“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher were due to witness the session. Peggy was going to take flash pictures of Jane while she was in trance; Jane’s publisher had asked to see some material of this kind. We had no idea of the success of this venture—whether Jane would be distracted while delivering the regular material, or during the envelope experiment; if possible we wanted to cover both categories.

(The Gallaghers arrived just before 9 PM, when we were about to begin the session. Peggy had her press camera. We took a few minutes to make our witnesses comfortable. Peggy was to prowl around, seeking out compositions, etc., and to take pictures whenever she chose. Jane and I were to go on as usual.

(Peggy now took her first picture. The flash startled me more than it did Jane, for she continued on, unperturbed.)

(Peggy took her next picture, and once again Jane did not pause. Her eyes remained closed as before.)

(Break at 9:22. Jane had been dissociated as usual for a first delivery. Her pace had been good, her voice a bit stronger than usual, her eyes had remained closed. Jane said she had noticed the flash but had not been bothered by it when Peggy took the pictures.

(Peggy was having trouble composing a picture, she said, so for the next delivery she had Jane and me seat ourselves in another part of the room. We also moved about later in the session, but Jane kept using her favorite session chair, our Kennedy rocker.

(Jane was most emphatic in giving this material, speaking in a good voice and with many gestures. Her pace was also good. Once in a while her eyes opened briefly. Peggy had been taking pictures, and as far as I could tell Jane was not bothered.)

(Break at 9:52. Jane was dissociated as usual, she said. Her eyes had been closed for the most part, her manner and gestures very emphatic. Peggy’s flashgun hadn’t bothered her. A total of seven pictures had been taken by now.

(Jane paused at 10:15. She took the usual sealed double envelope from me without opening her eyes. This was our 43rd experiment. Peggy was ready for more pictures. Jane pressed the envelope to her forehead briefly, then lowered it to her lap—possibly because she knew pictures were to be taken of the experiment. I wondered about the results this evening in the face of possible distractions.)

(Peggy took a picture. Jane did not appear to be bothered.)

(Peggy took another picture, and again Jane continued unperturbed; her eyes remained closed.)

(End at 10:23. Jane was dissociated as usual, she said. Her eyes had begun to open toward the end of the delivery, and her voice became humorous. Peggy Gallagher had taken ten photographs in all, and the taking of them had not seemed to bother Jane. I did think the envelope data had probably been shortened somewhat.

(We believe we have made some progress checking Seth’s impressions in this case, and they involve Bill Macdonnel, John Bradley, and Peggy Gallagher among others. It isn’t necessary here to go into these points in detail one by one, either in the data on page 32, or on the envelope object. But we do believe these excerpts from page 32 apply to Peggy and her place of employment, the local newspaper: “A crisis involving health. A doctor… A connection with a man who can be considered an outsider to a group. He is connected with the crisis.”

(“A switch.” This we believe involves Peggy’s failure to appear at the two previous sessions, 242 and 243, to take photographs of Jane. This is borne out also by Seth’s last statement, where I asked him to elaborate: “The switch seems to be involved with a change of plans, or a switch of dates.” The change of plans was on Peggy’s part, twice, and the somewhat involved mechanics of the situation here are explained in the notes on page 30 of the 243rd session.

(The connection with the envelope object is that the object concerns an investigation of Seth’s data on page 32; this data involves Peggy’s involvement in a crisis at her place of employment. The change of plans came about when Peggy was ordered out of town on assignment for March 16,1966, Wednesday night, the time she had planned to photograph Jane during the 242nd session. Peggy was given this change of plans on Tuesday, March 15, and as shown Seth mentions March 15 in the data this evening.

(The crisis involving health concerns Peggy’s employer, the general manager of the paper, who was in the hospital with heart trouble for several days last week. The general manager was also responsible for sending Peggy out of town on assignment. In addition, there was another crisis involving the general manager at the paper last week, and this material is also to be found on page 30. This upset concerned the general manager and the city editor, and the whole newspaper staff was present on request.

(“A bright color suggesting sunlight.” We don’t know. A reference to the flashgun? Peggy took three shots of Jane during the envelope data. The sunlight reference is one occurring once in a while in the envelope data, and sometimes involves circles of bright colors. The object tonight is white paper, but then many objects are.

(“2 o’clock. A connection with a March 13 or 15 date, I believe.” This is quite possible, we think, although we did not check with Seth. See the notes again on pages 30, and 50, concerning Peggy’s failure to appear as scheduled to photograph Jane during the 242nd session. As stated the 242nd session was held on Wednesday March 16. Peggy did not appear because she was given an out-of-town assignment for Wednesdsay evening. She was actually given the assignment on Tuesday, March 15, in the afternoon. On page 30 it is stated Peggy does not recall the exact time she was told about the assignment except that it was not too late in the afternoon. Seth had mentioned 3 PM during the 242nd session, and Peggy said it was possible. Does 2 o’clock apply here? We do not know since we did not check with Seth. Peggy is sure however that she was given the assignment no later than 3 PM.)