“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane didn’t feel particularly like having a session, but decided to anyway. I asked no questions before the session, nor did Jane, but we were still surprised at the subject matter.)

And with implied words, for the words that are sensed but not spoken, will rush out with color rather than with sound, and behind the implied words those emotions upon which the painting must be based. (Pause.

The particular words are not important, but the emotion behind them is important, for they will—the words and the emotions—be reflected in every muscle of the face, as well as in the thrust of the head and the hands.

The face, in intense (underlined) joy and in intense terror, may often be much the same, but the emotion still will speak within it, and you will know clearly despite the similarity of some muscular effects, which emotion is being expressed.

Sorrow or fear obviously show different faces—not only (long pause), the anatomy and the structure [that] forms the living face, but the emotions within that give the muscles and the structures meaning, and that play upon them. You want the force that feels the form and so the figure must indeed dominate the painting, as the force within must fill and move within the figure itself.

(At this moment I then consciously knew what my prophet was saying in the painting; the words came clearly to mind: “My God, my God, what am I?” I was tempted to speak them aloud next chance I had, but did not. I hadn’t tried to conjure up these words; the emotional climate set up in the session by Seth had made their release from the subconscious effortless.

By the time the painting is done you should almost be able to hear his words, even though they are in a language you do not know. But what power moves him, and is it the same power that moves you, and that moves those who will look at the painting? (Smile.) For unity’s sake it should be. Is he only aware of those who will later look at the painting? Is he only aware of the unseen power or person his lips address? Is he speaking words not only for himself but for every other individual?

(Jane had no visions while speaking, but sensed some things. She felt the background in the projected painting as being alive, she said, with the figure being the important thing and materializing out of the background, while yet a part of it .

And perhaps in painting your picture the answer to the question asked by your prophet will also come to both of you. Does the question provide its own answer, or is there another who will provide the answer, or does the prophet question in vain? Does anyone hear his question but himself?

Do his words go back into the background from which he himself emerged, and does the answer emerge also? Or is there any clear answer to his question? (Smile; pause, eyes closed.) Or is the question itself the important thing, whether or not there is any answer to it in the terms in which it is asked? All of these issues are a part of your painting, implied in every line of its conception, but I want you to see consciously the implications of the figure, and the overall implications of the figure in context with the background.

For now the figure rises from the background and dominates it, is thrust forward and you catch it; but may it not also once more return to that background in the instant that you turn away, and emerge anew. The question itself is significant, and indeed universal. (Smile.) And look even further: what is the nature of one who can ask such a question?

You identify with the prophet, not only as yourself but as the representative of your kind. Therefore the question is yours with all the intense yearning to know within it. But it is also every man’s question, and herein lies its strength.

If you speak for yourself only, or for mankind only, there is a short circuit. Yourself as mankind—this is the answer (pointing to me)—not to the original question but to the identification in art.

(10:25. Jane was out of trance more easily, but it had still been a deep one—she remembered nothing of the material just spoken. Resume at 10:30.)

I do not know art, but I understand the nature of perception within your system, and I understand what you are trying to do and such hints as I can give you can also be applied to other areas.

I have not of late. But do remember now that you are interested in him.

(10:34. Jane was soon out of trance, but again it had been deep. Her manner had been strong, active and emphatic. She said that before the session she didn’t “have the slightest idea of what I was going to talk about tonight.”