“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(See the enclosed four pages Jane wrote covering her activities for the last weekend. [...] I can add to Jane’s paper that we went over last Friday’s session together Saturday night after I’d finished typing it, and discussed a number of points rather specifically. Jane ended up somewhat upset, and so did I in a way. But also that discussion resulted in some later insights on Jane’s part, and I believe turned up in some of her poetry, which has been excellent lately.

[...] The event reinforced much of the material in the session itself, and my idea that had brought it about: As Jane and I were finishing supper last night Tom D’Orio from Binghamton visited us with two of his friends [they had a small Seth group going at home]. [...] Jane evidently enjoyed talking to the three of them, and before we knew it over an hour had passed, whereas I’d originally asked Tom and company not to stay long because we were busy. [...] Jane then read them and agreed with them. [...]

(Now that idea, I thought as I went into the kitchen to get Jane some wine for the session, made sense—it could account for the perpetuation of her symptoms on a daily, present-life basis, and made a lot more sense than thinking she was suffering now because of something that happened to her when she was perhaps eight years old or whatever. In other words, I said, we’d been approaching the problem backwards: Jane wasn’t sick so much because of her past as she was because of what we were doing every day in present reality—reinforcing and/or perpetuating the symptoms because they served a number of beliefs about present-day reality. [...]

(As soon as she opened the double envelopes, Jane said the object looked like a man to her, with either horizontal edge uppermost, and that she thought this impression had given rise to the photograph data. [...] Jane and I made the connections we could and did not ask Seth to elaborate.

[...] As stated Jane at once thought of a man when she saw the object, and this she thinks led to the film connection. [...] To Jane the color of the pigment on the object is quite dark.

(Jane of course had never seen this object, or any others like it, because I have never made them before. [...]

[...] Indeed, Ed introduced me to Jane the day after I moved to Saratoga, where I lived for about a year in the mid-fifties. Within a year Jane and I were married. Then for some time we did not see Ed; the last time was during an overnight stopover in New Paltz, when Jane and I were on our way to York Beach, Maine, on vacation. It will be recalled that it was in the dance hall at York Beach that Jane and I saw the projected fragments of our own personalities, that Seth dealt with so extensively in the 9th session, of December 18, 1963. [...]

(At 8:00 PM Jane and I both tried psychological time, before taking a brief nap. I experienced nothing that I could recall, but Jane received snatches of tinny music, as though it was being played on an old rickety piano.

(It might also be noted that Willy, our cat, jumped up on Jane’s lap a minute or two before the session began. Jane said it was the first time in all of the sessions that Willy had done so; evidently, if he sensed Seth’s presence, he was not perturbed.)

(The “blue” middle finger on Jane’s left hand was better, and has been slowly improving a bit each day, yet the visit to see Dr. Sobel was a disaster as far as Jane was concerned. [...]

[...] He called a colleague of his who was in Ithaca, and described Jane’s finger condition to him, but if memory serves he received ambiguous information again. Again, I thought the visit at least preserved the status quo for us, since I could see that more and more Jane was turning against the idea of preventative drug treatment for vasculitis, say, or anything else. [...]

(Last Friday at 2:45 PM I took Jane to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s to keep the appointment with Dr. Sobel from Ithaca, as set up by Dr. Kardon. [...]

3. Nor was I quick enough to ask Seth if the material Jane delivered for him tonight constituted any kind of contradiction with that of the 689th session; for in that session he discussed man-animal and animal-man as existing within the Tertiary Period. [...] Had Jane distorted information in one session or the other? [...] In tonight’s session had Jane tuned into data on a parallel (or probable) reality, for example? [...]

(Neither Jane nor I could remember what last Thursday’s session was about, and I had but one page of it typed from my notes — a situation quite similar to that prevailing before the last session. [...] At 9:30 Jane said she was starting to get “bleed-throughs” about Seth’s material for tonight.)

(Although she doesn’t usually do such work because of the time required, as well as her own emotional attitudes, Jane had given impressions during the earlier call. [...] Jane laughingly told me that if the new data “wasn’t good enough,” she’d probably never again hear from the people involved — but at this time we didn’t realize what was to follow.

(Jane didn’t call last night. [...]

(Jane wanted to be turned at once when I got to 330, since she’d been on her side since returning from hydro at 11:00. [...]

[...] After finishing the session, Jane told me now that she’d also been very blue last night, and “really got scared” this morning at the pain in her side, “imagining all sorts of things.” [...]

(Jane and I sat for the session at about 9:15. [...] She was very surprised — and so was I. At first, Jane said, she interpreted her information [from Seth?] to mean that I would be writing a chapter with that title for one of her own books. [...]

[...] Then, as Jane told me about all of this, she announced that Seth was coming through right away — a most unusual procedure as far as our regular sessions are concerned. [...]

The book should cover your version of our joint experience — your own philosophical explanation of it, the questions it arouses within your own mind, your observations of Ruburt as Jane and in our trance states. [...]

(Jane didn’t eat much lunch — the cheeseburger was badly overcooked, and quite tough. [...] I also told Jane I’d like something from Seth that Maude can send to contributors.

(Carla and Denise were through taking Jane’s vitals — temperature 97.6 — by 3:40. And Jane said she was ready for the session much earlier than usual.)

[...] I took Maude Cardwell’s letter to show Jane. [...]

[...] Jane feels this refers to a young man, Tom, who works at the Art Shop where I bought the canvas which furnished the object. Jane often runs errands there for me, and Tom, a framemaker, often waits on her. Tom has an old sports car, and not long after I had bought the canvas, he described the car to Jane on one of her visits there, detailing his troubles with it, etc.

[...] I have the habit of making these lists for Jane especially with prices included. I almost always have a list when I go to the Art Shop, and so does Jane. [...]

[...] He has often waved to Jane and me as we walked past. Jane always waves to him whenever she walks down Water Street, which is at least three times a week.

[...] Previous to it, Jane told me she felt Seth; since strangers to Seth were present, we thought it best that he not come through. Jane wanted to go to a back room; but the bathroom door was closed. [...] Confined to the living room with its gathering, Jane finally let Seth come through.

[...] Jane at once called upon the table’s “inhabitant”, A A, to help us out, and we received help aplenty. The table, the one usually used and belonging to Ruth Klebert, one of Jane’s ESP students, had been repaired less than a week ago by me; it had been damaged to the extent of losing a couple of its three legs by its violent movements in a recent ESP class.

[...] Jane had already done so. Meaning of course that the table performed as well without Jane’s hands upon it, as it did when she touched it.

[...] Jane sat in her rocker, facing Sue and me on the couch. [...] There was a light to Jane’s left, and one lit beside me. Sue handed Jane a piece of paper and a pen, while I continued to take notes.

(Sue sat just opposite Jane, and I gestured for her to number the symbols when Jane lay the pen down and began to describe them for Seth. [...] Tracings of the symbols are shown below, numbered in the sequence in which Seth-Jane produced them.

(Some weeks after this session Jane and I were interested to read that the St. Mark’s Isaiah Scroll, from the Qumran find, contains marginal symbols that had still not been deciphered by the 1960’s; this according to the last printing of the reference work we consulted. Some of the symbols, which were illustrated, bear more than a little resemblance to those Seth-Jane drew — especially the last one.)

[...] Show this book to Jane and have her read it while I wait here, then you tell me, Robert, what she thinks of it....” [...] Jane could not deal with him, I thought, although he showed no signs of violence. [...] Then you come out and tell Fred what Jane thinks of it. [...]

[...] I am speaking through Fred Conyers, who flew all the way here from Denver just to see you and Jane. [...] If I can just talk to you and Jane in your house for a few minutes. [...]

[...] I’ve come to help you and Jane.” He nodded sympathetically when I told him Jane was quite ill and couldn’t see anybody. [...]

(We discussed the general implications of Seth’s material on my mother — that she was not only “alive” after her “death,” but that a portion of her was focused upon Jane and me. Jane had allowed Seth to talk about the whole situation in a more personal way than she usually does; the result is that we already have more data on Stella Butts than on the earlier deaths of Jane’s own parents [in 1971 and 1972], for instance.⁴ We knew that Seth wouldn’t continue describing my mother and her present reality indefinitely; such a study could easily grow into a book by itself. In addition, Jane holds deeply felt convictions about giving material on survival personalities; the information in Appendix 10 has a bearing here. [...]

5. A note added 10 months later: There were many house ramifications to come, though, concerning not only Mr. Markle’s place in Sayre but some here in Elmira, where Jane and I live. [...] The events took place while Seth-Jane was producing Section 6 for Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality, and are described there in some detail; they also provide nearly ideal links between the two volumes.

(“Well,” Jane said, indicating two points in front of her as we sat waiting for the session to begin, “there’s book stuff there [to the left], and stuff on me there [to the right]. [...]

We finally rested from the sessions for most of July, although Jane continued working on her Psychic Politics, among other projects. Then, in the 752nd session for July 28, 1975, Seth plunged into his next book: The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. He’s well into it at this writing, and as Jane and I have planned things, the notes for it will be very short. [...]

(I read the last part of Wednesday’s session to Jane from my notes. [...]

(Jane paused. [...]

[...] Jane called with Carla’s help at 9:50, as I was typing this session. I love you, Jane.)

(Jane called last night. [...]

(4:20 p.m. “I had the feeling it would be for us, instead of dictation,” Jane said. [...]

(Following the conference with her editor late in June, Jane has devoted herself to finishing her manuscript for Adventures, while I’ve worked steadily on the diagrams for it, as well as on the drawings for Dialogues. [...] Then in late August, long before I had the 16 diagrams [plus two other pieces of art] done for Adventures, I mailed to Prentice-Hall Jane’s completed manuscript for that book. Adventures is scheduled for publication in mid-1975, but I’ll continue referring to it in these notes.

(In the meantime, on Saturday morning, July 27, Jane received her first copy of The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book, from her publisher. [...] As an artist, I’m very conscious of whether I think the “package” equals its contents, though since she is verbally oriented this is less important to Jane.

(Just as I had some small psychic adventures during our time off from “Unknown” Reality, Jane did too. [...] During the night following the arrival of that first copy of Personal Reality, while lying quietly beside me in an altered state of consciousness, Jane received information of how “the ancients paralyzed the air.” [...]

(This occasion was June 17,1964, was a psy-time experience of Jane’s, and also involved her receipt of information about John Bradley. [...] Jane says she has had this experience of static from which a voice emerged three times, all during psy-time.

(During the 68th session Seth stated that eventually, as Jane’s abilities grow, it should be possible for him to speak to us from different locations in the room, independent of Jane’s position, and that it might also develop that he could speak to us from his own apparition. [...]

[...] Jane and I have now received from them their checklist, made against Seth’s predictions and statements, and as soon as it is typed up the material will be inserted into a session.

(This evening Jane and I had supper with Marian and Jimmy Spaziani. [...] Jane had a “slight” feeling that someone would attend the session, yet she was not sure the feeling was legitimate. [...]

(In line with the above material, it might be noted that Seth had cautioned Jane to go easy with her “ecstasy” experiments in the 54th session, May 18, 1964. [...] Seth stated that he did not realize Jane would achieve this focusing of inner energy so early in her studies with psychological time, and furthermore said that it could have unpleasant effects if it was unwittingly directed toward someone else. [...]

[...] This evening he showed Jane and I a family photograph taken when he was about J.J.’s age, and of course the physical similarity was even then unmistakable. This old family photograph, incidentally, included Jimmy’s father, whom Jane and I had not met, and who is referred to in the following session material.)

(I had to laugh as Seth-Jane began the following monologue, for as soon as it began Jane got to her feet and resumed pacing. At the end of the session Jane said she got to her feet because she felt very dissociated sitting down; she was talking with her eyes closed and felt that she might slip into a trance. [...] I thought, though, that it was more than coincidence that Jane became more active, considering the subject matter of the next paragraph.)

[...] As early as 8:35 Jane felt somewhat nervous. [...] At 8:55, when I asked Jane if she had anything yet, she shook her head. [...]

(Jane began delivering material at precisely 9 PM. [...] He had been sleeping on the couch but as Jane rose to begin Willy leaped down to the floor. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated as usual. [...] This time it was Jane’s clairvoyant experience of April 10. See page 1. Jane resumed dictation in a normal voice at 11:05.)

[...] Seth-Jane did not answer my question, as usual; but the superior, you-should-know-better look Jane threw my way made me laugh aloud.)

[...] Jane was fairly dissociated. Seth’s reference to wild spring weather probably came because while delivering the above material Jane paused often before the open living room window. [...]