“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The object for the 72nd envelope experiment was an empty envelope, as shown. I kept the letter that had been enclosed in the envelope for reference, and as expected needed it to decipher some of Seth’s data. The object was a standard white business envelope, printed and typed in black. The back was blank. I sealed it in the usual double envelopes after placing it between two pieces of Bristol board. Jane had seen the envelope in a casual way upon its arrival here last May, but not since then.

(Perhaps ten minutes before the session began, I showed Jane an article I found in the New York Times for October 3,1966. She read it, then I clipped it for future use. It concerns a study of animals in dreams, conducted by a psychologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

(Jane began speaking in trance while sitting down and with her eyes closed. Her pace was rather slow.)

(Neither Jane nor I had expected any such quick response to the article, nor had we asked for such before the session.)

(Break at 9:39. Jane was pretty well dissociated, she said. Her eyes opened just once, briefly, during the delivery. She had a vague idea of what she had said. She resumed in the same manner at 9:50.)

(At 10:03, her eyes closed, Jane took the double sealed envelope from me for the 72nd envelope experiment. She held it to her forehead in a horizontal position, lightly, without attempting to determine its contents by obvious feel, etc. Early in these experiments Seth announced that he would give no data resulting from Jane’s sense of touch, and he has stuck to this procedure. Jane’s eyes remained closed, her pace average.)

(Her eyes still closed, still holding the envelope to her forehead with her right hand, Jane made a large horizontal curving motion with her free left hand. The gesture was gently curving rather than circular.)

There seems to be a dual impression of printed matter with a photograph. (Jane now spelled the following out:) M-i-s-s-i-n-c or e-n-c. One thirty-five.

(Break at 10:17. Jane said she was dissociated as usual during the delivery. Her eyes remained closed. She reported no images within at first, but memory of a few did return as we discussed Seth’s data.

(Jane now opened the double sealed envelopes and examined the object, as she always does at break. At first it had little meaning for her, and as is often the case she said the data obtained pertaining to it was incorrect. True, the data was not as specific as it has often been, but it did contain a number of valid points. Some of these were subjective on our part.

(Seth helped us out with our interpretations after break, as sometimes happens. Whenever possible we prefer to make as many connections between the data and the envelope object as we can on our own. Our purpose in conducting these experiments in this manner is to see what Jane, or Seth, can pick up about a concealed object that bears some kind of emotional charge related to us personally. To this end, envelope objects are often deliberately chosen by me with emotional involvement in mind, since Seth has said many times that his abilities have an emotional basis; this primary emotional basis is then disciplined and given shape by the intellect.

(However, Seth has done as well with objects quite separated from the personal emotional life of Jane and mine. It doesn’t matter, either, whether Jane has ever seen the object before; or whether she saw it ten minutes before the session, or five years ago.

(Jane and I last saw Wendell Crowley perhaps seven years ago, but we keep up a correspondence on about a twice-a-year basis. We have not seen Wendell since moving here to Elmira, NY, six years ago. When Jane first read the Crowley-Taylor logo on tonight’s object it meant nothing to her, until I mentioned the name Wendell. Neither of us have met Wendell’s business partner, Mr. Taylor, or know anything about him—not even if he is still living.

(There follows the interpretations Jane and I made, at break, of Seth’s envelope data. It is noted where Seth agrees with us, after break. As stated, Seth’s comments regarding the data after break definitely help.

(“A double, or something twice, or a negative.” Relatively little of the data refers to the envelope object itself. Instead the empty envelope from Wendell serves as a springboard. This data is a case in point. After break Seth agrees with Jane and me when we assign the double or twice mentioned here to the frequent use of the numeral 2 on the second page of Wendell’s letter.

(The negative mention in the data is interesting, and has several connections, both here and in the rest of Seth’s data. Jane and I did not think of negative in connection with the word no, for instance, but in relation to pictures or visual images. On page two of his letter Wendell tells about a friend who works for the Neilson TV survey people—having to do with pictures. But also, negative, meaning pictures, is called to mind because Wendell’s letter deals with a group of artists who worked together in a studio, drawing comic strips, in 1941-3. In addition I personally have a studio here in the apartment, and the envelope used as object was kept in this studio. These references about studios, pictures, and the object crop up again later in the data also.

(“Something standing vertical.” Jane said this referred to trees. Note that Wendell Crowley, who mailed us the object, is partner in a lumber company. Also, the object was mailed to us from Ridgewood, NJ, as shown by the postmark. After break Seth says this interpretation is correct.

(“It seems some connection with cars or transportation.” As stated, the object contained a letter describing the reunion of perhaps half a dozen artists who worked together in the early 1940’s. The reunion was attended by the writer of the letter. All of the reunion participants live in the New York City and New Jersey area just across the Hudson River. In his letter Wendell does not name the town or city in which the reunion, at a restaurant, took place, but from following data Jane and I surmise it took place in New York City.

(“A corridor. A circular corridor or path. Not circular but curved.” [Gesture.] This would seem to be part of the following data, as Seth/Jane tries to become more explicit.

(Jane had a mental image within while giving this data, but could not put it into words beyond saying she saw something curved, like a tunnel. Driving into New York City by tunnel from New Jersey, I remember a long curving tunnel lit by strings of lights. I cannot now say whether this refers to the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel. Wendell’s home in Edgewater is north of both tunnels. If he drove to New York City by private car, he would presumably head south and take the first tunnel he met—the Lincoln.

(“A photograph. Ruburt here thinks of the photographs taken in your studio, of him.” The picture data begins to emerge again. Seth here mentions some test photos I took of Jane in my studio here last week. Studio is the link here with Wendell’s letter, and hence the envelope object. In his letter Wendell specifically mentions the studio we artists shared back in 1941-3.

(“The photograph connection is strong [pause] but I do not believe the item is this precisely.” [Pause.] Seth tried to help Jane discriminate here, as he often does. Tonight’s object of course is not a picture or photo, but an envelope that contained a letter about people who make pictures. Also, I was taking pictures of Jane last week, as explained. Thus it can be seen how all such related data, even though separated by much time, comes together in these session experiments. This particular chain of association was not anticipated by me when I picked the Crowley envelope as object for tonight. The two studio settings—the studio I worked in with Wendell Crowley in 1941-3, and my present studio, are separated by as much as 23 years.

(Let it be noted there is a bridge of sorts here however, in that for most of this intervening time I have had a studio of my own. Jane and I married in 1954, and so she has been strongly aware of studio connections with me, on a steady basis, since then, and has often heard me talk about earlier studios.

(“There seems to be a dual impression of printed matter with a photograph.” Seth comes even closer with this data. He deals with the photo-picture-artist impressions on the one hand, and the actual envelope object, containing both printing and typing, on the other. We regard this as good data. Tonight’s empty object also contained Wendell’s typed letter. In the past Seth, or Jane, has used lettering, typing, writing and printing interchangeably. Thus it is possible that tonight “printing” could refer to both the printing and typing on Wendell’s envelope, and to the letter it had contained.

(Jane spells out: M-i-s-s-i-n-c or e-n-c. At break Jane said this data was actually two impressions, Miss and Inc or Enc. But we still couldn’t make connections. According to the object, for instance, the Crowley-Taylor Lumber Company is not incorporated.

(“And a connection with an older man here.” Jane and I felt reasonably sure here that this referred to the boss of the studio at which both Wendell and I worked in 1941-3. His name is Jack Binder, and he is in his 60’s now—perhaps twenty years older than the crew of artists he had working for him. Seth agreed with our interpretations after break.

(Seth called for break after the second question, taking me by surprise. Usually I can ask more questions, and attempt them without being leading about it. I owe Wendell a letter, and may ask him to clear up some of the points mentioned in the data, and by Seth after break. It is however difficult to explain briefly in a letter just why such questions are necessary, and so Jane and I usually forego trying. But any additional information obtained will be attached to this session at a later date.

(Jane resumed at 10:47.)

(This is a good description of my main job in Jack Binder’s studio in 1941-3. I do not recall now whether I had ever described it to Jane in this manner, but may have.)

(Jane was interrupted here, unfortunately. One of our cats jumped up on her lap as she sat in trance. She did not leave trance, but her delivery was disrupted. Her eyes remained closed. I left my chair to put the cat in another room.)

(This passage may be somewhat distorted. I do not know that it is possible to travel part way through a tunnel, then park. Seth/Jane may have meant that Wendell drove to New York City via one of the tunnels, then parked at the tunnel exit, which is possible, and took a subway to the restaurant, rather than one in New Jersey. Another point to check out with Wendell.)

(“How successful was Jane’s projection attempt, that we made the drawings for?”

(Referring to Jane’s projection attempt to reach Dr. Bernard on September 29. She wrote him describing the experiment shortly afterward, and enclosed drawings of some things she picked up.)

(End at 10:55. Jane was out as usual.)