“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Tonight’s unscheduled session is arbitrarily divided into two parts in order to present the envelope test data first. I have verbatim notes on this; I asked Seth to speak slowly enough for notes on the test and he agreed. The rest of the session material is presented in summary form in Part Two.

(Tracing of my drawing used in the 4th envelope test, in Session 184, September 3,1965.)

(Jane, her ESP book finished and mailed, has some free time for a change. She has copied the 179th, 180th and 183rd sessions to send to Dr. Instream. She also plans to write him a letter. As it developed, she will be copying Part One of this session to send to Dr. Instream also, for even though the session was unscheduled an envelope test developed. Once again parts of the test results were unexpected. The whole test was very interesting; and all the more so because it was Jane’s first before witnesses.

(Our regularly scheduled session for last Wednesday, September 1, was not held because Jane and I had unexpected visitors. A few details here are of interest because the visitors became entangled with the test results mentioned above.

(I had prepared the usual test envelope that Wednesday afternoon while Jane was napping, as she usually does on session days. When the session did not materialize I saved the envelope for the next session, which I thought would be on Monday, September 6.

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher, who have witnessed several sessions, visited us this evening, Friday, September 3. Our conversation touched upon many subjects. They read the 183rd session, dealing with Jane’s third envelope test. No session had been planned for this evening but as the four of us sat around our coffee table Seth came through at about 10:30 PM.

(Much was said before the envelope test developed, and this is summarized in Part Two. At about 11:50 PM Seth surprised me by asking if I had a test prepared. I replied that I had and went back to my studio to get the envelope I had readied for last Wednesday’s session, and my pen and notebook. Jane, as Seth, sat quietly talking with the Gallaghers while I was gone; I wondered if the enforced delay would give her time to become nervous.

We will go slowly with this, Joseph... The first test in the presence of witnesses... We are not bothered by light... We will be silent for a moment however.

(Break at midnight. Jane’s eyes now opened. She had been dissociated as usual. She asked me to open the test envelope. She said she had no idea whether the information given was correct.

(In the first test, given in the 179th session, I had found myself mystified over part of the data. Now, the four of us found ourselves puzzling over the first part of tonight’s test data. As will be seen however most of it is connected with the test object. We are learning that our confusion stems from the unexpected and sometimes far-reaching turns that such connections can take.

(Seth came through again at 12:10 AM, as we were discussing possible distortions of the test data. Once more Jane spoke while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her voice was quiet but faster than before, so the following short account consists of the excerpts I noted down. Resume at 12:10 AM.)

Once again there was some confusion of channels... as there was in our first test when we were alone... But tonight we succeeded in getting Ruburt painlessly across that first-test-before-witnesses barrier... And it was a barrier to him. Such tests are very good training for him... He needs it... It is a beginning.

We held many sessions before we tried such tests... while we waited for Ruburt’s confidence and abilities to develop... They are still growing. They need even more developing, and they shall be.

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher now left. I thought the session had ended, but as Jane and I sat talking Seth came through once more. The following material still concerns tonight’s test, and is verbatim because once again I asked Seth to speak slowly. Jane’s eyes were closed in the beginning, her voice quiet. Resume at 12:20.)

The road referred to your neighbor, the male, who is a salesman, and who travels on the road often. It was he and his wife who were referred to here in the unpleasant episode. This was associated with the test because the session for which you prepared the test was not held because of their visit.

(End at 12:25. Jane was dissociated as usual. She had no visual images that she was aware of, she said, while giving the original test data. As far as she knew she had let Seth through without thinking about anything herself. Again, see my notes on page 233. It appears that many impressions can attach themselves to such a simple thing as a small pen drawing.

(The session ended at 1:10 AM. Through it all Jane had been dissociated as usual. There had been rather frequent breaks. Jane now went to bed, and I began to make notes to supplement what I had already written down. I would like to add here one more piece of information given by Seth, concerning an earlier test, before concluding Part One. This was given after the Gallaghers had left.

(It will be remembered that in connection with the test photograph used in the 180th session, Seth/Jane stated: “...and a border. I think now of a border of flowers...” The test photograph has a white border. Seth now informed me that in the 180th session Jane distorted the information about the border of the photo into a border of flowers because of her personal childhood associations. He said Jane has an early memory of a border of flowers around a garden.

(After tonight’s session Jane said she vaguely remembers a small plot of grass and vegetables, bordered by flowers, maintained by her grandfather in the backyard of her home in Saratoga Springs, NY. This would be quite an early memory for her. She had not made any conscious connection with this memory and the border data given in connection with the second test, however, until Seth mentioned it tonight.)

(The following material is a summary of other topics covered in the unscheduled 184th session, witnessed by Bill and Peggy Gallagher. Some of the material was of course obtained while the Gallaghers were present, and was in actuality intermingled with the test data discussed in Part One. Part Two depends on my memory and on Jane’s to some extent. I am fairly certain of it. Material I recall but vaguely is omitted.

(Front and back tracings of the 1959 color photograph used in the 5th envelope test, in Session 185, September 6,1965.)