“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.

(“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.

(“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.

(“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.

(“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.

(“Perhaps 24, referring to a day of the month.” The envelope object bears the date on which I made the sketch—May 23,1966. Seth is one day off.

(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.