“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Give us a moment here however. (Pause.) Now. First of all: the affair the other evening with the Gallaghers was legitimate. There was contact made with the Jesuit’s father. (Saturday, October 21, 1967, at a table-tipping session.) I told you that Ruburt’s abilities were developing along several new lines, and this is the beginning of one of them.

Your confidence in him is important here, for he still harbors Irish superstitions having to do with contacting the dead. The experiments with the table are most helpful, and I did indeed help him out on two occasions with the green table. (Jane pointed to the large heavy green table up by the living room windows.) He does not need my help with the small one, and the time and circumstances were not good on the other occasion when he requested my aid.

The whole table experiment is important, but as a stepping stone. He need have no fears now over his classes, as the membership will be maintained. If students do drop out they will be replaced, for his energies are being properly, and you may tell him, most effectively used, in the classes themselves.

(After a discussion on table-tipping, by Jane, Seth resumed at 10:30.)

You have my blessing if Ruburt wants to demonstrate the table for our friend.

The left hand reference has to do with a finger, I believe. I will give a full explanation of your table episodes shortly, and I shall stay and watch your efforts. A silent partner. (Smile.)

(A few notes re the table-tipping experiment which followed the session, and lasted until after midnight, to our surprise.

(John and I were somewhat tired but wanted to try the table. We used the small one, and placed it on the rug to muffle its noise at the late hour. It began to move almost at once, and by tapping out the alphabet told me, in somewhat garbled fashion, that an O B, a family relative, was making contact. Jane did not know who this could be, and I did I not tell her.

(I have seen tables move a few times before, including the much heavier green table referred to in the session, but still find the movement of furniture weird when it begins, since none of us were making any obvious, overt attempts to move said table. It is quite easy to touch one’s fingertips to the tabletop, and thus verify that no strong physical pressure is being exerted thereon, even subconsciously; especially when the touch is light enough so that the fingertips slide about, as ours did. We constantly checked each other, also watching our feet. This is easy to do with a small table.

(The table became quite active, spelling out several messages which were quite garbled. I noted them down letter by letter. The movements were unmistakable but the messages unclear, except that O B, whom I have not thought of in many years, repeated his presence. The table finally became active enough to tap up to thirty times in succession, often.

(We finally asked the table to do a dance for us, as it had in no uncertain terms the other evening when the Gallaghers were present. That time it gave a version of a requested Irish jig. This time we asked for another jig. The table was moving well now, and promptly began to spell out the following message, taken from my notes: ILL MAKE A(B) DAN(D)CE.

(Thereupon commenced a wild episode. The table began to hop and dance about the room. In order to keep up with it we had to leave our seats and walk about the rug with it. Each time it reached the edge of the rug we pulled it back to keep it off the bare floor, where it would have been very noisy.

(This was not all. At times the table tipped up on two legs, then would poise there, seemingly balanced by itself. To our surprise we discovered that it required an active pressure from us to force the table back down to the floor so that all three legs made contact. The feeling of this force was unmistakable, and new to all of us. There was no doubt about its existence, since the pressure required to level the table off was obvious to all. This of course did the job that gravity would normally be expected to do. Each time we pushed the table down, it rose up again at one edge. The feeling given by this maverick or opposite pressure was quite similar to the feeling one gets from playing with magnets, when they are so aligned that one repels the other. Whatever force is operating in such cases of repulsion is invisible, but unmistakably there.

(This feeling of repulsion is the reason for these notes, actually. If the beginning of movement in a piece of furniture is weird to start with, a refusal by the table to sit on the floor as one expects is much more so. This period lasted for perhaps ten minutes or more, while the three of us took turns shifting position so we could all test the pressure required to push the table down to the floor. There is no question that any of us were causing this effect; all of our movements were plain to see. During all of this the table was active to a greater or lesser degree, making it impossible to prop up a leg, say, with a shoe, etc. As interested as we were, we did not lose objectivity.

(The session climaxed with a very active dance by the table, as the three of us left our chairs and followed it about the rug. It described circles, balanced on one leg at a time, then two, in a regular rhythm. At times it scooted in a straight line. The hilarity of all this is hard to convey, but the objective realization of what was taking place, and of how hard it would be to explain to a neophyte, finally got to John Bradley. This was his first experience with a table. He ended up laughing until the tears rolled down his cheeks, as the three of us went round and round the room with the table.

(We finally gave up out of sheer weariness at 12:30 AM; and finally the table just sat there, as any good table should.)