“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Before the session this evening I wondered what effects Seth might be able to demonstrate, on a consistent basis, if a candle were lit just before each session, as a matter of routine, and then ignored as much as possible. The idea being that if it became part of the regular session routine Jane would forget about it, thus allowing any possible effects to come through without worrying about them. At first I was joking about the idea, but when Jane said it was all right to go ahead with the idea, I took her up on it. When we were set up for the session, I placed a lighted candle on the shelf beside me, behind some books so that Jane could not see it. Since the room was well lighted the candle flame would make no noticeable difference, in the event it flared up while her eyes were open.

Now, do you have a test for me?

(Jane reached out to take the usual double envelope from me. She did not open her eyes. She sat quietly holding the envelope in one hand, with the other raised to her face. Her pauses were brief. This is our 21st envelope test.)

(At first the envelope test data left us at a loss, until memory began to work. To sum up first, we saw that Seth had used the name of the artist who had executed the block print, Roy Fox, as a starting point for data involving Jane and Roy and me, but for some reason had not dealt with the test object itself. We do not know why this happened, since Seth did not discuss the results this evening. Jane’s mother and a Christmas present also entered the test data, for reasons we do understand; here Seth tells us that Ruburt thinks of the package that his mother sent him.

(Roy Fox is a personal friend of ours. Last Christmas he arranged for me to have a show of paintings at Harris Hill Inn, just outside Elmira, in February 1965. The show lasted for a month. It opened on February 2,1965, and on the following Sunday, February 7, Jane and I were guests at the Inn, to discuss the show with anyone interested.

(“A lack of discretion” is of particular interest to Jane and me, since this is a most apt description of a situation Roy Fox was involved in during that February, 1965, and for several months before and after that month. The situation was common knowledge, so no confidences are violated to say that at the time Roy was keeping company with a woman who was separated from her husband, but not divorced. She had several children. Roy is a man in his sixties, had never married, and since he seemed so completely happy in this situation we had assumed marriage would follow. The woman’s husband returned to Elmira last summer, however.

(Jane would like me to add here that she believes the envelope test data of this evening developed the way it did because of the emotional content of events involving Jane, Roy and myself. Whereas Roy’s blockprint, while appealing to us both, was comparatively lacking in such emotional content, intrinsically.

What do you want me to say?

(Jane told me she felt a definite thrust of what she presumed to be energy toward the candle. It was a feeling she had not experienced before. She also had the thought as she sat quietly that Seth wanted to say something about the candle. Jane felt she might distort the information, however, because she realized that whatever she wanted to say was not automatic as it usually is; therefore she said nothing.