“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The test object was among other papers that we cleaned up at the house, with the intention of mailing them to Mr. Birch’s new address in North Carolina; later we learned this wasn’t necessary and the papers lay forgotten in my file until I came across them the other day. As far as I know Jane never did see this specific item among the papers. I sealed it in the usual double envelope after placing it between two pieces of board.

(It will be remembered that these sessions began two years ago through our contacting a personality called Frank Watts, who was superseded by Seth in the fourth session. Jane and I have made a few sporadic attempts to learn more about Frank Watts; such a man did live in Elmira, we learned, through a resident who knew him. Since the sessions we keep an eye out for the name in the local paper, especially in a section called “Twenty Years Ago This Week,” which is printed every Sunday.

(The session was held in our large front room. Jane spoke while sitting down. She was smoking, and her eyes began to open and close often. Her pace was good, her voice average.)

The connections therefore can be changed at any time, and such changes are far from uncommon. They happen spontaneously on a subconscious basis a good deal of the time. The past was seldom what you remember it to be, for you have already rearranged it from the instant of any given occurrence.

There is of course a composite past that is composed of such individual electromagnetic connections, and this composite past is not the same past that once existed, in those terms. The past itself is being continually recreated by every individual, as attitudes and associations change. This is an actual recreation, and not a symbolic one. The child is indeed still within the man, but he is not the child that once was, in those terms. For even the child within the man continually changes, and again I am not speaking of symbolic change.

And you are more free than you imagine to completely alter many aspects of your own past. If you say that the future is dependent upon the past, therefore, you must also say that the past is dependent upon the future. Once more, the past was never an independent, concrete object existing apart from the perceiving participator; for he made his past, and its only reality exists in the electromagnetic connections within his own organic and psychic structure.

Now. The inner self exists in quite a different fashion than that seen by Dunne. For the inner self can indeed perceive events that will occur after physical death. It is not, and never was, imprisoned by ego time. Its perceptions of other times are merely inhibited by the ego. The inner self can perceive events that will occur to itself after physical death, and it also can see events that will occur in which it is not involved.

All of this applies unless for example an individual is taken completely out of the physical time system. A murdered man will not be returned to physical life in the same fashion, whole and intact, as he was before the murder, for example; for he has been taken out of the particular system of action of which we are speaking.

(Break at 10:01. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had been frequently open. She had smoked and her pace had been a little slower, with pauses. She said Seth was going on with this material when he abruptly realized what time it was.

(It was now time for the 31st Dr. Instream test. As usual Jane sat quietly with her head down and her hands raised to her closed eyes. She used many short pauses, but her pace overall was fairly good. Resume at 10:11.)

In connection with the ring, I pick up an impression of a past event, a gathering in good weather, perhaps summertime, of youngish men and women. An outdoor affair is what I am thinking of, and I believe that it was near water (pause), and that there was a connection with boats.

An afternoon affair. Disconnected from the northeast. The water was a river, I believe. At least it seems to have been banked on either side, so I presume it was a river. Buildings about that seem to have a Gothic structure. (Pause.)

(It was 10:22. I handed Jane the sealed double envelope for our 28th test; she took it without opening her eyes, then for several minutes held it against her forehead. She spoke at a somewhat slower rate than she had in giving the Dr. Instream material.)

(Break at 10:30. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed. Her pace had been fairly good.

(As will be noted most of the data in connection with the envelope test cannot be checked by us. I expected this when I picked the object. The idea in choosing it was to simulate a test in which an object chosen by a third party was used; then this third party would interpret the data, leaving Jane and me free, so to speak. I got the idea for this approach from the 24th envelope test in the 219th session. The object was chosen by Lorraine Shafer, and to some extent she helped us interpret the resulting data.

(“Tumult, meaning noise.” referred, Jane said, to the traffic noise we became sharply aware of while working about the Birch house. Although situated on a hillside, the traffic noise seemed to roll up at us, and we used this as a reason for not buying the house. Seth said this was rationalization on our parts. See the sessions referred to on page 212.

As a matter of fact, our own test was a fairly good one. Unfortunately you cannot check up on the impressions with the owner of the card, and there is little reason for me to go into the various episodes connected with the card.

Some of the points did concern your attachment to the house which at one time was owned by the owner of the card.

It was not our Frank Watts. However there was a family connection of a distant nature. They were I believe second or third cousins.

I will make one small comment here. Ruburt’s association with the trailer was caused by the fact that the owner of the card has a male child, who was somewhat unmanageable. And the owners of the trailer, also living in the country, have a child of similar nature.

(I neglected to mention this on page 217. Jane was aware of the connection here.)

The other impressions all referred to situations connected with the owner of the card. The card was carried next to a black and white photograph, incidentally. And now again, good evening. I close our sessions, Joseph, within a convenient hour, for your own benefits. Any time that you wish a longer session for any reason, simply request it; or a shorter session for that matter.

(End at 10:51. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed. Her pace had been rather slower than usual. She said Seth had been quite prepared to continue on inverted time.)