“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(On Saturday January 8 Jane and I received a letter from Dr. Instream, asking that Seth do his best to give data on but one object during tests. Dr. Instream also mentioned his difficulty in attempting to repeat an experiment with ESP cards, involving odds of a million-and-a-half to one. Jane and I mentioned that we would like Seth to say something on both points in tonight’s session.

(We had some reservations however about trying it now, but decided to see what Seth would say. We didn’t want to give rise to a feeling of pressure on Jane during sessions, and wondered whether it was wise to try three regular tests. We want room for other material also. For this reason we had let the candle-flame tests go for the moment, even though they appear promising.

(See the tracing of the envelope test object on page 190. It is a humorous drawing made by Ann Diebler, who works in my office at Artistic Card Co.; Piggie, incidentally, refers to pigeon. I had mentioned the drawing to Jane several weeks ago, but not since, and of course she did not know I had brought it home. I put it between two pieces of Bristol and sealed it in the usual double envelope.

(The session was held in our large front room. Jane said she was somewhat sleepy before the session began. She began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed, but halfway to first break her eyes began to open occasionally. Her pace was good, her voice average.)

You think of the past as done with and completed, but on a subconscious basis you travel through the past. The past therefore becomes present. You know that precognition is a fact. The steady line of time does not exist. Inversion in terms of value interwound upon value, energy compressed, contained, working upon itself, contained but with momentum—this comes much closer to reality.

In essence you see the past can be changed. Present actions can change future events that would otherwise occur. But when this is admitted, then we must admit also that present events can alter the past, for there is no element in the past that has a different structure or composition or characteristic, that is not present in the future.

We will try here to give you an example. Take for example then the house in which Ruburt spent his childhood. Now as you know, that was never one definite unchanging object. That house was a conglomeration of atoms and molecules, perceived generally as a house, but perceived specifically by everyone who saw it as a slightly different house. For each observer quite literally created from his own subconscious energy an approximation of a house, a general shape then perceived as a house, and further embellished by personal judgments.

Ruburt has progressed very well, but is still learning to pinpoint in a specific manner.

There is no reason why the test results cannot be repeated, intrinsically. Dr. Instream however fears that they will not be repeated, and unless this feeling is changed on his part such will be the case. He wants a repeat, but he fears he will not get it, simply because he wants it so badly, and the student reacts to this subconscious inhibiting factor.

(Jane said she had rather strong images visually of the data; twice she saw her white coat quite strongly. In the test she was unable to tell when she got off on the track of personal associations; somehow the fine discrimination was lacking. Jane said that by the time she approached break she knew the test had been a poor one. But she also knew the test was poor, something she wouldn’t have been able to distinguish not too long ago. She could, she said, feel herself getting involved with what she knew were incorrect images.

However, only by making mistakes can Ruburt learn to distinguish the highly nebulous changes, subjectively speaking, that characterize legitimate hits from failures, and without the experience he would not learn. The coat was a legitimate connection, but I could not get through to him to make it correctly. He was working on the level of personal associations. There is a certain feel to the correct channel, and he will learn to distinguish it.

The November event I believe had to do with an occasion when your Ann visited here, but it is hardly adequate.

This is all a process of learning. Relaxation in the hour before sessions will help. We are trying to work on two levels here. We want success of course, but we also want to know how success is achieved, and so we shall.

(Tracings of the two Kodachrome transparencies of Jane that Loren enclosed with his letter. They were not used as test objects, but were referred to in the test data.)