“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(As he stated in the 68th and 170th sessions, Seth said that should he materialize in full view in the middle of the room it would not be considered as evidence by those who did not wish to believe it possible; they would ascribe it to mass hallucination, etc. I planned to ask Seth about photographic evidence of such an event, following break, but did not get the chance to.

(Some good voice effects were manifested this evening, although they were not up to those of the 170th session. I would say subjectively that they were probably second best however. Tonight Jane spoke while sitting down, in an informal manner; in the 170th she stood erect with her head thrown back. In the 170th she also spoke for several hours and had time to build up to it; I would estimate she spoke for less than half an hour before break this evening, and but a very few minutes after resuming.

(Friday afternoon Jane had not been feeling particularly well, but did not tell me. Perhaps this is related to her getting sick after the session tonight; we plan to ask Seth. In fact, the session was cut short by Jane’s illness. A long break was taken after the first delivery; Jane’s voice was good, her points very emphatic, and her eyes wide open some of the time as she answered questions. She had very little to drink—two small glasses of wine, and felt recovered from her indisposition of the afternoon.

(During the long break I felt that people’s attention wandered. Jane later confirmed that she was aware of this, and was upset by it. I am personally not much enthused about such informal sessions, although Seth has said at various times that they can be beneficial in ways that regular sessions are not. But it is not easy to maintain the unflagging attention of a group of people on a weekend night, especially when they gather to eat and drink.

(These experiences always raise the question of control for Jane, but since the sessions began there have been no hints or clues to the fact that she is not in control of them. We do not think any session has been held without permission on both our parts.

(During the long break after the first delivery, Jane had a little more to drink, but nothing out of the ordinary by any means. However when she resumed Seth stated that she had drunk too much and that he did not like to work with Ruburt under such conditions. He would therefore end the session. He gave Ann Diebler a few lines of data concerning her friend in Virginia, which she wrote out. Seth then ended the session. Jane’s voice had been quiet after break.

(Jane later said that she was sure she hadn’t had too much to drink, and that she had become very upset over company behavior while the tape was being played, etc. This was complicated by her self-questioning over the matter of control, and whether we should have nothing but regular sessions. I lean toward the latter view, yet do not want to be too strict; according to Seth spontaneous expression is very important. And of course by and large Jane is interested in regular sessions. She is concerned that unscheduled sessions can be construed as exhibitionism; we think that this plays some part in certain unscheduled sessions. All sessions however have been productive in a variety of ways.

(To date, out of 251 sessions 24 have been unscheduled. Some of these have involved only Jane and me. The rest have involved a small group of interested people, and it is probably fair to say that the question of exhibitionism has arisen in Jane’s mind on but three or four occasions. We are very cautious here, actually, hence my earlier statement that after such a session we wonder whether we should have allowed it to take place.)