“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Last week we received Dr. Instream’s letter of September 13, in which he wrote that he would like to try straight clairvoyant communication with Seth on Monday and Wednesday nights at 10 PM. Dr. Instream also noted that on the evening of August 23,1965 he and his wife stopped overnight at York Beach, ME, while traveling. It will be remembered that Jane’s second envelope test was held on the night of August 23, in the 180th session, and that the test photo featured Jane on the waterfront at York Beach. I took the picture in the summer of 1964.

(Dr. Instream would like us to ask Seth why he stopped at York Beach, since he had never been there before. For our part we want to know whether Dr. Instream understands that he was in York Beach on the same night a photo of York Beach was used in a session, or whether he remembers reading about York Beach in previous sessions.

(In preparation for her next book, which will deal with the Seth material itself, Jane made an exploratory trip to several county records offices in Elmira; she is beginning an effort to track down Frank Watts. She accomplished a little, and met some helpful people; she enjoyed the quest.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

We will go more deeply into a discussion of the ways and means by which both dream images and other materializations are constructed. For there are various balances, or rather various delicate imbalances, which must be maintained; and there are differences also in the makeup of dream images, which are usually seen only by the dreamer, and some other more physical materializations which may be created by the semi-waking self, and under certain circumstances seen by others.

Dream images are composed in part as a result of chemical excesses that are built up normally by the organism in the waking state. Physical materializations are built up by bringing about this condition of excessive chemical action.

It is true that a state can be produced in which such materializations can occur, by artificially producing the chemical imbalance necessary. However, success by this method may or may not occur.

I am keeping your York Beach material until later in the session, close to the ten o’clock hour.

The material of which we are speaking—

(I was somewhat irritated by the interruption, since we use the cramped back room to avoid such incidents. But Jane told me not to worry, that the session was going to be a good one, that she felt Seth coming through well.

This material will be most helpful in our own sessions, since when we are finished with it you will understand to some degree those conditions which may be advantageous and those which are not.

(Jane now told me she thought the “two people” referred to by Seth in the 2nd envelope test in the 180th session, were Dr. Instream and his wife Judy. See page 209. At the time, I had assumed that the two people referred to were Jane and me, since she was in the picture I took. We now know, of course, that Dr. Instream and his wife were in York Beach on the night of the 180th session.

(Here Seth refers to Jane’s trip downtown to the records offices, in search of data on Frank Watts. She was somewhat uneasy setting out on her journey, but wound up enjoying the afternoon a great deal.)

There will be more said concerning this matter, since the same sort of mechanism is involved in the construction of materializations, in sessions such as this one, and in the construction of dream images.

You may take a brief break, and we shall consider other matters, and then perhaps return to this material.

For if I did not get the names through, Ruburt did not distort the material in that instance, so that the record shows that I mentioned a man and a woman, and J. B.

(It was 10:11 PM. Jane sat quietly, her eyes closed. Actually her pause was quite brief. Her head was down, a hand to her face. Jane used many pauses delivering the following material, and I will indicate a few of them. I had the impression that she was being careful in what she said, but not that she was particularly nervous.)

(Break at 10:25. Jane was dissociated as usual. She said she did not feel particularly nervous while delivering the material on Dr. Instream. Her eyes had remained closed, her voice quiet. She had a vague memory of what she had said.

(See the copy of the test item on page 266. It is an excerpt from one of Jane’s early unpublished novels. It can be seen that once again Seth, or Jane, delivered a variety of impressions that can apply easily enough. The script deals with two people. The word “fall” appears once, and is implied in the simile “totter.”

The material on our own test this evening came through as a literal translation of concepts in the script.

(“Good night, Seth.” A reminder: Seth alone calls for all underlined words.

(End at 10:49. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes remained closed, her voice quiet. Seth’s comment on this evening’s test came through because Jane and I had been speculating about such a translation of the script at last break.)