“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The session is quite unusual, in that all of it is devoted to experimental material of one kind or another. This includes the two usual tests plus the material delivered by Seth concerning our landlord. The landlord data arose out of one of those rather small incidents that keep accumulating emotional charges when most of the people involved turn stubborn.

(Right after the first snowfall two weekends ago, our landlord appeared with his Jeep and snowplow attached, and cleaned out our long curving driveway and the garage area in back of the apartment house. About a foot of snow had fallen, but this rather small amount still made things difficult for automobiles, and the area involved would mean hours of shoveling by hand.

(After the second foot of snow fell last weekend, the tenants of the house waited as usual for the landlord to appear with his plow. Drifts several feet deep had piled up in the driveway and against the garages. The landlord did not appear. Three days went by. It developed that he had thought we could shovel our own way out. By this time of course recriminations were beginning to fly back and forth by phone, although this did not involve Jane and me. Finally one of the tenants threatened to move, after feelings had been bruised all around. The situation was not without its comic aspects.

(By the time the landlord realized we couldn’t shovel our own way out, he couldn’t get his own plow into the driveway, nor could he hire help; everyone was busy. I was working overtime at my job also. I felt the brakes on our car needed adjusting so I wasn’t planning to drive personally regardless; this made it somewhat easier to be objective about the whole thing. I also decided that I wasn’t going to get excited about it in any event. Then yesterday morning it developed that the thermostaton the furnace was not working; we got up to a cold house, and this led to more telephone messages, the calling of a specialist, etc.

(The specialist, actually the man who keeps the house in good running order for the landlord, is a personal friend of his. While talking to Jane he mentioned that our landlord’s books had been called in by the Internal Revenue Service.

(The session was held again in our front room. Jane began speaking while sittingdown and with her eyes closed. They opened just once briefly when she put out a cigarette. Her voice was average, her pace quite slow by comparison. Neither of us had expected the kind of material that began to come through.)

(Our landlord, Jimmy Spaziani, is 50 years old. His daughter mentioned here is a junior in high school. We like him and his family very much.)

(The material surprised us, and we had no thought of trying to relay it to anybody. We have no idea as to whether the tax matters referred to are true, and/or will develop. Our landlord is a complex and generous man who has lowered our rent and the rent of some of the other tenants over the last few years.

(Seth had dealt with Jimmy and his family in other sessions, notably the 100th and 101st. Our landlord operates a restaurant featuring a large party and catering service, so it is conceivable that a falling ill at a “party-type gathering” could refer to an illness occurring on those premises. See Volume 3.

(The visitation-from-his-father reference involves the material in the 100th and 101st sessions. Jimmy’s father died in the summer of 1964. Following the father’s death our landlord’s wife had several vivid experiences involving the deceased father; Seth said these were legitimate experiences involving contact with the father, and not dreams. It appears that our landlord’s wife is a good receiver, or relay station. Perhaps she would receive and pass on to her husband any visitations from the dead father.

(This is a reference to a 400-acre farm our landlord owns near Watkins Glen, NY. It is now empty. Various tenants have done much damage to the place.)

Now. Our object is a small framework (pause), small as if made of matchsticks. It is light(pause), and miniature, and formed of squares. I do not believe it is solid all the way through, but with open spaces in it. Some of the square shapes may be open.

(It was 10:16. I handed Jane the envelope for our 30th envelope experiment, and as usual she took it without opening her eyes. She sat with the envelope held against her forehead.)

(From what Seth says after break, we saw the connection with cloth, evening, and an endeavor that does not work. Jane and I bought this colored paper to use in an experiment whereby, blindfolded, we tried to determine the various colors by touch alone. This after we had read an article in Time Magazine about a woman who had been able to do this. Our tests had been held in the evening, and our results reached chance level only.

Now. After our star performance, I have a few words to say.

I like to keep our sessions fairly balanced. It is possible that sometime in the near future, perhaps late spring or summer, we can arrange for a few specific sessions, in which several envelopes are prepared ahead of time. The purpose of such possible sessions simply being the fortification of Ruburt’s shaky confidence.

(Jane was curious about the Instream object. I thought that perhaps it was a ship model. I then recalled that earlier in the week Bill Gallagher and I had been looking at some of my books on the ships of the 17th and 18th centuries. These books contained plans and photographs. Jane and Bill’s wife Peggy had been present but hadn’t paid much attention to our talk.

(We were discussing the material on our landlord when Seth came through again. Jane resumed with her eyes opening at 10:50.)