“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The scheduled session for Monday, April 18 was not held, and we enjoyed the change of pace. We hoped Seth would deal with any object Dr. Instream had focused on Monday night, as well as the object for last Wednesday April 13.

(The 48th envelope experiment was held during the session. See the copy of the object on page 104. We had saved the article because it dealt with our friend Bill Macdonnel, who has witnessed several sessions. When Bill visited us early this evening I thought of using the clipping as object.

(I found other copies of the article after the session. The actual copy used in the envelope is as usual on file in our object notebook. On the partial copy attached to page 104 I penned in the row of numbers representing the date after the session. The session was a comparatively short one and Seth did not go into each point in the data. Some of the data is self-explanatory when checked against the article.

The object, a scribbled pad, small and white. An unusual amount of company. A rendition. Four and three. An encounter that had a disturbing aspect, this involving himself and another man. The man may have had a mustache of the prickly variety, or unusually bushy. Perhaps brown and gray. The disturbing aspect having to do with a book, and the initials A G that have something to do, I believe, with the book.

(“Can you say a little more about the object itself?”)

(“How about the colors connected with the object?”)

(Jane progresses step by step. At the moment she said she feels uneasy when I ask questions pertaining directly to the object, but that she knows this will pass in the light of past experience. In the beginning also she could not name an object for Dr. Instream regardless of questions of accuracy. She does so easily now in most cases. Jane explained that our own experiments call up a chain of personal associations which she must sort out in reciting the data. She is not concerned with this in the Instream material.

(This did mark the end of the session as far as Seth was concerned. Jane and I made the connections that were clear to us. We would have liked Seth’s help on a few, but did not ask him to resume. See the copy of the envelope object on page 104.

(“A connection with something ripped or torn out.” Originally I tore the article out of the paper. Note that signs of this are still visible on the left hand edge. The bottom of the clipping was also rough, and I clipped it evenly with scissors before filing it; this was before I thought of using it as object; Jane of course knew I saved the article because it pertained to Bill Macdonnel. As it happened my clipping the article along the bottom made it fit just right between the usual two pieces of Bristol, and into the double envelopes.

(“With something revolving, and with an oval shape that is not a perfect circle.” In the third column of the envelope object there is a reference to “ceramics and metal sculpture” also in the window with the nude painting that is the subject of the object. Directly in back of the painting is a large circular ceramic sculpture, perhaps a foot in diameter, that is more egg-shaped than a perfect circle. This has a textured, matte surface. Just to the right of this sculpture is another egg-shaped sculpture; this one is of polished silvery metal and is perhaps ten inches across. It stands on a wooden pedestal; the polished reflections in it seem to move as one’s viewpoint changes. We believe this is the oval shape Seth refers to, in light of his answer to my second question.

(“A connection with something distant,” In the sixth column of the envelope object there is a reference to Corning—Painted Post School District, which employs Bill as an art teacher. This is perhaps twenty-five miles away. Bill lives here in Elmira and commutes to work daily. The time he can spend at his gallery in Elmira is thus quite limited—another reason for the schedule of hours posted in one of the windows, as mentioned on page 109.

(“with three people in particular.” When the police asked Bill to remove the painting from his gallery window, he asked advice from three people in particular. Two of the people are named in the sixth column of the envelope object. These two supported Bill’s decision to leave the painting in the window. The third man, Ernfred Anderson, who has a national reputation as a sculptor and teacher at Elmira College, and is a close friend of Bill, Jane and mine, advised Bill to remove the painting. Bill told Jane and me this on his visit earlier this evening, although we had heard this from other friends several days ago.

(“An announcement, as in an announcement of intention.” The first paragraph of the envelope object contains Bill Macdonnel’s intention not to remove the painting from the gallery window even though requested to do so by the police. Bill reiterated his decision on his visit earlier tonight.

(“A reference to several items of a kind. That is an announcement made, a reference made, about several items of a kind.” Column three contains references to a collection of abstracts [which are paintings], ceramics and metal sculpture. Two of these are plural. Columns five and six of the object contain references to a bookstore and the books on display in the window there. This store is but a few doors down the street—East Water Street.

(“An impression again of an unscheduled event also, or an event not kept.” Jane is sure this refers to Peggy Gallagher, who wrote the news story used as envelope object. On Friday April 15 Jane and I and the Gallaghers heard about Bill’s difficulties. Peggy planned to call Bill Saturday but did not do so. We saw the Gallaghers on Sunday evening and learned that she still hadn’t seen Bill Macdonnel. Her story however was printed on Monday, April 18, which means she had to see Bill sometime Monday morning. This was possible because Bill Macdonnel, as a teacher, was still on Easter vacation. See also the “something not kept” reference and interpretation on page 109.

(“Blue green, written with a pen, or the color of blue ink.” I wrote the date at the top of the object with a ballpoint pen containing blue ink—the same pen used to duplicate this series of numbers on the copy of the object included with this session. The reference to green is interesting; my thought being that blue and green are next to each other on the color wheel and perhaps difficult for Seth to distinguish. Both are cool colors.

(“The number impression again…initials.” As Seth said this block of data pertained to an address Jane and I were given last evening, and is not related to the envelope object. The address also contained a series of numbers.

(“A mishmash, as of tiny crisscrossing wires.” Seth gave this answer to my question in which I asked him to say more about the object itself. The object consists of small printed type which was folded several times; such an impression of tiny criss-crossings could occur to an entity with the ability to see through the layers of the object, so to speak, or to pick up the impressions resulting from layers. This gets complicated however as will be seen in the next impression. [A later note by Rob: Bill had a small scuplture of criss-crossing wires in a gallery window.]

(“A connection with a building that seems to be behind the wires.” If Seth can penetrate the folded layers of the object and tell us that printed type is a mishmash, then presumably he could tell us about things on the back of the object also, even when the object is folded.

(There is the top half of a photograph on the back of the object, on the right. The photo is of Hoffman Nurseries, and features a sign. Beyond the sign to the left can be seen part of a station wagon. In back of the automobile can be seen a trestle-like affair, and in back of this indications of a building. It is indistinct in the poor quality photograph, but can be made out. Hoffman Nurseries is a local concern and actually contains many buildings. Portions of three smaller ads on back of the object also refer to local businesses, and would involve buildings.

(“I mentioned several colors. The color bronze here.” This was in response to my third and last question, for more data on color connected with the object. Jane subjectively feels the bronze reference above deals with the overall color of Bill’s painting, discussed in the envelope object. In the first column Peggy Gallagher calls the painting done “In washed out shades of gray and orange.” Jane associates the gray and orange with bronze. I neglected to ask Seth about “The number 5.”