“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Once again I planned an envelope test for the session, should the opportunity arise. I prepared the usual double envelope while Jane was working at the front of the apartment. For the test I used a color photograph of my brother Bill, his wife and two young children, taken in Webster, NY, in 1959. I found the photo accidentally in my files earlier in the day while looking for something else. I knew Jane hadn’t seen it for some time, perhaps years. Bill is 37 years old.

(The photo is of a winter scene, with brilliant contrasts of light and shadow. I have indicated the colors crudely in my tracing on page 242 . The group of four sit on the edge of a concrete patio at the back of Bill’s house. I did not mention a test to Jane, but she is well aware that they are in the offing now; earlier in the day she casually mentioned tests, without asking specifically whether I had one planned for tonight.

(It was 10:06. Reaching over, I dropped the test envelope in Jane’s lap as she spoke. Her eyes were closed. They did not open now, nor did her delivery falter. Actually she gave no sign that she was aware of the envelope. I chose this method of introducing the envelope into Jane’s awareness to see if it would halt or interfere with the material of the moment, and was pleased to see that it did not. I had taken care to see that Jane had not seen the test envelope during breaks, or before the session.)

(It was 10:11. Jane had been speaking with pauses. Now she paused again, then picked up the test envelope. Her eyes were still closed. As during her previous four tests she held the double envelope lightly in both hands. She did not appear to be nervous.)

(Break at 10:15. Jane had been dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her voice quiet. She delivered the test data without hesitation or fumbling. She told me she had felt the envelope drop into her lap but that it had not bothered her.

(Once again the test data was interesting. This was the first time, also, that Seth had separated his own data from that of Ruburt’s, or Jane’s. Refer to my tracing of the photograph on page 242. Seth’s data can be seen to apply rather directly, with the exception that the photo is of four people instead of three. This is dealt with after break, along with the matter of chimney shapes.

For one thing, we are trying to teach Ruburt preciseness in word formation. I am not able yet to give him a visual image during a test. Therefore the information must be passed on verbally.

The children that I perceived, he projected into this picture of his, a photograph in which children were indeed involved. The photograph used in the test was taken in the afternoon. The chimney was not in the picture. I saw the chimney of the other house in the test photograph, but this does not show there.

These tests are most advantageous, and should be continued. We will endeavor to teach Ruburt so that more precise data is received.

(The photograph has a white border, and a stamp with writing on the reverse side. No chimneys show in the photo. The house across the street is very small in the photo; for Seth to make an association with that house is most intriguing to us. As in the last test, the process of association involved proved to be most interesting.

(Tracing of cancelled United States postage stamps used in the 6th envelope test, Session 186, September 8,1965.)