“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 47th envelope experiment was held during the session, as noted by the tracing on page 91. The object was a faded maple leaf that Jane and I had picked up, along with others, on a walk last year, probably in October 1965. I subsequently made a watercolor drawing of this leaf and another. As will be seen the object led to some data that is somewhat difficult to evaluate, but Jane and I believe it legitimate.

(Try as we would neither of us could recall just when we picked up this particular leaf, other than that it was in the early fall. I thought of October, then checked this with the pendulum, which for me is quite reliable. The pendulum agreed with my conscious answer. The location of just where I picked up this particular leaf is important in the data, and this we are sure of. This will be explained. Suffice it to say now that Jane and I will never cease to be surprised at the turns impressions attached to such experimental objects can take.

(The session was held in the front room. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her voice was average and she used many short pauses; between the pauses, oddly enough, her delivery was rather fast.)

(Jane’s pace was better now and her eyes were opening often, for sentences at a time.)

(Break at 9:27. Jane was well dissociated once again. She said she has generally been “pretty far out” since the material on the quasars began to come through, a few sessions ago. It is a subject we are very interested in. See page 85, etc.

(Jane said she had an image within when talking about our seeing but part of the atom in our system. She tried tracing out the image on the tabletop with a forefinger, but could get nothing beyond the idea of circles being involved.

(Jane now paused for over a minute, sitting quietly with her eyes closed.)

(Break at 9:58. Jane said she was again well dissociated. Her pace had been faster between many pauses, some of which were long. Her eyes had been open for paragraphs at a time. She hadn’t smoked.

(Jane now made a drawing of what she could recall of the atom image she had attempted at first break. This is the image of circles, representing the whole atom, including the part of it visible to us and the invisible portions. Jane was not satisfied with the drawing because she could not indicate the thickness or depth it should have, she said.)

(She explained her drawing to me, and I have translated it into three colors. The black circle comprises the whole atom as projected through all systems. The blue circles are portions of the whole atom to be seen in various systems. The red circle then is the portion of the whole atom seen in our own system. According to Jane we should think of this drawing as being of many thicknesses.

(It was now time for the 55th Dr. Instream experiment. As usual Jane sat with a hand to her closed eyes. She spoke at a somewhat slower pace throughout the data. Resume at 10:10.)

(Jane paused, and at 10:16 I handed her the envelope for our 47th experiment. She took it from me without opening her eyes, but instead of pressing it to her forehead she held it quietly in her lap with one hand. Once again she held her right hand to her eyes.)

(Her eyes still closed, Jane reached out with her right hand and made a large gesture of a triangular or pyramidal shape.)

Unpleasant episodes remind Ruburt of your parents. (Jane smiled.) In connection with the episodes, four, four in the afternoon or four people, two male and two female. A distant connection here with a death in the family involved.

(Break at 10:31. Jane was again more dissociated than usual, she said. Her eyes had remained closed throughout all the experimental material.

(The connection between the envelope object and the death-in-the-family reference is, simply, that the object was picked off the sidewalk beside the home of my Aunt Mabel, and that Aunt Mabel, Jane and I attended the funeral of the family member. The connection is more complicated than this, but to avoid confusion I will explain this portion mentioned above first.

(My Aunt Mabel lives around the corner and two blocks down the street from us. When Jane and I went for our leaf-gathering walk in October of 1965, we picked up the maple leaves in our collection beside Aunt Mabel’s home; this is the section of the street where the maple trees grow, and one of these leaves made up tonight’s object.

(Aunt Mabel and I seldom see each other. Jane has met her just three times during the eleven years we have been married. The third time was at the funeral of my Aunt Ella on August 8,1965, in Wellsburg, NY. Thus the most recent time that Jane had a chance to speak at length to Aunt Mabel involved the funeral of a member of the Butts family. In addition Seth dealt at length with Aunt Ella in the 176th session of August 9,1965, the day after her funeral. Note that the object was secured two months after Aunt Ella’s funeral. We have noticed this curious time jump before in the envelope experiments, backwards as it were. Jane possessed strong emotional memories regarding the funeral, and clairvoyant knowledge of the envelope object in some form; evidently Seth responded to, or deliberately chose, what he perceived as the stronger intensities pertaining to Aunt Ella’s funeral over the object itself.

(It appears that Jane has formed an association that links Aunt Mabel with funerals, as seen above. If this seems tenuous, we think the idea reinforced by the fact that Jane and me and Aunt Mabel also attended another funeral together—that of Aunt Mabel’s husband, who died several years ago. This was the first time Jane met Aunt Mabel. Thus Aunt Mabel was involved with funerals and related activities on two out of the three occasions that Jane has spoken with her; these two occasions being the times when Jane could exchange more than greetings with her, also. Jane and I do not think tonight’s envelope data contains any references to the death of Aunt Mabel’s husband.

(There is a reference to another death in the data however, this time to the passing of Jane’s grandmother many years ago. This will be explained later.

(Jane said that while giving the data this evening she thought of Aunt Ella by name, but did not give voice to this.

(“A connection with a series, and with several unpleasant episodes.” This refers to a series of telephone calls Jane found herself involved in when Aunt Ella died unexpectedly. The calls, most of them long distance, involved my parents and my brother and his family, and concerned topics like transportation, expenses, times, etc. I was at work during this period and couldn’t help. Jane found this quite unpleasant.

(“Tension, as something evenly balanced. Tension like wires… As in trying to go two ways at once. A pulling in two directions, with a balance of tension resulting.” Jane is subjectively sure these impressions refer to the telephone calls she was involved in, and the conflicting desires of the family members. Everybody had their own ideas, and the conflict had to be resolved on rather short notice. Things were of course finally straightened out.

(“Gun. Something to do with a gun, or something triggered, or explosive.” More references to the situation outlined above. Note that most of this data has meaning for Jane in a strong way because of the emotional content, and that I am relatively unaffected. As stated, the connection between the envelope object and Aunt Mabel and her home had to be made before this data fell into place. I did not understand much of it on my own.

(“Unpleasant episodes remind Ruburt of your parents. In connection with the episodes, four, four in the afternoon or four people, two male and two female. A distant connection here with a death in the family involved.” The death in the family reference here could mean only Aunt Ella, which led us to Aunt Mabel and her home, near where we obtained the envelope object. Without going into detail here we can say that four refers both to the time of the funeral services, and an idea involving Jane and me and my parents, in connection with the funeral, that wasn’t carried out.

(Now here is the data referring to the death of Jane’s grandmother: “Printed material with a picture. In parentheses: Ruburt thinks of old-fashioned Shredded Wheat cards, that were gray-blue in color.” Jane was six years old when her grandmother was killed by an automobile while going to a neighborhood store to buy Shredded Wheat. The connection here is a strong emotional one for Jane. Jane remembers clearly that on the day of her grandmother’s death she did not like what she had for supper. As children do, she cried and made a fuss. To placate her, her grandmother gave in to Jane’s demands for Shredded Wheat, and left the house.

(“An m-i-s-s.” At the time this was given it left me in the dark. Jane was quite definite about it however, even spelling it out. In view of the following data we do not think it was meant to apply to Linda.

(“We will say then a small child. A connection with a small child.” Seth gave this answer to my request for the female child’s initials; Linda is thus eliminated definitely. More important, Jane said that when I asked questions concerning the child, she wanted to say Linda but that Seth wouldn’t let her. Backing off from the idea of Linda because she felt it was wrong, Jane compromised with the small child data.

(“Connected with the object: The impression of a pile, or pyramid of small things like stones perhaps. The shape of an ice cream cone. A pyramid shape.” As noted, Jane coupled this data with a large gesture of a triangular or pyramidal shape. See the tracing of the object on page 91. The maple leaf is roughly of a pyramid shape.

(“Red and yellow, strips I believe, and a cardboard backing.” I used two of the maple leaves Jane and I gathered on our October 1965 walk as subjects for a watercolor painting. The envelope object is one of them. Both of the leaves were fall colors—red and yellow, with some green. There may be other connections here but we did not ask Seth. I don’t see the strips reference, or the cardboard backing.

(There are a few other impressions that we made no connection for, nor did we ask Seth about the m-i-s-s data. Jane resumed at a leisurely pace at 10:50.)

(Aunt Ella was buried in Wellsburg, NY, a small town near Elmira. Jane and I do not consciously remember the name of the funeral director, and at the time of the services did not see any children about. Ann Diebler, whom I work with, lives in Wellsburg; she has witnessed a few unscheduled sessions. The day after this session was held she confirmed that the funeral director has two young adopted daughters, one 10 years old, the other 12. They are in fact sisters. Jane and I cannot say whether or not we ever heard, or knew, that the funeral director had daughters, adopted or otherwise. We saw him just the once.)

(Jane’s eyes were open and very dark; she smiled.

(End at 10:56. Jane was dissociated as usual.)