“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane began speaking in trance at an average rate.)

(Break at 9:27. Jane out as usual; pace good, eyes open, etc. Resume at 9:35.)

(At 10:09 Jane took the envelope for the 80th experiment from me. Her eyes open, she gestured with the envelope as she held it in a plainly horizontal position. I could see the folds on its back. After speaking she held it to her forehead as usual, eyes closed.)

(Searching for a word evidently, Jane rolled this one off quickly. This is my interpretation of it. I asked her to repeat it.)

(Jane finally lowered the envelope to her lap; eyes closed.

(Break at 10:25. Jane was well dissociated, she said. Her eyes remained closed, her pace good.

(I found the object in my jacket pocket on December 1, without knowing how it got there. I decided to use it as an object, then forgot about it. That evening when we did the wash the jacket was included in the load. Jane emptied the jacket’s pockets, and so handled the object; but it was folded and she did not recognize it. To the best of her recall she hadn’t seen the object, or needed it, since shortly after November 8,1966.

(On Friday, November 4, Jane called about a job teaching nursery school at the JCC. She was given an appointment with Mr. Miller for Tuesday, November 8, by Gladys Austin. On November 8, Gladys wrote out the memo slip used as object, bearing the name of Mrs. Methinitus, another teacher with whom Jane would work. The name is written in ordinary black pencil. Jane met Nancy Methinitus on Wednesday, November 9, and began teaching Monday, November 14 at the JCC. Sometime after Gladys Austin wrote out the memo slip on Nov. 8, the folded slip found its way into my jacket pocket.

(Seth did not return after 10:25, so Jane and I made our own connections. Jane said she had images while giving the data, but as usual could not pinpoint them until we began going over the data item by item.

(“I am reaching for a word that sounds like grow, or Gomez.” Jane said that here she thought of Gomez Addams, a character in the Addams Family TV program—and that the similarity lay in the initials G A, for both Gomez Addams and Gladys Austin.

(“Green.” Jane said that strange as it seems, green reminds her of lettuce, and lettuce in turn reminds her of Gladys Austin, whose name appears on the object. Jane doesn’t know why, but when she met Gladys for the first time she thought of lettuce. Jane considered the possibilities in rhyme, since she is a poet: Gladys, lettuce, etc., as perhaps calling up such an association.

(“Alienate. Things separate from another. A going apart. Something by proxy.” Jane thought all this data an attempt to get at the name Gladys Austin on the memo used as object. Gladys, as Mr. Miller’s secretary, served as a go-between, Jane said, between Jane, Nancy Methinitus, and Mr.Miller. It was Gladys who finally informed Jane she had the job at the JCC, for instance.

(“Music or Muzak.” Music is involved in Jane’s job at the JCC. In the downstairs playroom at the JCC, Jane and Nancy play a record player for their young charges, which is similar to the Musak recorded sound system. On a Friday afternoon Jane and Nancy took the class to an upstairs room at the JCC, where Nancy played the piano. This room was next door to the office of Gladys Austin who came in to listen.

(“Connection with a mission or missionary.” Jane said this is good data, in that the Jewish Community Center is a sufficiently religious organization, and so quite conscious about the celebration of Christmas, etc., being strict about how this is done. This week also Jane read the class a story about Hanukkah. In addition, the center is located on Church Street, in Elmira.

(“1841, 1731.” No connections; unless, as Jane speculates, these figures are an attempt to get at her wages from the job at the JCC. The job is a part-time one and Jane is paid twice a month. The figures vary, consequently. Jane’s pay statement for November 30,1966 for instance shows a total of $36.00. 1841 and 1731 added together total 3572.

(“Squares that are interconnected, and the color black.” Jane said this is a reference to the three big windows in the playroom where she teaches at the JCC. Each window is divided up into many small panes a few inches on a side, and all have black molding or frames. The panes themselves are not colored.

(“Connection with a grocery, and vegetables.” Again, possibly a reference to the lettuce/Gladys association on Jane’s part. Also, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, November 24, Thursday, Nancy called Jane and asked her to bring some vegetables to class for a special project. Jane forgot to buy the vegetables hence her memory of the incident. Nancy’s name appears on the object.

(“A circumstance with unknown ending.” Jane said this is represented quite well by the object. When Gladys gave Jane the memo bearing Mrs. Methinitus’s name on November 8, arrangements were made for Jane to sit in on a class the next day, and to thus meet Nancy M., etc. Naturally Jane wondered how things would work out, etc., which bears on the next data also: “Someone wonders how something will come out.” Jane discovered that she and Nancy were very compatible.

(“and an initial explosion, or first-time happening.” Jane said this refers either to her trial run on November 9, or her first formal day at school on November 14. The explosion reference is amusing, and quite possibly refers to the blast of sound coming from 18 children under the age of five. Jane said the children are very noisy. A tape recording she has made confirms this amply.

(“A note and a sender who is not feeling well.” This is very good data. The note refers to the memo page used as object. It was written by Gladys Austin on November 8, at a time when she was not feeling well. She described this to Jane in some detail, explaining that the JCC had been so busy recently that the staff had been working weekends also. Jane remembers that Gladys also worked the weekend following—November 12-13, and then took Monday, November 14, off because of fatigue.

(“A mid-thirty connection here, or three five perhaps.” See page 216. Mrs. [Nancy] Methinitus, whose name appears on the object, is in her thirties, and quite possibly 35 years old. Gladys Austin is about 45 according to Jane.

(“A great variety, or overall picture.” Too vague. Jane says it is possible this data refers to her first day on the job at the JCC, when she learned something of the variety of programs sponsored, and more of what her own duties as a teacher would be, etc.

(“An arrangement that has similarity to a calendar page. A small calendar page.” Subconscious memory evidently plays a part here. Jane said the memo page used as object is much like ones she saw when she worked for an art gallery a few years ago. It was a book arrangement, with a calendar on one side and the memo pages opposite. She thought at first that the object might also come from such an arrangement; upon close examination, however, we can only tell that the object came from a pad that was bound at the top of the page; the edge there is slightly roughened, as though torn loose.

(At this time Jane cannot recall if Gladys Austin’s memo pad is part of such a calendar arrangement. She remembers a lot of papers on Gladys Austin’s desk, with the memo pad among them, but paid no particular attention to it.

(“A bill.” Jane believes this data is connected with the three-dollar data to come below. A bill here refers to art supplies Jane picked up on the way to work at the JCC one day, and charged to the JCC. Gladys Austin, whose name is on the object, makes out the checks to pay bills.

(“Stringy or to do with string.” Possibly, according to Jane, a reference to her borrowing string from Gladys Austin one class day at the JCC. The class members were to string Cheerios to make necklaces, etc., but the string was too flimsy and deteriorated too easily; knots couldn’t be tied in it, etc.

(“Several occurrences with a star.” Vague. Jane speculated about the Star of David being connected here with her place of employment, the Jewish Community Center.

(“An unforeseen circumstance involving three or three dollars approximately.” See the bill data above. One class day, Nancy Methinitus picked Jane up at the house because it was raining. Nancy parked by the Art Shop on the way to work and asked Jane to run in after some art supplies for class. This errand was unforeseen by Jane; this event took place during one of Jane’s first classes, when she did not know about plans for classes, etc.

(“Something that is mine, and to do with a group accomplishment. A calendar date.” This is good data. In the sense that Seth and Jane stem from the same entity, as explained in certain sessions, the object would be Jane’s. Gladys Austin gave it to her.

(The object does have to do with group accomplishment, since it introduced Jane to Nancy Methinitus, and the two women work together teaching nursery school.

(The calendar data would be another reference to the memo pad and calendar idea explained earlier. In a more literal interpretation, as explained Gladys Austin wrote the memo to Jane on November 8, with the specific intention that Jane would meet Nancy Methinitus on November 9. This she did. See page 216.

(1st Question: Can you give me a date connected with the object? “The number four.” As stated, on Friday November 4, Jane called the JCC the first time about the teaching job. There could be other interpretations. Jane started the job on November 14, for instance.

(“I do not know. The future connection it would seem—January or February perhaps.” It is possible that a number four connection also applies here, for Jane is on Christmas-New Year’s vacation from her job, until Wednesday January 4. This data would be legitimate, in that the envelope object refers to the teaching job at the JCC.

(The Grumbacher data can also apply, in that Grumbacher is the manufacturer of some of the art supplies Jane picked up for class one day when being given a ride by Nancy Methinitus, whose name is also on the object. See pages 216 and 224; the unforeseen circumstance and three-dollars data.

(3rd Question: How about several occurrences with a star? “Toward a starred event.” We are not sure. Jane’s idea here is that starred event could refer to her liking the job after a good deal of trouble finding one that proved suitable.

(The head and silhouette mentioned here reminded Jane that one of the projects she and Nancy planned for the nursery school class involved the students making silhouette drawings of their heads, as Christmas gifts for their respective parents. The plan was for Jane and Nancy to do the actual tracing of profile, with the students filling them in, etc.