“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 82nd envelope experiment had as object common black pepper, poured into the inner of the two regular sealed envelopes we use. Hence no drawing is necessary. Results were good.

(The “object" was, as stated, common black pepper. I shook a small amount of it into an envelope, sealed it, then placed this between the usual two pieces of Bristol board and sealed the sandwich in another envelope. No writing was involved. Jane said that as she held the envelope to her head she did not hear anything move within; nor did she shake the envelope, etc.

(“A miscellany of united objects or images, of small patterns like dots but larger than small dots. Light and dark, rather highly contracted.” Excellent data, and Jane did everything but name the object as pepper. I almost called a halt to the data here, on impulse, but then decided to see what else Seth came up with.

(“A cloudlike or leaflike effect, or like pebbles, you see.” More development on the above data, the loose pepper could assume cloudlike shapes with the envelope, etc.

(The pebbles data could also stem from the tin can of pepper used to fill the plastic shaker with which I filled the envelope. Jane located the pepper can in the kitchen. It was a McCormick product. On it were the words “Pure Ground Black Pepper," etc., pebbles and ground being related.

(“The number 14.” We don’t know for sure. The plastic shaker I used contains no markings except the letter P. The McCormick can contains the words “4 Oz.”. Jane thinks it possible it took us about 14 weeks to acquire the set of dishes of which the salt and pepper shakers are a part.

(“Connection with a squirrel or small animal," We were partly correct here. Again, Seth helps out later. We thought possibly the animal reference concerned our occasional use of pepper acorns, which we used to grind ourselves. Jane has remarked that these remind her of bird feed, which we put out on the roof beside our kitchen windows. Squirrels also use the bird feeder.

(“and perhaps a target.” We were correct here, in thinking target referred either to the hole in the bottom of the pepper shaker, or the hole in the McCormick can itself. This hole is covered by a red plastic plug.

(“Something upside down, or difficult to tell the top from the bottom.” To me, this referred certainly to the pepper shaker, as I turned it upside down while shaking into the envelope. The shaker itself is modern in design and is filled from the bottom.

(“A foreign connection.” We thought the pepper, or object, itself, since it comes from foreign lands.

(“South or West, in relation to a trip.” On the McCormick pepper can, factories are mentioned as being located in Baltimore, MD, and San Francisco, CA, thus south and west from our Elmira location.

(“The impression of fine, finely patterned edges. Blacks and whites.” Again, the pepper itself. When Jane opened the double sealed envelopes, she found the pepper had settled in a loose line at the bottom of the inside envelope; thus it formed a fine patterned edge, which also consisted of black and lighter colored grains even though the pepper is called black, in actuality less than half of it seemed to be black, literally.

(“Writing on one side. The back, I believe, and something relating to images on the front. On the back I mean handwriting. Steps. Ruburt thinks of an old photograph of himself, with his dog. And connects this with his father.” Again Seth helps out here after break. We think this data stems partly from the image Jane had of herself earlier, and that two ideas are mixed up here. There is a Baltimore connection, in that Baltimore is mentioned on the pepper can, as explained; also, Jane has a photo of herself taken on a set of the typical white Baltimore stone steps, with her dog, Mischa, now dead.

(There is also a father connection here, as Seth explains with the salt and pepper shakers and the new set of dishes to which they belong.

(“A word like peck or pack.” At first, we thought these might be attempts to get at the word pepper. Then Jane remembered something of the old rhyme: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, etc.

(As we finished going over the data, Jane then remembered that as she was giving it she was going to say something about the implication of motion being connected with the object; for reasons unknown she didn’t give voice to it. Perhaps the motion referred to my moving the shaker as I put some pepper in the envelope, etc.

The photograph connection. Now. I tried to give the impression of salt, to bring Ruburt to salt and pepper. He interpreted this however in his own way, as saltwater, and the photograph was taken by the ocean, with rocks and sand, and the sand, you see, was picked up because of the grains.

The J A B, Ruburt’s own association. Wiping his eyes when filling the shaker, he jabbed his eye. The father connection, legitimate but not pertinent. He had vainly daydreamed that his father might send unexpected money, with which he could complete that set of dishes to which the pepper shaker belongs.