“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.

Do you have a test for me, Joseph ?

Dr. Instream should if possible read the data on your private tests, for on occasion it is possible that some of the Instream material may bleed through, so to speak. This is merely a possibility at times.

(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.

(The photo does have verticals in it, and the dog’s form can be seen as cone shaped. Our dog was certainly of personal concern to us, the test object is a photograph, my initials are not directly connected with it as far as being visible, and as far as we know there is no wallet connection with the photo, etc. Thus most of the rest of the data appear as opposite or reverse impressions.

Now in regard to our own test this evening: Ruburt, at this stage, should not work on our own test results as he has been doing. He has been concentrating too much on grading our tests.

He has worked at this several hours daily. This is not his job, and it will work against our results. His job is to remain as spontaneous as possible. His work in attempting to tabulize the test results thus far, will only hamper our results. He should be in no way connected with that endeavor.

I cannot repeat this too strongly. He should dismiss the tests entirely from his mind. The tests in the sessions have not bothered him at all to any important degree, except for a natural initial nervousness, and all in all we have been coming along well enough. But at this stage he simply should leave the grading and so forth to you. Of course he may make suggestions as he reads the sessions, but that is all.

(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.

(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.