“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 76th envelope experiment was held tonight. The object was torn by me from pages 11 and 12 of the New York Times’ first news section for Sunday, November 6,1966. See the two previous pages. I chose the object at random by a method which will be explained later. Suffice it to say here that I did not see the object until Jane opened the usual double-sealed envelopes after giving the data. I did however know the object came from the New York Times. Results were good.

(Jane began speaking while sitting down and in trance. Her eyes began to open at once. Her manner was active; she was smoking and sipping wine. Her pace was good.)

(Break at 9:35. Jane was well dissociated, her pace good, her manner active, eyes open often. I had thought she might continue on without a break.

(We found our cat, Catherine, in a next-door backyard after dark on Sunday evening. His right pelvic joint was broken. We had been away Sunday. Upon our return that evening at supper time, Jane began to go outside to look for the cat perhaps every fifteen minutes. She does not usually do this. As it happened our washing had been hung in the basement the day before because of rain.

(Jane resumed in the same active manner at 9:45.)

(Jane took from me the sealed double envelopes for our 76th experiment. Then, her eyes open and very dark, she got to her feet. Smiling broadly she slapped my hand with the envelope, and paced back and forth briefly as she used to do many sessions ago.)

(See page 139 of the 297th session. A prediction was given that Jane would receive a teaching job she had applied for at Elmira College. This was on October 26,1966, Wednesday, and predicted for November 2, the following Wednesday. On November 7, Jane was notified that she would not get the job.

(Now Jane sat down. She held the envelope to her forehead, horizontally as usual, eyes closed.)

A method of disposal. An impression I do not understand. Gubatorial. (Jane pronounced this as though groping a bit.) Blue. Something in the vernacular.

Illia. (My interpretation. Jane waved the envelope. Her eyes opened briefly.) I do not know to what this refers, and perhaps an F and R.

(Break at 10:03. Jane said she was well dissociated. Her eyes opened briefly a few times. She said she might have had images but couldn’t recall them until she came to the appropriate data as we made our connections.

(Since this experiment was a little different, I had decided not to ask many questions, preferring to see what results were obtained without them. See the drawings on pages 152 and 153. When Jane came up with the Gubatorial data, I asked a question about this data only, and as I hoped she cleared it up.

(This procedure left me knowing only one thing about the object: that it came from some section of the New York Times, date unknown. Jane and I have often speculated on what part telepathy plays in the envelope experiments, since I usually am consciously aware of the object in detail. I thought the method used tonight might make ordinary telepathy harder to divine on Jane’s part. As it was we think the results were good; Seth evidently clairvoyantly read the object. If he got any help from me it was telepathy twice removed.

(After the experiment was over Jane opened the envelopes, and I picked up the newspaper from which the object had been taken. It turned out that I had chosen Section One of the New York Times for Sunday, November 6,1966, and from this had torn the object from pages 11 and 12. It also developed that I had leafed through this section of the paper in a casual way—without remembering the pages in question, 11 and 12—and that Jane had never seen it.

(Seth did not return to help us out; in the meantime we made our own connections. Section One of the Times was many pages thick, as is usual on a Sunday. Therefore Jane and I arbitrarily decided to limit the interpretations and connections to the object itself, and the one page—11/12—from which it was torn. These two items are on file along with the front page of the section.

(“An impression I do not understand. Gubatorial, blue. Something in the vernacular.” This we regard as excellent data. Jane groped a bit on gubatorial, although I had no trouble putting down her pronouncement here. The data is made even clearer in answering the one question asked. The object features election day sales on both sides. Since the New York State elections, including that for the governorship, were due on November 9, it is apparent that Jane was trying for the word gubernatorial, with which she is not particularly familiar on a conscious level.

(“The impression of small squares with orange, I believe, circles in the center.” We are not sure. There is no orange on the object, or page 11/12, for instance. Jane had an image here but cannot describe it now.

(“An initial explosion.” Jane said she is subjectively sure this is a personal association of hers, leading to the ad on the full page 12 for thermal blankets, just above the object to the right. Note the word: Warmth!, with thermal just below it. To Jane, the heat implication leads to explosion, etc.

(“A determination and a disadvantage.” Jane said this is a reference arising out of the set of dishes shown on the page 12 side of the object. It concerns the fact that we are buying a set of dishes of our own at Loblaw’s supermarket; Jane said she was determined to get a set of dishes adequate for our needs. The disadvantage however is that obtaining the set in this fashion is much more expensive than she had figured on.

(“Connection with a disturbance”, is, Jane said, a possible reference to the article on the prison system in Portugal, in column one on page 11 of the full page. Many statistics are given in the article, dealing with various types of crime, etc., as well as the new prison system that is replacing the old buildings, etc.

(“And a distant connection with a skull or skull shape.” This, Jane said, is a reference to the faces of the five models shown on the full page 11, with the lower portions of two of them visible on the object itself. In the photos all the women wear the new close-fitting hats that cover up the hair. These hats throw their faces into bold relief, and give a skull-like or egg-shaped look.

(“ Illia. I do not know to what this refers.” Illia is my interpretation of what Jane said, with some emphasis. The only word remotely approaching this is Aldeia Nova, meaning New Village, and is found in the article on page 12 of the full sheet, dealing with the Dominican Seminary in Portugal. See page 153.

(“An inadequate performance.” Jane said she thought this a reference to the article on prisons of Portugal, in column one of page 11 of the full sheet. The article presents some of the history of Portuguese prisons, mentioning their past low standards, overcrowding, etc.

(“And something to do with a name. And some word like January or Januarious.” This is good subjective data to Jane, and refers to the article on the Dominican Seminary on page 12 of the full sheet. Jane is well informed regarding religious matters. As a Catholic youngster, she had a teacher named Sister Januarious in grade school. She still remembers the sister quite well, for she made a good impression.

(Jane and I wonder about the coincidence involved in my selecting, by the blind method on page 158, a newspaper page that features an article about religion, and the Catholic religion at that. See page 153. Religion is one of Jane’s strong points.

(“Orange and purple.” Again no connections, unless one can make them from the list of sheet colors on the full page 12: Soft beige, pastel blue, pastel pink, mint green, orchid mist [Jane said this would be a purple], aqua blue, yellow. Or the colors listed for the thermal blankets, the list being partially visible on the page 12 side of the object: White, green, pink, blue, gold.

(Jane thought it possible but not likely that the idea of the thermal blanket advertisement gave rise to the orange, or hot, color.

(Jane speculated that the mention of Christmas, just below this article on page 11, in connection with a Christmas job at Macy’s, might have given rise to the associative child data.

(1st Question: What’s that gubatorial connection? “I am not sure on this. A magistrate. An election of sorts. Either of these. An authority.” Jane came through with flying colors on this, as I sought more data on her “Gubatorial—vernacular” data interpreted on page 159. See page 152 and 153. It can be seen that election day sales are mentioned in large type on both sides of page 11 and 12 of the New York Times for November 6,1966. The New York State elections were due the next Tuesday, November 8, and included the governorship contest.