“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(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.

(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.)

(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.)

That indeed was very good, quite excellent—but it is not what I am referring to.

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

Now—now you are on the correct issue. It was an accomplishment because you started from scratch, so to speak. Consciously the whole affair annoyed you no end. You saw it as a grumpy old machine, with its best days finished. But you put to excellent use the advice which I gave you, concerning the importance of psychological reactions.

You forgot to buy the gasoline. You had previously not noticed the small red flash indicating that oil was needed, and if the trend had continued you would have continued to ignore this warning light. If your attitude had been strong enough to affect Ruburt, he would not have noticed it either. The general and overall condition of the car was on its way to deterioration.

(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 car operated well the day after the garage repaired it, saying the trouble was moisture in the distributor. The next day the car once again would not start. This necessitated another tow to the garage. To our surprise the second tow and repair were free, the service manager telling us there was corrosion on the coil connections, and that the mechanic should have noticed this and corrected it the first time the car was in the garage.

(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.)

Now when your attitude began to change, it changed first on a subconscious level. Consciously you were not aware of the change. Now. You had already done some damage. The problem was to make it as minor as possible. It was therefore concentrated as corrosion on the coil, and this corrosion was not there when your garageman previously examined it.

There was no need for your garageman to think, then, that the trouble had not been noticed, for when he examined the car last the overall condition was poor. But there was no specific physical or localized trouble. I thought that you would find this rather interesting.

I was pleased with the trance state that you achieved when you visited your dentist. And when you can do this under that stress, you see that you can also do it in other situations. With your parents for example you can use this knowledge, so that their actions will not upset you unduly. With them you simply need the suggestion that you will only react to constructive suggestions.

(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.)

(I thought Seth was going to say something about my attitudes influencing the actual physical behavior of the car.)

It does not matter whether the car is old or new, as long as he has one, and it is for this reason that he fights any of your suggestions that you do without one. The car is also to him a complementary image of his father, who was always on the move, more so than most men, while his mother could not move at all. A lack of a car also makes him fear a return to poverty, since in his neighborhood any car at all was a sign of luxury.

(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.)

There is also a lesser connection here with the garage in which your father spent so much of his time, for you picked up your mother’s anger that he was so often there. One small remark and you may take your break: Ruburt, for the reasons mentioned earlier, also liked anything with wheels that moved, roller skates for example. Anything that offered hope of mobility.

(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.

(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 see that Ruburt received my message correctly. This message was given, incidentally, mentally while he was delivering my words on another subject, and this is an accomplishment indeed.

(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.)

A connection with a photograph that was taken along with others, more than one of its kind in other words.

(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 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.

(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.

You may if you like have a session in which you ask me any personal questions that come to mind. I was holding the material concerning your car for such an occasion, but decided this evening that it was important enough to you to take up a regular session.

(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.