“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Nor did I understand what was happening, beyond the obvious fact that she was coming to hate the job. I was doing some samples for a business venture with a relative that offered a chance of rather handsome monetary rewards if successful; our agreement was that Jane would hold a temporary job in the meantime.

It was for this reason that Jane was antagonistic to Mr. Burrell from the beginning, and filled with panic. What set her off was not the disappointment over the teaching job, which fell through, but the sequence of events, such as Mr. Burrell’s advances and her subconscious knowledge of her father’s nature.

[...] Jane was tiring by now, and also smoking too much. [...] Jane wanted to stay there and I liked the idea, but since I had only thirty dollars I was afraid to chance a strange city with so little, and we headed north to my parents’ home in Pennsylvania. [...]

Ruburt’s strong feeling was correct, his compulsive feeling that you should leave Sayre. At the time a trip to Florida would have been fine, although a meeting with Ruburt’s father on prolonged terms was not a good idea. [...]

(It was now time for the 52nd Dr. Instream experiment. [...] Her pace included many pauses; they were short for the most part however and her pace was on the whole good. [...]

[...] It will be recalled that the board helped these sessions get under way, in December 1963, but it was soon dispensed with when Jane began to speak the material. The pointer’s loss however was quite embarrassing because the board did not belong to us, but to our landlord, James Spaziani. [...]

(When we discovered the pointer was lost, I remarked to Jane that now Jimmy would probably want the board back. [...] Jane and I decided it was time to ask Seth for help.)

(I was sorely tempted, but concerned lest Jane be tired. The situation was like having a book before you that you were very interested in, yet you didn’t open the cover.

[...] In some cases, material not a part of the book was included if it seemed relevant, cast sidelights on the method of presentation, or gave insights into Seth himself. As Rob’s notes also show, Seth began dictating the Appendix as soon as the book was finished. Rather amusingly, I didn’t realize that Seth had already begun the Appendix, and I spent several days wondering just who was supposed to take care of it — and if Seth was, when he would begin.

Reading the finished book was a delightful experience. As a whole it was completely new to me, though each word had been spoken through my lips, and I had devoted many evenings in trance to its production. This was particularly strange to me since I am a writer myself, used to organizing my own material, keeping track of it, and hovering over it like a mother hen.

It was extremely difficult to choose a few excerpts on any given topic from Seth’s growing body of work. [...] Two weeks after it was finished, however, Seth dictated the outline for this present manuscript, in which he would be free to state his ideas in his own way, in book form.

During the time that he was working on his book, I was writing four hours a day on a book of my own, conducting my weekly ESP class, and finding myself swamped by the correspondence that followed publication of The Seth Material. [...]

[...] She began speaking in trance at a good pace; her eyes opened often, her voice was active, and she was smoking.)

The resentment was basic. The ESP book brought this out; that is, did not cause the resentment—the resentment was there—but allowed the resentment release. [...]

Ruburt was furious. (Friday morning, March 3,1967.) He thought he was being put off with the phone call. [...]

The power of his energies, unfortunately, can be seen quite clearly in the severity of the symptoms that the energy formed when it was so misdirected. [...]

(Jane’s temperature was normal — 98.3, at 3:45. [...] Because of the warm weather, the window of 330 was open a foot, and the heat was off. [...]

[...] “I was going to ask another one, but you came out of it too quickly,” I said. [...] Then I explained that my next question was simply whether she could place herself in that state with Seth present, even though I wasn’t there and Seth didn’t speak. [...]

[...] The day was again very warm — over 50 — when I left for 330. [...]

[...] I told Jane that if she’d had her regular session yesterday in 330, so that I was busy typing it last night, I wouldn’t have found Babs’s note, because I wouldn’t have had the extra time after supper to go through fan mail, clean out the paper bag I carry to the hospital each day, and so on. [...]

(After the session, Jane said she felt that Seth was still around, which was unusual. She felt that Seth was “localized” right beside her as she sat on the divan; that is, that he was standing just beside and in front of her. [...]

(By 9 PM it was dark. There was a rather unusual rain and lightning storm of a mild nature, which kept up through the session. [...]

[...] In fact, she thought Seth was coming through very well, particularly when he started explaining why he was having trouble. [...]

[...] Jane’s pace was average, her eyes open at times, her voice better than usual, yet not loud. [...]

[...] I was one who was friendly at that time. It is only because I was there and you were there at that time, that you can now realize this. [...] was so strong she had to egotistically become more permissive. [...]

(Ruburt:) “Starting with yourself, counting yourself, the third person down to your left at that time was in conflict with you. The fourth person beyond them was also in conflict with you and you were frightened of them. [...]

([Rachel:] “I think I was one of the unfriendly ones.”)

(One week later, in class of January 21, Sue told of a recurring dream which she had for some years—a dream in which she had stood in a field of wheat or cornfield was afire and she feared for the safety of the village.)

(“Then I thought: I didn’t want to give real book sessions while I was asleep — who would take them down? Unless Rob could while he was asleep too. [...] How come I was doing an early chapter — or was this work for a different book?”

[...] “I was speaking for Seth on an Introduction or an early chapter for a book. It was so real and awake-seeming that I was shocked when I finally began to realize ‘I’ had been asleep. [...]

(While she was waking up, Jane asked me several times if she had really been asleep. It was easy for me to say yes, since I had come awake first. Before the session tonight Jane said she hoped Seth would explain the occurrence, but surprisingly — even though a considerable amount of personal material was received — the matter wasn’t covered.

Dictation: Ruburt was working with alterations of consciousness this afternoon. [...] The rock-music program was interrupted by an announcement having to do with the Indianapolis speed-car racing exhibition (the 57th Indianapolis 500-mile race). [...]

[...] She was aware of the different voice. With Seth, she always felt he was present, immediate, alive and strong. [...]

[...] However, she said things weren’t just right; she felt there was a disturbance at the other end—it wasn’t coming through as strong from “there.” She was not bothered by noises in the house, etc., and remembered none of the material until the end.

(I thought the session was over. [...] Then I saw her eyes close; her face took on a certain familiar expression, she smiled, and I knew Seth was going to speak. [...]

[...] She didn’t think it was from Seth. [...]

[...] This was after she had gone through an auto accident; Seth has told us this accident is in reality two accidents, one involving B. Macdonnel in California, the other a future possible event involving Tam’s girl Eve, in or near New York City. In the seance Jane was not Eve, but the driver of the car in the accident; she was a woman, with Eve a passenger beside her.

[...] Seth doesn’t allude very often to a subject in such a manner, so my curiosity was aroused. I knew Jane wasn’t at her best tonight, but thought it would be nice to get at least an inkling of what Seth was talking about. I was sure we’d be glad we did later.)

(A few more notes from the Mossman phone call to Jane today: Tam told Jane the book on the Seth material was practically a certainty; that is, as certain as one can get until a contract is signed. [...] was unavailable, the point being that Prentice-Hall would like a name to do the intro. [...]

[...] There was also a strange similarity between some of the data given in the seance, by Jane, in the 435th session.

[...] I was surprised that Seth suggested a break—a rarity in the sessions these days. Then Jane said that she had called for the break because she was out of cigarettes. She was giving the session while sitting in her wheeled office chair. [...]

Memory was so perfected that men at one time were indeed living histories, and carried within their minds their genealogies and backgrounds and the knowledge of their peoples, which were then passed on to their children. [...] It was, of course, a different kind of knowing. [...] In other words, its rendition was accompanied by creative physical expression. [...]

[...] He sensed that the form was composed of energy that was definitely predisposed to come to his assistance, or to do his bidding.

Jane was interested in our talk—mine, mostly—but finally she revealed that it was better for her when Seth didn’t take a break: “I like it when he zooms right through to the end.” [...]

[...] Here too, I hadn’t been thinking of them — had forgotten, in fact, that the day was Sunday, when they usually visit. [...] A woman we didn’t know knocked, then came in to tell us that Steve was on the line, and wanted to visit Jane this evening. Jane said okay — after 8:00 p.m. I told Jane I hadn’t even had time to tell her of my impression before the woman — who perhaps was a volunteer answering the phone — came to us. [...]

[...] I asked why the material, if it was inherent within human beings, was so much ignored. [...]

(No session was held yesterday, Sunday, January 8. However, there are several events from yesterday that I want to summarize here.

[...] However, the place was more spacious, and bore elements of 458 W. Water Street, in Elmira, New York, also. [...]

[...] Jane said that she didn’t feel that she was “quite with it, tonight,” for some reason, although I thought her material was as good as ever. [...] She was speaking with a number of long pauses interspersed. [...]

[...] My own thought at the moment was that something different, or at least not the same, was involved with the Cézanne events—less personal.

[...] His brother did not know that the urban renewal gentleman was in that particular restaurant where the two might meet, and until the meeting did occur nothing showed in Framework 1, though much was occurring in Framework 2. The creative potential knows exactly what changes must occur in Ruburt’s body so that he can walk normally. [...]

[...] I was tempted to ask Seth what life he was referring to, but that would have kept Jane talking longer.)

[...] In that system, as he developed it, there was no time for leisurely meals, showers, shopping trips or mundane enjoyments—only the work was important. [...] The day in which it was produced would vanish and be nothing—only the work would survive as a monument. [...]

Then since we have that established, let me tell you that it is of course no coincidence, for the right arm was the area first affected. The body has its own patterns of behavior, connected with beliefs; but in this memory pattern there are tracings, and these are beginning to be erased in the order in which the condition was established. [...]

While the condition reigned there was a characteristic overall body position and method of behavior that operated as a whole, and in line with his beliefs. It was organized, each portion of the body participating to give you the overall modus operandi.

The body’s weight was kept down for the same reasons, because he felt according to those old beliefs, that the body’s sustenance and substance in physical reality was not important in regard to his work. [...]

All of this was based upon your much earlier beliefs that life was short and that all of your energies must be put into your work. This was literally interpreted, and all other impulses systematically denied until, say, a shopping endeavor like today’s must be first thought out as good or bad. Earlier, spending money on anything not strictly necessary was bad, because it might detract from money needed to allow you to work. [...]

[...] It was a do-or-die effort on his part. Once embarked, there was to be no turning back, until finally his own work and your reactions began to hint of difficulties, and his own body reflected them. He tried to keep you from family connections and complications for what he thought was your own good.

[...] For a while, as given much earlier, he was worried about money, believing poverty the mark of the artist. [...]

[...] So the Nelson book was pictured in the ad, along with a lot of others, but nary a Seth book.)

(Then Jane surprised me by saying that Fox was not the name she had spoken, re Jerry A. She was very definite—that Fox wasn’t correct, saying I had misunderstood her. She thought the name was Foss, instead, although she was not as positive here. We speculated about Foch or Foche; Jane said the name was one syllable with a softer sound than Fox—hence Foss. [...]

[...] I was going to try to put it to practical use, I told Jane not to try too hard, though, to get more data. [...] I was a little surprised to hear Seth start right in on the gallery data.)

[...] It was a very hot and sticky night. [...]

[...] He was now scratching at the door to go out.

This 394th session was held on February 19, 1968. [...] I knew it was mine. The piece was of cast iron, with a soft mottled black-brown patina, densely conceived and I liked it very much. It was perhaps two and a half feet tall, hanging from a ceiling by a chain.

[...] This was very odd, another break so quickly. It was brought on because our cat Willy, decided to jump up in Jane’s lap as she spoke in trance. [...]

(The first part of this session was held for John Pitre, who telephoned Jane about a week ago from Franklin, LA, on behalf of his ill wife, Peggy.

[...] Since we learned their cause they have slackened a good deal, but I asked that Seth discuss them in case there was more to be learned here.

[...] I was angry and disappointed; I was fearful that Jane and I would never be able to rise above our problems and fulfill our potentialities, which I knew to be excellent. I was especially concerned that Jane wouldn’t be able to surmount the problems, so explicitly delineated by Seth, above, and so eliminate the symptoms. [...]

(It was late by the time we sat for the session. [...] At times here pace was quite slow.)

[...] In his mind religion was connected with self-mortification. [...] On the other hand Ruburt was spontaneously religious.

A need was met. [...] My answer tells you of course that the last dream was also precognitive.

[...] Last Thursday morning, then, we were really shocked when Doris, who is also a teacher and a friend from those apartment-house years, called to tell us that David was in the hospital—that he was to undergo triple-bypass heart surgery the next day. [...] We’d thought David was in excellent health. He’d taken up jogging some time ago and was now running 15 miles at a time, three days a week. As he lay in the hospital, David asked Doris why this was happening to him, when he’d tried to take care of himself, help others, and “do everything right.”

The church’s view of reality was the accepted one. [...] The world’s view was a religious one, specified by the church, and its word was truth and fact at the same time.

Illness was suffered, was sent by God to purge the soul, to cleanse the body, to punish the sinner, or simply to teach man his place by keeping him from the sins of pride. Suffering sent by God was considered a fact of life, then, and a religious truth as well.

[...] He knew what Jane was up to, but had only a peripheral interest in “psychic phenomena.” David never complained about the racket, though sometimes he secluded himself in a back room down there, or left the house until class was over. [...]

[...] Jane was dissociated more than usual for a first delivery. [...] Her voice was rather dry and hoarse at times but was not strained, and became no worse during the session. [...]

(Due to the very long unscheduled session of last Sunday, May 30, our regularly scheduled session for the next day, Monday, May 31, was not held. This was more to save me work in finishing up notes than because of any tiredness on Jane’s part. [...]

[...] Jane was well dissociated. She blinked several times without closing her eyes for any length of time, then she was out of her trance.

[...] She was coughing, but made no mention of not wanting to hold a session. [...]