“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Seth’s personality was expressing itself much more freely now that it was released from the board, particularly after the surprising fourteenth session. I don’t think Rob will ever forget it. We were still astonished by the fact of the sessions themselves. I was nervous before we started, wondering whether Seth would come through or not. In those days I was always afraid that I’d go into trance, open my mouth, and—nothing! Or worse, gibberish. Besides, I wasn’t even aware of how I knew when Seth was ready. We began sessions at 9 P.M. Five minutes before nine, I’d get that feeling again, that I was going to leap from a high diving board into a deep pool—and without knowing for sure whether or not I could swim.

The session began as usual, with no hint of the voice changes that would occur. I’d like to mention here that by now we had read several books on extrasensory perception, but still hadn’t come across anything about voice communication. We’d read about the Patience Worth case, where a Mrs. Curren produced novels and poetry through the Ouija board and automatic writing, but we were completely unfamiliar with the idea of anyone’s speaking for another personality. It had never occurred to either of us that my voice might change in any way.

Rob asked for a break, but then he urged me to end the session before my voice gave out. I knew that he was concerned about me, but also tremendously interested in the material Seth had been giving. Besides this, as Seth, I had been extremely active, making funny remarks now and then to break up pages of serious monologue. The sense of another independent personality was stronger than it had ever been, and so I decided to continue. By now it was after 10:30. While we were talking, Rob had wondered aloud about the meaning of time; when we resumed, Seth started discussing this question.

Rob asked several other questions, and the two of them, Rob and Seth, chatted back and forth for three quarters of an hour. About the voice, Seth said: “Ruburt’s voice is an experiment. The immediacy of our sessions would be enhanced if more of my personality could come through. I could go on happily, you might say blithely, for hours, but I shall not. I am not some old fogy. Now and then old Frank Withers comes through simply because he was the latest independent materialization and is used to taking things upon himself. I have not assimilated him completely, but you can believe me, I intend to.”

We didn’t realize either that the emergence of the Seth voice completed the psychic structure through which we would receive the Seth Material, and through which Seth’s personality would express itself. From this session on, there was always some voice change during sessions, but the deep booming tones were the exception rather than the rule for some time to come. On occasion there is the sense of really tremendous power behind the voice; and my own voice is never strained. Much later, Seth told us that this psychic energy can be translated into sound like this, or it can be used for other purposes. Now when Seth gives clairvoyant material, for example, the voice is seldom loud. The energy is used to gather the data instead. (As you will see later in this book, that energy can also be a springboard into other dimensions.)

When the voice is deep and booming, I feel very small and surrounded by terrific energy. From what we have learned, the voice was a sort of indication of the amount of energy available; it served many purposes, besides helping to express Seth’s personality.