“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

During the séance I hadn’t been a bit nervous or frightened. Toward the end, though, I was shocked to see such a difference between my mirror image and myself. I think that I was momentarily afraid that I really looked like that. After all, that’s a normal enough reaction—usually when you look into a mirror, it gives a faithful reproduction, and no woman is going to be pleased to see a weird-looking apparition staring back.

Actually, for the first time in our lives we found ourselves experiencing events that we couldn’t explain, and doubting the obvious evidence of our senses—an uncomfortable spot for anyone. The affair had such an effect upon us that I wouldn’t try that kind of a séance again for three years. (As you will see, however, Seth appeared in apparition form in session #68.) From then on, we always kept lights on for easier checking of any effects that might appear.

Later work has convinced me that psychic phenomena do not simply appear because we want them to, or as the result of suggestion alone. Other, later effects happened in full light, in a few of my ESP classes, for example. The Seth apparition also appeared in full light. I’ve also known incidents since, when groups of highly suggestible people with little critical sense have gathered in dark rooms expecting all kinds of apparitions—and nothing happened at all.