“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“I asked Jane to lay her wedding ring on the table. The three of us joined hands around it. Sitting quietly in the dim light, staring at the ring, I realized that the unwary observer might not have too much trouble seeing whatever he wanted to see.

“A tiny point of light grew on the edge of the ring, but by moving my arm, I discovered I could make the light wink off and on. It was simply the red reflection from the candle, so I placed the candle behind the curtains where the light was diffused. Nothing happened as we stared at the ring again. I began to ask questions out loud, at random, but I did not address them to Seth.

“He began by telling us to watch Jane’s thumb. The tip of it began to glow. It seemed to be an internal suffusing of the flesh with a cold white light. There was no radiant effect, merely the changing color of the flesh itself. Since the hand was in shadow, there was no mistaking the change.

“Jane’s wrist did thicken. She sat with the wrist of her left hand pressed to the tabletop. She wore a black sweater with the sleeves half pushed up and the cold white light spread up over the thickening wrist, up her forearm, to the sweater.

“Seth now had this cold inner light suffuse Jane’s wrist and palm to an even more remarkable degree. At the joining of hand and wrist, the flesh rose up in an egglike lump. The white crept up Jane’s arm to the sweater, and bled down her fingers, until all semblance of shadow was gone from the arm and palm. Then to end this part of the demonstration, Seth had Jane place her hands side by side on the table, so that we could plainly see the difference between the two. Gradually the hand returned to normal, and Seth instructed us to take a rest period.

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.