“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(We have been reading the article on sleep in the September 18th issue of the New Yorker. Called “A Third Stage of Existence”, it deals with REM sleep, or the rapid eye movements that have been shown to occur during dreaming. Since Seth has dealt with dreams to some extent Jane and I have a somewhat different slant on sleep and dreaming, and what is involved.

(For the test object I picked a black and white photograph of a dog Jane had owned when I married her. The dog, Mischa, is now dead. Jane took the picture before I met her, some 11 years ago. See the tracing on page 295. I slipped the photo between two pieces of Bristol, then into the usual double envelopes; the Bristol board prevented identification of the photo’s serrated edges by touch.

(The session was held in our back room, and was a quiet one. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her voice was average. Her pace was slow at the beginning but soon picked up speed. She began speaking at 9:01.)

(Break at 9:28. Jane had been dissociated as usual for a first delivery. Her eyes had remained closed, her pace had been good, her voice average. She resumed in the same manner at 9:29.)

(Break at 9:50. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes remained closed, her voice average, her pace quite fast. She also remembered some of the material in a general way.

(It was 10:06. Jane settled herself in her rocker. Her eyes were closed, her head down, a hand to her face. Her voice was quiet and remained so. She used pauses but they were usually brief.)

I believe he has been irritated by a particular person, a male. I do not know... There is a connection, something to do with lights. Perhaps in connection with the man. Does he perhaps live on Light Street? Or his name (Jane gestured, her eyes still closed) Light Man—Lightman, or something of that sort. (Pause.)

(I handed Jane the envelope. She took it without opening her eyes, then sat quietly, holding it in both hands. Her pause was brief.)

(Break at 10:24. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes remained closed, her voice quiet. She said that right after she had delivered the material on Dr. Instream she felt quite tired. She realized she was tired as she heard herself asking me if I had a test for her. When I asked if it was possible for her to change her mind and postpone a test under such circumstances, she said she did not know. Jane regarded tonight’s envelope test as pretty much of a failure.

(See the tracing of the test photo on page 295. Jane felt the test data contained but few correct impressions. She said the color purple could apply to the brick facing depicted in the photograph. Jane remembered this quite well even though the photo was taken some years ago. Our dog sits before the Bronx, NY, house of Jane’s aunt; Jane said she well remembers the peculiar blue and red cast of the bricks. I saw the house once some years ago but have no conscious memory of the brick color.

(Jane resumed with her eyes again closed, her voice quiet, at 10:29.)

(For the last two days Jane had been trying to work out a system whereby the test results, both hits and misses, could be read more or less at a glance, as opposed to my rather rambling subjective treatment. I think Jane meant tabulate, above.

(She had worked out a two-column system that seemed rather good to us, but neither of us had realized the very intense effort involved would be detrimental. Since Jane’s idea would involve listing the material in such a fashion twice a week, and thus keep her involved, we decided to drop the idea, at least for the moment.

(I had planned to ask Seth a few questions at the end of the session. I now realized that Jane was tired, but decided to see what developed. For material connected with the first question, see my notes on Lorraine Shafer, York Beach, and Dr. Instream on pages 289-90, preceding the 193rd session.

(See the 9th, 15th, 17th, 69th and 80th sessions for material on our York Beach experiences. I believe that above Seth refers to the first three named sessions. These deal with events involving Jane and me at York Beach in August of 1963, preceding the beginning of these sessions by several months.

(End at 10:40. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes remained closed, her voice quiet. Her pace had been good for the most part during the session.

(I had intended asking one more question, concerning the source of the material Jane gave on the envelope test. So much of it appeared to be of opposite or reverse nature to the test object that it seemed to fit a pattern.