“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now: Records were often falsified; completely doctored, and false records were often planted. Religion was politics. It implied sway and power over the masses. It was the business of the rulers to know in which direction the religious winds blew. There were deliberate falsifications of fact, then and later. Some sects kept false records on purpose as blinds, so that if these were stolen, the robbers would think they had what they were after.

Some of the distorted records have been taken as fact, and it is a good joke to realize that the Vatican holds some of these. At the time, the church believed that these records could harm it. In the case of these particular errors, the records instead could have helped the churchmen, but they did not have the sense to know the truth from the false.

In some cases the falsified records have been found — the misrepresentations — while the true records behind them have not as yet been discovered.

There are some matters that I said we would discuss, concerning experiments in recording dreams via your recorder, using suggestion to awaken you after a dream sequence. [...]

[...] If your recorder is suitably situated with the microphone easily at hand, then you can speak your dream with less effort than is required to write it down. Of course records should be kept. [...]

[...] By all means, if at all possible, the recorder, Joseph, should be in your bedroom. [...] We want you to record the dream at the instant of awakening, or at the instant that the dream is about to dissolve.

(This was our first attempt at recording Jane’s voice during a session. We knew little about operating the recorder yet, although the night before Jane had successfully recorded a hypnosis session in which she had helped me with my back trouble.

(We had but a 5-inch reel, and since the hypnosis material was also on this reel we didn’t think we could record the whole Seth session, even with 4-track technique. But Jane set up the recorder, placed the mike on a coffee table near the center of the room, and ran a few feet of tape to make sure her voice was picked up from any part of the room. She then rewound the tape, recorded her name, the time and the date, and switched the set off. [...]

[...] I announced the time aloud, we made a few comments on how the session was going, then Jane shut off the recorder. [...] We had the machine set to record at the slowest speed possible, in order to make the tape last. When Jane felt Seth coming on again, she turned on the recorder, I announced the time, and Jane began to dictate once more. [...]

What I want to ask you for are records of your and their correspondence. You know that we’re bugs on records, so that we have something concrete to go on when we write about things—and we will be writing about these late events. [...] Be that as it may, we do need accurate records. [...]

[...] I’m also writing this out in a letter instead of calling so that you can have the record to refer to at your leisure. [...]

Your records must be immaculately kept. The material will indeed serve for several books for Ruburt, and I suggest that serious thought be given to the bedroom setup so that the recorder is easily accessible. [...] As the experiments continue you should automatically be able to switch the recorder off and on in the dark.

Whether or not you realize it, you have already begun such an investigation, and Ruburt’s careful notes and recordings of his dreams, over nearly a three-year period, and your own dream recordings, are only the beginning.

(An overall impression I have is that Seth is very interested in the forthcoming dream-recording project, and that along with various tests this will occupy us for a long time. Jane and I have made a tentative recording setup in the bedroom, and probably will begin experimenting with it soon.

[...] The dream should be recorded and dated. [...] If you remember only dreaming about a person or name, record that. When you awaken, do not make intellectual judgments concerning the relative importance of a dream or decide it is not pertinent enough to record. [...]

[...] But I checked my dream records. [...] This was the only reference to Mike in any of my records, but I’d forgotten the dream entirely.

Over the last few years, we have spent many hours with our dream records, though the daily time spent in keeping them up to date is negligible. [...]

A recorder may also be used, of course. You must still play back the tape and transfer the dreams into a notebook, however, so that the records are easily accessible. This actually takes more time, but many people prefer to speak their dream recollections into a recorder at once, rather than to write them down.

[...] If your recorder is suitably situated with the microphone easily at hand, then you can speak your dream with less effort than is required to write it down. Of course records must be kept. [...]

[...] The first: ‘I will wake up after each of my first five dreams and record each one immediately.’ The second alternative wording would be the same as the one I have just given, but the ‘wake up’ would be omitted. That is, it is possible for you to record the dreams, speaking into the microphone without awakening in your terms.

He was not just listening, then, to recorded material, but he was himself the recorded information and a recorder upon which the experiences played.

In Ruburt’s recent experience, he found himself inside the chassis of a recording device — signifying that instead of playing a cassette at several different speeds, he was instead, so to speak, playing his own consciousness at different speeds.

[...] In 330 later, I left Jane to visit Medical Records again, but got nowhere because I missed seeing Janet Troutt, who’s getting Jane’s records for both ourselves and Blue Cross. [...] Maybe, I thought, we’re fated to never get those records. [...]

[...] During break I made my call to medical records. [...]

(Next, Jane said she was trying to find a radio and recorder here at our hill house in Elmira so that Sue Watkins, who lives an hour’s drive to the north, could borrow it. [...] “Then the rest of the time I was involved with recorders.” [...]

(4:38 p.m. I was a bit surprised at the ending of the session at that point, I told Jane, because I’d been still waiting for Seth to answer the part of my question dealing with her being inside a recorder. [...] I told Jane that obviously the recorder was a communication device of a kind, so the connection may lie there.

(“What’s the connection with Jane finding herself inside a recorder? [...]

[...] WL’s recorder failed to record a part of the above, and in ascertaining what portion was missed, a short burst of singing emanated from the recorder’s previously used tape. [...]

[...] And if you do not have the words recorded, they are recorded there (pointing to WL’s head) and you will not forget them. [...]

(Note: The first few words were not recorded. [...]

[...] Brad’s recorder failed to record a part of the above, and in ascertaining what portion was missed, a short burst of singing emanated from the recorder’s previously used tape. [...]

[...] And if you do not have the words recorded, they are recorded there (pointing to Brad’s head) and you will not forget them. [...]

(Brad’s Note: the first few words [by Seth] were not recorded.)

[...] We had been using our recorder earlier but were not recording these monotonous inductions, and as will be seen this was a mistake on my part.

(The recorder was not on, and I was not taking notes. [...] She took a break eventually, and I then set up the recorder. [...]

[...] I had plenty of time to get the recorder set up. [...]

[...] We played part of the 170th session, which was recorded and directed by Seth to Dr. Instream. In the middle of a passage Seth suddenly came through, saying: “Why settle for a recording when you can have the real thing?” His voice was quite strong. [...]

[...] Jane was on her knees before the recorder; we had found a strong passage. Her eyes closed and she switched the recorder off as she began speaking as Seth. [...]

(During this part of the impromptu session Jane’s voice became very loud and strong at times; it did not match the effects of the recorded 170th session, but came close once or twice. [...]

It’s really unfortunate and quite unusual that we didn’t record the session. Seth came through before I thought to remind Gramacy that he could record Seth, if Seth came through. But somehow in my mind at least, not recording that session added to it’s magical quality … the spontaneous psychological or psychic transformation came and went … We were sitting at the living-room table with the lamplight clear on my face; Gramacy could follow Seth’s psychological passage; see my features change, taking on ever so subtly those other contours. [...]

He turned on a small recorder; classical music with a tinny quality swirled through the room. [...]

[...] This took place on February 11, Thursday, and parts of it are recorded. A shorter repetition, also recorded, was given for Judy and Lee Wright on the evening of February 12, Friday. [...]

[...] Except, for what reason I do not know, I turned the recorder on but forgot to depress the “record” button.

[...] Spontaneous short humorous plays, such as you sometimes do with your recorder, is an enjoyable relaxation.

(Sunday night while we had company Jane and I got out the recorder on the spur of the moment; to our surprise we found that it worked perfectly. [...] Recently Jane and I had been talking about putting the recorder in shape again so we could record some more sessions. The last session we recorded was the 70th, on July 13,1964, with John Bradley as a witness.

The recorder worked because you wanted the recorder to work, and expected it to work. [...]

[...] Jane said this use of the word beats reminded her of the hum of the motor on our recorder. We didn’t get enough information here, but she believes it a reference to the recorder motor rather than a reference, say, to our car.

Then I have a few personal remarks which you may or may not include in the records, as you prefer. From now on I will give such information at the end of a session, because you can delete it if you want from the record.

[...] A reference to the motor of our tape recorder. [...]

(We had indicated to Dr. Instream last week that we would record a session upon returning home, and ship him the tape for his own use. Jane and I had not used our recorder much lately, so we practiced with it last night, establishing proper distances from the microphone, and volume settings. The session was recorded with the Gallaghers as witnesses, at their home, and turned out well. [...]

(“The recorder is operated by my husband. [...] The Tone and Volume One controls are set as far to the left as possible during recording. [...] The entire recording is being made on Monaural One, Side One and Side Two.

[...] The electric eye on the recorder closed, meaning that it was recording, as far as I know, at maximum volume.)

[...] But there are no records, despite any of your readings. There are no records, no bodies of knowledge that exist independently of consciousness. There are no records in the sky to be read. [...]

[...] Recording or no. [...]