“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.)

In other words, he enjoys the practice, whether or not he knows it. When for fairly long periods there are no witnesses to sessions, then both Ruburt and myself do indeed lean toward unscheduled sessions when informed friends of yours are present. On the other hand when several sessions in a row, regular sessions, are witnessed, then of course I grow impatient because I am anxious to get back to our own material, which is stressed when we are alone.

I meant to mention this earlier, for there is some pattern to our unscheduled sessions which you have not realized. This is why I worked so well with Philip, to make the most of the opportunity while we did have a guest.

We certainly would not want all of our sessions to be witnessed by any means, so you have no fear in that direction. On the other hand again, such experience is necessary and quite valid, and should be accepted certainly as a part of our work.

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.

(Break at 9:27. Jane was dissociated as usual for a first delivery. Her eyes had opened and shut often. Her pace had been quite rapid after the slow beginning. She remembered the material concerning Helen Dyer, and now told me she had felt an immediate rapport with Helen when she entered our apartment this evening, and a desire to help her in some way. Helen has been in our place once before, perhaps a couple of years ago.

(Jane said that at the moment she had no idea why she clung to the photograph idea. Although she was a little tired, she didn’t feel particularly bad. She now revealed that she had actually seen within three photographs, rather than the two mentioned. She saw these photos quite clearly, she said, and knew that two of them were in our album, and the third in a file of her own. From the descriptions given I recognized them also.

Now as to the poor results themselves in the envelope test. Primarily there are two reasons for our unsatisfactory results. He did not want to have the test given to him while the Instream material had not yet been given for one thing, and so this did not work for us. To begin with however he simply was not at his best in any case.

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.

We will at any time, Joseph, accept envelope tests, as long as they are given to me after the Instream material. There is indeed more that should be said along these lines, and perhaps at our next session we shall make certain points clearer in this regard.