“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.

(The session was held in our back room. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Before the session she had remarked that she hoped Seth would mention Priestley’s book. Her pace was now average to begin, but quickly speeded up.)

Now. Our friend Ruburt has finally discovered the works of Dunne, I see, and he has also been reading Priestley on the subject of time.

It is true that Priestley speaks in terms of consciousness being retained at this stage, but a consciousness devoid of personality is an odd bird indeed. The personality structure changes, it is true, but consciousness of overall identities within any given unit of consciousness is always retained. There is no blending or merging, willy-nilly, into a gigantic ever-rushing-on spirit of life. And the spirit of life in these terms cannot be considered as something apart and separate from, and outside of, those consciousnesses which illuminate it, and through which they are illuminated. And here is our second difficulty with Priestley.

Now give us a moment please, for our Instream material.

(Seth did not elaborate on the test envelope impressions, so what follows are our own interpretations. For his own part, Seth was too eager to get on with his discussion of Priestley’s book, it developed.

(“The mention of a time” is easily accounted for in the same letter. In it my mother discusses the visit Jane and I were due to make to my parents on Sunday, December 5th. The date was not mentioned, just the word Sunday. My mother then canceled this visit of ours by telephone, and Jane and I then journeyed to visit my parents in Sayre, PA, on the following Sunday, December 12. It was on this visit that I obtained the test object used in the last session, the 217th.

(The monk mentioned by Seth refers to our friend Father Martin, who is mentioned in the 212th session. Apropos of this, Jane now said she remembered that Seth’s use of the word missionary did set up her own chain of association involving Father Martin. She said Seth put her back on the right track by mentioning this.

(Jane said she was confused while giving the data “A connection with an address that is not your own.” She wasn’t sure Seth meant an address that was ours, or was not ours, so she tried to relax and let it come through without distortion. And of course the letter came to us from an address not our own. “Something to which no reply is expected,” is also good, in that we were due to see my parents within a few days after my mother wrote to us.

(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.

Now I could indeed be Ruburt’s number six self, you see. I am not, but I could be. It is entirely possible however, using Ruburt as an example, for Ruburt’s number six self, to communicate with Ruburt’s number one self; these communications sifting through the intervening selves however, and unfortunately. Now these various times of Priestley’s and Dunne’s have much in common with the planes of which I am speaking in our discussions, and the value fulfillment of our material is akin to Priestley’s insistence on depth within any given moment.

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.

It is because of the peculiar connection of selves that our communications are possible. It is for the same reason that such communications are relatively rare, for many conditions and circumstances are necessary; and the number one self is made to bear strains unfamiliar to it, and to perceive data which does not make sense within its number one time system.

Because of this I have always leaned on the side of caution. But these strains, and this data, to some extent lift the number one self from the limitations of the number one time, and lends an advancement ordinarily not possible. For the number one time has changed for both of you since our sessions began, and it no longer seems the prison that it did earlier.

The number one time cannot contain other times but the consciousness, with help, can to some extent perceive these other times. And this perception then allows consciousness to escape some of the confinements of that one time. Our spacious present of which I have spoken contains all times, but it is not a thing apart from them, nor precisely their sum. It is ever unfolding and mobile, and changing itself.

(In the 44th session, Seth began a list of qualities and attributes which are included in the spacious present. To date there are eleven of these: Value climate of psychological reality; energy transformation; spontaneity; durability; creation; consciousness; capacity for infinite mobility; law of infinite changeability and transmutation; cooperation; arrival and departure, meaning physical birth and death; and quality depth, the perspective in which an idea can expand, replacing our time and space.)

Therefore I will regretfully end our discussion for this evening.

I believe it is apparent in our own tests, incidentally, that some preciseness is beginning to show through, for in the general associations connected with the object, identifying points concerning the specific object now appear.

(‘Our hotel was white. There were many different colored flowers along the road near our hotel.”)

(“There was a rather ornate table lamp of bamboo in our room, decorated with flowers painted flowers.”)

(“Yes. In our room on Monday night.”)

Your friends, my friends, the Jesuit and the cat lover are sleeping in a different room than they were at our last session.

(“Our hotel was close to water, on the beach. But it was the same hotel we stayed in last Monday.”)

(“Our hotel was on a street that dead-ended at the ocean.”)

(“Yes. At our hotel, The Americana, there is a very shallow pool that is actually half in and half out of the hotel, on the ground floor, which is one level lower than the lobby. This pool runs inside the hotel from the outside and is decorated with flowers, etc.”

An airplane. Directly behind our friends there is a female in blue.

Directly across from our friends there is a couple of middle-aged... (Jane pauses, shakes her head in puzzlement.) We will try to clear this up. The couple come from Daytona or Dayton. The man has a connection with the paper business, but not a newspaper. The production of paper itself.

(“However, when we flew to St. Thomas from San Juan on Friday, October 22, our plane left the airport at 10:45 AM.”

(“Our luggage ticket number was either 453 or 455.”)

The woman directly behind our friends’ seat may have a child with her. If so a female child, but there is no man in that seat.

(“On our flight to New York City, a woman and child sat across the aisle and a little ahead of us. There was no man with them. We don’t recall whether the child was male or female.”)

(“Yes. We did walk through such a large terminal on our arrival in New York City.”)

Our friend’s ulcer may show a slight twinge here as he passes through the terminal.

At this time, that is now (9:44, Monday, October 25) our cat lover is reading. Our Jesuit is studying people, and they are flying.

Also a cab ride. Our cat lover laughs. A three-dollar fare, which seems large.

(“Yes. This took place a week before, on the Sunday night we arrived in San Juan, October 17. We paid a $3.00 fare to go from the airport to our hotel. We thought the fare much too high and were both angry; the last time we had visited San Juan the same ride cost less than $2.00; perhaps $1.50.”)

(“Our hotel room was on the fourth floor. We see no connection with the word elm.”

(In the 201st session for October 25, Seth commented: “...and incidentally, Ruburt’s experience in psychological time was quite legitimate.” Jane’s account of Friday’s psy-time experience was included in the 201st session along with our drawing; it is repeated here, with the addition of the Gallagher’s comments and Peggy’s drawing.)

([Peggy:] “Yes. Our door opened off the center of the porch.”

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

(Peggy did attend this discussion. The talk didn’t concern the survival of our nation, but of some individuals within it; it was a seminar on poverty.)

A tow-headed man with whom our friend comes in contact. She may not like him overmuch.

A particular man with a camera slung over his shoulder, who gets our friend’s attention.

Incidentally, our Jesuit’s ulcer bothers him this evening, quite strongly.

(Before our envelope test in the 215th session Seth added one more line to the Gallagher test material; see page 121:)