“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane was not feeling at her best, and did not do as well as she wanted to on the experiment. I had suggested earlier in the day that she skip the session but she declined. She also wanted to have the envelope experiment. John Bradley, our salesman friend from Williamsport, PA, was a witness, and I believe this contributed to the envelope results, in some way I cannot define. Previously Jane has done well with envelopes before witnesses.

(The session was held in our front room. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. She was smoking, and opened her eyes but the one time to put out her cigarette. Her pace was average, her voice a little more active than usual.)

Now. The mind as opposed to the brain, perceives time in terms of the spacious present. It is true that the mind works on associative principles. Therefore these associations are drawn not only from the past, but also from the future.

(John said it was all right for the personal material to be included in this record, and it is a good example of the way Seth handles such data. Jane and I, incidentally, have never met John’s wife. Most of the family material is self-explanatory. During break John gave us some information; briefly, it has to do with his restlessness in his job, his wife’s reactions, his wife’s parents, his own strong need to assert his independence, etc. John is also active politically in Pennsylvania, as a conservative. He is an excellent medical representative for Searle Drug, but feels he is not being extended enough in his work; he wants more challenge. Seth has advised patience here; John said this is difficult for him but that he is carefully considering the advice. Searle itself is going through a difficult time managerially and financially.

Ruburt is not particularly pleased with what he knows I am about to say, but I am not held by the same social rules that hold him in this particular matter, and I know Philip perhaps better than he does.

This discussion will be begun now but ended later this evening.

(Jane paused at 10:01. She sat with her head down, her hands raised to her closed eyes. She began speaking with many short pauses, but overall her pace could not be called slow. This is the 45th Instream experiment.)

Two other people in the room, I believe a woman and a man, and another man has been present but is now out of the room. There is also another wall adjacent to this one, with a long window now covered by a closed cloth drapery. The drapery is short, that is, it does not reach all the way to the floor.

This window also covered by a short closed drapery. A photograph on the desk, taken in 1936, of a woman. An earlier party this evening for Dr. Instream. This dwelling I believe is on another level but the first level of a building. The street faces north and south, runs north and south. The numbers 312 connected here.

(As usual Jane took the double envelope from me without opening her eyes. On impulse I almost told Seth there was to be no envelope, but decided to go ahead in the presence of a witness. Jane appeared to feel all right, also. She held the envelope against her forehead.)

(Jane paused at 10:17, without opening her eyes. She now held the envelope in her lap. This was the second time Seth had given me the chance to ask a question after an experiment. I could not be sure, without checking with Seth in detail, but I thought Jane had been wandering about on the above data. Because we had a witness I didn’t think we would spend too much time checking details. Earlier in the day I had wondered what would happen if I asked Seth/Jane to go over all of the data again; I supposed Jane would take this as a sign that the first data wasn’t much good, and at break Jane said this was her thought at the time.

(Seth offered to go over the test material but we went on with more material for John Bradley, the witness. Jane and I made a few connections, which will be noted. In the first group of impressions Jane said the data “A light strip on this item. Perhaps wider at one end, and in the lower portion.” pertained to a mental image she had at the time. She saw a wedge-shaped light strip, horizontally, but could tell no more than this.

Your anger is interpreted simply as violence, and she fears it. Ideas expressed at such occasions will be strenuously fought by her. You must make an emotional bridge, for she will not understand an intellectual one. But the emotional bridge must not be of a violent nature.

She is not a partner and you are indeed in difficulties. She can become a partner however, but anger will only minimize her importance in her own eyes, and therefore in yours.

(Jane now took a pause lasting over a minute. Her eyes had been opening occasionally but they were now closed. Her hands were once again raised to her face.)

(John said he agreed with Seth’s material. He verified that a situation does arise on Wednesdays in his home. Every other week a cleaning woman works at his home on Wednesdays, helping his wife with heavier chores. John’s wife is named Mary-Ellen, the cleaning woman is Lois. Lois, John said, is around 40 years old, and she has her own personal problems. Mary-Ellen is not the type to talk with others about personal affairs, John said, but he has had the thought that she may get satisfaction listening to others talk about their troubles. Lois is a talker.

However, in the main you are doing two things wrong. You are treating her primarily as a woman rather than an individual person; but you are not treating her as a desirable woman rather than an individual person.

If you treat her as a desirable woman, you will find a difference in your home atmosphere. If you cannot do this, then you must treat her primarily as an individual person. But if you treat her as a woman primarily, it must be as a desirable woman, or she will find no content as a woman or as an individual.

She will be much more content and pliable to reason if you can manage, regardless of your intellectual tendencies, to approach her in that light. She needs drama, within the framework of the home, and she wants this from you. It will take some effort on your part, but if she feels that you spend time with her simply because you want to be with her, this will go a long way in solving your difficulties.

And if you cannot do this honestly, then your difficulties are more serious than you realize. The effort will be more than worth your while, but the effort must be an honest one, or she will sense the hypocrisy.

I realize that you feel as if you are in a vicious circle. In many cases however you do not ask, but have a tendency to command her. Not in words so much as in attitude. She does not feel truly desirable. You can do much to change this.

If your relationship is as important to you as I believe it is, then you will make the effort. The simple fact is that you do need her, and you have not communicated this. Obviously there are reasons for her behavior, and changes also that she can and should make, but I am speaking to you and not to her.

The adjustments necessary are not all on your part, but your adjustments can initiate hers. You are concerned, and have made efforts, but you are better equipped, simply because of your personality structure, to make these efforts. She is at this point like a child in the woods, but the potentialities are there for an excellent relationship. We will take a break or end the session, as you prefer.

(11:59. I thought John wanted more information, but we were tired by now, and this proved to be the end of the session. Jane had been dissociated as usual. Her rapid pace had been broken by some rather long pauses, and her eyes had remained closed.

(John again agreed with Seth. He also verified Seth again, in that he remembers a younger girl living three houses away. This girl is perhaps five years younger than John and his wife; they know her only to say hello to. John said a younger woman lives but two houses away, also. Jane knew nothing of these two women, just as she knew nothing of the Wednesday incidents.)