“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I had wanted to hypnotize Jane for some time, but had been hesitating even though my pendulum told me I had nothing against the idea. I was still aware of resistance, however, and so thought I would wait until the intuitive moment arrived to begin. That moment came today, from an almost casual remark Jane made this afternoon, and which I am not even able to quote. I believe her remark fell upon ground well prepared by a book I am currently reading: Many Lifetimes, by Grant and Kelsey.

(I believe Jane was a little nervous at the idea of being hypnotized, since I mentioned it at supper time. I was also as 9 PM approached, but not overly so. I felt I had read enough about the subject to know intuitively how to proceed once the time arrived. The fact that Jane was a willing, even eager, subject was of course a great help.

(All in all, we believe things went quite well for a first attempt, and we are pleased with the results. I spent perhaps half an hour by the clock inducing the first general relaxed state, including the suggestion that Jane’s eyelids were quite heavy and relaxed. I did not definitely tell her that she could not open them, but believe that had I suggested this she could not have done so— this in the light of later events.

(I told Jane before we began that we would not stress tests to prove hypnosis, that these could come later if we chose. I was confident that I could induce a good sound relaxation and at least a light trance state, and we achieved this and more. Especially in the beginning I did wonder at times at my progress, but continued following my ideas without allowing any doubts to become bothersome. Once Jane’s eyes closed at the start of the session they remained closed until I told her they would open at the end.

(After the first half hour I felt we had progressed enough to try various things. My recall here may not be in strict order. One of the first things Jane told me, after I asked her to speak, was that the bathroom light bothered her. This, even though a closet light in the bedroom itself was on, and brighter. But I turned the bathroom light off.

(At my suggestion Jane began to flex her feet, then her hands. For a few moments she let her hands lay at her sides, but since there is tension in the upper arm muscles, her arms cannot lay fully relaxed upon the bed when she is flat on her back; after a few minutes she again crossed her hands, and told me later that this was more comfortable. Of course I noted that even after my suggestions, her arms did not fully relax, but I had not stressed that she would achieve any great or startling improvement; this first session was more to learn how to proceed, and during it I tentatively tried several different approaches.

(One was to regress Jane to a period of two years ago, chosen at random. I counted to ten backward, with appropriate suggestions, but when the count was completed she told me she could see nothing. I thought then that I had been premature to try this idea, and attempted to talk around it and change the subject, so to speak, rather than say that it was a mistake. Jane appeared to accept my way out without question.

(I began to tell Jane that she was now going into a deeper trance. This proved effective, I soon learned. Jane said she had no particular feeling of entering a deeper state, but when I brought her out of it at the end of the session she had a very definite feeling of rising, of leaving it to return to full consciousness.

(Before the session I had reminded myself that if we came upon strongly emotional material I would attempt to guide Jane through it, by helping her to express it but not become overwhelmed by it should it prove very painful. This is why I had earlier told her she could remember what transpired during the session. I also had in mind that should it seem necessary I could suggest that things too strongly charged could be temporarily forgotten upon awakening. We did not reach this point however.

(The first was that her troubles began in Florida; that it was her fault we left Sayre to join her father in Florida, and that I had not wanted to leave my parents. [I had cried in the car as we drove out of Sayre on the way south, but had, I thought, regarded this as natural enough at the time.] Jane told me that it was her fault we had chased around the country, that her spontaneity had done nothing but get us into trouble. Jane described how she had become very frightened in Florida over the job situation, and that I had been forced to get a job anyhow even though I had told her most emphatically that I didn’t intend to do this. [When we went to Florida it had been agreed upon that she would hold a job while I tried out some painting ideas. Her father was to help us out financially also, but did not do so.]

(One thing I would like to explore in these sessions is what effect past-life memories can play in present personality patterns, and my attempt to get Jane to regress a couple of years was a first halting step in this direction, that was not successful. But already I can see several other ways to approach this, and expect no trouble.

(I think that more suggestions would have induced an even deeper state with her, and that probably amnesia could have been induced in this deeper state had I so desired. After the session Jane said she felt very relaxed, although I believe she has induced as good a state in some of her self-hypnosis sessions. I did not give her a key word, for instance, to speed up future inductions, but plan to do so when I have more experience.