“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 37th envelope experiment was held during the session. See the tracing of the envelope object on page 327. It is a print of my right hand, made with black stamping ink on paper. I made it on February 27,1966. Jane had picked up a book on hands at the library recently, and this got us interested in making such prints.

(Jane of course saw this particular print, along with perhaps twenty others I made at the same time. There is nothing about this one to distinguish it from many of the others. Following the instructions in the book, I traced the outline of my hand in pencil while pressing the inked surface against the white paper. The print was sealed in the usual double envelope between the usual two pieces of Bristol.

(“A violet. Red, and a grading to yellow.” This is very interesting to me personally; Jane also recalls these details. After spending a couple of hours trying to make a good handprint, I gave up and began cleaning the ink from my hand. This proved to be a job. As I applied scouring powder I was surprised to see the black ink on the palm turn what might be termed a red with violet undertones. This effect at once reminded me of reading that the quality of a black ink can be judged by its behavior when diluted: If a red color develops it means the ink is of inferior quality. The ink I had used was stamp-pad ink purchased at a 5-and-10 downtown.

(The ink might have been of poor quality but it was difficult to remove. The red color was pronounced and I called Jane’s attention to it. She too had had the experience, since she had tried prints of her own a few days earlier. A lot of scrubbing reduced the red stain to a yellowish cast finally, but here I had to let it wear off. This took several days. Thus we have a progression here from black to violet to red to yellow.