“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The last session we presented in Mass Events, the 841st, was held on March 14. On the 19th we received from our publisher for checking, the proofs of the index for Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality, then two days later the proofs for the front matter of Psyche arrived. Going over these two sets of material was routine; nothing had to be returned, and in each case Jane called Tam Mossman at Prentice-Hall to give her approval and to make a few suggestions for changes. She’s worked each day at her third novel on The Adventures of Oversoul Seven, and has heard often from Sue Watkins about Sue’s progress with her book on Jane’s ESP class: Conversations with Seth and with all of her other activities. Jane has held four sessions since the 14th: two personal ones, and two [842-43] on matters other than book dictation.

(Now there’s talk of evacuating up to a million people who live in the counties surrounding Three Mile Island. Some refugees have already reached the Elmira area, where we live, and upon checking a map Jane and I were surprised to see that we’re only about 130 airline miles north of Harrisburg. We’ve driven the much longer road distance comfortably enough in one day. “Strange,” I mused to Jane, “that of all the nuclear power plants in the world, we end up living that close to the one that goes wrong….”

(Our region is supposed to be outside the danger zone—yet we see conflicting newspaper reports about whether the prevailing wind currents would make us vulnerable to the aftereffects of a meltdown. Even now local civil defense officials monitor the air several times daily with radiological survey meters—equipment similar to Geiger counters. Jonestown was far away, remote in another land, I said to Jane, but the potential mass tragedy of Three Mile Island hovers at the edges of our personal worlds. The whole affair has a sense of unreal immediacy, because there’s nothing to see, and because I don’t think most people really understand the probabilities involved. It would hardly be a coincidence, I added, that the mass events at Jonestown and Three Mile Island took place within less than six months of each other, and that they represented the two poles, or extremes, of mankind’s present main belief systems: religion and science.

(Actually, the session might better be called a Jane/Seth session, in that Jane’s own consciousness was often uppermost, riding upon Seth’s underlying and steadying influence. This rather unusual situation came about because after lunch today she wrote excellent analyses of two dreams I’d had recently. As we sat at the kitchen table discussing her work, Jane felt that she could go into a trance state that was her own for a change, instead of being in “just” a Seth trance. She began delivering the material at a measured pace in her usual voice. As soon as I realized that she wanted to have a session I asked her to wait until I found my pen and notebook. Then Jane proceeded to come through with much evocative material on dreams—our second reason for excerpting the session for Mass Events. Some of the more generalized dream material is presented below; some of the more individualized portions [which, in fact, came at the start of the session] are given in Note 2.

(After drinking half a glass of milk during a break, Jane resumed her delivery at 4:30:)

(2. Much of Jane’s trance material on how individuals use dreams personally came through in answer to a question of mine that we’d often speculated about lately: If most people do not remember their dreams most of the time, of what use can their dreams be to them? The question was really based upon our belief, indeed our certainty, that everything in nature is intentional and useful; therefore dreams must fulfill important roles in peoples’ lives—but how, in ordinary terms? Here are quotations from the answers Jane gave while in trance:

(This afternoon Jane finished typing her analyses of my dreams of March 29 and 31. The dreams were excellent ones and she did an excellent job interpreting them. The first one involved Bill Gallagher, the second one Jane’s and my confrontation with a pack of large wild dogs. Some of the dogs bore human heads, and some human bodies and canine heads. This dream made a considerable impact on Jane—so much so that it’s led us to some interesting new dream material that is dealt with in today’s session. Both dreams are on file in my dream notebook, of course. An extra copy of this dream is attached to my own notebook that I’m letting grow all by itself into ideas that may be used in a work of my own, similar to Seth’s original suggestion forThrough My Eyes.

(Jane finished her typing the dream material at about 3:30 PM today. Next she got on her stool to do the dishes. As she sat at the sink she began to get more dream material, this time from Seth. She called me as I wrote my own dream material in my writing room. In the kitchen, she began to quote to me the first paragraph of what she was getting.

(I tried hard to focus on what she was telling me, so that I could write it down at once, but as she continued I saw that I’d inevitably lose a lot of it. I asked her if she could repeat her material if I got my notebook. She said yes. While I made ready for dictation she sat in her chair at the kitchen table. Neither of us had expected a spontaneous Seth session, but that’s what developed. Jane started over. The first paragraph below substantially repeats what she first told me. She always kept her “own” voice, and spoke in a conversational manner throughout. Her dictation was a little fast, so that I scribbled notes at times. Although I worried about deciphering them later, I anticipate no problems.

(This material touched upon part of the discussion Jane and I had earlier today—that dreams should be studied in sequence, for additional meanings. A sequence of dreams, Jane said, would give a much better perspective on the dreamer’s challenges, fear, etc., in life, and yield much better insights. Subject matter assumes a new kind of importance, then as does the relationship of one dream to another.)

(Consider all of Jane’s material so far as the first paragraph of her material.)

Then earlier I got (Jane said), that when we’re interpreting dreams, we should also look over groups of them, over a period of time, to see if you see yourself as a hero, a victim, a victor, bravely grappling with problems or whatever.

(Approx. 4:22. Jane took a little break. “I was Seth then,” she said, “but it was half and half there for a while. It was really funny,” she laughed. “So I went into a Seth thing. It was more me topside, but he was definitely there at the end.”

(Yet Jane had kept her own voice throughout, and I could tell that she, rather than Seth, was “in charge” of the session.

(The movie is The China Syndrome, of course, with Michael Douglas, Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda, which opened to rave reviews perhaps two weeks or so ago. The short story referred to above was reported on a TV program about Three Mile Island: Jane and I caught a glimpse of, I believe, a local newspaper or magazine in the Harrisburg area that had printed a short story about a nuclear accident at that plant, on the same day that the troubles began at Three Mile Island. We hadn’t heard of the story. If I’m in error and the story was printed in a national magazine, for instance, we still haven’t heard of it. Nor have we heard or read about this amazing “coincidence” since seeing that one mention of it on that TV newscast.

(I might as well use this opportunity to point up what I think is an obvious connection between the nuclear mishaps at Three Mile Island, and the mass suicide at Guyana [Jonestown] earlier this year. It could hardly be a coincidence, I remarked to Jane this noon that both mass events had taken place this year, and represented the two poles, or extremes, of mankind’s present belief systems: religion and science. Then this afternoon Sue Watkins called Jane from Dundee—and proceeded to tell Jane about the “obvious connections” between Guyana and Harrisburg....)

(4:45. “I’ve learned something this afternoon,” Jane said during a brief unannounced break. “I’ve thought of it before, but finally I’m getting it through my head that the sessions are much better when I don’t have any concern—and when I feel concern, I find it harder to get into it. I began to get cautious toward the end there, in some fashion… I think we’d have gotten more on the nuclear thing otherwise.”

(“I remember he—Seth—even helped me out with stuff on the Christ drama in there,” Jane said. “Oh-oh, there’s more—” and she went back into “her” trance almost at once.)

(End at 4:47 PM. “Okay,” Jane said. “I knew there was some connection between the Christ thing and what’s happening in the world today, and that was it. I like it when it’s fun, and that was fun. That was a nice smooth state of consciousness.”

(Now here is some material Jane wrote later in the day, following Sunday afternoon’s session. She began giving it to me verbally after taking her nap before supper, but I asked her to write it down for this record. Involved is my dream of March 31.)

Jane’s notes: Sunday, April 1, 1979.