“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(A short unscheduled session took place last night, Sunday, February 27, after our guests, the Gallaghers, had left. It was held in our living room and lasted from 11 PM to about 11:35 PM. I took no notes; this account is written from memory the following day.

(The evening’s conversation had largely concerned matters other than Seth, but his name had been mentioned. After the Gallaghers left Jane said she could feel Seth “buzzing around.” Shortly after this she began speaking as Seth, in an average voice; she was smoking; she gestured often, and eventually her eyes began to open. She spoke without a break until the session ended. It was a question and answer affair for the most part. I will summarize the main points covered. I did not ask Seth the type of question I would prefer being answered in writing.

(Seth began by discussing a very emotional dream I had on the night of Thursday, February 24, involving what seemed to be the death of my father. I had not asked him to go into the dream yet, but had considered it, as Jane knew. Seth explained how the dream was built around my subconscious fears concerning my father. His interpretation of the dream was detailed, and in the manner of those he dissected in the 216th and 217th sessions. The conclusions were somewhat similar, and contained Seth’s assertions that the death of my father is not imminent, although he is 75. Seth went into one of the basic problems behind the dream, the lack of an easy communication between my father and myself. He said this particular problem is more my father’s fault than mine, and went into some methods concerning how I could begin to bridge this gap.

(I discussed with Seth the surprise with which Jane and I have watched young people take to his ideas on time, dreams, clairvoyance, telepathy, etc.; with this I speculated as to the reaction of Jane or myself had we been introduced to such ideas at the age of 20 or so. Seth said there was no cause for surprise here, that young people are intuitively aware of much more than one gives them credit for, and that when Jane and I meet young people who express interest we should help them by recommending books, giving our own ideas, etc.

(Seth had some interesting things to say about using suggestion. The kernel of thought here is that it is important to use whatever suggestions we want to, daily; he stressed the importance of not missing a day. He explained that in a given period of say, thirty days, the suggestions on perhaps but three or four days within that period would be really effective, and that as of now we have no way of knowing the best days. So if we miss a day, we run a chance of missing out on a particularly effective day for suggestion. Seth said that on occasion suggestion will reach all levels of the personality, that our voice will be heard throughout the personality, and that effective action will follow. There was more here but the above is the main point made.

(I asked no questions about other major topics, such as the envelope experiments, Dr. Instream, etc., preferring to have such answers in writing. Our exchange was leisurely and quiet, and Jane was dissociated as usual.

(Two additional notes to add to the above account: Seth told me we might have witnesses to the session scheduled for Wednesday, March 2, but he did not say how many and I did not ask. He also said Jane should use suggestion to teach herself to sleep without a pillow. This would benefit her as an individual greatly, he said, and promised to go into the reasons later. When I remarked that I often woke up to notice that Jane was sleeping without a pillow, having pushed it aside in her sleep, Seth said this was an indication that her subconscious knew what it was doing. I sleep with a heavier pillow than Jane uses, and sometimes use two; Seth said my reasons were different than Jane’s and that in this case the pillows were not a hindrance.

(The 36th envelope experiment was held tonight. See the tracings on pages 313-14. The drawing on 313 is the actual envelope object. The drawing on 314 is executed by myself, after my boss’s drawing and instructions, and enters into the envelope data in the manner in which the four letters became involved with the envelope object in the 234th session. The relationship tonight is simpler, however.

(Jane was pleased at the choice of type for the book, and the manner in which Seth’s quotes have been distinguished from her own copy. The arrival of the galleys had excited her, but she felt the excitement stemmed from not from this alone, but from the manner in which they arrived from New York City. She apparently had the situation covered in her daily predictions for the two previous days.

(Without going into details her predictions involved a lost package and other pertinent forecasts having to do with delays. The post office fouled up here, misplacing the special delivery notice, then failing to make delivery, etc. Finally when Jane went to the post office just before closing time today to claim the package, it proved to be lost again, this time on the premises. It was found after a lengthy search.

(Previous to obtaining the package, Jane spent several hours in a strong state of worry and anticipation, and feels this state was a clairvoyant/telepathic attempt to give her conscious self information concerning the package. She believes her tension prevented her understanding what she was trying to tell herself. Her publisher had not advised her the galleys were on the way, incidentally.

(Tonight’s session was held in our large front room. Jane felt good as session time arrived, and perhaps for this reason Seth spoke at a somewhat slower pace than usual. There were many very brief pauses. Jane’s eyes opened almost at once, briefly, closed, then began their usual fluctuation. Her voice was average. She lit a cigarette soon after she began.)

Ruburt’s experience in psychological time today represented a legitimate attempt to dissociate his awareness from physical matter, and was a sign that he is embarking upon another fruitful period of activity.

(Break at 9:30. Jane was dissociated as usual. “Seth,” she said, “is being tricky tonight.” Because of her excitement in the day’s events, she felt Seth was using a more deliberate manner than usual in order to “lull” her psychologically. Jane said she was fully aware of Seth’s tactics. She announced also that she was cooperating in case Seth wanted to say anything about the notes on her ESP manuscript.

(There follows the account from my notebook describing my adventure in hearing music while almost asleep: “February 27, Sunday night, actually 12:30 AM: As I lay in bed half asleep I heard very clearly music in chords, played by an electric guitar. The sound was very harmonious, neither too fast or slow, and quite beautiful, almost with an echoing quality. I realized I had been listening to it for some little time, perhaps a minute, before I consciously realized what was happening. I then came awake and described the effect to Jane, who had not yet fallen asleep.”

(“A little later, while in the same state, I heard the music again to a reduced degree, for a few seconds. I then fell asleep. It is interesting that the evening before this experience, Saturday, February 26, Jane and I had an excellent time dancing to a new band at our favorite dancing establishment in town. I believe the guitar music I heard in bed was very much like one of the guitars in the band. I had watched this particular musician often during the evening, admiring his playing. The band plays until 1 AM each evening, when the establishment closes. Since I had my experience at 12:30 AM, when presumably the band would still be playing, did I perhaps tune in on it there?”

(I have had several other suggestive experiences recently, and keep a list of these in my dream notebook. One involved voices; another and more striking one involved my naming the exact item of clothing Jane purchased for me, unknown to me while I was at my job.

(Jane said there is little to say about her psychological time experiences, other than that she felt she was making a guarded attempt to lift out of her physical body.

A connection with Harvard about the year 1934. He lived for a long time near water, but I believe inland water. If it was near the ocean, it was where the ocean was quiet, for example a bay location.

(Break at 9:59. Jane was dissociated as usual. Earlier in the evening we had noted a similarity in some of the comments on her manuscript with J.B. Priestley’s ideas on time. Jane had the idea that Priestley and our unknown commentator were contemporaries. Priestley we believe to be 70. Jane said she had the personal association of Norway when she heard herself giving the data on ice, regarding the name.

(Jane’s pace had been slow for the most part all evening. It was now time for the 43rd Dr. Instream experiment, and once again her pace was broken by pauses. As usual she sat with her head down, her hands raised to her closed eyes. Her pace picked up a little as the data proceeded. Resume at 10:05.)

(Break at 10:27. Jane was dissociated as usual Her eyes had remained closed, her pace had been slow, she hadn’t smoked, etc.

(See the tracing of the envelope object, and its accompanying drawing, on pages 313-14. We did not ask Seth to clear up each point in the data, so give below our own interpretations. As stated, the key drawing made by my boss was the actual envelope object. This is on thin white paper. The drawing on tracing paper was made by me, from instructions given to me by my boss, and is a schematic drawing to be traced onto Bristol board for final artwork.

(My drawing was actually a recreation of artwork that had been lost at Artistic Card Co. As often happens the original art was later found after I had duplicated it. The drawing was for a gummed sticker to be applied to a line of packaged cards of various kinds—religious, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc., and was for a large old department store in Philadelphia, PA, that goes under the cavalier name of John’s Bargain Store. As the copy of my tracing shows these stickers are applied to the appropriate merchandise at various times of the year.

(“establishment, or something established.” My thought was that both drawings were produced at an establishment, namely my place of employment. But this could also refer to the customer in Philadelphia.

(“Something turned up.” As stated, the lost artwork was found after I had spent time duplicating it.

(As can be seen, much of the envelope data given by Seth was transposed from the actual object to my own tracing-paper drawing. It might be noted that during the session, while Jane held the envelope in her hand, my tracing-paper drawing was in the same room with us, although I was unaware of this until after the session. It reposed in my jacket pocket in our front room closet; I had brought it home several days ago, then forgot about it, not having worn the jacket since. Both drawings were made about two weeks ago. Jane hadn’t known they even existed.

(“I get a connection with a missionary, or religion”, is a reference to the fact that the stickers were to be used on boxes of religious cards, as well as other categories. While I was making the drawing the four or five boxes of different cards were laid out before me so that I could refer to them, and the religious box was among them.

(“A small round object, with some inscriptions resembling a postmark.” Jane said she saw within a small round object, with horizontal lines running across it; she thought of a postmark on an envelope, with the cancellation lines, but knew this wasn’t it. When she looked at my tracing-paper drawing, she said this was evidently what she was trying to arrive at subjectively; my drawing is of a round object, although much larger. Jane said the straight-across lettering, Key Value, is in the position of the horizontal lines she saw within. There are also ruled-in horizontal lines on the drawing.

(My drawing contains lines that are horizontal and straight. There are two sets of these horizontal lines, across the top and the bottom of the words Key Value, and when one turns the drawing over on the back—not shown here—is seen the dark smudges of my pencil as I prepared the drawing for tracing onto paper. Jane said these lines and the dark smudges beneath them are what she believes she was referring to, more so than the other two horizontal sets of lines below the end of the key.

(When she saw the smudges on the back of the tracing-paper drawing, Jane said this was what gave her the idea of “ribbonlike shapes.” The “dark color” and “dark red” references were her attempts to further refine this data.

(“The color white background”, might be taken as a reference to the white paper the envelope object was drawn on, but Jane said that once again this referred to the tracing-paper drawing I made. Tracing-paper is a pale translucent gray or off-white color, but not really white as this typing paper is white.

(“and a paper item, folded like a card”, also referred, Jane said, to my drawing rather than the envelope object. Jane said she had a vague image of a small round object upon a rectangular folded object that was like a card, yet the circle was not placed as neatly in the center of the rectangle as my drawing is. It was more offset toward the upper right corner, hence her postmark reference on page 321 also. On page 314 note that my tracing-paper drawing is folded roughly like a card.

(“and late afternoon.” Jane said this is another impression taken from the smudges on the back of my drawing. Note that this pencil smudging on the back of the tracing affected Jane probably more than anything else. This late afternoon impression stemmed from the feeling of dusk or evening falling, as suggested by the dark smudges. Jane was quite aware of this feeling subjectively.

(“A connection with a house and a white border.” This is interesting, in that Jane said she had an image of a card shape with a house and foliage on it. It was not very clear, yet she knew that much about it. The boxes of cards for which the sticker was made are large, large enough to contain reproductions of four cards, arranged in a rectangular pattern on the box top, and on a printed gold background. Each card design is surrounded by a rectangular white border, perhaps an eighth of an inch wide. Some of the boxes laid out before me, as I made my drawing for the sticker, contained reproductions of cards bearing houses, trees, flowers, etc.; the standard kind of subject material for greeting cards.

(The first envelope experiment was held on August 18,1965, almost 8 months ago.)

(End at 10:55. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed since break, her pace rather slow. She said she felt sure about the impressions concerning my tracing-paper drawing. She was aware, she repeated, of the circular shape upon the rectangular shape formed by the folded tracing paper; she felt it was folded when Seth said so.)