“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 55th envelope experiment was held during the session. Notes pertaining to the object will be found along with Seth’s data given during the experiment.

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(Seth first mentioned this in the early sessions, shortly after January 1964.)

(I picked up the matchbook in a restaurant, Mother Goldsmith’s in Saratoga Springs, NY. Jane has been familiar with the place since childhood, and on our infrequent visits to Saratoga we always stop in. I dated this particular matchbook on the inside when obtaining it—August 1963, which was before these sessions began in December 1963. The book is printed in black on a dim yellow—as Seth calls it—cardboard stock. All the copy on it, except for Nate Goldsmith’s name beneath the caricature of him, is in this dim yellow against the black background.

(It wasn’t until Jane and I began to study the envelope data that we realized it referred to more than one visit to Saratoga on our part. This immediately complicated things. Interpretations became elusive indeed, and part of our knowledge that two visits to Saratoga were involved was subjective only. Had we realized this by the end of the session we would have called Seth back to help out. As it was we didn’t appreciate what had happened until the time came to write these notes. Another complication is that while we cannot pin down all the data, we feel that most of it is quite legitimate.

(The spade impression here is apparently elaborated upon by Seth an impression or two later, in connection with underground data. There can be a connection with the black color of the suit of spades in a deck of playing cards, and the black of the object.

(“The impression here of something underground. I do not know whether to interpret this as a burial or not.” Possibly the death of Nate Goldsmith; we learned about this on our second visit. Jane, or Seth, has used the underground idea several times now in connection with death.

(“Writing. Five, perhaps five lines.” Once again, we do not know just what Seth means by writing—type like this, printing, handwritten script or lettering, etc. The front cover of the object contains five lines of large type against the black background. The object was presented flat or opened up in the envelope, so also visible at a glance would be more than five lines—eight to be exact exclusive of the name on the caricature. I hand lettered inside the cover also. The phone number on the top fold of the object contains a five, but we don’t know whether this means anything.

(“A large round circular shape, perhaps inside of a rectangular one”, can refer to the caricature of Nate Goldsmith on the back of the object. The drawing is made up of rounded lines and shapes, is rounded in overall shape, and fits into the black rectangular frame. We don’t particularly know why Seth uses large here, unless he means that the drawing could not be much larger and still fit into the rectangular shape.

(“and crisscross lines in the shape of a cross.” Jane said this data goes with the earlier underground and spade data, and is a symbolic reference to the death of Nate Goldsmith. Seth has used the cross idea before in indicating things ended, etc.

(“Give us a moment. Red and green. A black or dark color against a light background. Also a dim yellow.” My first question concerned colors on the object. We don’t know what the red and green refers to, since these are not present on the object. The object is however printed in black, against a light background. Seth’s description of a dim yellow is a most apt description of the color of the cardboard stock used for the object.

(“Two men and two women.” I asked Seth to elaborate on the four people standing up data. Two men and two women were involved in the meeting referred to earlier: Jane’s father Del and myself, and Jane and Del’s wife. This on our second visit.

(“Perhaps a J and a G.” I asked Seth for initials of the people at the meeting. The J can refer to Jane, but not the G. The initial G of course shows up on the object itself, twice, in Nate Goldsmith and Mother Goldsmith’s.

(“A note.” I asked Seth to name the object. Perhaps the good amount of writing on the object, front and back, plus mine on the inside, gave rise to this data.

(“Good night, Seth.”

(End at 10:11. Jane was “out” as usual. She said Seth felt affectionate at the end of the session. She held the session tonight not only because she didn’t want to miss it, but because under similar circumstances in the past the results have been good. She had confidence that if she really shouldn’t have a session Seth would either call it off entirely or make it very short.)