“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 50th envelope experiment was held during the session. The object was a black and white photo of Jane’s father and his deceased second wife, Maxine, taken sometime prior to 1954. Jane hadn’t seen the photo in recent months. I placed it between the usual two pieces of Bristol and sealed it in the double envelopes.

(The session was held in our front room. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. She was smoking however and her eyes soon began to open often. Her pace was average, her voice quiet.

(Break at 9:26. Jane said she was well dissociated for a first delivery. Her pace had picked up and her eyes, very dark, had been open much of the time.

(Break at 9:57. Jane was again well dissociated. She said the passage of time seemed like ten minutes at the most. Her eyes had been open much of the time.

(It was now time for the 59th Dr. Instream experiment. Jane sat with her right hand raised to her closed eyes, speaking at a somewhat slower rate, with many short pauses. Resume at 10:08.)

(At 10:17 Jane took the envelope from me for the 50th experiment. Her eyes remained closed. Her position did not change; since she sat with her left hand still to her eyes, she laid the envelope in her lap with her right hand.)

(Break at 10:28. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed throughout both experiments. She had but one image during the envelope data—of white notepaper with blue lines upon it, and she didn’t know whether this came from Seth or herself.

(As is usually the case when we do not personally know a lot of intimate details connected with the envelope object, Jane and I found ourselves unable to check all of Seth’s data. We think of these occasions as being like those where strangers would furnish the object. We could make quite a few connections however, and Seth helps out a little.

(Briefly, the object is a black-and-white photo of Jane’s father Del, and his deceased second wife Maxine. Del was about 48 when the picture was taken in the backyard of their home in Santa Monica, California, and Maxine was 38 or 39. Within six months Maxine was dead from cancer. Her death took place in California just at the time I met Jane in Saratoga Springs, NY, in 1954 in January. Jane hadn’t seen Maxine for a couple of years and I had never met her.

(“A separation.” Jane and I both thought of Maxine’s unexpected death while in her late thirties.

(“Something surprising, as when someone says ‘This is unheard of’.” Jane said this referred to Maxine’s untimely death.

(“Stone steps.” Although it does not show in the photo itself, just beyond the photo would be the back steps of the couples’ house in Santa Monica. These are either stone or concrete; Jane and I cannot be sure, not having been there for perhaps eight or nine years. At the time the picture was taken there was a small guest house, California style, in back of the main house; here Jane recalls a flagstone walk. This little house was torn down before my first visit to Santa Monica. A flight of four or five steps, stone or concrete, led up to the back porch of the main house.

(“Some kind of connection with a screen, or with a motion picture screen, or camera screen.” The object was a photograph. These related references could be the attempts of Seth/Jane to get at the idea of the picture.

(“A child, and seven.” I wasn’t sure these two impressions were connected, although Jane gave them together. I tried to clear up the child and number reference later in the questions.

(“Also the impression of a string or series. A miscellany of shapes in one corner.” Apparently the picket fence, seen in two places on the photo—to their right and in back of Del and Maxine, and their left foreground. In the photo the tree branches in their left background form an interesting pattern also, with the building mentioned at the top of this page seen behind them; usually when Jane uses the word miscellany to denote irregular shapes the data is too general.

(“Blue and white.” Here I asked for colors in connection with the object. Jane said this is when she had the mental image of white notepaper with blue lines on it. She didn’t know whether this image came from Seth or herself.

(“Male.” Seth here gives the sex of the child mentioned on page 128. I had wondered if it was a reference to Jane herself. During break Jane said she believed it referred to a brother of Maxine’s. The brother is the same approximate age as Jane, and lived in upstate New York near Saratoga; hence Jane got to know the members of Maxine’s family fairly well even though she seldom saw Maxine herself. Jane said she liked the brother quite well; he is the member of Maxine’s family who made an impression on her.

(“No it does not.” My last question concerned the number seven as possibly referring to the age of the child. With this possibility eliminated Jane and I saw no other connection.

(Jane resumed with her eyes closed at 10:48.)