“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN:

A “Future” Seth—Origin of the Sessions

By now I was used to Seth. The sessions, so strange at first, were a familiar part of our lives. There was a lot I didn’t understand—there still is—so I hoped to develop my abilities more fully and to learn more. But I thought that the Seth sessions themselves would more or less remain the same. Looking back now at the earlier material, I can see that I should have known better.

One night in April of 1968, we settled down for our usual Monday night session, unaware that anything new was about to happen. I sat in my rocker. Rob sat on the couch as usual, taking notes. According to Rob, Seth’s voice was unusually powerful that night. My opened eyes were very dark, and Seth seemed to be watching Rob rather closely.

Seth began the session, our 406th, by telling Rob the direction the material would take in following years. “You have been given a sketchy outline, but we have time to fill it in,” he said, smiling. “For that matter, the outline itself is scarcely completed. … We want to deal with the nature of reality as it exists within your camouflage system and within other systems, and to study the overall characteristics that pertain to it, regardless of any given materialization.

This material ran several pages, as Seth discussed the future content of our sessions. Right after this we took our first break. Neither of us realized, even at this point, that the session would be any different from the usual. As soon as we resumed, however, I suddenly felt a powerful surge of energy flow through me, so that inside it “I” seemed almost lost and swept away.

“There is a peculiar corner within Ruburt’s personality, also deflected into your own, that allows him rather clear access to informational channels most difficult to reach from your system. During this session, and at this moment, the contact is particularly good. There is also access to energy far beyond that which is usually experienced. Ruburt sensed this in the past, and feared to open these channels until he felt himself suitably ready.

Then, to Rob’s surprise, Seth told him to end the session. Rob was to follow the procedure given, recently, to end my trance. (Just lately I had begun going into particularly deep trances compared to earlier ones, and Seth had suggested that Rob call my name three times.) Seth said, “This evening you have reached somewhat beyond the personality by which I usually make myself known to you. Even if I continue to speak, end the trance.”

I shook my head, “Wow. If I ever had any doubts … what-ever’s going on, it’s not coming from me, not from my own personality.” Later in my own notes I wrote, “… tremendous energy seemed to flow through me, with the definite certainty—thank God—that this was coming from beyond me, and was automatically translated into words at my end. I feel this is as significant a development—almost—as the original Seth session. The sense of contact was undeniably there. The feeling I had was that I really was in touch with some all encompassing reality.”

The next Wednesday night I was somewhat hesitant as session time approached. We began at the dot of nine, but instantly Rob knew that this wasn’t going to be a “normal” session. For one thing, the voice was different. It was much more like my own voice, yet it wasn’t mine. Seth’s deep tones, his gestures and characteristic way of using words—these were absent.

The voice was much softer than usual. Rob had to listen closely to get all the words. “The development in the last session was latent from our first session, but it was a development that could or could not have occurred. Had it not, then many important future developments would have been blocked. The points where the [Seth] voice was loudest and most powerful—these points often represented openings through which the development could occur. For various reasons, however, that method was not used. The energy would have been diverted from the voice in which it had already been built up, you see.”

“I intend to implement this material whenever possible by helping both of you achieve subjective experiences that will fill out the words for you. These will vary according to conditions but are much more possible now, after the sessions’ latest development.

“While I was the source of the material [in the last sessions], Seth, as you think of him, was at times a silent partner, helping Ruburt make the proper translations, while stepping aside in a personal manner. Earlier [in previous sessions] Seth interpreted material from me so that Ruburt could receive it.

“You may rest. Seth will always be an element in these sessions as you know him. He is the connective between us, and he has been a part of me that I have sent out to you. He has participated willingly.”

Here we had a break and I came out of trance easily enough. This also gave me the opportunity to tell Rob something that happened just before the session started. I got the feeling that a cone came down just over my head. I didn’t think that an actual physical cone was there, but the idea of shape was definite. The wide end was about the size of my head, with the narrow part on top like a pyramid.

Since then, I’ve had this cone effect often, always in this kind of a session. Right after the session resumed, I began to feel that tremendous energy again as the new voice spoke. “You have always been in contact with me, but you were only able to ‘see’ a portion of me. Keep in mind that all names are arbitrary, and we use them merely for your convenience. Basically, Seth’s name or mine isn’t important. Individuality is important and continues in ways you do not suspect.

“I have done my best to give you an understanding as a basis for future sessions. Seth as you knew him will also be Seth as you know him, for whether or not I speak as myself or through him, he is still the intermediary and the connection between us. More, he will still appear as you have known him. There are necessary emotional elements that are uniquely his own.

When the session was over, Rob and I sat up talking. “It’s crazy,” I said. “When we have a usual Seth session, I sort of feel Seth take over, though I don’t like that term. With this personality, though, I go somewhere, out of myself, and seem to make contact with it in some nowhere, leaving my body empty. I don’t know how I get there, wherever it is, or how I get back.”

Rob nodded. Both of us felt almost sad, in one way. I think we were afraid that our regular Seth sessions were over, and that the new ones would take their place. “Besides,” Rob said, “what do we call this new personality?” We knew it was meaningless basically, but we felt we needed a name, a label. And how exactly was this new personality different from Seth? What could it do that Seth couldn’t? “I wish it were more masculine or feminine,” I said. “A neuter personality seems so strange.”

Some of our questions were answered in the next session, our 419th on June 8, 1968. Just before the session started I began to get the pyramid effect again. I grinned, somewhat embarrassed, moving so that I sat directly beneath where I felt the pyramid had come down. Then the session started. A friend, Pat Norelli, attended.

The next session showed us how different this new development could be. It also nearly scared me out of my wits, at least for a few moments. More than this, however, it opened our eyes to new possibilities of experience and demonstrated yet another phenomenon that could occur within the session framework.

“The source and power of your present consciousness has never been physical, and where I am, many are not even aware that such a physical system exists. The physical system is an illusion, but you must accept it and from its viewpoint try to understand the realities that exist beyond it. The illusions are real since they exist. Your [reality] is simply not one that I have pursued, and one of the purposes of my participation in these sessions is to acquaint the one called Ruburt with inner travel. He must leave the physical system, and in so doing set up habits and paths that can be used to advantage.”

I came out of trance easily enough once Seth came through. We sat chatting for a few moments and then the session resumed, letting me in for one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. This is rather difficult to describe, so first I’ll quote what the “other” voice was saying.

When the personality compared physical reality with children’s blocks, he made a remark about individuals returning in our future to peer into physical reality like giants squinting down to watch children play with blocks upon the floor. (As the voice spoke, my eyes were closed, of course, and I don’t remember what the voice said, but have checked Rob’s verbatim notes of the session.) In here someplace, suddenly I saw a giant’s face peer into our living room, its face filling up the entire window.

Rob was worried about me and wondered if I should continue with the session, but by now I was really embarrassed at making such a fuss, and I knew that the experience was significant. I went back into trance, but very soon I was to break off again.

Here are a few quotes from Rob’s notes just before the session resumed:

I hoped this was the end of the session, but it was obvious that Jane wanted to continue, or at least was willing to continue, in spite of the unsettling experience. I tried to talk her out of it, but her eyes kept closing. …

I tried to find my voice to tell Rob I wanted to end the session, but the other personality was using it. Through all of this I use the word “I,” but “I” was so a part of the action that it was difficult to separate myself from it. Now, wanting out, I tried again to use my own voice.

That session was well over a year ago. Our usual Seth sessions still continue, and only now and then does this other personality speak. We refer to it as Seth Two. Often these sessions involve me in some kind of subjective experience, though now I am learning how to handle myself when this happens. Once during a rest period, for example, Rob wondered what it was like to be nonphysical. When the session resumed, I felt myself seemingly suspended, fully alert and aware—but bodiless—in space. I had no form as far as I knew, but I possessed complete freedom of motion—something like conscious air. This time I wasn’t frightened, realizing that we were getting an answer to Rob’s question. During this experience, the emotionless, lilting, distant voice explained what nonphysical existence was like.

The difference in the two personalities was particularly apparent in a recent ESP class session in which Seth was at his jovial best, showing personal interest in each student. As usual during such times, my face was extremely animated, and Seth’s characteristic gestures were quite noticeable. After speaking to each student individually for a moment, Seth said with a touch of humor: “I come here, I hope, as an ‘endearing’ personality, with characteristics to which you can relate.