“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(See the last session. Jane had been trying to keep alive a young robin that had been caught by one of our cats last Monday. This morning we found the bird had died during the night. It had been kept outside, in a safe place, and fed, etc. Last night at perhaps 10 PM, as we sat in the living room, Jane suddenly announced: “The bird is dead.” But we did not go to check.)

As you know, this is characteristic of one of our inner senses. In some projection experiences you will also know, or experience a concept, and at first you see you may not understand what is happening. You usually think out an idea. There are some experiences that involve what we shall call pseudoprojections.

In these you experience as actual the innermost reality of a given concept. Now this may, or may not, be a valid projection. There are ways to discover whether the projection is a pseudo one or a valid one. For one simple example, Ruburt experienced a valid projection begun from the dream state, some time ago.

I want to make this clearer however. Suppose that you suddenly understand the concept of oneness with the universe, and that this particular inner sense of feeling concepts is to be used. You would then construct, as you construct dream images, a multitudinous variety of shapes and forms meant to represent the complicated varieties of life. You would then have the experience of entering into each of these lives. You would not think what it was like to be a bird, you would momentarily be a bird. This does involve a projection of sorts, and yet it still must be called a pseudoprojection.

A valid projection you see would involve the actual projection of one of your forms, so that it actually did enter these various other forms.

You will be able to look back and see your physical body upon the bed on some occasions, and in other cases you will not be able to do this. The form that you see will allow you to have some idea of your abilities in any given projection. You may begin a projection in one form, and then project from it to another form.

But this is not an instantaneous process, and in any projection attempt there is no need whatsoever for this to be carried any further. This form is used however for purposes of instruction. It is used now and then to acquaint the whole personality with those circumstances that shall at one time affect it.

Usually you will project from the physical body into the first form, and then perhaps into the second form. Occasionally this will happen and you will not know it, despite all your attempts to ascertain your circumstances. There are indeed however ways and signs that tell you when you switch from one form to the other, and we shall indeed see that you know these. You should both—this is Joseph and Ruburt now—you should both have several examples of projections within the first and second forms in the following months, if your development continues at its present rate.

I want to mention the difference also in experience and sensation, between a projection that begins in the dream state, and one that begins in a trance state, and also to discuss what Ruburt calls awake-seeming dreams, for there are several points here that you do not know, and they are fairly important.

I believe your brother Loren is one present. (Pause.) The number 17, a date in July which will be significant to him, or his close family—not necessarily to him, you see. (Pause.)

(“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.

(“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 border.” Page one of the object contains a blind embossed border. This shows as a pen line on the copy on page 236; actually the border has no color in it. Perhaps, also, the box at the bottom of page 3 of the object could be called a border.

(“A house.” As stated in connection with the “framework” data on page 244, the A in the Art Shop monogram on page one of the object meant framework, or A-frame house, to Jane.

(“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.

(“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.

(“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.

(Broad smile, eyes wide open.) I should never be the one to tell you this, for my friend Ruburt will be after me with a broom next.

(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.