“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 22nd envelope test was held this evening. The test object was a ball-point pen drawing of a dog; my four-year-old nephew made it while my brother Bill’s family and Jane and I visited my parents last Sunday. I thought David’s drawing good for one his age, and added notes of my own. I intended to file it for the future, but today decided it would make a good test subject. Jane had not seen it. The drawing is on paper the weight of this page. A drawing on the back doesn’t apply here. I sealed it in the usual double envelopes, between two pieces of Bristol.

Our tests must be considered in the light of action, for this is what they are. They involve a more immediate and basic action than physical mobility, and therefore we are concerned with manipulations that are not physical. The associations, personal associations on Ruburt’s part, when they are directly connected to test objects in our envelope tests, represent to some degree a step forward on his part.

We are not speaking of my part now; for in such cases the connections are becoming specific, you see, and the preliminary connection has been made. The personal associations on his part that do not apply to the test object, do represent the fact that his own abilities have not fully developed.

(The candle flame maintained its unusual height until break, then it began to subside somewhat, and continued to do so through the Dr. Instream material to follow. However it did not reach its earlier 3/4-inch low point. Jane said she had been aware of no feeling of energy thrusting sideways out of her toward the candle, as she had been in the 215th session. This is the 25th Dr. Instream test.

(This is the first time I can recall where Jane herself interrupted such test data in this manner. She did not appear to be distracted, however, or to break off in the middle of a piece of information. I put out the cigarette; its smoke had been drifting toward her.)

Do you have a test for me?

(It was 10:15, and time for our 22nd envelope test. Jane took the sealed double envelope from me without opening her eyes. Now she did something new for her in these tests. For several seconds she held the envelope directly against her forehead. Her eyes remained closed. Then she lowered the envelope to her lap.)

(Break at 10:22. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her pace had been fairly good. She said that nothing she said in either test made particular sense to her.

(The candle flame had fluctuated a bit at low ebb during the tests, but had not reached its previous height by far.

(Jane said she received a few visual images during the envelope test, but that they were not sensational by any means. They will be mentioned below.

(See the tracing of the test object on page 131. During last Sunday there was a family gathering at my parents’ home in nearby Sayre, PA. There were twelve people in all: My parents, Jane and I, my brother Loren, his wife and son, and my brother Bill and his wife, and their two daughters and one son. Bill’s son is named David, he is four years old, and it is he who drew the test object, with a black ball-point pen on white paper.

(As Seth explains on page 134 of this session, some of the test data tonight represents preliminary connections with the test object, just as in the last envelope test with the drawing made by Roy Fox. Thus Jane’s personal associations are now often connected with the test object, and she is working with Seth and not against him.

(Jane said that Seth’s count of 1, 2, 3 was his way—or Jane’s?—of leading up to the number 4 that I wrote on the drawing, referring to David’s age. “A room” is too general. Also “Round shapes”; although there are round shapes on the drawing. “The number 12” can apply easily enough. Not only is the month of the test the twelfth month, but there were twelve people present in Sayre the day the test object was drawn. And again, the test object was drawn on December 12th, and so dated by me.

(“Light tissue paper” may be nebulous. Jane and I gave the children their Christmas presents Sunday, and rather than wait for Christmas they opened the gifts then. They were wrapped in regular Christmas paper; if this is called tissue It can be a connection. The test object was drawn in 1965 of course, not 1963. The thought here is that calligraphically the numerals 3 and 5 are quite similar.

(Finally, “Something missing, and someone who could not come,” is also interesting. As soon as the test was over, and I believe before she knew what the test object was, Jane told me that she believed “Something” and “someone” referred to the same thing. Only one member of the family was missing at the gathering Sunday, and this was my brother Loren’s daughter Linda, who was at work in Scranton, PA. It was too far away for her to make the trip up to Sayre, and back, in one day.

(Jane also said that Seth was going to say something about lettering on the test object, but she did not give voice to it. I had made notes on it.

(Tracing of the envelope front used in the envelope test, the 23rd, in the 218th session for December 15,1965.)