“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Notes on the first session in which Jane tried deliberately to contact a survival personality for someone else. Present at our apartment were Jane and me and Jerry Kramerick, of Elmira.

(Jerry had recently sent some of her elderly father’s clothes to be cleaned. This afternoon when the clothes were returned Jerry found a note stapled to a garment, found in a pocket by the cleaners. This puzzled Jerry, since she had thoroughly searched the garments before sending them out. She wondered if Jane could pick up any impressions from the note.

(On the spur of the moment Jane agreed to see what she could get on her own, without Seth. She cautioned Jerry that the effort would be strictly experimental on her part, and that results could be good, bad or indifferent. Jane sat at the living room table with Jerry opposite; I sat nearby taking notes. What follows is not verbatim, since Jane spoke quite rapidly at times, but is close to it, and the correct meaning of what Jane said is always given. Many parts of the record are exact, however.

(Jane put herself in a light trance state while sitting at the table. Most of the time her eyes were closed, if not all. Her manner was active, and more will be said of this as the notes progress. Roman type is used to show Jane’s words in trance.)

(Jane had been resting a hand upon Billie’s note. Now she held it up. She told us later she’d had the urge to wrinkle it up.)

(While giving much of this data, Jane did not speak as smoothly as the notes might indicate. The Seth voice did not show at all, nor were we aware of his presence. Jane’s manner of delivery was quite usual as far as stopping, pausing, repeating, etc., was concerned—the usual manner of speaking.

(Most of the time it was Jane herself relaying the data; but on a few occasions something else occurred, as will be explained.)

(Jane’s voice by now had become quite animated, without increasing in volume.)

(Jane used many descriptive gestures while speaking.) She wore a pin on that dress. A gold one. Part of it stuck out like wings, though they weren’t wings. Roughly an airplane shape.

(3:25. Jane’s voice trailed off and she came slowly out of trance. Jerry and I had said nothing while Jane had been speaking. Now Jerry said that most of the material had meaning for her. As soon as she said this, Jane asked her not to say any more at this time, and I agreed.

(Jane’s eyes had remained closed, as far as I could tell. Her pace had been fast at times, pauses about as usual in a regular session. She sat quietly for several moments beginning at 3:30, then resumed in trance.)

(Now Jane suddenly pounded her left fist on the table so hard that the cups and saucers and other objects jumped violently. The gesture was so rapid and violent that I too jumped. I was instantly concerned lest Jane physically injure her hand, so hard were the blows, several now in succession. It is here that Jane was someone else, at least briefly; Jerry later said she had the same feeling, and that Jane’s gestures and voice and manner, including head shaking and language, were those of Billie.

(Even in trance Jane felt the effects of these blows, for as she continued to talk she rubbed her left hand. I spoke to her rather sharply, and would have interrupted the session had the physical violence continued. This ended, but now Jane had taken off, evidently wrapped up in the role briefly, for she shouted at a fast and furious pace, shaking her head violently, eyes closed. I was not able to get all she said on paper, but got the gist of it and key phrases. There were many swear words, and the fact that Jane halted at most of them, leaving them implied instead of spoken, reassured me that she was trying for control in the situation.)

(The first heat of Jane’s outburst is now under a little more control.

(At times there was a hint of crying, of deep feeling, in Jane’s voice.)

(True, Jerry said. Jane was shaking her head here again; she seemed to be trying to explain Billie’s attitude. The pace was so fast I didn’t get it down verbatim.

And she watches him, and she tries to push him like she used to. (She did push him and rule the roost.) She wants him to get up and do something instead of just sitting there. She’s laughing as if she’s got a good joke… (Jane too was acting out the hilarious dialogue, in a manner that was not ordinarily her own.) She says I’m dead. What are you yelling about? She says she’s here… And she wants him to get up and act like a man.

(Jane’s voice rose again in hilarity.) A panic. You’re a goddam panic. She’s around and she says she’s livelier than he is at this point. I have the impression of a great big round object… I don’t know what it is, and a favorite song of hers, I think having to do with violets. Roses and violets, I don’t know.

(3:50. This proved to be the end of the session. Jerry now said that most of the data was correct, except that since she herself was born in 1937 she wasn’t sure about the 1936 and 1932 dates, but would try to check. Jerry agreed to go over a copy of this material and to write in wherever she thought Jane’s data applied.

(Jerry said that the data echoed Billie’s fiery, hot-tempered disposition very well, and that the phrases Jane cited like “guts and gumption”, etc., were the exact ones used by Billie. Billie swore often and talked very fast, as noted in the data. Billie was dominant over her father, Jerry said; she was very insistent and wouldn’t back down in an argument.

(Jerry said that emotionally Jane acted much like Billie, that there was good contact here, and that in the fight scene she thought that Jane was Billie. Billie died at age 47. Jane rubbed her right hip as she talked, and Jerry said that Billie had a bad hip in the same area, and rubbed it also as Jane had done.

(Jerry said she didn’t see how Billie could have written the note when Jane said she did, in November 1964, since Billie died in 1965 [just two months into the year] and had been unable to write for some time before her death. As we talked however now, Jane said Billie was “still there” and that she now insisted this was the correct time re the note-writing.

(All the while we talked, Jane said Billie was still with us, and that she could have resumed at any time. Jerry verified other data I did not make notes on, including the Vermont and Wisconsin names. Supper time was approaching, and so the experimental session ended.

(Jane said that previous experience was a great help in guiding her over the rough emotional involvements like the fight scene—that she “got through” these quite well and wasn’t alarmed. She went over the session with Jerry on 1/16.)