“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 63rd envelope experiment was held during the session. The object was two sections of a red ribbon taped to a piece of heavy Bristol board. I found the ribbon in the bed of our cat on about June 20. I knew nothing of its history consciously, and hoped Jane and Seth could help out. As it developed Jane was somewhat hard- pressed to identify the ribbon, did so eventually, and with Seth’s verification. We regard such objects, where we know little of the history, as being like objects furnished by others.

(On July 10,1966, I wrote Dr. Instream canceling our series of experiments with him, because we hadn’t heard from him since January 1966.

(This was our first session since June 29,1966. Jane said she had no idea of what Seth would talk about. She began as usual at 9 PM, her eyes closed, sitting down, in a good voice and with pauses.)

We will return to our material dealing with projection shortly. First however it is necessary that the nature of identity itself be studied more carefully. The nature of identity is strongly dependent upon the innate ability to draw upon, utilize and direct psychic energy.

Our material on the nature of action will be helpful here. The ego, the physically-oriented ego, is a convenient figurehead. It represents only an imperfect glimpse of a given momentary appearance—the portion of the self that happens in any given instant to show itself.

Consider this analogy: The self as a moving circle, such as a Ferris wheel. A tree in front of the wheel will represent physical reality. The whole self, or the whole wheel, is composed of many selves in various positions, as the many people who sit on the Ferris wheel. As the wheel turns you call the person or the self who faces the tree the ego, simply because this is the portion that faces physical reality, represented by our tree. But the self who faces the tree one moment is not the self that faces it the next moment, and the operator of the wheel is never in evidence, you see.

I do not mean to imply a mechanical connection however with our analogy.

The driver of our wheel in this case never appears in the seat that faces physical reality. He is in a strange position, in that he is an overall self, composed in part of the sum of these other selves, and yet more than the sum.

The inner ego is the self who drives the wheel with purpose; at the same time there are many other wheels and many spokes… Our moment point analogy will also help you here. The sleeping self will of course be considered the primary self from the standpoint of its own reality. I cannot emphasize too strongly the fact that all of these portions are self-conscious. They may not be conscious of the other selves however. The inner senses connect all the selves, and the movements of consciousness are far more complicated than that of a Ferris wheel.

(“Yes.” At 10:14 Jane took the sealed double envelope from me for our 63rd experiment, without opening her eyes. She pressed it to her forehead in a horizontal position. Before tonight’s session we agreed to hold envelope experiments on Mondays only.)

(Break at 10:28. Jane out as usual. Her eyes had remained closed, her pace good. She said she had images within only when Seth “said so”. She was not unduly nervous at the idea of an experiment after our vacation.

(See the tracing on page 270 and the notes on page 271. As stated I picked the red ribbon used as object from the bed of our cat on about June 20, with little idea of its history. It developed that Jane had to think hard in order to tentatively link the object with a hand-knit sweater she had received from her mother as a birthday present. Jane’s birthday is May 8, but she received the package sometime after this; we located a letter from Jane’s mother dated May 10, in which she discusses mailing the sweater to Jane soon. [This session was held on July 18.]

(Seth confirms after break that the object was linked to the sweater package. We made our connections during break, of course, and felt them strengthened by Seth’s information. More history will be given as we interpret the data.

(“The word seisograph comes to mind. Or marks like earthquake marks on a graph. Printing I believe at the lower center, outside of a margin, or implied margin. Very small, the printing very small, perhaps D E L. Part of the word delivered, I do not know. Perhaps a connection with some item delivered.” Again, see Seth’s comments on page 274, concerning his use of Jane’s associations. We think the above block of data is a good example of his attempts to have Jane talk about the delivery of a package to our door. Seth and Jane here seem to permit the use of such association in a much freer manner than in the past.

We will end the session, and I look forward to our next. For your own edification, it is best that you have more information regarding any test object, to make your work easier and facilitate your checking procedures.