“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This afternoon while doing Yoga exercises Jane gave herself suggestions to the effect that she would do better in the envelope test tonight, than she had done last session. As will be seen, she did do much better.

(The session again was held in our large front room, and was not interrupted. Jane began while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her eyes soon opened, however, and she displayed much amusement. Her pace was good, her voice average.)

(Jane now smiled. Her eyes, very dark, opened briefly. She stared at me from across the table.)

(Another smile from Jane as she stared at me. I didn’t know what Seth was referring to so I began to guess.

(Last night I had had a very vivid dream in which I was levitating, my first of its kind since I began keeping records. Jane shook her head.)

(Jane smiled broadly and nodded her head. She was much amused. She pointed at me, her eyes wide open.)

(A week or so ago I forgot to buy gasoline, and this led to a situation that could have been dangerous. When Jane and I were on our way to the home of the Gallaghers, who live on top of a steep and long hill outside Elmira, the car lost power, then stalled out on the hill. It was after dark, the road was slippery with snow; I had to back down the hill while Jane lighted the way with a flashlight, until I found a driveway. I did not realize I had run low on gas at the time, for the car started as we coasted down hill. We arrived home safely but the car would not start up again.

(Jane and I walked to a nearby station for gasoline but the car still wouldn’t start; consequently the garage had to tow the car in for repairs. Seth’s information on the oil warning light is also apparently correct, for when the garage checked the oil level it was quite low. I usually make a point of watching this closely, and it is interesting to speculate as to how I failed to see the warning light go on, since it is situated on the dash in front of me. I had the oil checked immediately after I became aware that the warning light was on. Nor had Jane noticed it on.

(The 220th session, containing Seth’s advice, was held while the car was in the garage the first time. After the session I made a conscious effort to improve my attitude about the car. By then I had the idea that psychological attitudes could affect the car, and had recalled that once before Seth had dealt with the car and our attitudes while on our way to a Maine vacation in August 1964. See the 80-81st sessions. According to Seth, Jane and I had succeeded in altering considerably the car’s oil consumption; and as evidence we had before us the fact that the car had used much less oil on the trip than we had calculated. See Volume 2.)

(Jane smiled again. I did find it interesting, especially when I contemplated trying to explain it to our service manager at the garage, who is a personal friend of ours, but does not know about these sessions.)

(Break at 9:21. Jane was dissociated as usual for a first delivery. Her eyes had opened frequently, and her pace had been fast as the session progressed. She resumed in the same manner at 9:26.)

(Jane smiled, her eyes wide and dark.)

(Break at 9:49. Jane said she was very well dissociated this delivery. Her eyes had been open often and her pace had been good. Break had barely begun when she resumed briefly, in a much deeper voice, at 9:50.)

(Break again at 9:51. Jane said she realized of course that she enjoyed having a car, any kind of car, available. But she hadn’t particularly associated this with the reasons Seth ascribed to a need for mobility. Nor had she made any great connection with the idea of her father being a traveling man. My idea was that Seth had mentioned these things briefly in much earlier sessions.

(Jane now told me that while speaking last time, she received a message from Seth to the effect that from now on she wasn’t to smoke during tests, because of the distraction involved. She didn’t have to pause while giving the regular material to get this message, but seemed to receive it on another level simultaneously with the material she gave voice to. She had been smoking so far during the session.

(It was now time for the 30th Dr. Instream test. It did not materialize immediately however, and Jane resumed at 10:01 with her eyes opening occasionally.)

(Jane looked at me now.)

(Jane paused at 10:10. She sat quietly with her head down, her hands raised to her closed eyes. She was not smoking. Her pace was now slower, with many brief pauses.)

(As usual Jane took the sealed double envelope from me without opening her eyes. Her head was tipped down; such was its position that when she held the envelope up, as she has been doing lately, she pressed it against the top of her head. This is the 27th envelope test.)

(Break at 10:29. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed. She held the test envelope to the top of her head the whole time. She didn’t think she had done well in the test, whereas actually the results were very good.

(“A connection with four people, I believe men.” Three men and one woman were present in the studio when the pictures shown on page 198 were taken, for the correct total of four people: Jane, myself, my father and my brother Loren.

(“Now this remark leads Ruburt to think of Lois.” This is a good example of the way personal associations can work. Our friend Lois took some photos of Jane recently, for use on the dust jacket of Jane’s ESP book. The photos my brother Loren took were also to be used in connection with publicity for the ESP book.

(“A square, and a round object, perhaps inside the square.” This is a good reference to the color transparencies my brother took. Again, see the tracings of the photos on page 198. What we have is a rectangular area with rounded corners inside the square object. Perhaps Seth/Jane’s perception of the rounded corners led to the statement concerning a round object inside the square.

(“I pick up a very distant connection with Wisconsin, which I do not understand”, puzzled Jane, since she had no idea of what this could mean. I thought it might be a reference to the fact that my brother Loren, who wrote the test letter, is a model railroad fan. The magazine Model Railroader was, I thought, published in Wisconsin. There is a strong connection here because Loren has contributed articles and photographs to this magazine for many years. A trip to the newsstand to check verified my idea; Model Railroader has editorial offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jane was especially pleased at this because she knows nothing of the hobby, or the magazine or its address. It took me two days after the session to come up with the connection with Wisconsin myself.

(“Two o’clock.” would seem to be a reference to the time the photos were taken of Jane. On a Sunday after a noon dinner at my parent’s home Jane, myself, Loren and my father went down to the photographic studio.

(Jane said that Seth’s reference to Lois put her back on the right track as far as subsequent data went. There was a fine distinction to be made here, since both Lois and my brother were involved taking pictures of Jane for the same purpose: Jane’s ESP book. Thus Seth and Jane worked very well together here. Also note another example of cooperation, wherein Jane contributed accurately with her connection to a disturbing event, and Seth said this was Jane’s idea.

(As stated earlier, Jane took the time to relax before the session tonight, and feels it was well worth while.

(Jane’s eyes once again opened fairly often when she resumed at 10:40.)

(Jane’s voice now deepened a good deal and became considerably louder. For more emphasis she rapped on the tabletop. Her eyes were open and very dark.)

(End at 10:55. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her pace had been good. She said she had been quite aware, this evening, of the presence of another personality in the room with us. She had felt as though she were reacting to a third person, one whom she felt rapport with and hated to see leave. She hadn’t been as plainly aware of the feeling before.

(Seth’s statements on page 207, to the effect that even incorrect test data is legitimate to important layers of the personality, is probably an important one in our opinion. We have been aware of this possibility and plan to ask more questions about it. I do not recall Seth’s referring to this point so plainly before, although he may have. Jane and I do not recall reading anything treating with the subject, and wonder whether it could not be quite a valid field for investigation in itself.)