“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 78th envelope object was a shopping list I had written out earlier today for Jane, but which Jane did not see. On a sheet of white paper torn from a pad, same color ink as the tracing on page 189, folded as indicated, placed between two pieces of Bristol and then sealed in double envelopes. Results were not particularly good. See Jane’s supplementary list, this page also.)

(The 303rd session, held Saturday evening, November 26, with Eugene and Sarah Bernard, was a long and active one. The whole week had been a very busy one for Jane and me, and we were left somewhat short of sleep.

(Jane began speaking in trance this evening at a rather slow pace; her eyes opened at times; she was smoking; voice average.)

(Break at 9:25. Jane was dissociated as usual. She resumed at the same rather slow pace, eyes again opening at times, at 9:31.)

(“Well, I’d say it referred to events… You said strong colors—blues and yellows. These are not on the object. I was wondering what the connections are.”)

(See the tracing on page 189. The envelope object was a shopping list I made out with the intention of giving it to Jane earlier today, but did not do so. She never saw it before the test. It was written in a dark pen on white paper torn from a pad the same size, and was folded once before insertion into the double envelopes. The back was blank.

(The list represented numerous small things we had needed for some days, but Jane had been prevented from picking them up because of steady rain while I was at work. The list grew and indeed Jane was to get some items and perform some chores I had forgotten to put on the list. These too play a part in test results, since she had these equally strongly in mind this evening. She was to do all the chores tomorrow, Tuesday. See Jane’s list on page 190.)

(I tried something a little different during the experiment and Jane said now that she didn’t know whether it helped or not. The idea being simply to offer Seth encouragement when he was right, or close, or to ask a question at the moment to develop a bit of data further. She was aware that the approach was different. With the exception of an image of a photo of her schoolday friend, Marie Tubbs, Jane said she did not know if she had any images or not.

(“A scramble as of events.” This is good data. The object, the shopping list, represented quite a scramble on Jane’s part. She walked downtown Tuesday after the items, and these along with others made up a load that was all she could carry home.

(“The impression of a rectangular shape.” The object is rectangular, either opened up or folded. It was folded inside the double envelopes.

(“Perhaps the object has been in a book or album.” The object was not in a book, but had been part of a book or pad of paper in that sense.

(“In any case the corners seem to have been connected to something else—something dark, I believe.” The object was of course the top sheet on the pad, which I tore off after making out the list. There is no dark particularly connected here however; the gum binding on the pad is a middle blue, and the pad is backed up with cardboard of the usual middle value gray.

(One of Jane’s chores Tuesday, not on the list but performed along with the listed items, was to mail a package to Sarah Bernard, who along with her husband visited us from North Carolina over last weekend. See the last session. The package contained a sweater Sarah forgot. The Bernards had visited Florida a few weeks ago. Jane had made her own list of errands to run Tuesday, and this included a visit to the post office to buy stamps, as well as mail the package. See Jane’s list, page 190 also.

(“I do have the impression of dark color and white, small handwriting perhaps on the back, in ink.” See page 189. The object does contain small dark handwriting on white. The back impression could have been picked up by Seth because the object was folded inside the sealed double envelopes.

(“A distant place, that is rather distant, not close by. Water.” Probably a reference to the Bernards and their trip to Florida a few weeks ago. See page 195 and the Tubbs data. The Bernards live in North Carolina, which is also a rather distant places and the package was mailed to that address. We don’t know whether much water is close to Raleigh, NC.

(“I believe the object has images on it of people.” When I told Seth the object did not, Jane said it bothered her but not Seth. She said she thought it a good idea to continue the experiments in this vein however. I was trying to see what answers along the way would do to help spur Seth on towards more data, when I noted that he was off the track.

(I then asked Seth to elaborate on the strong color impression about the blues and yellows. See also page 195. “To do with paintings.” This has been explained. A more distant connection might arise from the fact that Jane’s shopping list, shown on page 190, was written on yellow paper with a dark blue pen. The battery interpretation is listed on Jane’s list; and my own list, which was used as object, contained items to be purchased having to do with art.