“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 39th envelope experiment was held during the session; see the tracing of the AAA membership card used as the object on page 1. Some interesting and hilarious results were obtained in the connections made by Seth/Jane.

(I became absorbed in the task, and had just obtained the answer when Jane called me from the front room at 8:55. I hadn’t mentioned the pain to her, deciding on the spur of the moment to see if Seth could also pinpoint the trouble during the session. Nor did Jane know I was using the pendulum. When I took my seat at our table in the living room just before 9 PM Jane told me she had felt surprisingly nervous at my absence so close to the session; hence her calling to me. She also felt a definite irritation, but did not know its source, or who or what the target was.

(The session was held in our front room. Jane began speaking while sitting down. She was not smoking and her eyes were closed. Once again her pace was quite slow, and broken by some long pauses.)

(Break at 9:30. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had opened but once, when she sipped some wine. Her pace had been better as the delivery progressed.

(I now told Jane that as the session progressed I had more and more difficulty keeping “awake.” Actually I began to notice a heavy lassitude, although I kept writing without trouble, and I recognized that I seemed to be in a trance state. At the same time, as I looked about the room, everything seemed to be in a sharper focus, and I had a feeling of more light in the room, although it was well lit to begin with. I began to wonder if I was responding to the material Seth was presenting; I had found it very interesting.

(Jane said she too has experienced the seemingly contradictory effects of sleepiness or lethargy, and the sharper vision, during trance. Needless to say, I saw nothing unusual in my frequent glances about the room, nor did I notice any change in Jane’s features. The sensation was pronounced by the time break came, yet during break it disappeared. I have been aware of something like it, on a must reduced scale, many times during sessions.

(Jane once again resumed with her eyes closed, and at a little faster pace, at 9:37. A reminder: Seth calls for all underlined words.)

(Once again the lassitude began to creep over me, while I looked about the room with sharp eyes. I had a little trouble focusing on my writing paper, but none looking away from the table. Jane’s eyes were closed, her manner as usual.

(Shortly after this my familiar old thrilling sensation began to creep over me. I have not been aware of it much recently, although in the early sessions both Jane and I experienced such effects often. It is, briefly, a rich tingling or thrilling that is very pleasant. It can appear in any limb or part of the body, remain localized or sweep the whole organism. Deeper stages of this are what Jane has called ecstasy in her psychological time experiments.

(Break at 9:56. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her pace had been better, her voice average.

(Again toward the end of the delivery I had felt the pleasant lethargy, coupled with the sharp vision as I looked about the room. I noticed nothing unusual at break once more. I described my feelings to Jane once more, and she then surprised me by saying that she had a subjective feeling while speaking that her features had changed.

(We wondered if Jane’s feeling was due to suggestion. During the week she had been referring to the 68th session as she did some work on the book on the Seth material; these sessions have to do with the construction of physical matter by each individual. This particular session was witnessed by Bill Macdonnel, and during it he made two pen and ink drawings of an apparition he claimed to see in a doorway of our apartment. The effect lasted for about an hour; during this session Bill and I together saw a distinct change in Jane’s features. This occurred at a break, without warning, and lasted for at least a minute, so that we had time for observation.

(Seth told us at the time that the apparition was of him, and that Bill could see it but that Jane and I could not because we were too “fussy” about what we allowed ourselves to see. He said that in the future—time unspecified—we should be able to see his apparition at times, but by no means regularly.

(Bill’s drawings of Seth show an extremely high cranium—according to Seth Bill’s graphic translation of Bill’s feeling of high intelligence on Seth’s part—and a pointed chin. While pointed the chin is not long. Jane said, this evening, that her subjective feeling was one of elongation of the chin, to a point. She also felt her head was down onto her shoulders, and this is another attribute of Bill’s drawings.

(Note above that the apparition and the feature change in Jane are two distinct and separated effects, both occurring in the same session. The one was visible to me, the other was not. Again, this evening I saw no change in Jane’s features.

(It was now time for the 46th Dr. Instream experiment. Jane had smoked only at break. Her eyes were now closed, her hands raised to her face, her pace broken by many short pauses and a few long ones. Resume at 10:05.)

(Jane paused at 10:15. Her eyes still closed, she reached out to take the envelope for our 39th experiment from me. She held it to her forehead for a few sentences, then lowered it to her lap.)

(With the hand holding the envelope, Jane reached out to make a large vigorous crossing-out gesture, or X-shape, with her full arm. Her eyes remained closed.)

(Break at 10:25. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her pace had gradually speeded up somewhat.

(It seems to be the rule now that Jane has some visual data, whether faint or stronger, during the envelope experiments. She said she may have had such data in the earlier experiments, also, but hadn’t been quick enough to catch it. It is tricky. The point is, Jane explained, that such data often needs interpretation. Seth gives her the information visually; it is then up to a part of Jane to correctly interpret this. Jane believes that in the early experiments her failure to appreciate this, to interpret correctly, led to many errors in the material; that actually, through Seth, she had received the correct data to begin with, but needed the practice in fine discrimination to even be aware that the problem existed. And of course needs more. A case in point here is the X-shape data explained later.

(Seth did not go over each connection with us, but does agree with the ones Jane and I were able to make.

(“and with an occasion in which something was not appreciated.” This at once reminded me of a most definite event, involving Jane and me, that was not appreciated. It took place at the same time I purchased membership in AAA, and the locale of this unappreciated event was a gasoline station directly across the street from the MCI building. Our car was the subject, and this material is well covered in the notes in the 81st session for August 26,1964. See Volume 2.

(I bought the membership in AAA on Friday, August 14,1964, at about 1 PM. We were both on vacation beginning that day, and were due to leave for York Beach, Maine, the next day, Saturday, August 15. Jane and I drove downtown Friday. Jane had a couple of hours work to finish at the art gallery where she then worked. I dropped her off there, then left the car at the station in question for an oil filter change and a general checkup. I went across the street to the MCI building, joined AAA, then walked home. I was due to return to the station for the car at 5 PM that same day. I would pick up Jane and we would be free.

(Watching the mechanic struggle with the car, I felt sure he was not familiar enough with the work to know what he was doing. I made my feelings known, then left for the gallery to tell Jane. This was at a time when Seth was beginning to fill us in on the power of expectation; Jane insisted that the car would be ready when we went back for it. We ate in a diner, and Jane concentrated on the car being ready. When we went back for it an hour later it was indeed ready. The station mechanic told us he was surprised that he had been able to fix it. The incident had upset me considerably, in a way that would not bother me now.

(“and a rather large X-shape mark. This sort of thing, you see, in dark color, the X-shape mark in dark color, as something canceled.” As mentioned on page 7, this is an instance where Jane received internal visual data from Seth, and had the responsibility of interpreting it correctly. Note that she feels her way through this data, finally arriving at something more specific in the last three words. On the membership card it is plainly printed that the coverage expires in 1965.

(Jane said that when giving this bit of data she plainly had the feeling that the visual X-shape was to show her that something was canceled. The card expired in 1965. Jane also saw the large X on a rectangular card shape, within, but saw no detail on this card shape that would have enabled her to identify the envelope object specifically.

(“Connection with music”, reminds me that I heard music while in the AAA office; the music was piped throughout the new building by a public address system. Jane and I are well aware of this because a friend of ours worked in another office in the MCI building, and remarked often on this piped music, which she disliked but was forced to listen to all day on the job. In addition, the AAA office was below ground level and without windows, and my personal opinion was that the music was some kind of compensation for not being able to see daylight.

(“and with an ace.” Jane said this is a personal derivation of hers from the prominent black seal of the AAA, affixed to the bottom of the card, below my name, as described. Another interpretation of this seal follows later.

(“With something not known, and with 4 people.” Jane and I have an idea as to a connection here, but since we cannot support it we decided not to list it.

(“A sun shape, or yellow in the upper right hand corner. Perhaps like rays.” See the bottom of page 9. Jane said this is another reference to the heavy, glossy, or shiny black AAA seal affixed to the membership card below my name. To her, the design of the three A’s can represent the conventional lines of radiation around a circle, or sun, shape. She often used this symbolism in her own oil painting, thus:

(“and something to do with grace”, Jane burst out laughing when she made a connection here. At first we thought her idea did not apply, but then she felt it did, and Seth agrees. Note that on the AAA membership card the old address was blocked out. This was done with thin ink and we could read the old address, 382 W. Church Street. Jane at once made the connection between church and grace.

(Before she resumed I told Jane I hoped Seth would say something about my sensations earlier in the session. They had all but disappeared by now. I felt but a light lingering of the thrilling effect, mainly in the back of my head; the lethargy was gone. Also gone was the neck pain that I had experienced before the session began. Jane did not know about this.

(Jane resumed with her head resting on her crossed arms as they lay upon the table. Her eyes were closed, her pace average. 10:48.)

(“Does this include Jane’s connections about the church and grace data?”)

(Jane, now sitting upright, smiled. Her eyes were still closed.)

(“I’ll keep trying. Jane wants me to tell her to open her own eyes, when I do see you.”)

(End at 11:00 PM. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed.

(Jane was pleased to learn Seth’s answer about my neck pain agreed with the answer I had obtained through the pendulum. See the notes on page 2.

(Seth got to the point quicker than I did with the pendulum, although I was somewhat handicapped through lack of time. I did not begin using it until fifteen minutes before the session, and then began by eliminating categories in Monday’s session until I found the one I was reacting to physically. This proved to be Monday’s envelope experiments, and my fear, or concern, that perhaps I was pushing Jane on such matters.

(The pendulum told me Jane did not feel this way, and after the session she agreed. Nevertheless the pendulum told me I felt some anger at myself on this score, hence the stiff neck. I had not reached any such neat conception as “a pain in the neck” before Jane called me. Jane now said the irritation she felt quite strongly just before the session, was her sensing of my own irritation at myself. As stated on page 2, she was aware of the irritation before the session, but puzzled as to its source. She did not know of my pain in the neck, or that I was using the pendulum.)