“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 42nd envelope experiment was held during the session. See the tracing on page 29. The object is the insurance receipt for the tape of the 170th session, which was sent to Dr. Instream on July 23,1965. The tape was made with the Gallaghers as witnesses, at their home outside Elmira, NY, on July 19,1965.

(Peggy Gallagher was due this evening, to photograph Jane while in trance. Peg was also due for the 242nd session but did not appear. In that session Seth told us she did not come because of “A change of plans. Having to do with a disturbance. A connection with 3 o’clock, I believe this afternoon.”

(We checked with Peggy this weekend. As Seth said, she did not appear; her planned activities at the newspaper where she works were changed unexpectedly; she was taken out of town Wednesday night, the time of the 242nd session. Peggy was given the assignment in the afternoon, she said, and it could have been around 3 PM; she does not know the exact time. Seth, or Jane, was incorrect on the day however. Peggy was given the out-of-town assignment one day earlier, Tuesday, March 15.

(There was no disturbance at the newspaper through Wednesday of last week, Peggy said, but there was a most definite one, involving the manager and the city editor, on Thursday, March 17. This shook up the whole staff and resulted in a suspension. Since Seth was a day late regarding the change of plan, we wondered if he was a day early regarding the disturbance.

(Last Friday Jane received word that her article on the envelope experiments was rejected by Fate Magazine. In the 233rd session Seth said the article would sell, without naming the buyer, “providing Ruburt follows the way which has been set out for him.” See Volume 5, page 287.

(In the 210th session for November 22,1965, Seth stated that he had picked up an “incipient malignancy” in Helen Dyer, who is a friend of our landlady, Marian Spaziani. See Volume 5, page 81. This data was given after the two women had visited us. We have heard nothing more on this, either from Seth or the two women. Last weekend Marian’s husband Jimmy told us that Marian herself must have an operation to remove a tumor on an ovary. Since Seth mentioned the abdominal region in connection with Helen, we wonder about possible distortion on Jane’s part here. The material in the 210th session was focused strongly on Helen however.

(The session was held in our front room. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. She was not smoking; her voice was average, her pace again slow, with many pauses.)

The material concerning your landlady’s friend was legitimate. The material concerning your landlord was legitimate. Probabilities are involved in this case, however.

(Jane now paused. Her eyes were still closed. She leaned forward in her rocker, elbows on knees, head down. The pause was rather long, and her voice was quieter when she resumed at 9:14.)

(Break at 9:21. Jane was well dissociated for a first break, she said. Her eyes had remained closed. Her pace had been slow at the end of the delivery. She was surprised at the early break, but more so at the impressions given, since she hadn’t expected them.

(As Jane sat resting during break, staring absently at the floor, she received the word “mine.” She doesn’t know if this was from Seth or is a production of her own. In two recent envelope experiments Jane has used the word mine, or the underground image thus conjured up, to refer to a grave, meaning death.

(Jane began speaking at a much faster pace. Her eyes opened as soon as she began, widely, and remained so for some little time. The rapid delivery was interspersed with short pauses. Resume at 9:30.)

Now. In the earlier impressions that I gave you this evening, I was trying something new, and we will give you what further information we can, when we can. We were throwing our net of awareness in a large circle, so to speak, to see what we could catch, and the results should prove rather interesting.

(It was now time for the 49th Dr. Instream experiment, although as it developed this came a bit later than usual. Once again Jane spoke slowly, with her eyes closed and her voice rather quiet. Resume at 9:59.)

Now. The material that I gave you earlier, concerning your finances, was quite approximately correct.

(As far as I know, no such change is contemplated at Artistic Card Co. I have heard no talk or even rumors to this effect. Our department was recently moved but there has been no change in personnel. But as stated there have been many changes lately, and there could be more. My boss has held his present position for about fifteen years. Offhand I cannot think of how he could advance within the firm, unless he moved into the selling end of it. He is presently art director, and a member of the board.

(Jane paused once more, and seemed to wait expectantly. This was my first shot at a second question during an experiment. We hadn’t discussed the possibility of more than one question yet, but evidently Seth—or Jane—is getting used to the idea of envelope questions so rapidly that soon questions may be asked at leisure.

(Break at 10:25. Once again Jane said she was well dissociated; she didn’t recall much of what she had said. Her eyes had remained closed since last break, and her pace had been fair.

(See the tracing of the envelope object on page 29. As stated, it is the insurance receipt for the tape of the 170th session, made on July 19,1965 at the home of the Gallaghers, with them as witnesses. The receipt is handstamped July 23,1965, the day the tape was mailed to Dr. Instream.

(The receipt is rectangular in shape; in connection with this shape, Jane said she had an image within, of a whitish color. It was rectangular and of the approximate proportion of the object. She was aware of black lines upon it. She saw it standing on a narrow end. This is quite possible, since I noticed during the experiment that she held the sealed envelope at various angles. Remember also that she gave white in connection with the object’s color, in answer to my second question. The receipt is green.

(“Something spilled.” Both Jane and I have vague memories of something being spilled at the Gallaghers’ that evening, when the 170th session was recorded. We believe it was a drink. We will check with Bill and Peggy.

(“Copy in the center of the bottom of a paper item.” No matter which side of the envelope object was facing up, there would be copy in the center of the bottom side. Jane changed the position of the envelope frequently, as she held it while giving the data.

(“Elmira, NY, connected with this copy.” Elmira, NY, is included in the handstamp on the receipt. This data would indicate then that while Jane held the envelope “this copy”, including the handstamp, was on the underside.

(“A door which is dark, or opens into darkness.” Jane and I had the same thought, independently, before mentioning it: that this impression referred to the layout of the Gallagher’s house, where the 170th session was recorded. The session was held in their living room. A hall opens off this and leads back to the kitchen. Other rooms open off the hall on either side. Usually when we visit there we see a light on in the kitchen.

(I recall that on the particular night of the recording session, we did not want to be interrupted. Therefore we had the curtains pulled in the living room, and all other lights out. Thus the hallway leading from the living room to the kitchen was dark. Since we did not ask Seth we cannot be sure our interpretation is correct.

(“Circular shapes. Perhaps four heads.” Four people were present when the 170th session, represented by the envelope object, was recorded: Jane and I, and Bill and Peggy Gallagher. Four heads of course could have referred also to coins or cabbages. I knew four people were present at the 170th session. I did not think I would be giving Jane information when I asked my first question, pertaining to elaboration of the four heads data. As far as she was concerned, I could have picked either a bit of data I knew to be wrong, or about which I knew nothing, as well as something that was correct.

(“White, it seems, with a large oval darker shape.” As stated on page 36, Jane had a mental image of a rectangular object that was whitish in color, with lines upon it. Hence the persistent references to a white object instead of the actual green color. The handstamp is round; does oval mean round, or something nearly round? Perhaps the meaning is subjective, as well as the size of the handstamp in relation to the size of the whole object.

(“Black, rather clear lines, one on top, bottom, and two sides. Vertical, that is, vertical lines, on the top and bottom, and horizontal on the sides.” The insurance receipt contains clear black printed lines, both horizontal and vertical on the front, and horizontal only on the back. As stated, Jane changed the position of the envelope frequently while she was giving the data. Thus lines that were vertical at one time would become horizontal, and it seems this would apply whether in relation to her as the clairvoyant observer, or the floor or whatever. I also wonder if some of this data might refer to the black lines formed by the printed matter on the object, and its neat-appearing edges, top, sides and bottom.

You are now out of the woods, physically speaking. You have passed the period where in the past illness was most probable. The afternoon at your parents’ home could have initiated an illness, but did not because of your more rational reactions.

In the past a virus operated of a peculiar kind. There was a subconscious bargain made, and your dream of the other evening is connected here. Whether or not we have time to discuss it this evening I do not know.

You were upset psychically for all of the reasons that I have given you in the past. The subconscious bargain was this: For relative freedom the rest of the year, you settled for a virus that would hit you any time between January and March 20.

Now there are pills I believe that once taken become activated again within given time periods. This is how your virus acted, and you yourself triggered it. Now there was a connection here with a vaccine, I believe taken by you and Ruburt, that should not have affected you at all.

(Cards given to Jane and me at the time show that we received Type I Sabin oral polio vaccine in October 1962, and Type II in November 1962. The card for Type II contained a notice to the effect that information about Type III would be available in the spring of 1963, but if memory serves correctly Type III never was available for public free distribution in this area. In any event Jane and I never did receive Type III.)

You activated it yourself, and I would not tell you this until you had completely conquered it. Ordinarily it would not have been dangerous at all, and it was not dangerous to Ruburt.

(Strange as it may seem—or perhaps not so strangely after all—I remember my mother giving me this negative suggestion quite clearly. There had been a good deal of radio and newspaper publicity concerning the oral vaccines at that time. When we happened to mention to my parents that we had taken it, my mother was rather emphatic in emphasizing the dangers in taking “such things; you might get polio,” etc.

(As stated I fell ill with the virus in March 1965. I was also troubled by a virus in 1964, sometime between January and March; I was not in the habit of noting such things in the sessions then, so have no accurate record. I remember that I was sick three times that winter, each time to a lesser degree. The first two episodes cost me work time of several days each. I do not remember having any thoughts, at any time, connecting my illnesses to the polio vaccines.)

The other was to hurt yourself. Now, it has taken you this much time to recover completely, and without our sessions recovery would have been slower. Now, your energy can indeed bubble up freely in your work.

(Break at 11:04. Jane was well dissociated, she said. Her pace had become fairly good, her eyes opening often. I left the well-paying field of comics just about at the time I met Jane, in the spring of 1954. Jane now resumed in the same manner at 11:06.)

(End, presumably, at 11:08. Jane was again well dissociated.

(Here Seth refers to my fall hay fever. In the unscheduled 182nd session for August 28,1965, Seth said my father gave me his hay fever when I was about three years old. It is true my father lost his hay fever when I was very young.