“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.

(The double envelope contained a simple line drawing I executed in black ink on ordinary white paper. It was folded once. I chose this subject matter in an effort to see how Seth would handle more abstract subjects. The drawing is reproduced on page 232; it is a pen tracing made from the original on a light table.

(Seth told us that he merely wanted to join in the general conversation, as he had during the unscheduled 182nd session last weekend, which the Gallaghers also witnessed. Seth requested that we continue our exchange without notes on my part and without weighty questions. Jane’s eyes were closed in the beginning, her voice average in volume. She was nevertheless quite active in her chair. After perhaps half an hour her eyes opened. They were very dark. She smoked as she talked with us, and at times got to her feet as Seth. This last is something she has not done for many sessions.

(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.

An unpleasant circumstance occurred before or after, in which a woman was involved. The color gray, and a multiplicitude of design. (Pause.)

(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.

(Jane herself made the possible connection that the “...unpleasant circumstance... in which a woman was involved,” could be entangled with the day I made the drawing; this being last Wednesday, when we missed our regular session because of visitors. See my notes on page 233. Seth’s information following this statement connected itself with the drawing easily enough, even to the “color gray,” which arises from the shadow effect I achieved in the drawing by using closely-spaced parallel lines.

(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.

(End at 12:12. Jane was dissociated as usual.

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.

I did not realize that this would not help you, that this information would not help you here. This was not Ruburt’s distortion, but my own misunderstanding.

The 3 and 7 referred to a visual image, not too clear, of 7 designs, separated somewhat from 3 other designs. The road was a distortion, but only superficially, for it was meant as a symbol to describe the man involved, and I could not get Ruburt to say salesman. It was a misunderstanding actually, rather than a distortion.

(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.

(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.

(Almost at the beginning of the session Jane, as Seth, pointed at me and said my head would be clear for the rest of the evening. Hay fever had been bothering me a great deal during the day. Seth said the reason I am bothered more at home than at work, where I feel remarkably good, is that the house dust in the apartment reminds me of house dust at home, and of my mother, when I was a child.

(As Seth suggested, it developed that my head was good for the next few hours, and I was more than willing to comply with the suggestion. Seth said I could have information concerning my parents and my hay fever at any time during a regular session, so I could get it all in writing. He said he prefers to deal with blocks of material in this fashion.

(Seth told me I have improved in my relations with my parents, even though this is hard to see for me, at times. I am doing all I am capable of for them at the moment. In the future I will expand enough to be able to include them in my awareness without fear of personal threat, which impedes me at the moment. My parents need love as a child needs love, unquestioningly, and this I cannot give at the moment. I should not feel guilty at this. My parents visited my brother Loren for four days during the week of August 29 to September 3. Seth said this was more than an ordinary visit as far as the folks are concerned, in that they were looking for the type of love described above from Loren and his wife also. Loren is 45; I’m 46; Jane 37.

(In this summary I give all the information I can recall on a particular subject at the same time, for convenience’s sake, although it may have been scattered throughout the session. Thus some of the above material was given to me after the Gallaghers had left.

(At this time Jane, as Seth, stood up and picked up our cat Willy. Her eyes were open. Her voice was loud also, and Willy immediately squirmed out of her arms and darted away, his ears back. “See,” Seth/Jane said, “Your pussy doesn’t know who his mistress is right now....” Actually, Seth said, Willy knows him well, having grown used to his appearances. Many many sessions ago Willy had occasionally reacted to Seth’s appearance, usually just before a session began, or at the very beginning itself.

(At one point I remarked to Bill Gallagher that I used to have two favorite questions for Seth: “What do you do between sessions?” and “How’s my old friend Frank Watts?” Seth’s answer to my first question was “What do you do?” He now gave essentially that answer when Peggy asked my old question tonight. Commenting on Frank Watts, the personality Jane and I first contacted on the Ouija board to begin these sessions, Seth told me that there were records in town pertaining to Frank Watts, if we would stir ourselves to look for them.

(When Peggy asked him if the records pertained to Frank Watts being a teacher, Seth gave an answer I do not recall, except that I am sure it was not a direct yes or no. Frank Watts, Seth did tell us, is doing very well. Seth also said in a quietly humorous way that Frank Watts was still a fathead, as he had told us many sessions ago. In Volume 1, see the 11th session, held on January 1,1964.

(This was simply to determine if Jane herself, as Jane, could ask Seth a question, then go into trance and deliver the answer as Seth. Since Jane had been switching focus often tonight, I suggested that now was as good a time to try the technique as any. With a little urging Jane, a little self-consciously, asked Seth about what kind of a reception such a query would get from the editors at Cosmo, whether they would buy such an article, etc.

(She then closed her eyes, went into trance, and delivered the answer. It was entirely in the affirmative.

(This past week Jane learned the editor of Topper magazine that they had bought a short story of hers, The Mission. She was of course greatly pleased by this news. Seth now told us that Jane would sell more stories out of that batch she had written up before starting the ESP book. It will be remembered that Seth had something to say about Jane’s sales of short stories and books in the 104th session. The predictions given in that session 10 months ago are still working out. See Volume 3.

(Seth briefly discussed the candle-flame effect mentioned in the 182nd Session, saying the phenomenon was so successful because Jane had no forewarning of it.

(Seth said in answer to a remark by Bill Gallagher about tattoos, that he himself had never been tattooed. Our friend Mark had, however, in his Denmark existence when he was a sailor. Mark is the entity name for Bill Macdonnel. According to Seth, Jane and I knew Mark in Denmark in the 1600’s. Mark, Seth told us, had a large angel tattooed on his chest as a good luck charm, and believed it to be a protection against storms at sea.

(Seth said that nevertheless the government had a point when they tried to prevent public panic by denying the existence of such craft. A great danger at this particular time would be that an admission of the saucer’s existence would, strangely enough, serve to unite the far-left and far-right extremist groups in this country. These groups would unite in declaring the craft to be Russian, that they were much advanced over anything we have; this whole furor would create panic, Seth said. In six months such reasoning would not apply, because of impending developments in this country. This would presumably be because of the impending elections, though Seth didn’t say this in so many words. In answer to my question he said Barry Goldwater would not be one of the far-rightists to cause trouble. Nothing was said about the source of the saucers, their inhabitants, etc.

(One disquieting subject arose after the Gallaghers had left, and Jane, Seth and I were talking quietly. Seth surprised me by mentioning our neighbor across the hall, Leonard Yaudes. We have known him for several years but he does not know of the sessions. Seth began by saying that the following information was on the edge of Ruburt’s awareness and that he was not very well focused upon it. It had to do with the possibility of an accident or an unpleasantness for Leonard sometime within the next three months. Seth then mentioned the period from September 15 to October 15, after saying that possibly he could focus a little more intently upon the problem.

(Any trouble that developed would be the result of present trends involving Leonard, and at this time these trends were so general it was impossible to pinpoint future events with any certainty. If the present trends were changed, the personality of the future trouble would change also. Jane and I know Leonard fairly well, but actually know little of his inner feelings, his friends, etc. We have no idea of what Seth means by trends. I had become concerned about attempting to warn Leonard in some fashion, but Seth said this could not be done.

(In case of a specific predicted event such a warning could be given, and if heeded could head off trouble. Seth told us that in this case there was nothing we could do. The present trend would have to continue before trouble really was a possibility. Nevertheless Jane and I will be alert on Leonard’s behalf, especially between September 15 and October 15.