“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At about 8 PM this evening Jane fell asleep with a lighted cigarette in her hand as she sat leaning back on the couch. [...] The cigarette event was bad news, I saw at once, let alone Jane’s sleeping after stating that she wanted the session. [...]

(Jane said that lately she’d “felt good” about getting back to work on Seth’s Dreams and her own Magical Approach, although actually she hasn’t done much on either of those projects for a very long time now. [...] Jane has also cut her trips to the john to just three times a day —incredible! [...]

[...] I’ll suggest to Jane that we try to cultivate such a state by starting—again—a daily program of reading the material together, probably after breakfast. [...] It’s also that I think many things are left unsaid or unexplored in the sessions, probably because they are sensitive to Jane or she may block them on unconscious levels. [...]

[...] I believe Jane forgot to do this the next day.)

(Jane and I were most pleased to be included in Timothy Foote’s story about Dick Bach in the issue of November 13, 1972. [...]

(Timothy is Timothy Foote, book editor of Time Magazine, who interviewed Jane last Friday, October 13, concerning a cover story on Richard Bach, etc.)

(Jane then saw a young boy, pulling two other boys on a sled. [...] The sight of the boy immediately confused Jane, since of course she knew Curtis [...]

[...] Jane tried at 8:30, also with no results.

(By 8:55 Jane was nervous as usual, though not because of the witnesses. [...]

9. At once Seth’s material reminded me of a novel about dolphins that Jane worked on in 1963. [...] Jane had time to show her manuscript to one publisher — who rejected it — before the Seth material got under way. [...] Yet were she to do the book now, Jane says, she’d have to rewrite it completely.

(Today I showed Jane the finished version of my “ghost image” portrait of her as a male in another probability. [...] I won’t take the space to describe the series of mistaken efforts I went through in producing the work, except to say that finally I came to the rather simple conscious understanding that I was trying to paint a probable Jane. [...]

(Then came Jane’s projection-probability experience involving her home town of Saratoga Springs; she described this episode in her notes preceding the 685th session, in Section 1, and Seth elaborated upon it considerably in the next session. The ghostly qualities in that event fit in with what I was trying to do in the painting: By leaving the thick gray and white underpainting of my “portrait” of “Jane” without color, I realized, I could express not only a probable interpretation of her, but the colorless qualities of the Saratoga experience itself. [...]

(Strictly speaking, these episodes could be called seances, since they were given by Jane herself rather than Seth. [...] I wondered why the method used was chosen by Jane, and what was involved emotionally and intellectually. We didn’t think subconscious fabrication was the answer, or that a total lack of control on Jane’s part was involved. [...]

[...] Jane was quickly out of trance, but it had been a good one, fast and active and emphatic and humorous. I said I thought it was a contact session, as Seth calls them, meaning that he was present with us at this time, rather than having given Jane the material earlier. [...]

[...] Jane was out of trance quickly. [...] Jane saw Seth’s painting move, intact, to and then through our large center window in the living room.

(As the three of us sat at the table sipping wine and discussing Seth, Jane began to get nudges from Seth every so often. [...] I also thought Jane would be overly tired. [...]

[...] Jane said that while delivering this material she once again lost track of herself and her surroundings completely. [...] Jane had of course met my eyes many times as she paced back and forth rather slowly; her voice had been rather strong. [...]

[...] Since Seth had stated that unscheduled sessions would be the exception, Jane and I were waiting for the regularly scheduled session of tomorrow, Wednesday.

[...] Jane again came out of trance rather easily, although it had been a good one. [...] I thought Jane might benefit from the data. I didn’t realize it was so late when I asked the question however, and so told Jane to forget it if she wanted to, and to consider the session over. [...]

(Our cat, Willy, was curled up sleeping in a chair that happened to be in back of the rocker Jane sat in as she spoke for Seth. [...] I could not see what had bothered him; Jane could not see him but certainly she heard him. [...]

(As we sat talking I asked Jane what she remembered about Willy’s strange actions. [...] Jane then began to recite to me some data that “came through” to her, without her appreciating it in Seth’s voice, or speaking for Seth. [...]

[...] He’d written Jane on November 16. When Jane called Dr. Guy in return, he told her that he’d contacted her at the behest of a Dr. Camper [another pseudonym].¹ Dr. Camper, a professor of sociology at a midwestern university, had asked Dr. Guy to ask Jane to be tested for her psychic ability. [...]

As Jane commented afterward, LeRoy Guy said not a single word to us about his reaction to Seth, although I’d watched him pay the same rapt attention to that personality as had many others. “I suppose he’ll write to Camper now,” Jane said. [...] For that matter, we hadn’t even asked him exactly what Dr. Camper wanted him to find out about Jane and Seth—or even me. [...]

[...] And in return for Seth speaking, Dr. Guy staged his own little magic show for Jane and me—to our amazement and intense interest—as the three of us sat around the living-room table.

(On September 25, 1972, the day of the 617th session in Chapter Three, I wrote a note describing how Jane and I had seen and heard geese flying south, in a spectacle both inscrutable and moving. Last night, we had reminders that a natural rhythmic cycle was completing itself six months later: As we retired I thought I heard the barking of geese migrating north, although Jane didn’t. I woke up around four a.m., though, and heard a flight clearly in the silent hour. [...]

(12:13 a.m. Jane still felt exhilarated, yet tired. [...] [See Jane’s Introduction, and Chapter One.] The new book is called, appropriately enough, The Further Education of Oversoul 7.)

(Jane had given a very long session in ESP class last night, along with Sumari. [...]

[...] Jane’s delivery had been active, fast at times, with her eyes usually closed. [...] Jane, of course, was aware of this. [...]

[...] (Long pause.) The condition leads at times to a bunching of muscles in the side of the neck in precisely this area (Jane touched the right side of her neck) that can occasionally appear almost as a hardish lump. [...]

[...] (Eyes closed, smiling, Jane leaned toward Pete.) Now, my dear young man, quite innocently, you have made an early and understandable error. [...]

(Jane’s knees had been poor for some weeks. [...] My pendulum also told me that communication problems involving Jane, other than the TV show question, caused the “cold,” etc.

[...] Jane’s voice was soft throughout. [...] Now I wondered how it was possible for Jane to want a cigarette if her trance was so deep, etc. [...]

[...] 1: Why Jane’s knees had been so bothersome lately when she was obviously making good progress otherwise? [...]

FROM ROB AND JANE BUTTS
FEBRUARY 3, 1969

[...] Jane has been snowed under with work, correspondence, classes, etc., so I have taken it upon myself to help her out re letters. [...]

[...] Jane’s experience in receiving the type of material we sent you is quite limited, and we have many questions.

[...] See pages 125-6. Here Seth made rather strong statements concerning sales by Jane of her writings. Since none have developed yet as far as Jane being notified is concerned, we wonder how we should interpret such material.)

(Jane feels she could have had a session at about 3:30 PM, Saturday, after a rejection from Playboy arrived in the mail. [...]

(Around suppertime Saturday when we were again discussing the matter of interpretation of prediction data, Jane again felt Seth nearby. [...]

[...] Earlier I asked Jane if she was willing to stick by her decision to forgo public life, as stated in the letter she wrote Prentice today, and she said yes. [...] I for one have no real idea of how Prentice-Hall may react, although Jane told me today that she’s picked up that Prentice-Hall plans to be much more aggressive on questions concerning publicity. I don’t think there will be any hassle, for surely the people at Prentice-Hall know enough about Jane’s abilities and sales and productive talents to know a good thing when they have one, whether or not publicity is involved. [...]

[...] The young girl made an innocent-enough request about Jane doing a radio-phone interview with a station in Houston, Texas. A few weeks earlier Jane had tentatively okayed with publicity the idea of doing an occasional radio-phone interview, based on the condition that first she obtain one of those desk microphones/telephones so that she didn’t have to hold the phone for an hour or more. [...]

(For several days now I’d been thinking about a remark of Seth’s in one of the earliest of this group of sessions, to the effect that Jane’s symptoms would get worse before they got better as we tried to cope with them. [...] Well, now Jane’s symptoms are worse. [...]

[...] I suggested that Jane “tune in” psychically to see what she could learn about our situation. [...] Jane sounded awed, though, when she said that the Walnut Street Bridge would “go.” [...]

(As soon as Jane had “picked up” this information we began to feel better. [...] The flood crested within fifteen minutes of the time Jane had given, and within three inches of her projected high-water mark. [...]

[...] Jane, both as Seth and as herself, had made a good start at tuning-in on certain technical information. I felt however that a great amount of time and effort would be needed, on a regular basis over a period of years, probably, for Jane to make full use of her abilities in such specialized endeavors.)

(This little session came about in the same way yesterday’s had, and in it Jane—”Seth”? [...] I intend to ask Jane a series of questions like this, and the answers, or her realizations, will govern the success of any project involving her return home. [...]

[...] Prospects for Jane’s return home look better than I’d dared hope a day ago. [...]

(Once again, Jane spoke for herself with, I presume, Seth’s assistance. [...]

(Recently Jane received a telephone call from John Pitre, of Chatsworth Road in Franklin, LA. John asked Jane, whom he has never met, if Seth could give any data that might help John’s wife Peggy, who has multiple sclerosis. Jane said she would be glad to try, although she had no idea of what Seth would say.

(On Monday, September 11, Jane had held a session in an effort to help a man and wife in Raleigh, NC. [...]

[...] Jane began speaking for Seth, in trance, in a quiet voice broken by many long pauses, and with her eyes closed. [...]

(At least, I told Jane tonight after I’d remembered that I’d forgotten to clip the article for my predictions file, we know where the article is on file, where it can be located if necessary: at the newspaper office. [...] Jane hasn’t tried to predict similar events. For some of Jane’s predictions see Appendix A.

[...] I reminded Jane that I think it’s an excellent one, and that I want to type copies for us of the material between 9:15 and 9:36, wherein Seth explains that the intellect needs to realize that it doesn’t have to go it alone, that it is supported and aided by other portions of the self. I think this insight can help Jane greatly. [...]

[...] As I typed away after supper, I could tell that Jane was listening to the speeches on TV in the living room. [...] I read the article and called it to Jane’s attention. [...]

[...] Involved here also is Jane’s sinful self and “its” attitude concerning the requests she receives to go public through radio and television interviews, lectures, records, tapes, and so forth. [...] It took me some time after she’d started delivering the Seth material to realize that in spite of her outgoing, friendly nature, Jane is as much a private person as I am.)

Over the past year or so I’d become more and more concerned about what I could do if a nighttime emergency—like a fire—trapped Jane and me in our bedroom. [...] A blaze anywhere in the central section of the house, with its heat, gas, and smoke, could easily prevent me from reaching the front or back door as I sought to carry Jane to safety. [...]

I’d told myself to forget it each time I caught myself worrying that way—but finally, more concerned than ever about Jane’s physical condition, I gave up. With more than a little wry humor over what I considered to be a failure of belief on my part, I took action: Late in July I had a contractor, who is a friend of ours and well acquainted with Jane’s situation, install a heavy outside door in a bedroom wall, and construct the necessary step to the ground. [...]

[...] I’ll gladly do this if I discover that it is behind any large-sized hassle Jane may be carrying around about public responsibility. [...] People read the books, get something out of them—then want personal help that Jane can’t give in any meaningful, long-term way. [...]

(See Jane’s account of her dream of this rooming, attached to this session. [...]

(At 8:20 PM Jane called and asked whether she should have a session—she couldn’t make up her mind. [...]