Chapter 7, Out-of-Body Incident, where I jumped into a taxi while my body was left at home
In August 1965, we started the Yin test and our own envelope test. My first book was published in October. Bel Gallagher, a reporter from the Almera Star, came to visit me. I used to know her a little, but now she and her husband Bill & Law and I are good friends. Bill is the Star's Assistant Advertising Officer. He and Becky were about to go on vacation to Puerto Rico, and we decided to set up an experiment.
We will not communicate in the usual way at all. Instead, we'll ask Seth if he can align the Gallaghers with their frequencies while they're on vacation. During their trip, we will use this experiment in place of our envelope quiz. We knew that Bey and Bill were going to St. Juan, but that's all we knew. Also, neither Rowe nor I have been to Puerto Rico.
We were halfway through Seth's class, and Seth was talking about his impressions of Garth's trip. As I sat in my favorite rocking chair to speak for Seth, I suddenly found myself in the back seat of a taxi, and the next moment the taxi jerked to the right and I was thrown into the corner of the seat. For a moment I was really scared. I'm not used to sitting in the comfort of my living room one moment and being in the back seat of a fast-moving taxi the next!
I only had enough time to see the driver's neck from behind, it was thick and short. I didn't see his face. While this was happening, I lost all connection to my body in the living room. My subjective feeling is that I am a person who has lost his balance by the disgusting sharp turns of a car. But when this was happening, my flesh sat up straight in a rocking chair and spoke without pause as Seth: By taxi. Our cat lovers laughed, (Seth gave Betty alias, Beck hates cats), and it seemed too expensive for three dollars. An old, not a young, taxi driver, with a stubby neck. After a turn, the destination is mainly on the right. 」
When Belle and Bill returned, we found these impressions to be plausible. They had paid three yuan for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, much to Bey's displeasure because two years ago the same ride cost less than two yuan. Their car made a sharp turn to the right, which Belle and Bill remember vividly, not only because it was too fast, but also because it happened after the driver crossed a red light. The turn was so sharp that they were quite unhappy. But the driver wasn't old and not young, and the funny thing was that he looked old from behind, because his neck was strangely rough, mottled, and thick and short.
I was so happy when the whole thing was checked right that I was seeing exactly what I should have seen if I were in a taxi. Belle and Bill didn't feel like I was there at all.
There are a couple of interesting hints to this. I was indeed the one out of body, yet Seth described what I saw, and his voice and personality controlled my physical system. At the same time, however, my consciousness was in another place, quite far away. I didn't have to tell Seth what was going on, he described it right away.
However, he didn't mention how I felt when I was thrown into the corner of the car. Is this due to the fact that he doesn't feel what I feel? Or because I myself will remember? Think about this confusing thing again: even if my consciousness traveled from Almera to Strian in the air, what about time? The Seth class was held on Monday, October 25, 1965. But that happened to Gallagher a week ago, on October 17. Yet I went through that experience vividly as if it were happening in Puerto Rico at that moment. (Seth gave other correct impressions of that same trip as well.) ）
The next thing didn't directly involve Seth, except that I was following his instructions in the application of the inner senses. I decided to see what impressions I could get from my trip to Ga's on my own. So one morning that same week I lay down, closed my eyes, and suggested to myself that I would find Bell and Bill.
Suddenly, without a transition time, I found myself descending from the sky onto a long, narrow balcony surrounded by low balustrades. I knew my body was in bed, but I lost all contact with it. It doesn't matter where my body is, I'm somewhere else entirely. Looking around, I saw that I was standing on the balcony of a strangely built two-story motel.
The house was erected from the ground in a different way than usual, and there was a small pool of water on the other side of the railing, and there used to be a bigger pool of water, I think it was the ocean, is this Puerto Rico? I do not know.
The door opens onto a balcony that is the same length as the hotel. I was wondering if Mr. and Mrs. Garths lived here, and immediately I knew that yes, and that the most important door was the one that led to their room. However, Bey and Bill are nowhere to be seen. I set the alarm clock to 11:30 before starting the experiment at 11 a.m., and now it's ringing. My consciousness returned to my body so quickly that my physical head was dizzy. I sat up in a panic, couldn't I have found more? Can't I see a mark, or get a more accurate idea of the place? I don't know if it will work, but I reset the alarm clock to thirty minutes later, and then I lie down again, telling myself that I will go back to the same place. With a short but unmistakable sense of travel, hills and skies skimmed in front of me, and then I found myself flying over the same motel.
I couldn't see the details too high, so I told myself to move closer by will, and without any difficulty, I changed my position and came down, though not yet to the ground. There was a man just below me, a little bit in front of me, wearing a suit, a hat, and a small suitcase. As I watched, he crossed a black asphalt to the sidewalk and into a large house across the street from the hotel. I remember thinking it was a little strange that he was dressed in a neat suit at what I thought was a vacation resort. It seemed like it had only been a few minutes, but the alarm went off again, and I immediately bounced back into my body.
I'm excited! I immediately drew a map of the hotel and the surrounding area, and I couldn't wait for Mr. and Mrs. Gars to come back so that I could check the incident and Seth's impressions. I'm going to draw a picture of their hotel and the surrounding area. Be's picture matches mine! My description of the hostel is correct, including the door that leads to their room**. The motel was on the island of San Tomas in Puerto Rico, where Belle and Bill were on the day of my experiment and the day after.
Not only that, the man I saw was also noticed by Bill both mornings, especially since he was wearing a suit. The man was a local, and Bill noticed another reason for him. I only looked at him from behind so I didn't know that, the house he went into was the post office.
I'm fascinated and there is so much to learn. In the taxi incident in Seth's class, Seth described everything I saw. This time, I had to wait until I was back in my body to write down what had happened and draw the picture below.
For my part, I have enough evidence to convince me that both times it was justified. They made me start my own out-of-body experiments.
I'm still trying to find answers to many of the questions that arise from this phenomenon. Later, Seth gave us guidance. In fact, at the time I wrote this book, Law and I were in the process of starting a common series of projection experiments through Seth's introduction. These first examples have greatly boosted my confidence in Seth and myself.
It's a lot more interesting than the Yin test, and we're still doing that. Even our own envelope quiz is boring in comparison. We sent a copy of the information to Dr. Yin, and I was really excited about the whole thing and eagerly awaited his comments. I don't think he thinks we have any scientific evidence, but we do have pretty much the same sketches, and those impressions are right. I said to Law: He may not think this is scientific enough, but he must admit that at least the clairvoyance phenomenon is happening. Between August 1965 and September 1966, we did 75 Yin tests and 83 envelope tests. Like most people who have no background in spiritualism, I expect things to be pure and simple. If Seth was as he said he was, then he should be able to see through time and space and the sealed envelope as easily as I could see the objects in the room. I didn't realize how much it depended on the depth of my trance, and how much freedom I was willing to give him, and I had to learn not to block the information that was going to pass through. I also didn't realize that we didn't know much about normal perception, let alone extrasensory powers. I don't know that no one expects a medium to be 100% accurate. Impressions must come through me, as the old saying goes: Who can be without fault?
Seth, however, managed to use the quiz to demonstrate his clairvoyance abilities, deepen my education, and guide us through the process. In the test he changed the depth of my trance, so that I could feel the different stages of consciousness, and also taught me how to let him use my own personal associations to obtain certain information. He used these quizzes to demonstrate extrasensory powers, but more importantly, he gave me frequent practice opportunities to change my subjective focus and explain the whole thing as I did.
Usually there are no outsiders attending these classes except Luo and me, and it is difficult to say that it is a very scientific situation. But on the envelope test, we didn't try to convince scientists or psychologists of anything. We're trying to see what we can and can't expect from Seth's class. We want something that we can check right away. I want to know how we're doing!
Sometimes Luo prepares the envelope before class, and sometimes it is already ready. He used all sorts of things for his tests, some of which I had seen recently or before, and some of which I had never seen. For example, he might use a letter from yesterday that I have already read; or a bill from a few years ago; or something he picked out that I hadn't seen; Or an envelope prepared by a friend, whose contents are not even known to Luo in that case. Luo picked up a piece of paper, a leaf, a beer coaster, a bundle of hair, photographs, sketches, and bills on the street. Sometimes Rowe picks items because I have strong feelings for them, and other times he deliberately uses dry items to see if Seth is particularly accurate in his guessing of a certain target.
The items were in a sealed envelope, sandwiched between two layers of opaque fine paper, and then the whole thing was sealed in another envelope. I never knew when we were going to have a quiz like this, I never looked at the envelope before class, Luo would give me an envelope between classes, I was always in a trance, usually with my eyes closed. (In any case, the test object is encased in two pieces of cardboard and two envelopes, which is rather opaque.) Sometimes when I say my impressions, I put the envelope on my forehead, and we check the results after the class. (There will be some individual examples in the next chapter.) What a tug-of-war! When Seth did well on the test, I felt as light as a feather for days, and when I didn't check anything to my satisfaction, I felt as if I weighed four hundred and fifty pounds, and gained one pound per hour. I thought that any performance that wasn't perfect would cast a shadow over Seth's independence.
All in all, our own quizzes proved invaluable, not just as part of my training, but as a way to boost my self-confidence. It also prepares for other out-of-body experiences that will occur later in Seth's lessons. The quiz and Seth's comments also gave me insight into the nature of inner perception that could not have been achieved by any other means.
As Seth changed the depth of his trance, I became aware of two lines of consciousness, his and my own, and at least some knowledge of my own personal associations when they were a help and when they were a hindrance. In a very deep state of trance, the inner process is obscure even to the medium. For most mediums, the mechanism is so automatic that it simply does not learn the inner mental behavior involved in this kind of work. Seth insisted that our situation would work in our favor in that regard.
In his materials he often distinguishes his impressions from those of me who have slipped in, linking my impressions to the personal associations from which they originate, and telling us whether they are plausible or not. I rarely lose consciousness to the point where I feel like I'm sleeping. Usually I know what's going on, though I may forget what happened almost immediately. Sometimes, Seth and I can take turns speaking, so I can be in and out of trances in an instant. Sometimes I felt like I was one with Seth and felt exactly what he was feeling and reacting, not my own. At this point, Jane herself was dozing off in the background, only slightly conscious. Other times, though less, I'm in the foreground while Seth tells me what to say.
Our own quiz gave me a standard against which to measure my and Seth's performance, provided an immediate check of accuracy, and taught me to sharpen my subjective focus, moving from the general to the unique. All of this was an important training for me to receive Seth material in itself. Seth often spoke of the distortions that inevitably occur in any such communication, and he was extremely concerned that the material should not be contaminated by distortions as much as possible. He discussed this thoroughly in later lessons.
Because of the two out-of-body events mentioned in this chapter, I began to make it through the fall of 1965 with great hope, and I waited to hear what Dr. Yin had to say to them. I'm sure he'll have to admit that they're exciting, even if they have nothing to do with his own experiments or ours. We have started a series of his quizzes and send him the results every week. As of now, we haven't heard from him, and I'm looking forward to knowing how our quiz goes. I think even if the results were only half as good as the out-of-body data, we still had a great start.
At the same time, I left my gallery job to focus on writing. I also started dealing with one of the most popular and highest-paid magazines in the country, and the editor repeatedly rejected my story, each time promising me that he would adopt it next time. I live by post, waiting for the editor's acceptance, or a report from Dr. Yin.
I've found that over the course of a year, trying to test a self-proclaimed recalcitrant psychologist who confirms the existence of telepathy and clairvoyance, selling articles to the best magazines in the country, and taking our own quizzes in Seth classes, is quite enough.