“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now give us a moment… One brief note: Ruburt was momentarily upset before the session — cranky. He thought he did not feel like having a session at 9:30 P.M. to try to solve the world’s problems. He just wanted to watch television and forget it all, and hidden in that crankiness is a good point: The sessions are an expression of your private and joint curiosity, a high and excellent curiosity about the nature of reality, a result of your desire to know; to know whether or not the knowledge can be held in your hands like a fruit, whether or not the knowledge can be dosed out to an ailing world as medicine.

(Almost five weeks have passed since Seth gave the 835th session. He’s come through with four more sessions since then, too — the last three of them growing out of the unexpected death of our young cat, Billy, on February 28. [...]

[...] “We were shocked,¹ no doubt about it,” I wrote in my notes for the 836th session, a private or nonbook one which Jane gave that evening. During the session Seth discussed Billy’s illness to some extent, while also giving the first “installment” of an answer to a longstanding question of mine: I was curious about the relationship between the host — whether human, animal, or plant — and a disease it might contract, one that was “caused,” say, by a virus. [...]

[...] That night Jane gave the 838th session. Wednesday, I mailed to Prentice-Hall the corrected page proofs for Psyche, and Jane held the 839th session that evening.

(She made her remarks after I’d read her Seth’s last session [the 740th for February 2] from my notes earlier this evening, I still don’t have it typed. Incredibly, that session is already six weeks old. [...] Except for the few listed below, then, it may be sufficient to just state that we’ve been in our hill house for a month, and that after much hard physical labor² we’ve settled down enough to resume our natural rhythms of painting, sessions, books, and play. [...]

1. Checking, I soon discovered that Jane had said much the same thing as we sat for the 708th session, following a three-month break in book sessions. [...]

4. Material (and further references) concerning production details for Adventures and Dialogues can be found in the opening notes for sessions 718 and 735. Also see Note 1 for the latter session.

[...] In Chapter 7, see the 530th session at 9:30, when he discoursed upon our frequent projection of “replica images” or “pseudophysical forms” to vividly desired locations. In the 565th session at 9:30, for Chapter 16, he used the example of one’s possible responses to a telephone call to show how all “probable actions are equally valid,” no matter which one of them is physically actualized.

(No session was held last night, obviously, because Jane was so relaxed. [...] Earlier she’d mentioned having a session to make up for last night, but as 9 PM passed I thought she’d decided to let it go once again because of her relaxed state. [...]

(Note that tonight’s session refers to the notes I wrote “on inspiration” at the end of the last session, for February 11. [...]

The only other times there is any such difficulty also involve responsibility when he concentrates upon his responsibility to hold the sessions—that is, when he focuses upon need, function, or utility as separate from other issues involved. Such feelings can then for a while override his natural inclinations and his natural enjoyment and his natural excitement with which he otherwise views our sessions. [...]

(Rather intently:) He would not have had the sessions to begin with over this period of time for your sake alone, or even for your sake primarily—they simply would have petered out. [...] Nothing, however, would have kept him at the sessions for this amount of time unless he wanted them. [...]

For without a rebellious nature neither of you would have permitted the sessions to begin. [...] Our regularity of sessions is now a necessity. This does not mean however that at times a session cannot be missed, or that such a missed session should be considered a significant symptom. [...]

[...] You have been distrustful to some degree concerning Ruburt’s fidelity to the sessions, precisely because the sessions have become important to you. Ruburt at this time would not dispense with the sessions, although it is true that he sometimes consciously resents the discipline involved in their regularity.

(Jane was upset about her work this evening, so much so in fact that she would have missed the session had I not been too lazy to go dancing. [...] While we were discussing our problems 9 PM arrived, so we held the session.

[...] It is however with him, as with you, the peculiar mixture of discipline and regularity with spontaneity that makes the sessions possible; and this quality in Ruburt, even of rebellion, that allows the sessions to continue.

(This was a short session. Jane had a head cold, and we had a session scheduled for the weekend for Claire Crittenden and Pat Norelli.)

We will have a weekend session and our regular Monday session. [...]

We will have a brief session this evening, since you will have one over the weekend.

The material I just gave you really belongs in our previous session.

I would suggest perhaps a session, or part of a session, perhaps once a month, to be directed along these lines. Under most circumstances the tail end of a session such as this will do well.

(Here Seth refers to the unscheduled session held on Friday, November 5, for Ann Diebler, Paul Sinderman, and Marilyn and Don Wilbur. A few notes about it preface the 206th Session. Consciously I had not wanted to have the session, since I thought our guests not well-enough prepared.)

The pressure, I am sorry to say, has also some connection with our sessions, in that he feels caught betwixt and between; somewhat under pressure to hold sessions regularly, although he may not feel like particularly doing so; and under pressure not to hold sessions when he may feel particularly like doing so. [...]

One session is not enough here. For the interconnections that exist between the two of you, several sessions would give you an excellent basis for understanding yourselves in relationship to one another. [...]

(Tonight before the session we reread the deleted session for August 1, in which Seth had given some very optimistic forecasts for improvements on Jane’s part. [...]

(This prediction was coupled with Jane’s use of the hot towels on her knees—as Seth has suggested she do often in the recent sessions—and which Jane has largely ignored. [...] So we asked that Seth consider our laxness in not using the towels in the session tonight.

I am going to give you a brief session. In the rest of the time I want Ruburt to use the hot towels on the knees, and to reread some of our recent sessions. [...]

[...] Given the improvements that Jane has been showing since this series of sessions began, I’d say that both of us have moved much closer to that dedicated and joint desire to see Jane much better, as Seth mentioned on the first page of tonight’s session. [...]

(It happened that in ESP class last night Seth came through with material pertaining to the nine families of consciousness he’d begun discussing a week ago; see the 732nd session. These class excerpts, which I’ve rearranged somewhat for easy reference, may be used when considered with book material still to come, since Seth will occasionally use the class format to supplement his dictation in our “regular” sessions. The quotations also lead us back to the circumstances surrounding Seth’s delivery of his first session on the Sumari.)

[...] See, for example, Session 679 with Note 4; Appendix 1 for that session; the opening notes for Session 696, and so forth.

(I shouldn’t have been surprised last evening to hear Seth say that such an impetus had triggered Jane’s Sumari abilities, for today, when I reread the 598th session for November 24, 1971, I was reminded that he’d said the same thing then. The death of the student’s father had taken place on Thursday, November 11 of that year; Jane’s father, Delmer, died without forewarning on the following Tuesday, November 16; Jane came through with Sumari in class one week later, on November 23; and the next night, in the 598th session, Seth discussed Sumari for the first time.

1. I can note a good deal later that Seth’s material on our making further distinctions in the families of consciousness, beyond the nine he’s already named for us, is certainly related to the passages from a private session that I quoted in the last three paragraphs of Note 8 for the 732nd session: Seth stated that Peter Smith and I “are and are not counterparts” — that with another in this life each of us may often come together, then part, “forming a counterpart relationship when it suits your purposes….”

Now: this will indeed be a brief session, for it is an evening of body events, as far as Ruburt is concerned. The last session should be read whenever you feel yourselves falling out of balance with these new ideas. The body was freed to some extent following the session because Ruburt was reassured. [...]

(Jane was very relaxed as session time approached; she had been for quite a while. I suggested that she forego the session, but once again she said she wanted to get something on Framework 2, etc. [...]

Ruburt should relax for the rest of the evening, however, and once again I will add energy that would otherwise have been used for the session. [...] Therefore I will give you some of the energy now from the session, and some when you are in the dream state. [...]

End of a brief session, and my heartiest regards. [...]

(A very short unscheduled session was held Sunday evening, May 29, after company had left. The session did not particularly grow out of the evening’s conversation; perhaps more so from a short discussion Jane and I held when we were alone at last.

(The first part of the session is summarized, the notes being made immediately, at 11:28. The balance of the session is verbatim as indicated. [...]

[...] See 141-43 sessions.

There will be new developments in our sessions, and new experiments with others, as a result of Ruburt’s first book.

(Before the session tonight Jane and I discussed the excellent manner in which Seth was able to relate to the various people who have witnessed sessions. [...]

[...] I will tell you now however that within our own framework of sessions, and with what I call contact sessions with others, other books will materialize. [...]

[...] Some will appear simply as Ruburt collects class sessions or witnessed sessions together. [...]

There will be several books that simply result from our sessions, beside those that will be specifically dictated. [...] There will be developments in your own painting that will follow naturally, and sometimes directly (underlined) from our sessions.

(In this session Seth spoke of my past life and attributed my current patterns of life to the lessons learned by my previous existences. Of immediately provable fact is that during the session Jane [Ruburt] spoke with a deeper voice than usual, she had a definite Boston accent on certain words. Prior to the start of the session I had, in conversation, asked Robbie [Joseph] a question involving his point of continuous existence versus evolution. [...] This happened so frequently that towards the end of the session, when I would think of a question I would have immediate confidence that it would be subsequently answered.

(This session was not expected on our part, and took place without the use of the Ouija board. Since Seth had stated that unscheduled sessions would be the exception, Jane and I were waiting for the regularly scheduled session of tomorrow, Wednesday.

[...] It will be remembered that during the 21st session Seth had wanted John to stay as a witness. [...] John offered to leave, but I said aloud that we’d rather wait for our regular session time.

[...] She insisted that I get pen and paper, that we have a session now with John as a witness. So the session began. [...]

(At 8:30 this evening I finished typing Monday’s short session [for the 8th]. [...] Then I made a surprising discovery as I put the session in private notebook number 23 — for there I found my original shorthand notes for the September 3 session. [...] I believe that’s the first time in well over a thousand sessions that I’ve forgotten to type one. [...] Jane missed the September 3 session, but when she asked me about it a few days ago I replied that I was up to date. [...]

[...] When your proofreading is over, and Ruburt’s recovery even more fully demonstrable, we will return to a book session a week, and continue this series the other [weekly] session. [...]

[...] But these sessions, dealing with Jane’s improvements, validate the Seth material as it’s come to us over the years. [...] However, we do have the testimony of many who know us, plus years of sessions on record, plus our own memories. [...]

(Once again Jane was very relaxed as we prepared for the session. [...]

There is a difference in the various work done in different kinds of sessions, and subjectively Ruburt may be aware of this. The class sessions have their place, and they are meant to serve as illustration. [...] The source however is always in your private sessions.

If Ruburt misses sessions and then feels guilty about doing so, little is gained and the regularity is also lost. I suggest therefore that you hold six weeks of sessions as always at your regular time, then feel free to miss a week with my blessing and your own, and then begin another six-week schedule.

If there is a class session, a long one, and if Ruburt feels tired, then the following session of my own may be a briefer one. [...]

Now to some (underlined) degree, this also applies to the information that I give you in our sessions. [...] As I mentioned some sessions ago, on the one hand you can say that the method involves distortion, but without the distortions there would be no meaningful knowledge for you to understand. [...]

(I didn’t even have to ask Jane if she wanted a session. Once again I had to hurry to get my clipboard and pen when she said she was ready for the session. [...]

[...] But for a session lasting only 11 minutes, he sure delivered a lot. I made sure I let Jane know how much I appreciate getting these sessions, and her own physical healing processes.

(Jane told me this afternoon that she wasn’t uncomfortable after giving yesterday’s session—the first time she’s felt good following one. [...] After today’s session she also felt good, and rotated her arms speedily and raised them up higher than she had even yesterday. [...]

(After this session I went over the 3 previous Seth sessions with her, to reinforce all the good things they contain. [...]

1. Eight weeks later, I’m presenting only a summary of my very long notes for this private session, which Jane held on Tuesday evening, December 1, 1981. The notes stemmed from the unexpected discussion we began at about 8 o’clock, a few minutes after Jane had told me she wanted to have a session on herself. [...] Yet she dozed again when I went out to her writing room after her office chair, which I use while taking notes for the sessions. I thought her sleeping after saying she wanted a personal session was a poor sign. Yet I think that in this session Seth reached core [...]

I regard the first one of the four sessions Jane held before starting Chapter 12 as being a key session, an excellent one indeed for us. [...] Jane came through with the session just a week after giving the last session for Chapter 11 [on November 24, 1981], and I’m presenting it here in Note 1.

Very clear in Seth’s material, I told Jane after the session, is his message that it would be a great mistake for us to give up the highly creative endeavor of the sessions, regardless of whether they were ever published. I said that I was delighted to retract the observation I’d made before the last session—that on deeper levels she didn’t want to hold the sessions any longer. [...]

We discussed that session thoroughly the next day, December 2, and Jane ended up defending herself from what I had written in some of my notes. [...] I asked her to type a summary of her remarks for inclusion with our next session. [...] It worked great, want to start up journal, want to start project… want to get sessions started up again too or tell myself so anyhow. [...]

(This material was given at the end of the 680th session for February 6, 1974.

[...] I expect my suggestions given in the last session, few as they are, to be followed religiously.

Because of the personal material given in late sessions, Ruburt has the habit of worrying—protecting the idea of time and ability as described, so that in one day he will worry about what distractions may arise the next day, and this puts him on guard. [...]

[...] These “new sessions” and your joint, newly accepted center and the framework that is evolving from it, is also highly important.

(For the session we had three witnesses: Lorraine Shafer, who witnessed the 144th session, and Bill and Peg Gallagher, who have witnessed the 158th and the last session. The last time Jane spoke before three witnesses was during the 89th session. [...]

My thought here was merely that in perhaps four or five sessions we could deliver a basic, if not thoroughly adequate, explanation that would then serve as a basis for those who attended the four or five sessions, so that any problems could then be discussed in such a manner that the witnesses would be familiar with basic precepts and terminology.

[...] Either have witnesses attend, for example, a Monday or a Wednesday session. Or if you prefer that our own material also progress at its usual rate, then we could perhaps hold an extra, perhaps shorter, session a week.

[...] In particular, see the 66th session of the series on the creation of matter. In that session also, Seth stated the above statement can be verified mathematically. [...]

[...] See the 104th session, page 126. [...] This session took place on November 4, 1964. After the session Jane was able to give a more detailed description of the red leather chair. [...]

(The session was held in our back room. [...] She had no idea of the material for the session before she began speaking. [...]

[...] The sessions and any work resulting from them will never detract from your painting, although upon occasion it may appear that you suffer timewise. The sessions have greatly increased your ability to use your inner visions and intuitions, and to free them so that they can be directed into your paintings.

I am most pleased with our sessions of late.

(We’re still holding the sessions on Monday and Saturday evenings, which is the routine we initiated after the 805th session was held just seven months ago [on May 16]. As we sat for tonight’s session Jane told me — somewhat to my surprise — that she felt Seth might give some material for Mass Events. [...] Today she’d reread his sessions for the book. [...]

3. Although this is the first session for Mass Events in which Seth had discussed Framework 1 and Framework 2, at the moment Jane and I are a good deal more familiar with his ideas concerning those fields of action than the reader is; see the opening notes for the last (814th) session. Since introducing them in the deleted, or nonbook session for September 17, Seth has at least mentioned the two frameworks in 17 of the 23 deleted sessions he’s given us since then.

[...] Another long period — 10 weeks this time — has passed following Seth’s last session for Mass Events. Since this is the third such break between book sessions, it seems that Jane and I would be used to the idea by now. [...] When the sessions don’t work out that way I can feel somewhat uneasy, while realizing at the same time that a number of compensating factors may be at work. [...]

(First, during that 10-week break Seth-Jane held a series of 18 sessions — excellent ones — that once again did not constitute dictation for Mass Events. Second, if one keeps in mind Seth’s ideas about simultaneous time, that basically all happens at once [even considering Seth’s own acknowledgment that time “…is therefore still a reality of some kind to me”], then it hardly matters how long a break transpires between particular sessions; there is no real separation; dictation on any subject or project can be resumed whenever all involved — Jane, Seth, and myself — choose, and it will be as though the break never existed. [...]