“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane, in an obvious state of altered or enhanced consciousness, not only outlined all of Politics today, but wrote four manuscript pages that will either go into its Introduction or Chapter 1. All of the material poured out of her in a most remarkable, unimpeded way — “… as though it was already finished somewhere else, just waiting for me to get it down. But I had to do it just so, right to the last word,” she said, then added enthusiastically, “I think it’s a classic.” Involved with Politics is her perception of another version of herself in a psychic “library,” from which, evidently, she is to acquire a significant portion of her new book.

(As we sat waiting at 9:32, Jane reported that she was getting her “pyramid” or “cone” effect. At such times she feels that subjective shape come down just over her head — always pointed upward, symbolically perhaps, toward other realities. She also thought she might go into her “massive” feelings at any moment. “But I don’t think any of this has to do with Seth Two,”² she said. She was still exhilarated from her work on Politics. “I’m getting two things: The session’s going to be book dictation, which surprises me, but it’s also going to be on what’s happening to me now…. And I am getting the massive thing….”

(She had something of a cold, but had told me earlier in the evening that she wanted to hold the session. She fell quiet now after reassuring me that she was all right. The evening was quite warm; we had a window open; the traffic noises rushed up to our second-floor living room. Using many pauses, Jane began speaking very softly for Seth.³)

(10:18. Jane’s trance had been good, her delivery quiet and rather fast; her voice had become a little rough because of her cold, though. When Seth talked about Jane’s private psychic vision he reminded me of her own remarks on the same subject; see the notes opening the 713th session.

(Jane was aware of the elongated, giant-sized feeling now, as she had been just before the session began. “Everything’s in proportion, though” she said “It’s crazy, but I feel that when I stand up my head could go through the ceiling.” But she looked quite normal to me, and of course nothing out of character happened when she stood up.

“Seth — or somebody’s saying — maybe it’s just me — relates to the people in our time. I’ve tried to do the same thing, but I suddenly heard my own true tone, which I’m bound to follow … to go beyond the conventionalized postcards … I’m done, Bob.”

(Jane told me that her feelings of massiveness had left her by the time she began her own dissertation. I was surprised to suddenly notice that her voice was much clearer now, cold or no. She did feel unsettled. She didn’t quite know what to do. She let our cat, Willy, into the living room from the second apartment we rent across the hall. I suggested she eat something. “It’s strange,” she commented. “I feel that no matter which way I turn, there’s a path laid out for me — and I never felt that way before.” Then she announced that she was going to bed. “But as soon as I get over there [in the other apartment] I’ll turn around and come back here, I’ll bet.” She left. I decided to have a snack myself and to work on these notes while waiting to see if she would return.

(A note in closing out the evening’s work: Jane didn’t come back to join me in the living room while I ate and wrote. I found her sleeping deeply….)

8. And “those travelers into unknown worlds” can still be called outcasts, strange, weird — or worse. Jane has had her share of such reactions from others (as have I). When combined with her own natural-enough questions about her psychic abilities, as sometimes happens, such episodes aren’t any fun. In accidental ways that would be quite humorous if they weren’t so personal, we’ve also learned what negative ideas others can have about us: A person will inadvertently reveal to us, during a conversation, or in a letter or over the telephone, the unflattering opinions his or her mate, or parents, or friends, really have of Jane and me and the work we’re engaged in with the Seth material.

Even as I wrote this note Jane received a letter “Do what I ask for me, if you are not a fraud….” I threw the letter away. At the same time I remembered, as I do every so often, the prophetic and amused remarks Seth made way back in the 20th session for January 29, 1964: “As far as publishing this material is concerned, I have no objections. I didn’t give it to you, and I’m not giving it to you, simply for your [collective] edification. Because of its source you will probably be called crackpots, but I imagine you know this by now.”