“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(In the 68th session, July 6, 1964, page 221, Seth stated that our friend Bill Macdonnel, who was going to vacation in Provincetown, Cape Cod, for a few weeks, “will of course go to the seaside. There is a man, perhaps fifty years old, with whom he will become acquainted, or with whom he may become acquainted, with prickly hair. I see a rowboat with a symbol of some sort on it. I do not particularly see any women. That may be because my interests are somewhat different now, though this could be misleading.”

(In the 75th session, July 29, 1964, page 273, Seth stated regarding Bill: “Your friend has made two friends, one older and one approximately his own age. He is of course, or has been, near water. He has been at a bar with a large keg in it. There are two houses nearby, and a front room across from a beach. There is a boat and dock. I also believe he was in a group with four men, maybe something to do with a string of shells, also.”

(Bill returned from Provincetown last Saturday, Aug. 29, 1964. Visiting us the next day, Sunday, he confirmed Seth’s statements in almost all instances.

(Bill reached Provincetown the second week in July. He had not been there long, he said, when he did meet a man as described by Seth in the 68th session. His name and address will be furnished on request. The man was 54 years old actually, and his “prickly hair” turned out to be a brush cut. Bill first got acquainted with him in the Old Colony Bar in Provincetown. The man is from New York City, and was spending a week in Provincetown to “get away from his wife and family.”

(In the 68th session Seth mentioned a rowboat with a symbol. Bill recalls no such boat, stating he did not pay particular attention to boats. His acquaintance wore a cap with an anchor symbol on it, although we do not regard this as being what Seth referred to.

(In a resort area like the Cape, Bill did meet various women, but formed no lasting alliances with any.

(First, after some thought and figuring of dates, Bill states that the date, 7/29, is correct for the situations described below. By this time he had been in Provincetown long enough to meet various people.

(Bill did make two friends, one older, and one about his own age. The young man is named Gary, and is from Boston. The older man is named Larry O’Toole, and is from Baltimore, MD. Both are artists. Gary is about 25, [Bill is 27], and Larry O’Toole is 50 or so. Bill knew Gary for about two weeks, and O’Toole for about six weeks. He has their addresses, and Gary’s last name which he could not recall offhand.

(Larry O’Toole, it developed, rented for the summer the “front room across from a beach.” This room is part of a cottage that is joined to another cottage in the crowded Provincetown area, and both units are, actually, directly in back of a business establishment that faces on Provincetown’s main street, Commercial St. To reach them it’s necessary to use an alley around the business establishment. To explain the rather complicated setup, Bill drew a map for Jane and me, and my copy of it is included with these notes.

(To leave the cottages for a moment, down the street within three blocks is a bar with a large keg in it, as Seth stated. Thus, the locale described in the session encompasses a relatively small physical area. The name of the bar is the Atlantic House, and Bill states that it actually is made up of several smaller bars, each featuring a different decor. In one of these smaller bars is a very large keg, which had been cut in half; each half is set into a wall, forming a striking display.

(Bill states that on or somewhere either just before or after July 29, the date of the 75th session, he attended a party at Larry O’Toole’s cottage. Attending the party were Bill, Gary, Larry, and two other men Bill did not know. Thus, as Seth stated, Bill “was in a group with four men.”

(The party broke up rather early that evening, and Bill then went to the Atlantic House bar with Garry and Larry, where he saw the keg. Bill states that another bar in Provincetown has many small kegs dangling from the ceiling as a means of decoration, but these kegs are quite small, and do not compare with the one in the A-House for size.

(Bill states it is his belief that the “two houses nearby” do refer to the two cottages mentioned above, one shared by Gary and Larry O’Toole, with the front room across from the beach, since they are not far down the street from the A-House bar.

(Bill Macdonnel also states that as one looks out the front room of Larry O’Toole’s cottage, he sees just to the left a dock with boats, although Seth stated it as “a boat and dock,” singular. To the right of the joined cottages is the Provincetown Playhouse.

(The front room overlooking the water is, contrary to expectations, rather an unusual one in Provincetown, Bill said, since the cottages are rather crowded in against other buildings in somewhat of a helter-skelter fashion, and actually most of them do not command a view of the water. In this O’Toole’s cottage was out of the ordinary. The bar in the cottage has a small beer keg, Bill said, but he does not believe this is the one referred to by Seth.

(Bill has [by coincidence?] made a painting of the general area described above, and I will photograph it for the record.

(Regarding Seth’s statement about a string of shells, the only association with shells that Bill recalls is that shell ashtrays were used at the party. He does not think this is what Seth referred to.

(It might also be noted that Bill was a witness to the 68th session, but not of course the 75th. At the 68th session, Bill, Jane and I made tentative plans to experiment at set times for telepathic communication while Bill was at the Cape, but these plans did not materialize.)

(For the record: I copied Bill Macdonnel’s map of the Provincetown area discussed in the 82nd Session.)