“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.

In this fourteenth session I spoke for Seth for fifty minutes straight, the longest period without a break up to that date. Seth began by advising us to have a more balanced social life—to go out more and mix with people—so as to counter the intense inner activity of psychic experience. Then he launched into his first discussion of the Inner Senses, a subject which was entirely new to us. It was to be elaborated upon in the future.

Running into the session’s second hour, my voice had sounded progressively more hoarse, and it was the first time in sessions that it had ever shown signs of strain. After the initial discussion of the Inner Senses, Seth said, “I did not intend to make you work so hard this evening, Joseph. If your hand is working as quickly as Ruburt’s mouth, you must be exhausted. Would you like to take a break, or end the session? I am always thinking of your convenience, at least when I am not concerned with your education,” he added with a smile.

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.

During the last passage the voice became louder and louder, as though it were trying to fill a good-sized hall. I’m reading that session, of course, as I write this chapter, and I’ve just come across Rob’s original notes, scribbled in between this passage and the next. They show his reaction rather clearly:

“Now, as an example of my good intentions, I will end this session. I would continue if I did not have your physical limitations to contend with. I am able to come through very well this evening, and when this happens I like to take advantage of it. After all, do you blame me? … In any case I shall say good night. You should know that I too enjoy a moment of social discourse, or I would not keep you so long. I regret the necessity to keep Joseph so occupied [with notes]. Good night, dear friends.”

Instantly my voice returned to normal. The hoarseness had long since disappeared. Now it was almost impossible for us to end the session. We were too intrigued. Despite Seth’s parting words, I could “feel” him still present, along with a tremendous sense of vitality and goodwill. Rob told me about the heavy masculine voice with its astonishing volume, and all around me I felt this high energy and great humor as if an invisible Seth were sitting there, smiling, ready to start a friendly chat.

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.”

I don’t recall any of this, but according to Rob I then got a cigarette and sipped a glass of wine. “If I could have a glass of wine with you and enjoy it, I would. If you want to talk for a few moments without the necessity of taking notes, do so. I’ll certainly last as long as Ruburt will, and a lot longer. And if ever your wife’s features change some night as we talk, I suggest you do not mention it to her until the end of the session.”

Seth went on until past midnight. The remark about the change in my features was included in the notes, of course, but it was otherwise forgotten until a year later when it was brought rather forcibly to mind. When the session was over, my own voice was still fresh and clear, with no trace of the earlier difficulties. I wasn’t even tired.

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.)

Looking back, though, it does seem that with the initial emergence of the Seth voice the structure of the sessions was completed. Even the basic principles of the material had been given in highly simplified form: the blocks upon which the foundations would be laid.

Talk about psychic explosions! Our first Ouija board session had been on December 2, 1963. By the end of January we had twenty sessions and some 230 pages of typewritten material. We knew that the voice change was significant, of course, but we didn’t realize that the power behind the voice was the more important issue. We saw that the sessions had a kind of order, but its significance escaped us. Actually, the structure provided continuity and stability, but also was flexible enough to nurture latent developments of which we were then completely unaware. Within it my own training as a medium would take place safely.