“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now, form number one will spring out of an ordinary dream state. In spontaneous projections you may become conscious in form number one, legitimately project, return to the ordinary dream state, and project again several times. You can expect therefore that these projections will be difficult to interpret, though you may find the experience intact in the middle of the record of any given dream.

Obviously, physical reality only happens to be the portion of reality you recognize. The paintings that you will paint exist now. It is possible for you to project yourself into one of your own future landscapes. This would not be an imaginative projection. This is what I am trying to tell you.

(A question had occurred to me as Seth spoke and I voiced it now: Were any of the results of our experimental data, involving either Dr. Instream or our own envelopes, the result of unsuspected projections on Jane’s part? Seth refers to the question later in the session.

(Very restless, rubbing eyes heavily.) Now listen carefully for a moment. It is possible in form two to project to a future event (eyes now open wide and steady, very dark) in which you will be involved, and by an act that you make in the projection, alter the course that this future will take. (Smile.)

(Eyes open.) In any case this future self of yours heeds what you say. Now, in the actual future you are the self who one way or another, you see, hears the voice of his past self. (Jane leans forward, knocking on the tabletop for emphasis, eyes wide.) Perhaps in a dream, or perhaps in a projection, made into the past.

You may now take your break. I do intend to answer your question, incidentally, when we get to it.

(It was now time for the 66th Dr. Instream experiment. Jane sat with a hand raised to her closed eyes. Resume at 10:04.)

Now do you have an envelope for me?

Also something in the center of the oval. (Jane now lowered the envelope to her lap with her left hand, sitting however with her other hand still to her closed eyes.) Two horizontal lines, rather widely separated from each other.

A small starlike shape, perhaps in the lower right hand corner, holding the object this way. (Jane gestured with the envelope which she now held so that the short dimensions were horizontal to the floor. I noted this position and watched her closely to see if she changed the envelope’s position as the experiment continued.)

I have the impression of two dark horizontal lines, one rather toward the top and one rather toward the bottom. (Jane again gestured with the envelope. She held it in the same position as noted before, the small dimensions parallel to the floor. She hadn’t changed its position by idly turning it, for example.) Both inside, but just an oval shape. Holding the object this way. (The same gesture again.) Now I suggest your break. Unless you have any more questions.

(Jane had one image which will be mentioned in place. We were able to make quite a few connections, and Seth helped us with one after break. The session was over now however for most practical purposes. Since the object did not originate with us, we were not able to make some connections which we supposed were probably valid. The history of the poinsettia plant which furnished the leaves used as objects will unfold to some extent as we interpret the data.

(“A small starlike shape, perhaps in the lower right hand corner, holding the object this way.” By now Jane had lowered the envelope to her lap while giving the data, and held it with a short edge up as explained. See my indication of this by use of the word top on the back of the tracing on page 189. I determined this as explained low on page 193. With the object held in this position, it can be seen that the smaller of the two poinsettia leaves would be in the lower right hand corner or the lower left hand corner, depending on whether the piece of Bristol to which the leaves were taped had the leaves facing toward Jane or away from her.

(“A tall tree, exceptionally tall, I believe.” The plant we now have, which furnished the leaves used as objects, is, we have been told, quite old and tall for a poinsettia. Many people have remarked about this. The plant stands perhaps three feet tall; this may have given rise to Seth’s tall data here. The stems have acquired a woody, brown texture. In addition, the day I removed the leaves used as objects from the plant, it stood on our bathroom windowsill. This is quite high; the plant on the sill gave the illusion of reaching almost to the ceiling.

(My first question asked Seth for more data about the two horizontal lines. See page 194. “I have the impression of two dark horizontal lines, one rather toward the top and one rather toward the bottom.” [Jane gestures.] It will be remembered that when Seth gave this data the first time, Jane held the envelope to her forehead with its long dimensions horizontal to the floor. As explained, this meant the spines of the two leaves were also roughly horizontal to the floor and her insight. Seth elaborates a bit here now, although Jane now sat holding the envelope in her lap, and with its short dimensions parallel to the floor.

(I now asked Seth to name the object: “I have the impression, holding the object this way” [gesture in the same fashion as above], “of a rectangular object, a card that is connected with a picture”, resulted in Jane having a mental image here. She saw, she said, the rectangular shape of the Bristol to which I had taped the two leaves. She also had an image of something darker in the center of the rectangle, and interpreted this as a picture instead of “something real.” Upon seeing the object, Jane realized the dark areas of the leaves matched the dark areas she had seen mentally, yet the image hadn’t been sharp enough to see as leaves; it came through in a generalized picture interpretation instead.