“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(For the envelope test this evening I chose a piece of an old furniture label that Jane and I had peeled from the back of a bureau a couple of weeks ago. See the tracing above. I found the label, or rather part of it, in my studio this afternoon and decided to use it for the test. Since it was lying unobtrusively among my things on a shelf I thought Jane had not been aware of it. She later confirmed this, saying she thought I had thrown it out at the time we removed it.

(The label was brittle and quite brown with age, and broke apart when removed. There was nothing on its reverse side. I thought such an old object might have some interesting impressions attached to it. The bureau it came from is an old- fashioned one that had sat in the garage of “our” apartment house for some years. Our landlord gave it to us, and we fixed it up and repainted it.

(It will be remembered that in the 194th session Seth promised to discuss in the 195th session our cat’s rather frequent if brief bouts of illness. Since this was not done however, I mentioned it to Jane before this evening’s session. Jane said she had also thought of it. To avoid interruptions we used the back room, although Jane prefers the larger front room. She began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her voice was average in strength, her pace rather fast although interspersed with pauses.)

(Break at 9:21. Jane was dissociated as usual for a first break. Her eyes remained closed, her voice even and rather fast, even with some pauses. For much of the delivery she sat leaning forward in her rocker, her head tipped down somewhat, and with her hands clasped as her elbows rested upon her knees. This has come to be something of a characteristic pose for her lately during the sessions; I do not recall seeing Jane ever use it outside of a session.

The pet also sensed Ruburt’s own upset when he was, when Ruburt was, worried, and this also contributed. The cat is generally in good health. You are also both in good health at this time. And you, Joseph , should escape your December doldrums this year, and I thoroughly expect that you shall.

(Jane, as Seth, smiled as she referred to Dr. Instream. Jane does know the suspected cat food, which is a combination of liver and fish. The worry referred to above concerns Jane’s interest in her ESP book; it took her publisher some time to let her know he was reading it, and as seen in the 195th session Jane finally telephoned the publisher to get the final okay on the book. Many sessions ago, as many as a hundred or more, Seth told us that animal pets would reflect the psychic health and concerns of their owners.

It is the ego, practically speaking, who attempts to do the distinguishing here; but the inner core of the self, the inner ego of which we have spoken, manages the basic chore. The setting up of the ego represented at once the necessity of boundaries, represented a cutting apart from, a divorcing, and a rigid limiting function. Initially this was necessary while this new sort of creature learned to maintain itself as a separate unit.

(Break at 9:55. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed. Her pace had been quite fast and sure, with the result that my writing hand was quite tired. Her voice had been average.

(As usual when giving the Dr. Instream material, Jane spoke at a slower pace. By now however the pace was not as slow as it had been during the first few such tests. I will indicate a few pauses and some strategic times. Jane resumed while sitting down and with her eyes closed, and in an average voice, at 10:05.)

A disturbance of sorts occurred today. He received a letter from a person whose name begins with M. There was a phone call at dinnertime—that is, the night meal. I believe that his office is going to be changed or redecorated or perhaps repainted; some change of this sort in the near future, if it has not already been done. But this is a rearrangement of some sort, that could involve furniture arrangement.

But the office is not the same now, or very shortly will not be as it was when we were there. The change may also involve another person. Dr. Instream may grumble about being routed out, though this might be only temporarily while the rearrangement is being done. (Pause at 10:11.)

(Break at 10:22. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her voice average. Her pace had been a little slow. She was not, she said, nervous while giving the Dr. Instream data. She said: “I did seem to see him standing with his mouth open in a characteristic pose, with a drink in his hand.” Jane said the impression was not too clear, and that she also had some impression of the living room and terrace of the Instream apartment, which we had seen in July 1965.

(Jane told me she was nervous, however, when it came to our own envelope test. She did not think I had a test for her. She said it was hard to say exactly when she became nervous, but that it was probably as I handed her the test envelope.

We will speak but briefly. Originally the bureau belonged to a woman to whom it was delivered at this address. She left your town and went to Florida, and left the chest.

I believe that the woman lived in your apartment, and that the chest was used by others after the woman left, and before you obtained it.

(End at 10:34. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes remained closed, her voice quiet.)

(Tonight Bill and Peggy Gallagher came to visit us. Bill told us that he would have to leave for a few minutes to pick up an advertisement at the bus terminal and take it to the newspaper office, the Star-Gazette, where he works. On the spur of the moment Peggy suggested that we all try to pick up impressions concerning the ad, while Bill was gone. Bill himself would not know the contents of the ad, which was in an envelope, until he opened it at the paper.

(Correct, though this was the upstairs office. The three people were a Mr. Connor, who Bill definitely did not expect to see, and his two children.

(Correct. Bill insists this is a direct hit. He said that the term sig is always used in the ads, and is part of the language of the ad department. They discussed which “sig” to use, and the word “sig” was inserted, though no signature was then written in. Though sig means signature, the word signature itself is never used, Bill said. Phonetically the words are the same, cig and sig, though mine begins with a C.

(Correct. Bill had an unpleasant encounter with Mr. Connor earlier in the day, and he was thinking of quitting his job because of it. When he found Mr. Connor in the office after regular hours, and unexpectedly, Bill was upset and instantly tense.

(Near-correct. Before Mr. Connor’s entrance, Bill was joking with another man. On purpose he pronounced the word Ponce as P O N K A Y, which sounds very much like padre.

(Note: I am completely unfamiliar with any ad terms, and did not even know that lineup was such a term, much less sig.)

(While Bill Gallagher was putting on his hat and coat at 10 PM tonight, preparatory to leaving our apartment for the bus terminal, I wrote down two impressions of headlines. I was not in a trance state. Bill did not see these until he returned at 10:35 PM; he told me both of them were incorrect.

(After Bill left Jane and Peggy sat talking while I read. As she talked Jane jotted down her impressions. I interrupted my reading to put myself into a light trance state, and then wrote down four more impressions. Three of these proved to be correct. I used the trance state rather casually, and later wished I had written down more impressions; but I was interested in getting back to my reading.

(Both incorrect. I made these before Bill left the apartment. The ad was printed on Tuesday, October 12, 1965. The actual headline consisted of the single word NOW!

(Incorrect. Here I referred to the wrapping of the ad when Bill picked it up at the bus terminal. Bill said the ad was wrapped in brown paper and sealed with brown paper tape.

(Correct. Bill said the material for the ad, [the plates], was protected by two layers of heavy cardboard.

(Correct. Bill said the layout suggested for the ad was for four columns. When he got to the office and tried to make a layout for four columns however, he found it to be too crowded and switched to a five-column layout. The sigs he arranged at the bottom of the ad.

(With this impression, as I sat with closed eyes, I seemed to receive a picture. I saw fairly clearly a four-column layout set in type; at the top was a plate for printing a photograph, with headline lettering on either side of the photo. I could not distinguish the subject matter of the photo. When Bill returned he asked me to diagram what I had seen. To the viewer’s left on page 321 is a copy of the drawing I made for him, to the right is a sketch of the actual ad as printed. On Friday night Bill told me my sketch was pretty close to the layout he finally decided upon at the office, and talked over with the stereotyper. My impression was of the metal printing plate, not the final printed ad. The metal appeared to be clean and unused and shining.)