“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.

(One thing caught me unprepared, and perhaps came close to interrupting the session. As I began talking steadily my voice began to become very dry. I am not used to speaking so steadily, although Jane later said that she too had noticed a voice stain in her first session with me, until she became more relaxed and used to the idea. Luckily there was a little wine left in one glass; as I finally became so hoarse I could hardly talk, I began to sip this, and it helped a great deal. A glass of water handy, I thus learned, will be standard in sessions after this. At one time I simply had to stop talking because my voice gave out. Jane said she was aware of this, and that the break almost snapped her out of the relaxed state she was entering.

(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.

(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.

(By now I had learned that she could speak under hypnosis without difficulty, a point we had wondered about to at least some extent. I thought she was in a light trance state and Jane later agreed that she was, that she felt very relaxed. Often as I spoke to her I told her she would have full memory of what transpired when the session was over. When it was over, she told me her memory of parts of the session was somewhat hazy— reinforcing the idea that she was hypnotized, if somewhat imperfectly, and that my control was not all it will be in future sessions.

(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.]