“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.

(See the copy on page 197. For the test object I used a letter from my brother Loren, who lives in Tunkhannock, PA. It is typewritten in black ink on paper the weight of this page, and white. It was folded once between two pieces of Bristol, then sealed in the usual double envelope. My brother inadvertently dated the letter 1965 instead of 1966.

(I was three years old when my parents made the month-long drive to California, and my brother Loren was two. I have a few vivid conscious memories of the trip. I grew up listening to my parents talk about the trip. When I was drafted during the second World War I was given aptitude tests; to my surprise I did well on mechanical subjects, and ended up as an airplane mechanic and instrument specialist in the Air Transport Command.)

(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.)

I have specifically given the blue chair as object. (Pause at 10:20.) I will ask you, Joseph, for our test, and I will then have a few general remarks to make concerning our tests at this point.

(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.

(See the tracing of the test object on page 197.

(“The habit of squirreling away” is a good reference to my father, in whose photographic studio my brother Loren took the pictures he refers to in the test letter. The studio is in part of my father’s cellar; the rest of the cellar is stuffed and cluttered with odds and ends my father has accumulated over the years. The rest of the family views the overloaded cellar as a fire hazard.

(“A paper item.” The test object is a paper item.

(“A connection with a photograph that was taken along with others, more than one of its kind in other words.” The test object of course is connected to the photos also indicated on page 198, and these particular photos were connected with “other”s since they were the last two exposures on a roll of film.

(“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.

(“Horizontal lines and star shapes.” is vague to us, although the test object, the letter, contains horizontal lines of type.

He is doing very well. He will automatically improve. I want him to remember this, for there is no reason for him to blame himself when, as in our last test, we did poorly. There is no blame involved.

We work in our tests almost as one organism, as a gestalt, and you also have a part here Joseph. We were certainly specific with this last test, but there must be freedom first.

Now Ruburt grows unsure as far as Dr. Instream’s tests are concerned, when we are asked for a specific object, and this does hamper us. However this feeling will vanish as we continue, and again, it is a natural reaction on his part so he should not blame himself for it.

(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.)