“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The first episode involved a couple I will call Jim and Ann Linden. Ann, a complete stranger, called me on the phone one morning. Since she dialed me directly, there was no indication that this was a long-distance call, and I thought she was calling from town, particularly since she mentioned having relatives in Elmira. She told me that her son, Peter, had died a few months ago at the age of three. She and her husband were distraught, she said, and a friend of theirs, Ray Van Over, a parapsychologist in New York, had suggested she call me.

“Yes, he did,” Ann said. “But he thought that you might make an exception. He said you did sometimes, in cases like these.” She paused.

I nodded, remembering only too well the incident to which Rob referred. It had been in the back of my mind all the time I talked to Ann Linden over the phone.

I knew Rob was right, though: Some self-protection is necessary on my part. Besides the mother-in-law episode, there had been a few other upsetting ones involving emotional situations I’d “picked up” from living people. In any case, when I can get such excellent material from Seth, it seems that my primary responsibility lies in that direction. All of these feelings were in the back of my mind that night, when Jim and Ann came.

And another surprise was in store. About 6 P.M. Ann called saying that she was in Binghamton, N.Y., a city more than an hour’s drive away. She had had no idea that Elmira was so far from Brooklyn!

“Oh no,” Ann said, “but Jim got home early in the afternoon, and we thought it only took a few hours to get to Elmira.”

I said “Yes” in a sort of daze, and hung up. Rob was afraid that I’d feel under pressure, knowing that they were driving such a long way and back the same night for a session. I’d explained to Ann that I could give her no guarantee of any kind as to what would happen. Purposely I put the matter out of my mind and watched television during the early evening. Then to top it off, at about eight Phil dropped in, explaining that he was in town for the night and would like to attend a session!

Jim and Ann arrived about 10 P.M. Rob and I liked them at once. They were in their late twenties, intelligent, and, like us, informal. Over wine they told us about their son. “He was exceptionally bright,” Jim said. “He was fantastic, and I’m not just saying that because he was our child. From the start he was way above average, quick in his reactions, so much so that we were almost frightened in a way. And then, overnight, he died of aplastic anemia. No one even knows what causes it.”

Rob must have read my thoughts. “Relax, hon,” he said. I told the Lindens my attitude, and Ann smiled. “Ray said you were one of the most objective mediums he knew.”

Now Seth was staring out through my open eyes. My gestures were his. He looked Jim right in the face as he talked. Ann and Rob both took notes. Phil just sat, listening.

According to Seth, Peter’s own reincarnations had really been completed before he was born this time. He’d returned to die young so that Jim and Ann would be forced to ask the questions they were now asking.

He said more about the symbolism of Peter’s illness, spoke about Jim’s past relationships with Ann, and said that Jim had mathematical abilities he was not using. “They result from your two priestly existences where you were both highly involved with calculations having to do with movement of the planets.”

During a break we sat nibbling at crackers and sipping wine. Suddenly impressions came into my own mind. Many of these checked out at once, on the spot. I told Ann, for instance, that her brother used several names and wore a toupee, and this was correct, along with many other statements. At the same time I kept getting impressions about the boy’s symptoms.

There was more, much of it verified on the spot. Though they hadn’t anything to do with reincarnation, these impressions did have a lot to do with demonstrating to Jim and Ann that we do have the ability to receive knowledge other than through the physical senses. The events that I “picked up” were often emotionally significant to the Lindens, though trivial in other respects.

Seth devoted the very last part of the session to Phil, and it was well past one in the morning before we were finished. Jim and Ann went away convinced that their son’s life and death had a meaning, that there was sense and purpose in their lives, and that even this seeming tragedy operated for a greater good.

I felt pretty humble when the whole thing was over. Jim and Ann were almost transformed, and before the session, I had been so dubious that I hesitated. (The thing is, when I consciously think in such a limited fashion, my intuitive inner self rises up and shows me that much more is involved than the ego. Actually I think that these abilities flow through us as the wind flows through the branches.) Ann wrote me a letter shortly after, telling me that she and Jim no longer felt the tremendous sorrow that had burdened them earlier.

More and more I have seen how reincarnation makes sense out of such apparently senseless tragedies, and provides an inner structure to situations that would otherwise seem chaotic and unjust. I was so pleased to be able to help Ann and Jim; and that session and others like it have helped me also by showing me the value of ideas that originally I could not accept. The same thing applies to Seth: I am literally amazed at his capacity to help others, at his psychological understanding, at all the abilities he draws upon and focuses in our sessions.