“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(It will be recalled that Seth himself [or Jane?] initiated the idea of asking me if I had an envelope test at each session. The first such test was held in the 179th session, and Jane knew about it before the session began. In that session however Seth also said it would be better if Jane did not know whether I planned a test before any particular session.

(Today Jane was quite upset because she still hasn’t received a letter from her publisher, Frederick Fell, even though Mr. Fell reassured her about the ESP book when she telephoned him last Monday, October 5, the day of the 195th session. In that session Seth also offered reassurance to Jane.

(See the report by Jane and me at the end of the last session. [...] The plans are simple; at session times next week Bill and Peggy will attempt to concentrate on Jane, Seth and me, with a view to seeing what Seth can pick up.

(In the 180th session however, Seth’s comments led into the second envelope test, and in the 183rd session Seth queried me outright as to whether I had a third test for him. [...]

(July 14, 1971: When sessions resume, check with Seth about what Jane might have blocked in this session—as well as what she revealed. [...] This session appears to be basic, but perhaps parts pertaining to me were blocked, to spare my feelings? [...]

(Jane did not volunteer this session; I had to ask for it. She has never volunteered a session re her symptoms. [...]

(See the deleted session for November 26, 1972, in Volume 2 of these personal sessions)

[...] Eventually she ended up lying on her back full length on the couch, where she had been sitting throughout the session. [...] As far as I could recall, this was the first time she had permitted herself to lie flat during a session while in trance.) Because of the early training, you have somewhat assumed a position like those of the priests, and your word becomes extremely important, and almost like a law. [...]

(Because it was another very hot and humid night we held the session in our large front room, where air circulation is better. [...] The quality of the air seemed to aggravate the noise, and quite often during the session Jane appeared to pause until the noise abated temporarily. I felt that the noise, being such a problem, was influencing the quality of the session.

(In the last session Seth had commented favorably on trying some tests with Jane and me. An hour or so before this evening’s session, without telling Jane beforehand, I made a black ink drawing of the symbol below on a small sheet of paper. [...]

[...] She confirmed this just before the session when she asked me about it, so I gave her the envelope at 8:57. [...] She also said she thought Seth might address the session to Dr. Instream, and that if he did she would prefer not to be distracted. [...]

(See the 68th session. During this session, in which Bill Macdonnel saw an apparition for upwards of an hour, Bill and I saw an independent set of features that appeared to hang just in front of Jane’s features.)

(John Bradley, of Williamsport, PA, was a witness to the session. John has witnessed quite a few sessions and read much of the Seth material. Indeed, John was the first to witness a session, on February 18,1964. The last session he witnessed was on February 24,1965. [...]

(John Bradley has witnessed the following sessions: 37, 54, 63, 70, 95, 135, and 166, the present one. In most of these Seth has dealt with John’s connection with Searle to at least some degree, making the type of predictions he makes in this session. To sort out the rather complicated pattern of these predictions would require a study of the above sessions. [...]

(It might be noted that I again detected traces of what I call a brogue in Jane’s manner of speaking this evening, and thought it more pronounced as the session wore on. [...] This brogue had been quite pronounced at times during the 162nd session, witnessed by Lorraine Shafer and Bill and Peggy Gallagher, and I have noted traces of it during subsequent sessions.

(The session was held in our front room, and was free from interruptions. [...] Although her eyes remained closed for the whole session, her voice was loud and at times quite a bit deeper than usual. [...]

We will probably not have a full session this evening, since really I treated Ruburt so poorly during our last two sessions. I had indeed intended initially to have a short session last time, but because the material — please appreciate my pun—on material was coming through so well, I continued.

[...] Through most of the session her delivery was rather slow, yet not as slow for the most part as the last, 60th, session. [...]

The seeming, and for practical purposes, repulsion of so-called positive and negative matter will be explained in another session, as if I begin to develop upon this now, you will end up with a longer session, not a short one.

[...] She said she felt about as tired as she would at the end of a regular session—not anything like as tired for instance as at the end of the last session. [...]

And added later: Also in that session, Seth describes how he must “disentangle concepts” from their patterns in order to relate them through Jane. His material on this will be given in an appendix for Session 711, in Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality. In that appendix I assemble from various sessions information on the complex relationships involving Jane-Ruburt-Seth (and also Rob-Joseph).

(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. [...]

(A rather humorous note: Jane has decided that she prefers to continue with the scheduled Wednesday sessions, instead of switching them to Thursday night. [...] Besides, she said, tonight she “felt stuff around, about cells and prayer, and things like that”, she announced that she wanted to hold the session.

(Jane decided to “wait a second” at 11:55, to see if she should resume the session. [...] Jane felt fine; she told me that she could cheerfully continue the session for another two hours. [...]

(Although Seth has given us relatively little on the fifth dimension, he has made many references to this one session. See the 12th session, of January 2, 1964, page 60. Notice also that this material was obtained 60 sessions ago; and as far as my memory serves, Seth has not contradicted himself on this fifth dimensional material in any sessions that have taken place since then.)

(After supper this evening I went around the corner to the office of Doc Piper and invited him to attend the session, since last week he had expressed an interest in doing so. [...] We made a further agreement that he come to Wednesday’s session if he could not make it this evening.

[...] Jane was only a little nervous before the session. “The idea of people we know coming to sessions doesn’t bother me at all,” she said. [...]

We are not going to have a long session this evening. [...] Nevertheless I do go easy on you now and then, merely because I like to vary the intensities of our sessions, as this is a most effective teaching method, and various portions of subject matter cause different energy expenditures.

[...] The reaction following sessions has simply been the arousal of antagonism. The symptoms have been a defense against the sort of self-enlightenment that I am now giving in the sessions. [...]

(Last night Jane had a very successful table-tipping session with her ESP class. [...] I too sat in on the session, which lasted until midnight.)

(This session is deleted from the record. [...]

Now, we will have a fairly brief session, simply because I am adjusting my techniques of therapy according to Ruburt’s reactions.

[...] Jane began reading yesterday’s session, but couldn’t do it. [...] I told her I’ve tried Seth’s suggestions about enhancing my close-up vision, given in a recent session, and that they’ve worked very well. Jane finished the session at 3:35. At 3:40 she started reading the session for October 9, 1983, but didn’t do quite as well — see the hospital and session chronology in my opening notes for the session of January 6, 1984. She laid the session aside again for a cigarette, then went back to it at 3:58. Finally she just gave up on it, and eventually decided to have a short session, since it was getting late.)

(4:38 p.m. I read the session to Jane. “I don’t know why,” she said, “but as you read that I got the feeling that my father is looking out for me …” I said that was certainly implied in the session, and that I’d wondered about it as Seth spoke. I also reminded her that in the October session I’d written in my notes about redemption. [...]

This session, again, activates those coordinates that quicken bodily healing. [...]

(We hadn’t been interrupted during the session. [...]

(Jane held her last session for “Unknown” Reality three weeks ago. She came through with a private session two days later, on December 18, and we’ve been resting from psychic work — including ESP class — since then. [...]

1. For Seth on the fetus — its astral and reincarnational attributes, its energy, its growth, its perceptions from inside the womb — see the quotations from sessions 503–4 in the Appendix for The Seth Material. Those sessions were held in September 1969.

In Appendix 12 and its notes there are a number of passages from Seth (as well as a few of my own) that supplement his remarks, in this 727th session, on present form responding to a future time. See, for instance, the quotations from the 690th session in Volume l; Seth discussed the ability of our species to precognitively alter the present from the future. [...]

3. In the 684th session for Volume 1, Seth came through with one of my favorite statements (even if it is grammatically incorrect): “The cells precognate.” Much of his material in that session applies here: “It is truer to say that heredity operates from the future backward into the past….”

At the beginning of the notes for this 920th session I wrote that the session isn’t dictation for Dreams. Yet it is, of course, since in it Seth illuminates from still another perspective his concept of value fulfillment.⁸ The session grew out of the encounter we had yesterday afternoon with an unexpected visitor from out of state. [...] I see many correlations between this evening’s material and that in Session 917 for Chapter 8; there, among other things, Seth had discussed the reasoning mind, the imaginative mind, and schizophrenia. That session had been triggered, at least in part, by a letter Jane had found to be quite upsetting.

(I was curious as to why Seth had devoted two other private sessions in late September to different subjects. [...] Then: “Well, I don’t tell you everything, but for some time now I’ve known that Seth gives what I call fill-in sessions. [...] They aren’t book sessions or really personal ones. They keep the sessions going over periods of time—usually by discussing past material—connecting it to the present, while not necessarily adding new stuff. [...] Originally I think the Christ sessions got started that way.”

5. Seth hardly flattered us in this first session. He also gave us a clue as to how Jane delivers certain sessions for him. To begin with, however, his magical-approach information reminded me at once of the two thoughts Jane had picked up from him back on May 12, the day she held the 915th session for Chapter 8. I’m stressing these points because I think they’re important: “Alone, reason finally becomes unreasonable. [...] Nine days later, Seth finally gave a little information relevant to Jane’s insights; see the 917th session after 9:23.

(This is Jane’s first “regular” session in four months. [...] Right now, I just want to note that since she gave the last session for this book, the 919th on June 9, Jane has come through with a series of 15 private, or deleted, sessions—13 of them on what Seth calls “the magical approach to reality.”

(It might be interesting to note that at the time Jane received this idea, I was working on an index for the 35th session, of March 16, 1964. In this session Seth talked of having us try various experiments involving the use of the inner senses; tonight’s session was of course in the nature of an experiment. Jane did not know what session I was working on, and we were also separated by two rooms at the time.

(Jane received her first intimation that something new might develop in the sessions when she was reading over last Wednesday’s session after supper tonight. She came up with the idea that she might give part of tonight’s session while lying down. [...]

(Jane was not frightened at the new development, but still felt uneasy about relinquishing control, as she put it, during a session. For instance, she worried about not knowing the time, yet once the session began she thought nothing of it. [...]

[...] Ruburt may return now, and we will close our session. One note: I hope in the future to be able to add in dimension now and then to our sessions, opening up vistas to Ruburt to illuminate other avenues to complement any given discussion. [...]

(I had an impulse to try to get back to my studio to get some paper and a pen; this was followed by another impulse—to forget about notes for a change, even though Jane was obviously about ready to give a session. [...] Jane began dictation in a rather strong voice that was pitched somewhat lower than normal, and maintained it for the whole of the session. [...] As soon as she began to speak she closed her eyes, and to my continuing surprise she kept her eyes closed throughout the session, except for one brief instant that shall be mentioned later. [...]

Joseph is committed to these sessions. [...] You, Joseph, make these sessions possible. [...] Without you Ruburt would never have held a single session.

[...] She had not seen the apparition, nor of course had I, and she had not been able to see the change in her features, again described in the 68th session. Even though I reminded her that she was the prime mover in the sessions, she still expressed the wish to “see something” that would “prove” to her that the material was legitimate. [...]

The physical side of these sessions is accepted by Joseph. [...] He questions everything that happens in the sessions, and sometimes I think he believes none of it.

(By 9:30 I couldn’t believe it: We weren’t going to have a session after all—and just when we needed one most. [...] She was somewhat disoriented: “Just read me last night’s session,” she said. But we’d had no session last night, Monday. [...]

(Yesterday, Jane wrote for me, at my request, a few lines about Seth’s remark in last Saturday’s session, to the effect that she’s been picking up some unusual versions of perception lately. The original is attached to this session: “I’ve experienced odd perceptions in relaxed states,” Jane wrote. [...]

(It’s actually November 8 as I type these notes, and I have not only the material for November 2 to present, but also that for the sessions for November 7 and November 8. Situations change so rapidly that material that’s a week old almost seems out of date, or superceded, but I want to show our thinking for November 2 just as much as for this morning, November 8. So although that “old” material for November 2 seems somewhat dated already, I’ll present it here just as though a session had been held on that date:

[...] Is there something he’d say in a session that could be any worse than what we’re dealing with everyday in our lives? [...] Jane said she’d do the best she could in the session tonight. [...]

As mentioned earlier in other sessions he felt, erroneously, for some time that your love for him depended upon his performance as a writer and in sessions, since it could not be his by right. He had to test the love therefore by skipping sessions to see if you still loved him. [...]

On one level then the sessions were an attempt to retain your love and give him a right to it. Hence his later feelings that you loved him only for the sessions carried a certain charge. Now this is one of the most important sessions you have been given on your own affairs. [...]

There was also the idea of channeling that energy into our sessions, this of course at a deeply unconscious level. Instead he felt that you latched upon the sessions so that they came before he did personally—that you demanded performance there in sessions, while not in bed. [...]

He was afraid shortly before our sessions began that you had largely lost your love for him, and he began frantically to initiate methods of insuring it. The sessions were on the one hand a gift to you, by which means your health could be restored. [...]

(I read to Jane again the three questions I’d noted down for Seth during break in Monday’s session. As I suspected he might do, Seth began this evening’s session by dealing with the second one. [...]

[...] Now Seth took off into some areas involving Jane that were more personal; at the same time he gave material on the third and then the first of the questions I’d listed during break for the last session. I thought I’d include a few quotations from him on both issues, while eliminating portions of the session that deal with other matters entirely. [...]

2. See the material on Seth’s concept of simultaneous time as given in the concluding notes for Session 724. Included are some very intriguing excerpts from the 14th session, which was held over 11 years ago. [...]

To Seth’s remarks in that early session I’d now like to add what he said a decade later in our time. From the 514th session for Chapter 2 of Seth Speaks: “Consciousness is not dependent upon form, as I have said, and yet it always seeks to create form. [...]

(Lorraine Shafer and Bill and Peggy Gallagher were witnesses for the session. Lorraine has witnessed the 144th and 162nd sessions, the Gallaghers the 158th, 161st and 162nd sessions.

(The session was again held in our front room, with all of us sitting in a circle. Jane’s eyes remained closed for the whole session. [...] We anticipated a short session. [...]

(See the 166th session, which John Bradley witnessed. Seth discussed John’s drug-company employer, G. D. Searle, during the session, and stated then that Searle stock was due to fall still more. [...]

I am taking the opportunity to speak concerning these matters, since I had already decided not to cover any complicated material for our session. [...] Our material in general however can now expand; and indeed, though not always, some extra dimensions and perspectives may be added to our sessions.

During our book sessions, which are almost always private — held without witnesses, that is — Seth speaks at a moderate enough pace so that I can take down his dictation verbatim in my own kind of shorthand. [...] Then, later, I type the sessions. [...] As I wrote in Personal Reality, I believe that Jane’s ability to deliver Seth’s material with so few changes being made in it “says important things about these sessions.” (See my notes at the end of the 610th session, in Chapter 1 of that book.) And concerning my objective observations of Seth himself, I’ll let my notes in the sessions build up whatever composite picture I’m able to construct.

Seth presented his sessions for “Unknown” Reality as usual, but dispensed with any chapter framework. [...] As he told us in the 743rd session, a few days after the visit of Tam and his associate: “This book had no chapters [in order] to further disrupt your accepted notions of what a book should be. [...] Seth gave no headings for individual sessions, so after each one as it’s listed in the Table of Contents (in each volume), Jane plans to insert a few words indicating at least some of the subjects discussed in that session.

As in Seth Speaks and Personal Reality, the usual notes are presented at break times, but I’ve indicated the points of origin of what would ordinarily be footnotes by using consecutive (superscription) numbers within the text of each session; then I’ve grouped the actual notes at the end of the session for quick reference. [...] So for the most part, these approaches keep the body of each session free of interruptions between breaks.

I’ve noted the time every so often during each session to show how long it takes Jane to deliver a particular passage (and shortly I’ll explore further the time elements involved with the production of “Unknown” Reality). For obvious reasons I’ve deleted most of Seth’s instructions for punctuating his material, beyond leaving a few examples in place at the start of his Preface, or in an occasional session. [...] Whenever anything is deleted from a session — personal information, say — it’s always indicated; occasionally such material is summarized.

(It will be recalled also that in the 63rd session, Seth gave a date of Aug. [...] Miss Callahan and her illness, and her connection with Frank Watts, who purportedly was the first psychic contact Jane actually achieved, have been dealt with at length in various sessions. [...]

(I had thought that if there was a session tonight, and it was a short one, I would wait to ask Seth what transpired with Miss Callahan within the above time period. If the session lengthened out, I planned to ask him tonight.

(Both of us were busy as session time approached. During the day–Jane’s vacation has another week to run, while mine ended today–Jane had remarked several times that she doubted there would be a session tonight. [...]

(This was our first session since returning from vacation in York Beach, Maine. [...]

(Jane has kept the session for April 30 in mind, but hasn’t tried any self-hypnosis yet. [...] I decided it was better to let her think over the session for a while, then lead into the hypnosis thing. I think the session in itself is a form of hypnosis, and an excellent one.)

[...] I read the session to her. She’d really gotten upset shortly before the session. I reassured her, saying to let the session penetrate. [...]

[...] She’d started out trying to read the session, but did poorly, so I finished reading it to her by 4:25. [...] “Well,” she said, “I got pretty damned upset this afternoon, and I’m not comfortable, but maybe if I have a smoke and calm down I can have a brief session. [...]

[...] I tried to read the session for April 30 to Jane after lunch, and it seemed we were interrupted every few lines. [...]