“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Yesterday we received Dr. Instream’s letter of October 11, in which he asked that Seth try giving data on one location and one object in the clairvoyant tests.

(This afternoon I made up the usual double test envelope, including a pair of Bristol stiffeners. The envelopes contained a black and white photo of York Beach, ME, taken there last summer, that is the summer of 1964. It is of a view I scouted from our motel window. I took it for reference for a future painting, and consists mainly of a mass of tangled marsh grass in the foreground; in the background rise a couple of average-looking houses, a telephone pole and some wires. I obtained excellent detail in the rhythmic pattern of the waist-high grasses, which was what I wanted.

(I wasn’t decided whether to ask Jane to hold an envelope test. On the one hand I didn’t want her to feel I was pressuring her for a test every session; on the other hand I wondered whether she would think I was taking it easy on her if I skipped the test. So I thought I would see what developed in the session.

(This is the eighth Dr. Instream clairvoyant test.

Do you have a test? I will ask you.

(I handed Jane the double test envelope at 10:15. I had decided to pass up the test for this session, and certainly had no thought that Seth would ask me for one.

(This is the 14th envelope test. Jane took the envelope without opening her eyes, as usual, and sat quietly for a moment while holding it in both hands, without bending it, etc. She used pauses while delivering the test data, yet spoke confidently.

(As she delivered the first phrase below, I had the rather strong impression that it referred to the Dr. Instream test material, but I cannot say why I felt this.)

(Break at 10:20. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her voice quiet. She said that when she heard Seth ask me for the envelope test, she became nervous, for as Jane she had no intention of asking for a test. Then, Jane said, when she realized she did feel nervous, and that she was sitting stiffly, she relaxed and let Seth take over.

(See the tracing of the test photograph on page 329. Most of Jane’s impressions can apply to the photo. A “framework of thin lines” is an apt description of the patterns formed by the high marsh grasses in the foreground of the photo, with the houses rising in the background as “cube formations... rising vertically.”

(The test object is a photograph, but with the standard white border.

(“Two people” can be Jane and me, just as I recall that in the second envelope test, which also concerned a photograph of York Beach, the two people mentioned could be us. See page 206.

(Jane said she felt she had learned several things at once during this test. While Seth was giving his data on the photograph, she said, she was also aware of several images of her own. It was as though she heard what Seth was saying, then conjured up her own separate set of visual images. Jane said she is particularly aware of this because as a rule she does not see images at any other time.

(While she was giving Seth’s data, Jane said she had images of a childhood playground in Saratoga Springs, NY, with houses nearby, but recognized this as her own data and did not give it as Seth’s. She felt sure the test object had a northern, as versus a southern, background, but did not say so because Seth did not say so.

(All in all, Jane was pleased with the results of the test. Much of the time in the past she had been quite critical about test results. She now resumed in a quiet voice, and with her eyes closed, at 10:30.)

I realized that Ruburt would do fairly well this evening on our own test, which is why I suggested the test, and also suggested that Ruburt open the envelope.