“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At supper time this evening I told Jane that tonight she was going to  start dictating a new book for Seth, the “energy personality essence” for whom she speaks while she’s in trance — and that she was going to do the notes also. [...] My idea here was that as soon as I had a session typed from my original “shorthand,” Jane could add whatever she wanted to about her trance states, feelings, or ideas, while the session circumstances were still fresh in her mind.

(I told her that I didn’t care if the book was short, medium, or long — or whether it took six months to produce, or a year, or five years: If she held one or two sessions a week, or one a month, it would still give her a book in the works, and she would have that comforting knowledge. I said that if she preferred no notes, that was all right with me too.

[...] As soon as I realized why she was holding off, I decided to put her back to work on the Seth material, even though she hasn’t yet finished her own Psychic Politics.

[...] It was 9:23. [...]

(One possible ride Jane might have taken with another was obviated when she decided not to lecture to Dr. Freudenberger’s class at NYU in White Plains, NY. Jane was offered a ride there by an ESP class member, and this would have been on a Wednesday. [...]

[...] First, Ruburt’s decision not to speak to Dr. Freudenberger’s class was a good one at this time (underlined). [...]

(The data at the beginning of the session re unexpected word concerning a book reminded Jane of an amusing dream she had last night, and which she has written down per usual: She dreamed that her science-fiction novel, The Rebellers, was being made into a movie.

[...] She held a lighted cigarette also and it was burning closer to her fingers, so I took it away. [...]

(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. [...] This was done by 8:45.

[...] I announced the time aloud, we made a few comments on how the session was going, then Jane shut off the recorder. She was not nervous by now, as usual. [...]

(During break Jane had to flip the reel on the recorder because the tape was almost used up. [...] When finally all was set, she turned on the recorder and resumed her dictating and fast pacing at 10:12.)

(This was our first attempt at recording Jane’s voice during a session. [...]

All that was involved, as you told Ruburt, was a shuffling of paper from here to there, and a promise to keep the money in the account and not withdraw it for a specific amount of time. [...]

[...] I thought she’d felt somewhat the same way today, and was rather surprised when she told me at 8:30 PM that she’d have the session....

[...] I hadn’t expected him to use our bank accounts as analogies, but saw at once what he was up to. [...]

It was, however, in a normal savings account, where it drew regular but rather small amounts of interest. [...]

[...] You thought (underlined twice) that it should be your consuming passion, but you never felt that it was — for if it was you would have followed it undeviatingly. [...] Painting was even to be a teacher, leading you through and beyond images, and back to them again.

[...] Then, no sooner had we sat for the session than Jane asked me to write down what she was about to say, since she had the material available whether or not Seth got to it: “A new part, or chapter heading: ‘People Who Are Afraid of Themselves. Controlled Environments, and Positive and Negative Mass Behavior.’” I told her I thought Seth would not only have plenty of time to cover our respective questions, but would come through with some book work too, and this was the case.

Your painting was meant to bring out from the recesses of your being the accumulation of your knowledge in the form of images — not of people you might meet now on the street, but portraits of the residents of the mind. [...]

(“Well, I think I felt that way last week, when I was working on my latest head. [...]

In this case there was also the belief that there was a lack in the flow of communication, a blockage in the flow of creativity, so tell yourself that your creative ventures can flow through you easily and well. [...]

(Once again Jane was quite relaxed, but she wanted to have the session anyhow. [...]

(I was feeling somewhat better, but wasn’t clear as I wanted to be yet. [...]

(For the moment I’d forgotten the notes I wrote concluding the last session, deleted for November 12, having to do with Seth suggesting we throw our hassles with Prentice and foreign publishers into Framework 2; I’d written that I didn’t know whether or not I was capable of doing that at this time. [...]

(Last night in ESP class Jane delivered a session that was long, forceful, dramatic, and humorous. Her energy was “up” for the whole evening. [...]

[...] Ruburt’s life as he knows it is not in my memory — because I did different things when I was Ruburt. And he is not bound by that reality that was mine.

(Leaning forward, speaking intently but half-humorously:) I have memories of being Ruburt — but the Ruburt I was is not the Ruburt that Ruburt is in his reality. [...] In his terms I am a future self, with far greater knowledge, yet he uses that knowledge to alter his present reality; and when I was Ruburt I did not have that knowledge. [...]

(3. On his life as a minor pope in the fourth century A.D.: “I was a petty, religious politician.” [...]

(The house that was for sale — and which we came to call the “hill house” — was empty and locked. [...] It was a ranch-style, cedar-sided dwelling that had just been painted a dark green — a conventional one-story affair with white shutters, a fireplace, a picture window, an attached double garage in back, and many trees and shrubs. Part of the front lawn was rather steeply banked, part of the curving flagstone walk was stepped as it rose up to the porch. [...]

[...] In your terms only, and historically speaking, they often appeared at the beginnings of civilizations, where direct physical bodily manipulation within the environment was of supreme importance. Then (underlined), normal physical reactions were simply faster than they are now (intently), even while normal body relaxation was deeper and more complete.

(Because we’d been looking at houses today, Jane was excited: “How am I going to get my mind on the session?” Just before Seth came through, she reread his list of the families of consciousness that he’d given for the 732nd session. [...]

[...] Yet when she tried to describe their attributes for me she had difficulty in doing so; the information was peculiarly evanescent, she said.

(After the last session, which was held six days ago now, I realized I’d forgotten to ask Seth a question that had been on my mind for some weeks: I wanted his comments on Jane’s swollen feet. [...]

[...] JA was out of town, due back last Monday. [...]

[...] I just want to check in and see what’s been going on since Monday” —and she was quite surprised when I told her she hadn’t had a session since last Thursday.)

[...] “I told him that he could have the session be as long as he wanted,” Jane said as soon as she was out of trance. [...]

[...] I did jot it down immediately though, feeling that it was significant. There was a feeling of disappointment connected and I’d say that it represents some feelings about my abilities—I thought they were sterling—really terrific—and wore myself out caring for them, but I fear that they are only very good serviceable ones after all, their earlier promise not proving true.... [...] The earlier religious scene suggests that I was appalled to find my abilities leading me anywhere within the realm of religious ideas at all to start with. [...]

[...] The apartment was quite cold tonight because of a strong wind that had blown all day, after a 14-inch snowfall yesterday; but Jane said that as Seth she was not cold, in fact comfortable for the first time today, etc.

[...] Where was I born? [...]

[...] In two lives in particular however you were both proficient, and one of Ruburt’s recent dreams was based on one such episode.

(This data was quite unexpected by us, although this afternoon I had mentioned Mischa to Jane in passing, remarking on a similarity of pose struck by our cat Willy as he stood in the studio, intently listening to a sound outside. [...]

When I began putting together Seth’s dictation for Dreams, and adding Jane’s and my own notes, plus excerpts from other relevant sessions, it soon became obvious that the entire work was going to be too long for one volume. [...] So with the help of our editor, Tam Mossman, and others at Prentice-Hall, the decision was made to publish Dreams in two volumes. At first I was sorry for the reader’s sake to think of Dreams being interrupted, yet glad for myself, for in addition to presenting Seth’s book dictation I was given the space in which to develop those other personal and secular themes of Seth’s, Jane’s, and my own that I think add even more dimensions of meaning to Dreams.

[...] Jane was very relaxed as she sat in her rocker. [...] In back of her and off to her right, our cats, Billy and Mitzi, were crouching in the light cast on the rug by one of our homemade lamps from its position on a low bookcase: An insect, seemingly mesmerized by the illumination, was flying round and round inside the bright cone of the lampshade. [...]

(Just as the session was about to begin at 9:15, Jane said she thought we’d be interrupted somehow, or have visitors. Not fifteen seconds later there was a knock at the door. It was Carl Jones. [...] Carl was on his way to a destination near Niagara Falls, New York, for the Thanksgiving holidays.)

[...] I had grown concerned lately that Jane was overdoing weekend psychic work, including sessions for visitors. [...]

[...] The unevenness in the timing of our sessions was a result of the fact that often three regular sessions were being expected from him, rather than two.

[...] One was a peasant in Turkey; she was “either 62 or 63 years old.” The other was a very tall, handsome and intelligent black in her late 20’s, who was a “socialite” living in California.

[...] But the thing was, Jane mused now, that she didn’t think “Sue’s family” was on the list Seth had just given: “It was something like Gramada, but that wasn’t it….” [...]

(11:27 P.M. “I get so screwed up at times,” Jane said, as soon as she was out of an excellent trance following the rather abrupt end of the session. “Here I think the stuff is great, but then I worry about how the reader’s going to relate to it … I knew I was spelling out those names.”

Sue Watkins, who had introduced Peter to Jane and me in 1973, was involved in the question through her friendship with all of us. It was Sue who verified that several months ago Peter had described to her what he now felt to be the same psychic event I’d tuned in to just a few weeks ago (on December 3, 1974) — only Peter’s experience had taken place in 1967! [...]

[...] It was a warm night for the end of October, and we had the windows open, the traffic noise from the busy intersection just one house removed was bothering me more than anything else.)

[...] However, Section 4 was finished after all.)

[...] Jane’s delivery had been quite a bit faster than usual — which means she’d kept me writing at a steady pace even though I was recording the material with my homemade “shorthand.” [...]

(Break, though, was hardly brief. [...]

[...] When I told her the material was a great answer to the question, she said, “I just know I was way away….”

[...] Some of these occasions occurred fairly early in our sessions, when Ruburt was worried about spontaneous trances, so after making my presence known to him, I acquiesced to his decision at the time. [...] Usually Ruburt reacted to these adversely at his end — that is, the interference was such that it would bother his situation rather than mine.

[...] This was the end of the material on Seth’s book for the evening. The rest of the session was taken up with matters involving ourselves and others. [...]

(By M.H. Her query was based on a theory that, as it happened, I’d heard of also: A group of scientists has postulated the existence of a class of subatomic particles called “tachyons,” or “meta-particles,” that always travel faster than the speed of light.

[...] It was getting cloudy; I told her I hoped Frank Longwell was at the house, planting the red maple while the young fellow from school was mowing the grass. [...]

[...] As I’ve mentioned in past books, at one time the human personality was “more at one with itself.” [...] Man was more aware of his dreams and so-called unconscious activity.

(Here Jane came out of trance and indicated that Florence was “supposed to do something” tonight. [...] When it was over, we all sat down and Florence remarked that she felt she still hadn’t done what she was “supposed” to do with the symbol.

(Sue was fumbling with the tape recorder while Jane held the reel with her finger, when Seth came through.)

[...] Again, Ruburt was quite correct. [...]

[...] Each song is unique and thrilling, whether it’s muted or powerful, melodic or animated; often the particular delivery is made up of a combination of such attributes, as it was this evening. [...] Then Jane came through as Sumari once more, but this time she spoke in conversational tones.³ Immediately she was finished, Seth returned:)

(The contents for this appendix, including a short description of Jane’s use of Sumari, came through within a month after the 690th session was held.

[...] Seth’s answer was a long one. [...]

[...] What you were told was not given you in precise English, in intellectual terms, in paragraphs or in sentences. [...]

[...] (See my files.) On the other hand, you telepathically picked up from memory of a period in his life when he was afraid that he might die. [...] It was when he was worried about his own legs, and veins.