“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] I told Jane that if she ever improves, it will be because certain parts of her give permission. [...] In ordinary terms her behavior is an extreme — and I added that when I asked Seth about this, he countered by talking about the extremes of poverty in Africa, say, but he said precious little about Jane per se. [...] Nor did Jane ever return to the subject. [...] I have no plans to resume, for I always ended up feeling that without my pushing, Jane — either with or without Seth — just would never deal with them. [...]

(I think that whatever fears of life Jane has are the result of conditioning early in life, and that they have successfully resisted all attempts to dig them out. My saying that such a course of bodily harm is pointless is beside the point, when one considers how deeply they have ruled Jane for many years. [...]

(This is Jane’s first session in five days — her longest recent break.

(Jane’s been pretty blue lately, wondering whether she’ll ever get home again. [...]

(Right after the session began, Seth showed how Jane’s personal subconscious memories had, during the sitting with the Gallaghers, on August 20, distorted the material we received. What actually happened was that Jane’s maternal grandmother tried to get through, but Jane wanted to get Bill’s mother, and so named the entity speaking as a Gallagher. Seth mentioned that Jane’s own memories of the shredded-wheat incident should have told her what had happened. Also, Jane confused the corner grocery in her neighborhood with the grocery in Bill’s neighborhood, which was located in the middle of a block. Much, Seth said, Jane had picked up telepathically from Bill. [...]

[...] Just before this he had mentioned again the similarity between Jane’s mother and Bill’s mother. [...] For reasons he didn’t go into now, Jane owed Walter Zeh a debt, which she has paid in full. Jane had been attracted to him also in an attempt to make up to him, because she hadn’t been able to make up to her invalid mother. [...]

(A Freudian slip that Jane made in reference to her own mother in the past tense, “was,” whereas Seth wanted Jane to say “is,” was duly noted. Jane, he said, would be perfectly happy never to see her mother again.

(Just before the Gallaghers left, Seth/Jane’s voice began to grow very loud just for a sentence or two. [...] He was interested, he said, in effects like the voice, or Jane’s facial changes. [...] It depended upon Jane’s confidence to a great extent.

(Actually, the session might better be called a Jane/Seth session, in that Jane’s own consciousness was often uppermost, riding upon Seth’s underlying and steadying influence. [...] As we sat at the kitchen table discussing her work, Jane felt that she could go into a trance state that was her own for a change, instead of being in “just” a Seth trance. [...] Then Jane proceeded to come through with much evocative material on dreams—our second reason for excerpting the session for Mass Events. [...]

[...] Going over these two sets of material was routine; nothing had to be returned, and in each case Jane called Tam Mossman at Prentice-Hall to give her approval and to make a few suggestions for changes. She’s worked each day at her third novel on The Adventures of Oversoul Seven, and has heard often from Sue Watkins about Sue’s progress with her book on Jane’s ESP class: Conversations with Seth and with all of her other activities. Jane has held four sessions since the 14th: two personal ones, and two [842-43] on matters other than book dictation.

[...] Some refugees have already reached the Elmira area, where we live, and upon checking a map Jane and I were surprised to see that we’re only about 130 airline miles north of Harrisburg. [...] “Strange,” I mused to Jane, “that of all the nuclear power plants in the world, we end up living that close to the one that goes wrong….”

[...] Jonestown was far away, remote in another land, I said to Jane, but the potential mass tragedy of Three Mile Island hovers at the edges of our personal worlds. [...]

[...] JB, or Ruburt; that is, Jane Butts here.” [...] As stated, Jane was present when the envelope object was shown to the Wilburs on their visit here; perhaps Seth was getting at the fact that Jane didn’t actually see the object that evening.

[...] Here again Seth/Jane explores the mail connection with the object, which is a pseudopostage stamp. Jane had an image of a small round shape.

[...] I thought also that Jane saw the object that evening, but as it developed she did not. [...]

(Jane began speaking in trance while sitting down; she was smoking; her eyes began to open soon; her pace was rather fast and her voice quite loud, comparatively—the loudest it has been in some time.)

Once in a while, Jane will sing to herself as she sits at her table in her writing room and looks east through the sliding glass doors at the side street rising into the woods to the north. [...] It’s filled with trees and flowering shrubs—a view Jane cherishes, and one she has painted and written about a number of times. Indeed, she was looking out at that view at four o’clock on a foggy morning in June 1979 (over two and a half years ago) when she was inspired to name that certain part of her “that is as clear-eyed as a child” the “God of Jane.” Out of that insight she titled the book she had started a few weeks earlier The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto. In Chapter 9 of Mass Events, see the opening notes and Note 1 for Session 860.

[...] Jane received from Prentice-Hall the first copies of her book of poetry: If We Live Again: Or, Public Magic and Private Love. We had looked forward to seeing that handsome little volume ever since she first conceived of it well over two years ago, before she had a title.⁴ If possible, Jane was even more pleased at the publication of If We Live Again than she had been when her book of poetic narrative, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time, came out in 1975. If We Live Again once more carried her back to her earliest days of creative work, which in turn had led to her teenage dreams of becoming a published poet [she was born in 1929]. As I’ve shown in various notes in the Seth books, through the art of her first love, poetry, Jane presents her beliefs with an amazingly simple clarity, combining her mystical innocence and knowledge with her literal-minded acceptance of physical life.

Jane worked less and less as the holiday season approached, although on December 15 she gave her fourth private session; its most evocative subject matter—art and child psychology—is separate from our themes for Dreams. [...] Jane didn’t do any more on her manuscript for Magical Approach, nor anything about obtaining the medical help she’d mentioned on the first of December. Our program of self-help gradually began to diminish, as had many of them before.⁸ Finally, in an effort to cheer up Jane one day as she sat idly at the typing table in her writing room, I tried a variation of a tactic that had worked so well for her inception of Seth’s The Nature of the Psyche almost six and a half years ago: This time, standing in back of her, I put my arms around her and rolled a clean sheet of paper into her typewriter—but here’s the note she wrote the next day:

That note is Jane’s last entry in her journal for the year, and she did not date it. [...] I did remember her describing an older woman in shabby clothes, whose lips were moving as though she was talking to Jane; there was no sound. [...] Note that Jane had felt herself transported from her writing room into the living room. [...]

[...] Today Ken Wrigley echoed Fred Kardon’s sentiments re Jane returning to the house—in favor of it, much to my surprise, and Jane’s too. [...]

(However, brief as it was, this session could reflect a significant advance on Jane’s part—especially when one considers the implications of the first paragraph of the session. For if Jane is finally learning the message involving freedom and protection in the world and All That Is, she may yet be saved, and recover....)

(Briefly: Earlier this afternoon Jane had told me that “someone” was going to speak to and for her as though she were “a child.” [...]

[...] So is this one (Jane) learning, and so is the message finally coming into its own light. [...]

(Jane called me last night — forgot to tell me Debbie Harris visited.

[...] Jane ate fair lunch. [...]

(2:49 — Jane asked to see yesterday’s session, but didn’t read it — I did. [...]

(3:14 — Read Jane letters sent by Maude Cardwell.

At the end of May and early in June 1981 we published two books involving years of effort: Seth-Jane’s The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, and Jane’s The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto. I was positive that those volumes contained much excellent work. I was also positive that with their publication, Jane’s symptoms—especially her walking difficulties—became considerably worse. [...] Perhaps, I thought, that portion was creating a physical disability that allowed Jane to publish forbidden material while protectively isolating herself—and me—from rejection by the physical world. [...]

And as for books, early in August I returned to our publisher, Prentice-Hall, the page proofs Jane had corrected for her book of poetry: If We Live Again: Or, Public Magic and Private Love. Ordinarily that event would have delighted us, since it meant that before the year was out she’d have another work published. [...] Jane held a few widely scattered sessions for Dreams, and a number of private ones as fall came, then winter. [...] Finally, early in December 1981 I told Jane I was on the verge of refusing to sit with her for any sessions at all, regular or private, for I’d become deeply afraid that the more sessions she held the worse she’d get. [...] At this time, Prentice-Hall sent us the first published copies of If We Live Again, but as proud as Jane and I are of that book, its appearance didn’t help her. [...]

[...] We were pleased to get it for, as I told Jane, if ever we’re to understand all of the events in our lives that led to the hospital experience, we must call upon every ability at our service. [...] Jane went into trance as easily as ever, but her Seth voice contained the same underlying tremor I’ve noticed on a number of occasions since she’s returned home. Remember that in the following excerpts Seth—who claims to be discarnate—calls Jane by her male “entity name,” Ruburt, and thus “he” and “him.”)

After the session I began to wonder what Jane’s “sinful self” would have to say now, in comparison to the material she’d received from it in June 1981. [...] Both of us had been appalled at the revelations coming through Jane’s pen, even if we did grudgingly admit that we understood, intellectually at least, many of the points that self made. I’d grown very angry as the material unfolded—angry at that portion of Jane’s psyche for clinging so tenaciously to such a set of beliefs, for whatever reasons, and angry at myself for not understanding any better than she did their extent and depth, and just how damaging they could be in ordinary terms. [...]

(When I seemed exasperated when Jane asked me to do something for her, and dropped my notebook on the bed, she at once felt a strong fear that she’d exasperate me beyond bearing — that she couldn’t afford to get me mad at her. [...] Jane feared that if she got Marie mad, Marie would get sick and die. Marie used to tell Jane it was her fault the mother was sick, and that it was also her fault that Jane’s grandmother died, and the housekeeper. “If you didn’t watch yourself,” Jane said, “you could get hurt yourself or hurt other people.”

(Jane called with Carla’s help at about 9:40, as I was typing this session. She said Carla had told her that she was on duty the night of the day Jane was admitted to the hospital April 20, just a year ago. I hadn’t remembered this, nor had Jane.)

[...] Elisabeth, our German friend, left a lemon cake for me and had brought Jane an Easter basket.

(Jane also felt that the sessions could be responsible for more deaths, or hurting people. [...] Jane basically didn’t want anything to do with sick people — was afraid she could hurt them in sessions.

(This information came through because Jane’s doctor, Marsha Kardon, had told her in the hospital that tests showed Jane’s thyroid gland had quit working altogether—with the concomitant fact that Jane would have to take a synthetic thyroid extract—Synthroid—daily for the rest of her life.)

(After last Monday’s session, Jane told me that she’d try to hold private sessions when she could, but that at this time she’d rather be free of any expected routine, say of Monday and Wednesday nights. [...] I like the way it’s going, although Jane plans some revisions. [...]

(However, I’ve also discovered that I’ll have to watch my time if I want to get anything done—for “time” can slip away like smoke as I do chores, help nurses take care of Jane, or cook meals or take care of the cats or run errands. [...] Jane picked this up, of course. [...]

(These represented key points, I told Jane. [...] Jane agreed. [...]

(I now had Jane take the same spot again. [...] I soon discovered that even the pole lamp I always have on furnished enough light to see Jane’s features clearly. [...] Jane said that after careful thought she felt the closet light was also on during the break at 9:56. [...]

(During this break Jane and I checked one point we had thought of since the last session, and this was the amount of light available in the room during the time Bill Macdonnel and I had noted the change in Jane’s features as she stood in the bathroom doorway.

[...] Jane had nothing to report.

(At noon today Jane told me she thought Seth would give us a short session, because of the extraordinary one of Monday, 7/6. This was to help me get caught up on all the typing.

[...] Louie has had more experience than Jane or I with ESP activities; and when in the course of conversation the question of Jane giving a session arose, Jane and I were somewhat surprised, not anticipating this, and did nothing to push agreement to such an idea. However, when we finally became convinced that a session was quite welcome to Ida, Bill and Louie, if only out of curiosity, Jane and I agreed to try to hold one.

(Saturday and Sunday, September 19 and 20, Jane and I spent visiting my brother William Richard and his wife Ida, in Rochester, NY. [...] Jane and I have always made it a policy to have a carbon of any written material—prose, poetry, etc., in separate hands outside of our house, as a protection against loss by accident, fire, etc.

[...] Jane and I were therefore pleasantly surprised to learn that Bill and Ida had read some of the material; and while not hostile to it, they still expressed a healthy skepticism—an attitude Jane and I much prefer to any gullible, overenthusiastic belief blindly undertaken.

[...] Jane sat quietly on the other side of the room while the rest of us exchanged ideas on the subject. [...] Jane had remarked that she had no idea whether she could give one, and no inkling of any possible subject matter.

(Jane ate a good lunch. [...] Most of the time Jane had trouble, trying to read around being given her vitals, and finally she gave up. [...]

(I did remind Jane that in yesterday’s session Seth hadn’t addressed the question I’d mentioned to her at lunch time — why were we such extremists in our behavior, considering the severity of the symptoms, and so forth? Jane did want to have a session this afternoon.)

(4:30 p.m. Jane felt better. [...] I’d showed it to Jane, of course, but she hadn’t been able to read it.

(In the session notes for January 9, I’d noted that I still felt that something was holding Jane back from feeling free to walk, in spite of all the advances we’ve made. Seth hadn’t mentioned this is yesterday’s session [for the 10th], and now I asked Jane if she had any insight into that question. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. It might be interesting to note that while Jane was delivering this material, she strolled about the room without a sign of discomfort on this very hot and stuffy, humid night. [...]

(The board began to work for them immediately, where it had taken Jane and me quite a few sessions before we obtained anything at all through it. I took down the answers the Pipers obtained, and Jane was an observer.

(By the time the Pipers had asked their third question of the board, concerning the name of the communicant they had raised, Fred Lake, Jane had received this name mentally. [...] Perhaps Jane’s abilities have improved in that field also.

(Being tired from the session, Jane did not pursue the thing any further, and we let the Pipers alone while they received several more answers. But Jane and I plan to repeat this experiment with other couples, while we observe and see if either of us can pick up, in some fashion, answers the pointer will give.)

(When Jane did begin to speak at 9:11, she used the same high, somewhat distant and quite precise voice as before, the one belonging to what we call, somewhat inaccurately, Seth’s entity. [...] This effect still fools me at times, for a sentence will have ended whereas I think Jane has only paused briefly in the midst of one.

[...] Jane’s realization came last evening as she described the event to her ESP students. [...] Note that in the last session, my notes contain no reference to Jane’s feeling that she was, however momentarily, between two worlds.)

[...] Eyes open, Jane gestured, smiled. [...] Jane later said she too felt a more emotional “entrance,” though still much muted.)

(Jane said that when “he” began talking about “my viewpoint,” she was really “up there” in the pyramid or cone. When I asked the question referring to the stronger Seth voice Jane felt somewhat bothered. [...]

(Monday’s session, due 6/22, was not held because Jane’s father was visiting us from California. [...] Jane’s father arrived last Saturday, and as early as Sunday morning Jane announced to me that there would be no session Monday night.

(At the exact time the session was due Monday, Jane, Del, Midge and I were visiting our landlord and his wife on their farm in Pine City. As 9 PM approached I watched Jane to see if she would give any sign that she was aware of Seth, or that he wanted a session. She gave none; later Jane said she hadn’t the slightest inkling of Seth’s presence as session time passed. [...]

[...] On the same day at 7:30 PM during psychological time, Jane once again heard within the static sound described on page 167. [...] Jane then thought she heard the owner’s mother-in-law say “He’ll be gone by the end of the week.” Also during this period, Jane experienced an odd sensation within the black field of inner vision: as though she was moving quickly through space and changing perspective.

[...] Jane was dissociated until Willy nipped her. [...] Just before Jane began dictating again we let Willy into the room again, to see how he would behave. [...] Jane resumed in the same good, somewhat deeper voice at 9:42.)

(Another possibility here is that Jane and Seth can work as a team, since Seth has said often that Jane has abilities of her own. [...] Jane has now begun a book on dreams, to be done concurrently with her book on the Seth material itself.

(A somewhat similar question arises concerning a dream Jane had on November 30th, and a few lines of the data given for the 22nd Dr. Instream test; see the following lines on page 104 of the 213th session: “He received a book by mail today, a biography sort of book, having to do with a personality of the late 1800’s. A medium.” This material is dated December 1; there follows Jane’s dream of the night before.

[...] Jane wore a white blouse to the discotheque. [...] In addition, we discovered more similar yellow stains on both of Jane’s palms. [...]

(Jane said that as she began giving the data, the association she made with Seth’s data, “white, snow white,” led her to consider the particular photo of my parents’ house taken after a deep snowfall. [...] Jane said she saw the photo in her mind’s eye, but that as she continued to speak, she eventually received a hazy picture, a “nebulous impression,” of a bar. [...]

(Dr. Instream asked Jane how much of the delivery she could remember, and Jane replied that she retained a generalized memory of what had been said. Dr. Instream said the voice effect was somewhat unusual, and questioned us about Jane showing fatigue afterwards. We told him that Jane had little if any fatigue after such displays, no matter how long they might last, and referred him to the 158th session as an example. [...]

(Jane and I attended the Hypnosis Symposium at Oswego State University College at Oswego, NY, on Friday evening, July 9th, and on Saturday and Sunday, July 10 and 11, at the invitation of Dr. Instream, codirector. [...] [Jane calls the good doctor Instream in The Seth Material, C1970.]

(To digress a moment: As predicted by Seth in the 168th session of July 7, Jane and I did find ourselves involved with three men in particular, one of whom is younger, at the symposium. [...] This upset Jane briefly but she recovered well. [...]

(At 2:03 Jane came out of the trance state and opened her eyes. [...] Jane went back into trance and resumed as Seth at 2:25.)

[...] Jane spoke while sitting down, in a quiet voice for the most part. [...] Jane’s pace was quite slow, with many pauses, in the beginning. [...]

(In the 185th session Seth dealt to some extent with what he called Jane’s healing ability; one point he made was that the desire to help others would aid the development of this ability. Seth of course has given specific data on various physical ills for some witnesses, and for Jane and me. [...]

(Seth’s malignant diagnosis in this session represents the most drastic to date, and left Jane and me wondering about the best course of action to take in such cases. Jane resumed at a good rate, and with her eyes closed, at 9:39.)

[...] The test object, sealed in the usual double envelopes, was the insurance slip for the manuscript of Jane’s ESP book, dated August 30,1965. [...]

(When I gave Jane a cigarette after turning her on her back for the afternoon, she had another instance of reverting to an old, automatic habit. [...] Now today, Jane automatically used her right hand to help her left hand reverse the cigarette—and didn’t realize she’d done so until I pointed it out to her. [...]

[...] At 3:50 we had a flurry of activity in 330—2 staff people for Jane’s vitals, the TV lady collecting for the week, and a call from maintenance about heat in 330—or the lack of it. [...] Even Jane had been chilly at times. [...]

(Jane was getting more upset—here, she said, she’d had no session, no motions, and Paul was coming at supper time. [...] Then Jane said she felt like having a short session after all.)

(The patch was on Jane’s right elbow again when I got to room 330. [...]