“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

SESSION 212

(The 18th envelope test was held during the session. The test object is simply a drawing in black ink of the same symbol used in the first envelope test, of August 18,1965, in the 179th session. See that session for an explanation of the personal meaning this symbol has for us. I made the drawing for this evening’s test on white paper; the paper was thin and the heavy black ink struck through the paper rather clearly. See Volume 4.

(Before tonight’s session Jane and I were discussing ways and means of taking her blood pressure, her weight and various other measurements of a physiological nature before, during and after sessions. Seth referred to this in the last session briefly. We know several doctors on a social basis, but for various reasons hesitate to ask one of them to perform these duties; we would also like to repeat these studies regularly, and could hardly expect a medical man to be available in this respect.

(The name of Father Martin came up in the conversation. He is a monk in a nearby monastery, an ex-doctor, and knows of the sessions casually. He has not witnessed any. Jane and I like him, but doubted his availability very often. One reason is that he gets up at 4 AM to work on the monastery farm.

(Another project we would like to explore is photographing Jane during sessions. I could handle this with a little practice. We talked of illustrating Jane’s book on the Seth material, which she is now writing.

(Jane has decided that she smokes too much during sessions; as a result she did not smoke while dictating this evening, but did light up at breaks. The session was held in our back room, and was a quiet one. Jane spoke while sitting down and with her eyes closed for the most part. Her pace was quite slow in the beginning, but by first break was up to its usual rather fast state.)

I have been most interested in the topic under discussion immediately before our session. Such medical examinations as you have in mind would be excellent from several standpoints, and we shall have further suggestions on all these lines.

Your acquaintance, Father Martin, will work out well if arrangements can be made. This sort of arrangement is more important than the other matter under discussion, concerning a possible photograph of Ruburt during a session. You may of course do as you like. I have nothing against such a photograph being taken or used.

The scales can also be used for weighing Ruburt before, after, and during sessions. He shall weigh in, as fighters do, though this is indeed a different kind of arena.

I am going to let you find your own answers, but any such tests and examinations will be welcomed by me, as long as they are conducted in such a way so that our sessions are not disturbed. And I anticipate no difficulties here.

It would do no harm to purchase a thermometer, taking Ruburt’s temperature before, after and during some sessions. Anything that you learn is to your benefit along these lines, and will serve us all well. The thermometer could also be used of course to test any temperature changes occurring in a regular trance state. These are merely suggestions which I feel may be of benefit.

Again, any changes, or any lack of changes will be significant, and will help you distinguish the differences between various levels of consciousness as they show themselves physically within the organism. You see here that if temperature and pulse is noted before sessions, you may find a correlation that exists between these and specific instances of clairvoyance as demonstrated during a given session, and another given session. Do you follow my point here?

I could go on for quite a while, mentioning things that you could do. They all would add to your work load, though none of them alone would take much time. You have available, through your television set I believe, data having to do with outside temperature, wind velocity and so forth. For your own records you could note these before a session, and look for correlations.

I would definitely suggest that some of the items we mentioned in this session be used in connection with our sessions, for a beginning. There are obviouslyconnections between the psychic and physical self, and there is no reason why you should not begin to investigate these for yourselves.

(We did not press Seth for an item-by-item interpretation of the rest of the impressions. I had prepared this test envelope for last Wednesday’s session but did not use it then; the session was witnessed by the Gallaghers and the test was shoved aside by other developments, notably the impromptu discussion between Seth, Bill and Peg. We ate during the course of the evening, but do not know whether this would be a “supper engagement, with two others beside Ruburt.”

Now. If tests of this nature are to be given at all, they should be given with some kind of regularity, so that Ruburt accepts them as simply another part of the sessions.

His confidence will then be maintained through the averages of our successes, which all in all will be quite good. Isolated tests do not work well, for they upset what he considers the normal circumstances of our sessions. When given they should follow our Dr. Instream material.

I will end the session or continue as you prefer.

(Tracing of the envelope front used in the 19th envelope test, in the 213th session for December 1,1965.)