“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At 8:30 PM this evening our landlady, Marian Spaziani, and a friend of hers visited us briefly. Marian and her friend, Helen Dyer, both know of the sessions but have not witnessed any. Helen’s husband recently died after an operation for lung cancer; this evening Helen described to Jane a recent experience in which she felt her husband was speaking to her while she slept. Helen told us she has dreamed of her husband many times, but felt this particular experience was something other than a dream; she stressed its clarity, its reassurance and simplicity.

(The session was held in our back room. Jane spoke while sitting down, in a quiet voice for the most part. Once again she was smoking as the session began; this meant her eyes had to open at least narrowly to find the ashtray, but she was looking down in the act and I could not actually tell whether or not they did open. Jane’s pace was quite slow, with many pauses, in the beginning. I should note here that Marian and Helen left us at 8:55, and that Helen lives just a block from us.)

Now, speaking once more about our primary and secondary conditions, it should be said now that this will not be as simple as it might appear. Many breakdowns and also syntheses will be needed. Ruburt brought up a point, I believe; he observed that the experience of talking occurred in both the waking and the dreaming states, but did not think that these represented primaries.

(It was 9:45. I placed the test envelope in Jane’s lap while she gave voice to the above sentence. She gave no sign that she was aware of my action, other than a slight movement of her legs, but she picked up the envelope almost at once. Her eyes were still closed. She held the envelope in her right hand, making no effort to determine its contents by feeling, twisting, etc.)

There is a man connected with the photograph. Ruburt’s husband. (Pause.) But it has to do with the past, at least five years ago.

First of all, I do not want any envelope tests given before the Instream material is delivered. It may be my fault. I neglected to mention this in an outright manner, but in the past I never requested the envelope until after the Instream material.

Therefore, if the results are poor, this undermines Ruburt’s confidence for the following tests. This is rather important. I have no objection now to the fact that you check the results of the envelope tests immediately afterward; but only when this occurs after the Instream material.

He was shocked by the earlier information that I had given concerning the woman, and this led him to block further information for the evening. He worked, or allowed me to work through, the layers of personal subconscious only, which now and then may yield valid information, but highly distorted as a rule, and unreliable for our purposes.

One point here. I allowed the test to continue because, again, such episodes can teach you lessons. I tried to separate the levels, for a while, of perception; but Ruburt by then would not open up the deeper layers of communication. You may now take your break.

Now. We are going to give you the week of Christmas off, for all students have a holiday sometime. We may even give you a report card. Tonight’s performance will not pull your average down too far, but perhaps we can bring it up for you in the meantime.