“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane has finished her ESP book for all practical purposes, and has been looking through the Seth material for a suitable quote to end the final chapter. I suggested she ask Seth for a few appropriate words this evening.

(Jane has been improving in her psychological time experiments since Seth advised her that she was trying too hard in the 178th session. Today she attained an excellent state.

(As I had for the 179th session, I prepared a test envelope in case we had a chance to use it during the session. This time the double envelopes contained a black and white photo I took of Jane at York Beach, ME, a little over a year ago this month. I thought this would have an extra emotional content, as did the symbol I used in the first test. [This is to be our second such test.]

(It will be remembered that it was at York Beach, in August 1963, that Jane and I saw the fragments we had ourselves created, according to Seth, in the dancing establishment called the Driftwood Lounge. This was some months before the sessions began. The snapshot was taken on the beach perhaps 200 yards from the Driftwood. For York Beach material see sessioms 9, 15, 17, 69, and 80 in Volumes 1 and 2.

(I took care that Jane did not see me preparing the envelopes this evening, although she was well aware a test might take place. We had discussed the matter earlier in the day but she had not given me an unequivocal yes or no answer, as to whether we should make such tests an everyday procedure during sessions. See Seth’s comments on this in the last session.

(Tonight’s session was held in our back room. My writing table is beside a bookcase, and before the session I slipped the test envelope between a couple of books without Jane being present. Thus I could easily reach it during the session.

(Jane spoke while sitting down and with her eyes closed for the entire session. Her voice was quiet, and although she used pauses her delivery was for the most part quite rapid. She began speaking at 8:59.)

(Sunday, August 22nd, Jane discovered the tape recording of the first two Father Trainor episodes was deteriorating, for unknown reasons. Last evening she tried a rereading of the two poems involved, but stopped before getting through G. K. Chesterton’s Lepanto. She began the reading all right but soon felt a sense of strain. She turned off the recorder.

(Bill Macdonnel was present but I was working in my studio. Jane said my absence annoyed her somewhat. Perhaps too cautiously, I had advised her against the attempt earlier in the day, since she had expressed general fatigue. She was also not quite sure of how sympathetic Bill was to the attempt. See the 131st and 158th sessions for details on the Father Trainor experiments in Volumes 3 and 4.

(Now Jane smiled, speaking quietly along.)

(This was a perfect opportunity for me to slip the test envelope out of its hiding place on the bookshelf, reach across my small writing table and drop the envelope into Jane’s lap. It was 9:10. Her eyes remained closed and she did not touch the envelope.

(Jane now smiled again. She picked up the test envelope and held it in both hands, lightly fingering it briefly without heavily bending it, twisting it, etc. It was 9:14. Her eyes remained closed. She paused rather briefly, then delivered the following material in a quiet voice, with gentle emphasis at times, and with average pauses.)

(Break at 9:18. Jane was dissociated as usual for a first delivery. She was greatly pleased at the results of the test, and so was I. Neither of us regard these tests as scientific but we do consider them a beginning toward scientific tests.

(Jane said she felt it when I dropped the test envelope into her lap. This did not make her nervous however; she was “already Seth,” she said. In the first test she had the envelope in her possession before the session began, and could not but help know that a test was in the offing.

(Jane said that when Seth began speaking she tried to keep herself out of it as much as possible. She had the feeling that Seth was in the foreground, she was in the background. She did not feel nervous while giving the data.

(Also, while she was giving the data Jane experienced a concept. She had the mental picture of a border, of something square, as the photograph is, with a border around it. She had no indication of size; the photograph is 4” x 4”. And also again, at this time Jane had a “distant” thought or impression of the error she made in the first test regarding a license, but felt content that she was keeping herself in the background.

(The orange-yellow-sunny interpretation of this photograph is particularly intriguing to us because it was taken on an extremely bright day; we remember it well because some other pictures I took on this roll, of rocks and the sea, were overexposed because of brightness and reflections. It is of course a black-and-white photo. The two people involved, a man and woman, could be Jane, and me who took the picture. I am 46 now, but was 45 when I took the picture.

(Jane does not know what association led her to mention a border of flowers. Most striking of all perhaps, she said that when she heard herself speak the initials J. B., she knew that Seth meant Jane Butts, the subject of the photograph. She recalls wondering at the time why she did not say her own name aloud. The reference to hills is clearly seen in the photo: Jane sits on a group of craggy high rocks on the Maine seacoast. With the figure painted out of the photo the rocks would easily resemble any number of aerial shots of denuded mountain ranges, or hills, depending on scale.

(And again we consider the ways of various levels of the mind. With all of the above data Seth, or Jane, did not use the word photograph.

(The session resumed with Jane again sitting down and speaking with her eyes closed. Her voice was quiet and rather fast. She smiled in recollection of her ebullient feelings. Resume at 9:35.)

(Seth/Jane spoke quietly but firmly in answer to my question. The object in question is one that Jane’s friend, Peggy Gallagher, is carrying about with her in her handbag. I do not know what it is.

(Peggy has had the object here in our apartment on a couple of visits not connected with the Seth sessions, and of course told Jane about it. Peggy began to carry it about with her a week or so ago after Jane and I had asked if Peggy and Bill, her husband, would cooperate with us in some future tests.

(Perhaps also Peggy began carrying the object because recently Jane has had several clairvoyant experiences involving the Gallaghers, and other mutual friends, that have been verified.)

(Break at 9:48. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed. Her voice had been quiet and rather fast, although she had used pauses too.

(Jane said she felt that Seth was trying to come through with material on the Gallagher object, and that she was trying not to block it. She had the feeling Seth wanted to say it was rock; the other day Jane had the conscious impression that it was tin or galvanized metal, of the sort Bill Gallagher uses in fashioning some of his modern sculpture.

(I would like to note here that the Gallaghers have not pressed Jane to name the object, in trance or otherwise, nor have I. Jane has certainly been aware of it, since she has mentioned it to me at odd times during the last few days. Therefore I was somewhat surprised that either Jane or Seth might be considering an attempt to name it now.

(Jane resumed in the same quiet and fast pace, with her eyes closed, at 9:55.)

(Break at 10:14. Jane was dissociated as usual. She ended the delivery with a smile. She felt very good. Her eyes remained closed, her voice quiet. She thought she might very well use Seth’s material above to end her book.

(End at 10:28. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed. Her voice had been quiet and rapid for the most part.)