voice good, with more than a touch of brogue at times.

(I missed it too, of course. My eyes are down most of the time as I write, although I have cultivated the habit of looking up at Jane quickly every sentence or so, as a matter of routine.

(Our cat, Willy, had been sitting at the foot of Jane’s chair. As if by signal Willy now got up and walked toward Peggy, who sat but a few feet away. He brushed against her leg and she involuntarily jumped. The timing was perfect. We all laughed.)

(It was 10:23. The material had been so interesting that I had forgotten the time. I had planned to hand Jane the test envelope at about 10:00. Her eyes had been open up to this point, but she now closed them and sat waiting quietly while I handed the envelope to Bill; he passed it to Jane. She held it lightly in both hands, her eyes still closed.)

(I did not realize at the time that Seth did not explain the masterpiece statement; I could have asked otherwise. Jane’s manner now turned more humorous. Her eyes opened again. She smiled, and looked back and forth among the three of us as she spoke with quite a bit of animation.)

We shall do things here. It may take time.

([Bill, still laughing:] “I’m afraid not. Not at this time.”)