“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Rob and I started talking about them as I sat on the bed, and we got ready to retire. I remembered and described three of them, thought there was a fourth, but couldn’t remember it. This is the first time we’ve discussed those paintings in … ten years?

This is the first time since the sixties that the Gallaghers have ever mentioned those paintings to us also; although they’ve been to Lib’s many times in those years … It’s also interesting that Peg didn’t see the fourth painting, either … She and I seem to “pick up” from each other fairly well, according to past instances…

So how may times does this kind of thing happen? What cross-currents of perception operate? What kinds of data do we pick up on — and why?

If our discussion actually happened Tuesday, before Peg’s visit (which was planned ahead of time), then we run into other possibilities than if our discussion was on Wednesday … (as we thought).

Why didn’t Rob pick up the inner information and begin the discussion instead of me, since they’re his paintings? And how many times do we do this, invisibly winding such data into the fabric of our perceptions, reacting to it without even realizing it?

Too often (Jane writes) we just want to go full steam ahead — we want sublime visions. But here, in these subtle (byways) of subjective action, we very well might be seeing some of these hidden psychic motions upon which physical events rest … and how today’s events and last year’s rub against each other like leaves from the same tree. And how Seth’s sessions of last August seem to apply newly to today’s events. How sneaky and obvious it all is at the same time.

Around 1:00 P.M., as Rob and I finished lunch in the kitchen and waited for the mailman, a fan turned up. A young lad who usually showed up once a year. He was the one I described in The God of Jane who felt himself to be a woman trapped in a man’s body. He has some suicidal tendencies, and I’ve worried about that. But here he was, all grins this time … alive and several pounds more substantial.

3, 7: Just note. Evocative but not definite enough. A fan (Larry), here from Pennsylvania, says he has a new 2nd job — in grocery chain convenient market (that sells basics — nothing fancy; eggs, milk, beer, etc.). Larry drinks only milk (at one time).

I get the feeling that events are getting knocked into and out of prominence all the time! But catching the motion is something else again. [Presented exactly as written by Jane.]

“… One morning last weekend (Saturday) Ruburt [Jane] found himself suddenly and vividly thinking about some married friends. They lived out of town, separated in time by a drive of approximately (half an hour). Ruburt found himself wishing that the friends lived closer, and he was suddenly filled with a desire to see them. He imagined the couple at the house, and surprised himself by thinking that he might indeed call them later in the day and invite them down for the evening, even though she and Joseph [Rob] had both decided against guests that weekend.

Furthermore, Ruburt did not like the idea of making an invitation on such short notice. Then he became aware that those particular thoughts were intrusive, completely out of context with his immediately previous ones, for only a moment or so earlier he had been congratulating himself precisely because he had made no plans for the day or evening at all … about fifteen minutes later he found the same ideas returning, this time more insistently.

They lasted perhaps five minutes. Ruburt noticed them and forgot them once again. This time, however, he decided not to call his friends, and he went about his business. In about a half hour the same mental activity returned, and finding himself struck by this, he mentioned the episode to Joseph and again cast it from his mind.

By this time it was somewhat later in the day. Ruburt and Joseph ate lunch, and the mail arrived. There was a letter written the morning before (on Friday) by the same friends that had been so much in Ruburt’s mind. They mentioned going on a trip (on Saturday), and specifically asked if they could visit that same afternoon. From the way the letter was written, it seemed as if the friends — call them Peter and Polly — had already started on their journey that (Saturday) morning, and would stop in Elmira on their return much later toward evening. There was no time to answer the letter, of course.

… It would be simple enough, of course, to ascribe Ruburt’s thoughts and feelings to mere coincidence. He remembered the vividness of his feelings at the time, however. It looked as if Peter and Polly were indeed going to arrive almost as if Ruburt had in fact called and invited them. That evening the visit did take place. Actually, some work had prevented the couple from leaving when they intended. Instead, they called later from their home to say that they were just beginning their trip, and would stop on their way.