“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 45th envelope experiment was held during the session. See the tracing on page 72. The object is the flap of a letter that my nephew Douglas Butts and myself wrote on last Sunday, April 3, at my parents’ home in Sayre, PA. The tracing is drawn with the same blue pen, my own, that was used to write on the object. The object came into being when Doug, who is 14 years old, was showing me how he writes left-handed. We sat on the couch and used a folded newspaper for a support; this was not steady. I did not intend to use this object for the envelope experiment, but decided to on the spur of the moment after it was made. Jane never saw the object in its finished form before the experiment.

(She had seen the envelope from which the flap was torn however, in a casual way. The envelope enclosed a letter from Doug’s recently married sister Linda, who now lives in Brooklyn, NY. Both Jane and I read the letter yesterday; it was written to my parents. I wondered whether Seth would pick up any impressions connected with Linda, but he confined himself to impressions that originated yesterday as far as Jane and I were concerned. The N and Norcross indicated in pencil on the tracing signifies a blind embossed trademark on the envelope flap, but Seth said nothing about this either.

(I sealed the object as usual in the regular double envelopes after enclosing it between two pieces of Bristol.

(After supper this evening young Don Wilbur informed us that he and his wife would not be able to witness the session as scheduled. The Wilburs are discussed in the 246th session. Don left a sealed envelope, prepared to my instructions, with me, but I did not plan to use it for this evening’s experiment. Jane knows of the envelope but did not see it. She requested that we not talk about it very much so that she wouldn’t focus upon it to any degree.

Do you have an envelope for me, Joseph?

(Jane paused at 10:25 and I handed her the 45th sealed envelope. As usual she took it without opening her eyes, but this evening she held it in her lap without pressing it to her forehead. Instead she sat with one hand raised to her eyes.)

(Before she opened the envelope, Jane told me that while giving the data she had a most definite impression of something connected with photographs and music. As will be seen she was correct on both counts. Jane said she had “two lines of consciousness,” and that Seth wanted to lead her very carefully between them. She followed his lead successfully.

(We were easily able to make all the connections except one, which Seth helped us out with after break. See the tracing on page 72, and the notes describing it and its circumstances on page 73. The pencil drawing below the actual envelope object is explanatory only.

(“A connection with music.” As stated Jane and I visited my parents at their home last Sunday, April 3, and while there met my brother Loren, his wife Betts, and their son Douglas, who is 14. In this envelope experiment Seth again used the actual object as a jumping-off point for some of his data, and this is a case in point. Doug, who helped me author the object, is not musical; however both his parents are professional musicians; both are teachers; Betts teaching music as well as other subjects. Loren does not teach music anymore. For many years he was a pianist in a dance band and taught music at the same time.

(“The shape of something tall like a tree; waving lines, or wavering lines.” Jane said the tree data was her way, or Seth’s way, of leading up to the data re wavering lines. Doug and I wrote on the object while sitting on a couch. My signature is firm because I had the support of a folded newspaper in my lap. Doug’s is unsteady, or wavering, because he held the envelope flat against his leg and tried to write on it with no other support. As stated he was trying to show me how he writes left-handed.

(“Two.” Two people wrote on the envelope object.

(In all I asked Seth four questions pertaining to the envelope experiment. After answering the first one Jane paused, and I asked the next question without waiting too long. She went along with this technique seemingly without objection. First I asked Seth to elaborate on the music data.

(“A connection with strong musical interests. The item belongs to, or did belong to, someone with musical interests. An instrument connected here I believe, perhaps indirectly.” Doug’s parents, Loren and Betts, have strong musical interests. As far as we know however Doug does not. Nor does his sister Linda, who wrote the letter and enclosed it in the envelope from which the flap used as object was taken. Neither Loren or Betts own any instruments except for a piano, which they both major in. Betts is choir director for her church. Would a piano or organ be the indirect connection? I did not think to ask.

(“A connection with a camera and pictures.” As stated the object is related to transparencies, in that Doug’s father Loren brought his camera and transparencies with him. Jane heard our conversation about pictures and joined in the discussion. She did not know about Doug and me writing on the envelope flap, although she had seen the envelope and flap attached earlier in the day in a casual way.

(Jane now explained at break that Seth didn’t want her to say transparencies when I asked her to name the object. While in trance, she said, she had strong thoughts of Loren and Betts and the pictures, although she had no images. She also had no thoughts that she is aware of, of the viewer. When I asked her to explain the object, she explained, the inhibiting idea of the transparencies got in the way. Since Seth didn’t want her to say transparencies, a compromise emerges in which a connection with the actual envelope object is given.

(Remember that at the beginning of this data Jane is quoted as saying that she had strong impressions of something connected with both music and photographs. This before she opened the experimental envelope to see the object. Jane knows Loren and Betts well, of course, and the transparencies were of Jane and me. These emotional charges outweighed that contained in the envelope object.

(Tracing of the red satin bow used as the envelope object in the 46th experiment, in the 249th session for April 6,1966.)