“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 60th envelope experiment used as object a quick black line drawing, on porous white paper, that I made of a giant begonia plant at the office. The plant sits on a taboret beside my drawing table. It has grown beautifully from a tiny slip that I took to the office approximately last March. Jane has not seen the plant, hardly ever visiting the office.

(Nor had she ever seen the drawing used as object, nor did she even know it existed. We have the plant here in the apartment from which the slip came however, and its history will be given in the envelope data. I placed the object between the usual double Bristol and sealed it all up in the usual double envelopes.

(“Oval and brown.” The little sketch used as object shows but the top few leaves of the giant begonia. These show as oval. The interesting thing here is that the larger leaves of the plant at the office are now beginning to show definite brownish tones. As stated Jane has never seen the plant at the office in its fine growth—merely a slip from a parent plant here in the apartment. Since this house plant also is developing a brown cast, Jane could know this easily enough once she, or Seth, picked up the idea that the envelope object represented a begonia.

(“A connection with March, perhaps 4 or 24.” Jane and I have thought back, and conclude that it is very possible I took the slip to the office during March. The plant is perhaps a foot tall now. We are sure I didn’t take it any earlier than March, so feel Seth is quite possibly correct here, without being able to demonstrate it. Neither of us have any idea of what day, 4, 24, etc., I took the begonia slip to the office.

(“Lineage.” We think this a good reference to the fact that my begonia at the office, which modeled for the object, is a descendant of the plant here at home. This parent plant, given to Jane by our neighbor on the same floor of our apartment house, Miss Callahan, also has other descendants growing very well.

(In addition, Jane has asked me at various times to bring home a slip from this office plant, so that she can start another pot; she has been quite impressed with my descriptions of how well the office plant has been doing.

(“Connection with a fabric.” This puzzled us for a moment at break. Jane then remembered that the parent begonia here at the house had its pot, until recently, wrapped in an orange-colored burlap type of fabric. As a matter of fact, she had cleaned the last shreds of this fabric from the pot holding the parent plant today; these shreds had been stuck, unnoticed, on the bottom of the pot.

(We do not know if the pot holding the office begonia had ever, also, been wrapped in fabric. It is a possibility, since the pot as well as the plant came from the apartment, and one of Jane’s pet activities is decorating the plant containers with various materials and in various ways.

(“A salary or payment connection.” As I sit at my drawing board at the office, perhaps a foot or eighteen inches from the begonia plant which served as a model for the envelope object, I am given my paycheck each Friday afternoon.

(“The impression of splendid, something splendid.” It is no stretching of the truth to say that the office begonia plant is quite a splendid one.

(“Connection with another woman. That is, beside Ruburt.” As stated, the office begonia plant grew from a slip taken from a plant here in the apartment. This parent plant was given to Jane by our neighbor on the same floor, Miss Callahan, a retired school teacher in her late 70’s.

(“February or March,” See the second impression on page 230. As said there, we think it quite likely that I took the plant slip to the office last March.

(“I am not sure. I am thinking in terms of family connections. However the word may have to do instead with, for example, type on a card.” My first question, concerning the lineage data: See page 230. Seth didn’t elaborate very much. There is no type on the object. Can family connections be applied to the descendants of a parent plant?

(“Now, I have the impression that the object is roughly divided into four areas, in this manner, you see, with fairly dark lines.” See the notes with this data on page 230. Jane, while holding the envelope, and the object inside it, horizontally, made a vigorous crossing and vertical motion with an arm. See the tracing on page 226. The drawing shows that the leaves of the plant are climbing up a wooden stick. With the object held horizontally, the stick is also horizontal and divides the drawing in half easily enough; the horizontal attribute of her gesture was stressed by Jane. The fairly dark lines on the object are obvious.

(We do not know whether the chain interpretation is correct. It would be very interesting, if so, since Jane has never seen the chain, nor as stated even the plant itself since I took it to the office. Nor did she know the paper chain existed; she is quite sure I did not tell her of this, and I have no memory of doing so.

(“A connection with a framework of some kind. Perhaps wooden”, can refer to the wooden stick which shows in the drawing used as object. The stick supports the begonia plant, and is a framework in this sense.