“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 54th envelope experiment was held tonight. The object was a homemade pattern made on light-colored paper, with hand-ground gray brown earth color for pigment and polymer medium for binder. It was folded once as indicated in the making. The effect is like an inkblot, except that the quality and texture of the paint is much superior as far as charm goes; this particular hand-ground pigment, which I make myself by heating a certain Italian earth color, has a texture like fine cement or roughened stone. Since it is a heavy-bodied pigment, it was built up in spots on the object as much as 1/32 of an inch thick. The whole pattern was made up of lines and white spots which do not show very well in my tracing. I placed the object, folded once, between the usual two pieces of Bristol and sealed it in the double envelopes.

(The session was held in the front room. Jane began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed, and in a quiet voice. In the beginning she used some long pauses.)

(Break at 9:25. Jane was “out” as usual, she said. Her pace had picked up considerably. Her eyes had begun to open, and she had lit a cigarette and sipped wine. She resumed in this more emphatic manner at 9:32.)

Now I was not dreaming of him, and he was not dreaming of me. I was simply leading him rather gently into new dimensions. When he is ready to embark he will do so. He cannot push himself in this direction, for the whole self sets ups safeguards. You are both however nearly ready.

(Break at 9:59. Jane said she was well dissociated. Seth was giving her the material so fast that she had trouble keeping up with it; her delivery had been so fast I had barely managed to keep up with it, in turn. Her eyes had opened often; her voice had been good, her manner emphatic, with few pauses.

(It was now time for the 63rd Dr. Instream experiment. Jane’s pace now slowed as she sat with a hand to her closed eyes. Resume at 10:05.)

The object does not belong to Dr. Instream, but was borrowed, and has a strong connection with a woman. Still, it seems to be mechanical, rather than for example a jewelry chain. It has a mechanical use, and perhaps a connection with two boxes, rather small in themselves, which are raised and lowered or moved, by the chain.

Perhaps J B and a date. I do not get the feeling that the object has to do with the immediate present, in that it was not a part of your experience, directly.

(Break at 10:29. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed through both experiments. She said that Seth had felt like giving many impressions.

(As soon as she opened the double envelopes, Jane said the object looked like a man to her, with either horizontal edge uppermost, and that she thought this impression had given rise to the photograph data. See the tracing on page 162, and the description of the object on page 163. This marked the end of the session for all practical purposes as far as Seth was concerned. Jane and I made the connections we could and did not ask Seth to elaborate.

(“Dark printed matter.” As stated, the pigment used on the object is quite dark, a burnt gray brown, but it is not black. Jane’s impression of it, I noted, was that it was darker to her than to me. I don’t know whether Seth uses printed here to mean an ink applied to paper or newsprint, or just some other substance applied to a surface as in the case of the object.

(“Connection with an image of Ruburt. Black and white again rather than color. A connection with the early 1960s.” Again, Jane thinks the dark pigment on the object gave rise to this data, with the date perhaps referring to the year a picture of herself was taken.

(“The question is not a good one.” Just for kicks, I asked Seth if he thought the object was a photograph. This because of the numerous photo and man references in the data. At this time, of course, before Jane had seen the object, I had no idea that it would remind her strongly of a man, and hence possibly give rise to the photo data.

(“The feeling of a fluid dark color, broken by white shapes that appear like blocks.” The wet pigment used to make the object was a fluid dark color, of course. Seth now uses the block data to refer to the whites scattered through the object on the original. Some of the whites are of a block shape, roughly, but more often simply irregular just as the pigment is.

(“I do not get the feeling that the object has to do with the immediate present, in that it was not a part of your experience, directly.” Just the opposite. The object was part of my experience, in the immediate past. Jane had never seen the object or any like it, since I had never made any before; perhaps this data came out because she herself was thus not involved with the object in any way.