“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(An unplanned session was held on Friday evening however, and will be briefly summarized for the record. No notes were made during the session by me, although some of the witnesses made a few. The session had some unusual aspects.

(The session came about after Jane had played portions of the tape of the 170th session for the group. This is the tape containing the strong voice effects and was recorded for Dr. Instream. It was made with the Gallaghers as witnesses. The other three witnesses are young people and had no idea that such physical performances were possible over a period of hours. Playing the tape was an attempt to answer some of their questions, and in this Jane and I were following Seth’s advice of the 246th session. During that session Seth suggested Jane and I do all we can to inform others who are interested in matters psychic. See Session 170 in Volume 5.

(More voice effects were demonstrated now. The session was not actually a long one, and ended in Jane’s physical illness. Seth came through after some of the stronger voice effects on the tape had been played. The stage had been set through conversation and the use of the tape, and I thought Seth made his appearance with the subconscious permission of Jane and me. No one had asked to hear a session.

(As it happened many people who live in the house were away for various reasons, so Seth was well aware that neighbors wouldn’t be a hindrance to voice effects—at least as much as usual. One person was still home upstairs however, as I reminded Jane; the reminder had little effect.

(Seth reiterated some of the earlier material he has given us, concerning proofs, apparitions, etc. Once again he went into the reasons why it was possible for Bill Macdonnel to see Seth’s apparition during the 68th session for July 6,1964. See that session. The gist of tonight’s material on this subject was that Bill allowed his intuitions enough freedom so that he was able to see the apparition for over an hour and to make several drawings of it; by the same token Jane and I were unable to see the apparition because we tried to intellectualize it. Later in the 68th session however I did see, along with Bill, a very striking change in Jane’s physical features. We believe this was another form of apparition. See Volume 2.

(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.

(Shortly after this, while I was in the studio with Marilyn and Ann, I was informed that Jane was being physically sick in the kitchen. I immediately felt that the illness resulted from her conflicts over having the session, and the next day she confirmed this. Peggy Gallagher administered to Jane, and company then left.

(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.