“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 56th envelope experiment was held during the session. The object was a pencil drawing I made of Jane this afternoon, without her knowledge. I looked down on her as she sunned herself, my viewpoint being the back row of the studio windows on the second story. The sketch took but a few minutes because she moved so frequently, and I was much amused at her restlessness; this mirth plays a part in the experimental results. The drawing is on porous paper with a slight yellowish cast. I placed it between the usual two pieces of Bristol, then sealed it in double envelopes.

(Before the session Jane said she had no idea of what Seth would talk about. She began speaking while sitting down and with her eyes closed. She had left a cigarette burning however, and her eyes soon began to open. Her voice was quiet, her pace quite slow.)

(Break at 9:25. Jane was out as usual. Her pace was a little better as the session progressed, although her eyes remained closed for most of it.

(Jane confirmed that she did not like the “spiritual guide” connotation. Seth’s material upon resumption stems from the fact that Jane, housecleaning lately, had switched our bed from a north-south axis to east-west. Resume at 9:31, eyes open, smiling broadly.)

(Astral Projection, by Oliver Fox. After reading part of this book very recently, Jane achieved her first deliberate projection.)

(Break at 9:53. Jane was pretty well dissociated. Traffic noise from the open windows hadn’t bothered her. Her pace had been much faster. Her eyes had opened often and she had smiled often.

(It was now time for the 65th Dr. Instream experiment. As usual Jane’s pace slowed somewhat, and she sat with a hand raised to her closed eyes. Jane hesitated for a moment, saying that Seth was waiting for “just the right time” to contact Dr. Instream. Resume at 10:04.)

The object he has chosen has a strong connection with a place. (Jane began to rub her eyes strongly.) The object is not utilitarian, that is, you cannot do anything with it, but it represents something else.

It may be a photograph of the earlier mentioned impressions, you see, if not a photograph (Jane’s eyes now opened, wide and very dark. This is the first time they have done so during such an experiment.) A picture of some kind—an image of another man, rather than the thing itself.

(Jane paused at 10:17. Her eyes were still closed. She took the envelope for our 56th experiment from me without opening them. She pressed the envelope to her forehead with one hand while keeping the other to her face.)

Do you have any questions? (Jane lowered the envelope to her lap, her eyes still closed.

(Break at 10:29. Jane was far out, she said. She wasn’t conscious of anything but the experiment, and her eyes remained closed through all of it. She had a few images during the experiment and these will be mentioned in place in the data.

(Seth answers a few questions after break. In the meantime Jane and I made our own connections. See the tracing on page 178, and the notes on page 179.

(“Mirth.” As stated earlier, I felt pronounced amusement while making the drawing used as the object. Jane moved almost constantly while posing unwittingly, and I had to work very rapidly while at the same time being careful she didn’t look up at the studio windows on the second floor and see what I was doing.

(“Yet also a connection with an unpleasant event.” Jane said the unpleasant event was the fact that earlier two neighborhood children had been quite noisy and active running about our yard; she had wanted to go sun herself after lunch, but put off the expedition until the children had gone, by 3:00 PM. She wanted to go over the manuscript for her dream book, without interruptions. Also, the same two children had been romping through Jane’s freshly spaded garden out back, which did not cheer her up. The garden site is about 25 feet from where Jane sat while I sketched her.

(Jane’s dream book manuscript does not show in the sketch; at the moment I made the sketch the manuscript was invisible beyond her right side. Another book does show, as well as a glass of ice tea, a book of matches and a cigarette.

(“A rectangular card, with printed matter.” The object is on a rectangular piece of heavy, porous-type paper, similar to card stock. Jane said she had an image of the correct size and proportion of the object, and that Seth was trying to get this data across to her. She had no image of a drawing, or herself.

(“Some larger lettering, and then some small.” Jane feels this is a distortion of my writing or lettering on the object. I would say lettering is a closer description than printed matter, being more specific.

(“The color red.” Jane wore plaid shorts of a predominantly red color. Also, she sits on a Mexican serape, one of two given to us by her father several years ago. This serape bears alternating bands, each one perhaps four inches wide, of white, red and blue.

(“An impression of many people.” Here Jane said she had the impression of a party, but decided to drop this line of association. This came from the mirth reference, she thought, and she was not sure the chain of association was correct. Sometimes it is left up to her as to what train of thought to follow. Again, Seth expresses uncertainty about the party-mirth connection in answer to my third question.

(“Connection with a tall man.” Jane’s father Del, who is 6’ 2”, gave us the serape Jane was sitting on when I sketched her this afternoon.

(“A twist.” We don’t know. Jane was moving almost constantly as I sketched her, and her motions included many bodily twists and turns. This may apply, when considered with the next data.

(“A pattern of wavy lines, or of wavering lines.” The drawing used as object contains many lines, few of them straight. Jane said that in particular this data referred to the serape upon which she sat, and the tasseled edge or fringe beneath her lower legs. The drawing is organized into a pattern.

(“Missed, an occasion missed earlier.” See the interpretation of an unpleasant event on page 184. The “missed” here refers to Jane putting off her sunbathing until the neighborhood children had gone. She went outside around 3:00 PM, when I made the sketch. Originally she had wanted to go out after lunch, but waited.

(“The impression now of looking down, from a high position…” This is an excellent description of my position in the second-story studio, looking quite straight down as I sketched Jane on the lawn. She was perhaps twelve feet below me. Jane had an image in connection with this data, which is explained below. At the time I made the drawing I wondered if Jane would sense the fact even though she didn’t see me. Jane paused noticeably before she continued.

(“That is connected with rocks.” Although Jane had the serape spread on grass, she sat within perhaps five feet of the flagstone patio which is directly underneath the studio. These stones, or rocks are not cemented down, merely loosely fit in place, and are always being kicked astray. They are of all sizes, from a few inches to a foot or more across.

(This rock data and related data is a case where Jane decided to pursue her original impression of being up high. Often, she said, it is left up to her as to whether to so develop an impression. Sometimes she doesn’t know what to do. This time she followed up to some degree because she also had an image, of someone standing on high, looking down from some kind of rocky perch. She believes this image was distorted to some degree.

(“Or of looking down from a high position into a hole.” This too resulted, Jane said, from her pursuing the above line of association.

(“and horizontal lettering.” My writing on the object follows the horizontal or long dimension of the object. There is a possibility this could also refer to the organization data, to be discussed shortly. Or—could this refer to the book Jane had with her, or the manuscript of her dream book, also with her?

(“Reaching in the center out toward the margins.” In the drawing Jane’s left arm and both legs reach out toward the bottom and left edges of the object.

(“A card, such as the kind sent out by organizations for invitations.” Jane had an image here, of a rectangular card of the kind that used to be sent out by an art gallery where she worked up until a year of so ago. This image card was the same size and proportion, she said, as the rectangular paper the envelope object is drawn on; she believes Seth gave her this data to reinforce that idea.

(Jane did not have this image when she gave the “rectangular card” data interpreted on page 184.

(“Give us a moment… B and L and G.” My first question asked for initials connected to the object. Jane said that when giving this data she knew the initials referred to different things, not just one. So we speculated that B referred to Butts, L to lawn, and G to glass. Seth confirms this after break. Note that I didn’t indicate lawn, actually, in the sketch, although Jane’s cast shadow falls partly on the lawn.

(Jane didn’t have much to say about the map simile, but thought the ground crack idea pertinent. While sitting in the sun, smoking the one cigarette she had with her—it is shown in the sketch, which means she smoked it after I finished the drawing—she looked for a bare spot of ground against which to put the smoke out. In doing so she realized that the ground was quite dry, and that we needed more rain.

(Jane now said that her personal association of mirth hooked it up to party ideas, so my question may have called this to her mind. Jane pointed out that the glass and cigarette in the sketch might also be called party props, however.

(“I think there is a red color, and rather large lettering, perhaps four or five lines.” My fourth question asked for the content of the horizontal lettering mentioned by Seth. Seth named both horizontal lettering and red before in the data. As stated on page 184 Jane wore shorts of a predominantly red plaid in the sketch, and the serape she sat on contained broad bands of red.

(We don’t particularly know why Seth called my writing on the object large. It does consist of five lines. Once again, Jane paused noticeably before continuing.

(“Come… An invitation to do something, or go somewhere, or to join.” Jane believes this data grew out of the gallery card data interpreted under organizations on page 186. There is another connection; Jane mentioned it tentatively but we had no way to be sure. Seth confirms it after break however.

(After the experiment, and after we had interpreted the data, Jane recalled one impression she had which she had not mentioned. The impression was “Star shape.” Looking at the drawing, Jane felt it applied to the radiating lines on the crown of the straw hat she wore as I sketched her. We think this legitimate for Jane uses such calligraphy in her paintings.

(Jane resumed at 10:59.)

(“Did Jane know I was making the drawing of her?”)

(When I first saw Jane on the lawn below the studio windows, I leaned out to joke with her briefly. I thought of joining her myself, but did not mention it because I did not want to lose painting time. Nor did Jane openly ask me to join her.)