“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(In a dimly lit atmosphere we sat at the living room table by the windows. Jane asked Seth for signs of his presence; Seth had talked about giving such signs, soon, in the last session. The session began at about 9PM and lasted until the regular time of 10:30. Jane spoke to Seth in a quiet voice for some little time, but no results were obtained; nothing out of the ordinary was noticed by either of us. Jane then suggested that I speak to Seth, since I was used to doing so; her hope being that by going into trance on her own she might contact a survival personality—namely, Blanche Price.

(I believe Jane set the stage for the events that followed, as she herself spoke aloud, and that by the time I began to speak things were well under way even if they were not obvious. Jane and I wanted Seth’s assistance in contacting Blanche, without Seth himself speaking, for we thought this would make the session too much like the regular sessions. Jane had repeatedly asked Seth for assistance, and I began by doing the same.

(Jane’s head did not remain still however, but began to tip to one side at times; then she would right it again while seemingly making efforts to speak. She said the left hand movements were weird to her, and felt subjectively “like a dead hand.” As though it were necessary almost for Blanche to go through the experience of being ill once again in order to make contact through Jane, and to even approach the death experience itself. At no time, Jane said, did she “see” Blanche, or feel disembodied herself; yet she felt at the same time that contact had been made. If play acting was involved, Jane said later, it was on a completely subconscious level where she would possess no egotistical knowledge that such was transpiring.

(The session, Jane said, verged often on the unpleasant, as if Blanche had to go through her own last memories first in order to make contact, and we wondered whether a survival personality would want to do this very often. As I continued speaking, trying to help Jane get an emotional feeling of making contact without being engulfed by any strong or unpleasant emotion that Blanche might be reexperiencing, Jane began to whimper in a subdued way. I thought this reinforced the fact of contact, yet at the same time reassured Jane, by name, that she could do very well, and that Seth and I were with her as protectors.

(Jane later said she thought she said more, but actually we do not believe we missed recalling much. We don’t know if it can be checked out. Her trance, Jane said, was quite different than the usual Seth trance, and a few times, particularly during the crying attempt, Jane felt she might be approaching an unpleasant experience, as has happened a few times in the past. Again, Jane felt that in making contact, Blanche had to go through the last, and so unpleasant, stages of her physical life. After the session we wondered what part Jane’s knowledge of the circumstances of Blanche’s final days might have played here.

(At no time was Jane aware of Seth as a personality, and neither of us saw any signs of him or from him. One of my concerns when Jane asked me to speak to Seth at the beginning of the session, was whether my speaking would bring on a regular Seth session, but this didn’t develop; and the method gave us both confidence for like experiments in the future. Jane said my speaking was a great help for her, and did act as a protective device. My own idea was for Jane to make emotional or feeling contact with Blanche, without whatever emotions she encountered becoming too intrusive and so interfering with any data we might get.