“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Today I bought Jane a “water cushion” to aid in her sitting difficulties, but upon filling it after supper we didn’t think it would work. I also bought her three kinds of underclothes to try … Before the session we spent an hour or so watching the Democratic National Convention in New York City. We saw the first session, in which the Carter forces, who wanted a “closed” convention, defeated the Kennedy forces, who wanted an “open” convention.

(I told Jane, joking, that the Democrats might achieve a show of unity in their convention, but that come election time in November they might end up saying something like: “Well, we lost but we were united” against Reagan. To me the political situation, meaning a choice between Carter and Reagan, is almost intolerable, and I wondered why our country had chosen this time of travail, as they say.

(“Well,” Jane said at 8:40, “I’m about as comfortable as I can get, so I might as well begin. I feel him around. At least I feel a lot better than I have been.” We’ve read over the last session several times, and have gone over Seth’s resolutions daily. Jane has also been “walking” twice daily, using her wheeled typing table as a support — though we skipped this evening’s sojourn in lieu of TV watching. The night was humid but not too warm. Through the open doors and windows we heard the great rhythms of the crickets and cicadas. Then:)

(Jane delivered the above paragraph of material as Seth with much emphasis and conviction, as she has for much of this session. I think it excellent, and plan to make copies to pin on my studio wall for easy reference.)

(“Do you want to give an example?” I asked Seth, but Jane went on speaking so smoothly that I wondered if he/she had heard the question.)

(9:56 P.M. As soon as she was out of trance I told Jane the session was an excellent one. I was also quite irritated, because Seth’s information had the ability to make things seem self-evident; from that point one was always left wondering how anything so basically clear and simple could be so easily missed and/or misinterpreted by those who most dearly wanted to put it to use. I’ve experienced these phenomena often in personal sessions, and each time end up resolving to do better next time — to see more clearly, to do all of those things that will easily and effortlessly bring the desired results. Jane often feels the same way, though I don’t think she has so much lately, judging from certain remarks she’s made. Yet this kind of material gives one hope, and considering it can lead to at least momentary feelings of true understanding and concomitant hope, on my part, at least. The thing is, I really believe the information is good, and that it can work, that basically it’s the best kind of information people can get.

(I suppose my own irritation because of the points listed above communicated itself to Jane easily enough. We had a lively and beneficial discussion because of our feelings, though, so all in all the session is a very good one³. I want to arrange my approach to Seth’s latest book, Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, so that I can quote part of this session in a note.)

“In vivid color: I lived in my parents’ house at 704 North Wilbur Avenue, in Sayre, Pennsylvania. I was my present age, 61. That the house had long been sold, that my parents had died in the early 1970s, and that Jane and I had been married for 26 years and lived in Elmira, New York, were irrelevant in the dream. Jane and my parents were not in it, nor were any members of the Brenner family.

I hadn’t consciously known about the situation in any way. Indeed, I haven’t been to Sayre in many months, even though my old home town is only 18 miles away. Jane hasn’t been in our car for some time now, and I leave her alone in the house as little as possible.

Here is Jane’s interpretation of my dream:

2. Seth refers to a portion of the notes I wrote on the afternoon of August 5, 1980 — the day before Jane held her first session on The Magical Approach:

“It was hard to reduce my insight to words, but when I described it to Jane at our lunch table, she said it made sense to her. The insight was triggered by a remark she made while we were eating, as she read one of the letters I’d just picked up at the mailbox.

“The letter-writer described several well-known esoteric organizations that he belonged to — while also asking for personal help from Jane. ‘He wants magic,’ Jane said. Her comment reminded me of some material I’d written last month, and had mentioned to her a few times since — that over very long spans of time the earth and all of its creatures stay the same, relatively speaking, and that only human beings, with their ideas of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ change.

“I think that I brought my magical insight into consciousness also because of some of my recent dreams, that seem to contain precognitive and/or clairvoyant elements. The Brenner dream is one of those. Jane has been doing invaluable work for me recently, interpreting those dreams. Indeed, she’s the one who’s dug up many of the dream and real-life connections.

“Added a little later: Jane said this material on the magical personality ‘… really turned me on.’ She’s been doing some writing of her own on our magical orientation. I told her that her material could easily go into a chapter of one of her books.”

3. And yes, the situation can be reversed, too: Seth can get irritated/frustrated with Jane and me. This excerpt is from the private session of November 11, 1979: “… the same kind of reactions, however, are involved in all activities, and it is sometimes frustrating for me that you cannot perceive the fascinating facets of any event. You still — and I do not simply mean you two alone — do not feel the unsurpassable force that thoughts have. You do not understand that they do form events, that to change events you must first change thoughts. You get what you concentrate upon.”

See Appendix B for Jane’s material, written later, which she intended to go with this Session Two.