“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.

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.

“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.”

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.”

Again, on reading the notes we were fascinated by the material, particularly since Seth told us that he was going to explain these Inner Senses more fully, and teach us how to use them. He was as good as his word, for as you will see shortly, he did give us instructions and we were to have all kinds of new experiences as we followed them. We didn’t know that this information was geared to our own level of understanding and quite simple in comparison with the elaborations that would follow.

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.

At this point, there were several courses we could have taken. We could have told no one what was happening, we could have contacted a spiritualist group or we could have informed the parapsychologists. We definitely decided not to tell any of our friends or relatives, at least for the time being. The spiritualist groups would have been out in any case, because of my views at the time on religion in general. But the ESP books we’d read all advised that anyone having such experiences contact a qualified psychologist or parapsychologist.

As a result of Seth’s instructions, both of us began to have some clairvoyant experiences on our own, and we thought we should write to someone who knew more about such matters than we did. Besides, there was that pressing question: Was Seth part of my subconscious? Could the psychologists tell us? So we decided to contact a parapsychologist who would have a knowledge of ESP and psychology.