“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The envelope object for tonight’s 35th experiment was a beer coaster that I picked up from our table last Saturday evening, at our favorite dining and dancing establishment here in Elmira. It was the one I had used. Jane and I met two young couples there by prearrangement, and we had much fun dancing. The coaster is made of heavy absorbent cardboard, so I peeled the top layer of paper from it. This contained the design, printed in red, without any unusual thickness to furnish Jane unwitting clues. It was sealed in the usual double envelope between two pieces of Bristol.

The ego is only one layer of the self that has self-consciousness. Being self- conscious, the ego attempts to be conscious only of itself. Self-consciousness results in an intense, but necessarily limited focus. It necessitates boundaries. It depends upon some sort of inner psychological decision as to what will be considered self, and therefore accepted by consciousness, and that which will be considered notself, and not accepted by consciousness.

Fairly heavy in weight for its size. The edges of the object would ordinarily be sharp, it seems, but they are somewhat blunted. I get the numbers one eight eight eight, in connection with this.

(Jane spotted it at break at 10:28 before I did: part of the above data seems to pertain to this evening’s envelope object. This was interesting to me especially. I prepared tonight’s envelope sometime after supper, then forgot about it in the press of other business. When the time for the envelope experiment arrived, I then had the idea the envelope contained another object, one I had thought of earlier in the day. So my surprise was considerable, consciously, when Jane opened the envelope and revealed the coaster.)

It has a connection with a clock, but is not a clock. It has hands but it does not tell time. The numbers four, three, six are connected here, and also a schoolhouse, and a bell, such as one that is rung to some children to school.

(“The edges of the object would ordinarily be sharp, it seems, but they are somewhat blunted.” Jane was perhaps more definite concerning this impression, than any of the others. She feels the sharp edges is a reference to the beer glasses depicted on the coaster: one can think of glass ordinarily as sharp-edged, but to be useful as a drinking vessel the material would have its edges smoothed, or blunted.

(“I get the numbers one eight eight eight, in connection with this.” My own idea here is that Seth/Jane picked up the three-ring design shown on each of the three glasses depicted on the coaster, and translated or converted this data into the number 8, three times. There is a graphic resemblance here. The numeral 1 appears in the code number, in small type, next to the bottom border.

(“An enclosure.” We thought this a reference to the dining and dancing establishment we visited last Saturday evening, February 19, where I picked up the envelope object. Not to the establishment itself, but to the particular table we sat at with the other two couples. Its location, in one corner of the place, is unique; it sits on a raised platform perhaps two feet higher than the other tables; the dance band is on the left, the fireplace on the right, with an excellent view of the dance floor in between. The table itself is round, and backed up by a wide circular leather-covered divan-type of seat. In short, it’s the best seat in the house.

(“with an indentation that could suggest a border.” The object has a border, as can be seen in the tracing. In actuality the border is indented, or debossed, into the porous paper or cardboard material of the coaster, to the extent that it can be easily felt with the ball of the finger. This is a common effect obtained easily enough by the printer, through control of the pressure the printing plate applies to the object, and one which I work with often on my job. Jane however is not familiar with the term, debossed.

The date is pertinent, but I will let you figure this one out for yourself.

(I can offer a connection, but cannot verify it with Seth until next session. After this session I remembered that the Wilburs are reading what we call Book One of the Seth material. This consists of the first 26 sessions. The first formal session was held December 2,1963. My introductory notes contain a reference to Jane and me borrowing a Ouija board from our landlord “in the fall of 1963,” which compares with the date given by Seth this evening, of September 10,1963. The notes refer to our attempts to use the board early in November 1963 also, without success.)

A simple one-word question would probably not be harmful, but it is best for now to wait until the end.

This had to do with the quick and too-speedy journey of one of the young men. I perceived a fast journey.

(This referred to Ann Diebler’s escort, Paul Sinderman. Paul holds a job in Norfolk, VA. He makes the 1200-mile round trip to Wellsburg, a small town just outside Elmira, to see Ann every other weekend. We were discussing the amount of driving this involved, during our evening at the dancing establishment last Saturday. Paul has been in at least one auto accident that we know of.

No. There is effort involved, as I learn, indeed, the best ways of giving Ruburt data, and try to guide him in discriminating between, or rather among, the many personal associations that any one legitimate impression may bring to his mind.