“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 34th envelope experiment was held during the session. The object was the front of a recent letter to Jane from her publisher’s secretary. I folded it once, put it between two pieces of board and sealed it in the usual double envelope. Jane did not know I had saved it. I thought this object simple enough, while containing some good emotional charges, but as will be seen Seth picked up many connections. The experience turned out to be a complicated one. There were unexpected hits, and one not used.

I have the impression of a group of miscellaneous objects, bearing no particular relationship to each other: a stone, a pencil, a grape, something that looks like a twig. Another, a banana shape. All of these in a circular arrangement. (Pause.)

The above is to be taken as my impressions concerning an object, or objects.

(Jane said she felt that she was trying too hard during the experiment; she wanted Seth to name the object exactly, and when she realized this she tried to relax. She now went on to explain that when I handed her the envelope she had “shifted gears” in order to give herself suggestions that she do very well on the experiment.

(See the tracing of the envelope object on page 289. I had used this for the object on the spur of the moment, more or less, without being concerned with whether Jane might know, or have on file, the letter the envelope had contained. Some of the data we could connect with the object, some we could not. When Jane began to go through her file of correspondence with her publisher, F. Fell, we began to see what complications could evolve from what seemed to be a simple envelope object.

(In order to understand the data it was necessary to write out a schedule of events; most of this was done after the session. As it was we spent about half an hour during break in an effort to begin to sort out the impressions. It developed that four letters were involved with the envelope object, and that one of these was enclosed in the experimental object. The common denominator here is that the date, January 25,1966, is somehow involved with all four letters. Seth uses this as a springboard for his impressions.

(Both letters of January 25 from F. Fell to Jane, although on different-sized paper, bore fold marks that revealed either one could have been enclosed in the experimental object, which is an envelope front from F. Fell, postmarked January 25. Since the data obtained from the experiment this evening refers to both letters, as will be shown, we have no way of knowing which letter was actually mailed in the experimental object. I did not realize until after the session that it would have helped to ask Seth this.

(“A package.” A package was mailed to F. Fell on February 10. It contained the manuscript for the book on the Seth material, plus that of the poetry book. See page 269 of the 232nd session for Frederick Fell’s request to see the book plus the tape recording Jane made of some of the poems. The connection here with the envelope data is the January 25 postmark on the experimental object; Jane discusses the book on the Seth material in letter #4, written on January 25. Also, the tape was mailed to F. Fell on February 10 in a separate package.

(We think also that Seth’s statement above might refer to letter #4, written by Jane on January 25. At the time she wrote this letter Jane had yet to receive letter #2, and thus did not know F. Fell would be out of NYC until February 7. Actually Jane’s letter #4 was never answered by mail. It was discussed in the telephone call between Jane and F. Fell on February 8. This is the call discussed in the notes on page 269 of the 232nd session. And again, the connection here with the envelope object is the January 25 date on which Jane wrote letter # 4, and the January 25 postmark on the object.

(“An achievement and a scarcity.” We think this a reference to letter # 1, written by Jane on January 20. Achievement being a general reference to her ESP book, and scarcity being a more specific connection in that Jane offers her own small collection of ESP ads to F. Fell’s office for use as a guide in writing copy. The connection with the envelope object being that this letter #1 was answered on January 25, by letter #2, and that it is quite possible this is the letter contained in the object used in this evening’s experiment.

(“A note—there is some confusion here—that was not sent, or did not arrive. This lead Ruburt to think of a note he wrote but did not send, to Father Martin. I mention this for your information.” There is an interesting example of association at work here. Jane saw it before I did. Father Martin is a monk in a nearby monastery close to Elmira, and the author of letter #2, possibly enclosed by the envelope object, is Rhoda Monks.

(“A long passage of time, and then a meeting.” This is a connection growing out of letter #4, written by Jane on January 25, which is the postmark date on the experimental object. As stated, F. Fell did not answer letter #4 by mail. The letter was answered by telephone in the call of February 8, between Jane and F. Fell. Jane said the passage-of-time reference grows out of Mr. Fell’s questions as to when she was coming to New York, and her reply that she saw no use in it until the ESP book was out; then, in May, she wanted to be in NYC to help with publicity. Thus a year or so is involved from the time F. Fell agreed to publish the book and Jane began her final draft of it. The “meeting” grows out of Mr. Fell’s reference that in this telephone call of February 8, he felt he was getting acquainted with Jane as a person, meeting her personally; also that he looked forward to their meeting in May.

(“Paws, and netlike shapes, and triangles.” These are very good references to letter #3, and take the form of doodles executed by Jane. She remembers making these on February 8, just before her telephone call to F. Fell. Letter #3, again, was written January 25, and the date connects this letter with the January 25 postmark on the envelope experimental object. Either letter #2 or letter #3 was enclosed in the experimental object.

(We now come to an impression that Jane had while giving the experimental data this evening, but to which she did not give voice. Naturally, she was considerably vexed to learn that it was a legitimate one, and pertained directly to the object. See the tracing of the experimental object on page 289. Note that the word “bread” is written upon it as part of a grocery list. As soon as she opened the sealed double envelope and saw the object, Jane realized she had had an impression of bread. She did not have an image of a loaf of bread, for instance, but the words “a loaf of bread,” rather quickly. She does not know why she didn’t give voice to them, other than that the next impression came along quickly. This has happened before, she said. Then succeeding impressions crowd out memory of what has been left unsaid, until later. In this instance, Jane could not recall very accurately what part of the data she was giving voice to when she had the bread impression, except that she was sure it wasn’t toward the end.

(Tracing of the coaster used as the object in the 35th envelope experiment, in the 235th session for February 23,1966.)