“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(When I lit our test candle at 8:55 PM, the flame at once shot up to an estimated height of three inches; I had not seen it do this before. It smoked noticeably for a few moments. The flame then settled down to a steady height of about 1 1/4 inches, and remained there through first break. As usual, the flame was shielded from Jane’s vision during her deliveries.

I suggest a brief break, and we shall continue along these lines, for we are able to go ahead where Priestley and Dunne were not. We are able to do this, or I am able to do this, precisely because I am from beyond Priestley’s time one, two and three, and therefore free of the distortions which even he is unable to avoid.

In concept, again on this particular point, Dunne went further. But in doing so he ended up in a frenzy, losing sight of where he was. And no wonder. It is simply because I am outside of these times that I can see through them more clearly, and there is no particular reason why I should be considered wiser in this respect than they. I am simply in a better position to observe. If Dunne were able to write another book now, on his time theories, he would be able to correct several of his well-intentioned errors.

When the individual reaches Priestley’s time three, then he is left with little individuality. Priestley’s vision of the birds and the life spirit is not too much different from nirvana. At least only in degree, and this simply will not do.

One concerns myself and where I would stand in this time framework, and you should find this highly interesting. The other has to do with Dunne, for in one instance he saw further than Priestley, for he carried these times further. But he also fell into an understandable error. For at some point the separate selves of Dunne’s, with their separate times, become aware of each other, and merge into the sort of superconsciousness that we have always called the entity.

These times do not go on indefinitely in the precise manner that Dunne thought. Neither do they stop as Priestley believes, at time three. There is a merging of selves into what you may call a superconsciousness, a synthesis; and from then on, dear friends, there is a beginning toward something new, and a something of which I am not prepared to speak this evening, but of which I shall speak in the near future.

I pick up a rather disconnected or disjointed impression concerning an elephant, or perhaps this is a trunk. I do not know to what it refers. (Pause.) Unless it has to do perhaps with the farewell earlier mentioned.

Do you have a test for me?

(It was 10:15. Jane took the usual double envelope from me without opening her eyes. Reading over the last session, she had been surprised to learn that she had held the test envelope to her forehead for a few minutes, since she didn’t remember doing this. Now, she once again pressed the test envelope to her forehead, this time more deliberately, and with both hands. She continued to hold it there. Her eyes were closed, her voice very quiet. This is the 23rd envelope test.)

Now, give me a moment and we shall see what we can do.

A connection that I do not see clearly, with a missionary. A note. The mention of a time.

Now. Something square, as a plot. A connection with four other people, and a road, or road shape. Unusual shadows. A cake. Something that two people know, and two other people do not know.

(“Something that two people know, and two other people do not know,” is good, since my mother’s letter specifically concerned such a situation. Jane and I were the two who did know, and my parents were the two others who did not know. This matter was straightened out on December 12.

(Jane said “a connection with an animal” is also valid, in that while she went for a walk during our December 12 visit to the family gathering in Sayre, she saw a dog, possibly a stray, that aroused in her a strong desire to own a dog. She still misses our dog Mischa, who died three years ago. So do I.

Communications such as these, incidentally, can be explained quite adequately within Priestley’s system. Very nicely indeed. Not thoroughly but nicely. Completely, if you do not ask too many tricky questions.

I repeat myself because I want to make the points plain, and this material is difficult. But things simply do not happen as Dunne supposed they did. He was correct in carrying his times further than Priestley, but he was incorrect in assuming the serialization continued indefinitely along the same lines.

I do not believe that Dunne understood this. There is no serialization as he imagined, after a certain point, simply because this progression of selves through various times in a serial fashion is no longer necessary. The selves reach a point which is not a theoretical point, but a particular mathematically existent point, whereby these times and selves simply become one, or in our terms, an entity.

I must stress that individuality is never lost. But this is too complicated a subject to cover this evening. We have explained it rather adequately in terms of action however, and gestalts of selves do not imply a giving-up of individuality at all. It should be remembered here that reincarnation is simply a fact, and one which is not accepted by Priestley or Dunne.

A large white or pastel building, they had something to do with today. Flowers here.

They think of an island that sounds like Sumatra, but is not. It is two words. More like San Mutro, though I do not believe that is exact.

I have the impression: Clor-ra-door, but do not know to what it refers. (Phonetically.

(The experience did not take place at five o’clock, but later one evening while Bill and Peggy were in a restaurant in San Juan. As an entertainer the restaurant had a white Puerto Rican female pianist. During a break she stood next to Bill at the bar. Bill then had the strange feeling that she would at once go back to her piano, on a raised platform, and begin to play. She did so. Bill then proceeded to name, in the correct order, the first three numbers the pianist would play. He has no idea as to how he was able to do this, or why he felt impelled to. After his first three correct calls he felt the ability wane, and began to make errors.

I was doing so well when the alarm rang at 11:30 that I set it for another half-hour beyond my usual time.

Now, we shall see what we can do. A talk concerning survival of your nation. Our friend the cat lover attends this discussion.

(She tried to determine the exact number later, from her own notes, but was unable to do so.)

(“You will meet a man you do not like” is one of the advance predictions given Peggy by Seth during the unscheduled session of December 3. Jane and I have wondered what part suggestion might play in such a case. Peggy told us she had also been aware of this, and that she could say that her dislike of the individual in question transcended any suggestion that conceivably could be operating.)

Something to do with a federation.

Directions to a northeast location perhaps, though I do not know, for tomorrow’s lecture.

(Yes, most definitely. This evening, Monday, December 6, Bill Gallagher’s ulcer bothered him to such an extent that he called a doctor. This he seldom has to do.

A measurement of abilities, though I do not know to what this refers.

Something having to do with March 10.

A white taxicab. Identified by a round symbol on it, with a border inside the circle, and some sort of figures. Whether these are people, shapes or object shapes, I do not know. The symbol is of more than one color, however, and fairly dark against the white. I am seeing it in the evening, so the color of the symbol is not very clear. It is in front of a stone building.

I pick up something to do with a ballpark, or a park that has been used, or a stadium that has been used for ball games.

Something to do with a pocketbook. Did she misplace it? It is a shoulder variety however. Perhaps it was a camera.