“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 23rd envelope test was held this evening during the session. For the test object I used the front of an envelope addressed to Jane and me by my mother. I folded it once as indicated, enclosed it between two pieces of Bristol, and sealed it in the usual double envelopes.

(When I lit our test candle at 8:55 PM, the flame at once shot up to an estimated height of three inches; I had not seen it do this before. It smoked noticeably for a few moments. The flame then settled down to a steady height of about 1 1/4 inches, and remained there through first break. As usual, the flame was shielded from Jane’s vision during her deliveries.

(It was now time for the 26th Dr. Instream test. As usual Jane spoke while sitting down, with her head tipped down and her hands raised to her closed eyes. Her pace now slowed somewhat, and her voice was quiet. Resume at 10:06.)

Do you have a test for me?

(It was 10:15. Jane took the usual double envelope from me without opening her eyes. Reading over the last session, she had been surprised to learn that she had held the test envelope to her forehead for a few minutes, since she didn’t remember doing this. Now, she once again pressed the test envelope to her forehead, this time more deliberately, and with both hands. She continued to hold it there. Her eyes were closed, her voice very quiet. This is the 23rd envelope test.)

(Break at 10:23. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed for both tests. She sat with the test envelope pressed to her forehead the whole time. The candle flame burned at the same steady height.

(Seth did not elaborate on the test envelope impressions, so what follows are our own interpretations. For his own part, Seth was too eager to get on with his discussion of Priestley’s book, it developed.

(See the tracing of the test object on page 140. It is of the front of an envelope addressed to Jane and me by my mother on December 1. The letter contained in this envelope figures in the test results, and will be kept on file with the envelope. The letter would be quoted here except that the contents are rather personal. It is of course available however to anyone seriously considering these tests, should they be that interested.

(Seth’s unclear connection with “a missionary” is interesting. My brother Loren is mentioned in the letter contained within the test envelope, and his father-in-law is a retired minister. The letter of course can be “A note”.

(“The mention of a time” is easily accounted for in the same letter. In it my mother discusses the visit Jane and I were due to make to my parents on Sunday, December 5th. The date was not mentioned, just the word Sunday. My mother then canceled this visit of ours by telephone, and Jane and I then journeyed to visit my parents in Sayre, PA, on the following Sunday, December 12. It was on this visit that I obtained the test object used in the last session, the 217th.

(Jane said she was sure “Something square” referred to the dimensions of the test envelope when it was folded, although it does not measure out as a perfect square. The “connection with four other people” works out well, since the letter concerns a situation involving both my parents, my brother Loren and my brother Bill, other than Jane and me.

(“Road, or road shape,” and “Unusual shadows” are too general. There may be a vague connection with “A cake,” but it would be several times removed from the test object. We did not have cake for dessert at the family gathering on December 12 for instance.

(The test object is “Paper with printing,” the printing being the machine-applied cancellation, in my opinion, rather than my mother’s handwriting. “Your handwriting,” meaning mine, does not apply.

I believe it is apparent in our own tests, incidentally, that some preciseness is beginning to show through, for in the general associations connected with the object, identifying points concerning the specific object now appear.

(The Gallaghers believe that the following impression, given by Seth in the same session as applying to Dr. Instream, applies instead to them. Jane gave the data after the break which had presumably ended the Gallagher test:)

(At the end of the 201st session, concluding the Gallagher Puerto Rico tests, Seth stated:)

(As soon as we realized that Peggy’s trip would furnish a good opportunity for another test, we asked her to say no more about it. By then we knew she was going to Washington, but Jane does not believe Peggy told her specifically, for instance, that Peggy was to cover a seminar on poverty. Be that as it may, we were told little in advance of the trip. Peggy herself did not know about the trip until a few days before she left.

(Tests resulting from this upset led to the medical opinion that Bill has two ulcers. However a recheck of old X-rays seems to show that the second ulcer had previously existed, but had not been detected. Needless to say, neither Jane nor I had seen Bill, or heard from him, since the unscheduled session of last Friday, December 3. We saw him later in the evening of December 10, after the interview with Peggy.)

(Jane took a break at this point, seemingly ending the Gallagher test before she went into the Dr. Instream test. However, Peggy said the first paragraph of the Insteam material applied to her Washington trip:)

(See page 122. At the time of the 215th session, Jane said she believed the pocketbook data, above, applied to herself, and as it developed a lost pocketbook connection involving Jane did grow out of the 21st envelope test, held in the 215th session.

(See also the notes on page 122, concerning the possibility of Seth giving information, in such tests, on something that is not noticed by the subject. A good example here is the taxicab symbol material on page 167-68.)

(Before our envelope test in the 215th session Seth added one more line to the Gallagher test material; see page 121:)

(Tracing of the hospital visitor’s pass, furnished by Lorraine Shafer, and used as the test object in the 24th envelope test, in the 219th session for January 3,1966.)