“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“Good evening, Seth.”)

(Again I seemed to interrupt. Seth now went into something new as far as the envelope data is concerned. The Wilburs and I agreed later that Seth evidently decided to insert the following material just on his own, and because the time, and Jane’s trance state, seemed right to him. There is also a general idea connection with what follows and the envelope object.)

(Now Seth went back to the envelope data as usual.)

(Break at 10:31. Jane was dissociated very well, she said—really out. She thought Seth had done this deliberately to compensate for the traffic noise coming through our open windows, and because the witnesses had, in the beginning of the data, unwittingly distracted her by moving papers, coughing, etc.

(The Wilburs, Jane and I made the envelope connections. Seth confirmed our interpretation of a couple of them after break.

(“Ten.” The object is a notice Jane and I received in the mail recently, stating that a local artists supply store was continuing in business under new management. Tonight’s session was held on June 15. I had thrown away the envelope the object arrived in, but both of us remembered receiving the object last Friday, on June 10. Seth confirms this later.

(“Something twisted.” The printed drawing on page one of the object is made up of a complicated pattern of curving lines, which Seth could have interpreted as twisted. The same impression could result from the fancy box at the bottom of page 3.

(“Something repeated, perhaps, though I am not certain, five times.” Seth wasn’t positive here. We believe he was getting at the construction of the drawing on page 1 of the object. The three sections of milkweed pod shown are made up groups of lines; each group contains about the same number and arrangement of lines, whether one would consider them black or white. One could find arrangements of five lines in each of these groups, but could also count more or less, depending on approach. We believe the idea of repetition here to be valid.

(The word “framing” appears at the bottom of page 3, and is itself enclosed in a fancy frame, but evidently Seth wasn’t referring to this.

(“This is difficult to put into words… The impression of something going forward, as of a path, you see, that is wide, and then narrows into the distance.” Jane made her gesture, as described on page 242. “That may need some interpretation, but that is the impression.” I sought more information on this impression by the first question. At the time of the above data Jane held the envelope horizontally. There can be a literal interpretation: The drawing of the milkweed on page one of the object is V-shaped in the abstract sense—wide at one end, narrowing to a point, as did Jane’s gesture. Also the A in the Art Shop monogram narrows somewhat but doesn’t come to a point. There can also be a symbolic interpretation, and Seth raises this possibility in answer to the first question.

(“A top.” We don’t know, unless Seth perhaps referred to the fact that the object was made up of a folded sheet; perhaps as Jane held the envelope page 1 of the object facing her.

(The first question asked Seth to comment further on the “going forward” data on page 242: “The impression is difficult to bring into clear focus. It may be symbolic. A movement, for example in a forward direction, or something that leads into the future.” A literal interpretation was given on page 242. Here, the symbolic interpretation can be the fact that page 3 of the object states that the Art Shop is “Continuing under new management.”

(“and a small object in the lower right-hand corner.” With the object held as marked by T on page 4, the A-S monogram for the Art Shop is seen to be in the lower right-hand corner of page 1. This is speaking intrinsically. We don’t know for instance whether Jane held the envelope with page one of the object toward her face, or with page 4 toward her face; nor do we know whether this matters, or if it influenced Seth’s data.

(“Perhaps a connection with a June date”, See the “ten” data on page 244. Jane and I were able to determine that we received the envelope object in the mail on June 10. Seth confirmed.

(“and some designations on the other side of the object, perhaps in the upper left-hand corner.” Holding the envelope vertically in her right hand, Jane pinched the upper left corner of the envelope with her left hand. See page 243. There is printed matter on pages 1 and 3 of the object; folded, this puts one printed page behind the other, which could give rise to Seth’s use of “other side.” The Art Shop address at the top of page 3 however is neither to the right or left, but centered. We don’t know if the upper left-hand corner data derived from Jane holding the object with page one facing away from her, for instance.

(“Some writing. Now, I believe handwriting.” There is no handwriting on the object, only type. In the past Jane, or Seth, has intermixed terms for printed copy, calling it printing, writing, type, etc.

(The next question asked Seth for more data on the top impression. We don’t know whether the following data is in answer to the question: “A designation of some sort. Perhaps initials or date, in the upper left-hand corner, on the other side of the object.” Jane again indicated the upper left corner of the envelope, as she still held it vertically. This appears to be a repeat of the left corner data given on page 243, and as stated there, there is nothing in particular in a corner with the object held as marked on page 236.

(The third question asked for colors connected with the object. Seth gets around to answering the question, but first inserts the material concerning my brother Loren: “Now, we will try something here. I am up above, looking down at a room in which four people sit at a table. They are members of a family. Of your family, Joseph.”

(“I believe your brother Loren is one present. The number 17, a date in July which will be significant to him, or his close family—not necessarily to him, you see.” We did not ask for this data; it came through spontaneously. We saw one reason why Seth could have chosen to insert it here in the envelope data, and Seth confirms our speculation later. Our idea was that Seth sought to use the idea of a relative connection with the object. Ruth Gridley, listed on page 3 of the object as one of the Art Shop’s new management, is my first cousin; Loren of course is my brother. But we still think the Loren data is separate in the main from the envelope data.

(Now Seth answered the question: “A rectangular object, with white background. Also gray.” The object is rectangular. It has a white background. There is no gray on the object, but as soon as she saw the fine print on page 3, Jane said this to her meant the impression of gray.

It is not too late this evening for me to set him straight on his birds and bees. (Seth was very active, smiling, vociferous.) It is however too late, I fear, for you.

(When we got up this morning cat number two was nowhere to be found. The hall door was locked. When I went to work this morning Jane went out to the garage with me. After I left, she found cat number two in the yard. Question: How did the cat get there? We decided to ask Seth tonight.

(Seth was in an excellent and humorous mood, and spoke for a while longer. I stopped taking verbatim notes at 11:20. Seth spoke to the Wilburs and me about the implications behind the death of the young robin, among other things, and verified that the Loren data in the envelope experiment was also intended to use the relative idea to tie it to the envelope object and my cousin Ruth.

(Seth called it a night, presumably, at 11:30, but then returned, still in a fine and smiling mood. He said Jane would not like the sleepwalking idea, which Jane confirmed later. He also told Marilyn Wilbur that he saw her, through Jane’s eyes, as an individual—a question Marilyn had raised earlier in the evening. In the past on various occasions Seth has said he usually sees witnesses, and myself, as a composite electromagnetic image that embodies our past, present and future, as well as these attributes in whatever other lives we might have had. He has explained that this is easier, usually, than focusing so sharply on the one physical and psychic personality in our temporal now.

(The Wilburs left us. Jane and I thought the session over, but Seth returned briefly again at about 11:45, to comment in a hearty manner that during the physical lives Jane, Seth and I lived together in Denmark, during the 1600s, I did him out of considerable money. Bits and pieces of our reincarnational material crop up throughout the sessions.

(Seth returned once more at 11:54, this time again in answer to our speculations concerning the second cat and Jane’s sleepwalking episode. Here is the rest of the story involving the second cat: After I left for work and Jane had taken the cat into the house, she discovered to her sorrow that the cat had somehow gotten its lower jaw caught in a new collar we had put on it the day before, and that evidently the cat’s lower jaw had been forced open in this strained position for some hours. Jane had to use scissors to cut the collar off. The cat promptly fell into a stuporous sleep, that lasted all day.

(We were wondering how long the animal had been forced to struggle with its jaws open in this manner when Seth came through. Jane spoke with her eyes open while standing quietly by a table. Seth told us that Jane, in her sleep, put the cat back out at 3 AM. The cat got its lower jaw caught in the collar “shortly after,” and remained so caught until we found it shortly after 7:30 AM.

(Thus Seth returned three times in all. Jane had been well dissociated each time.)