“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Seth also gave some other impressions of the page from which the envelope item was taken, besides those dealing with the articles. “A date above … Buttons … some figures and a distant connection with skull shapes … the colors, blue and purple and green … and other round shapes.”

The date of the paper was at the top of the page, of course. Buttons, many of them, are clearly shown in the photographs of clothing for sale. These same models are also the figures Seth mentions, and as you can see from the photograph of the page, the women’s faces give a skull-like impression, with their hair pulled back. The colors mentioned by Seth are listed in the sheet advertisement. Purple, I believe, refers to “Orchid mist.”

“A rectangular item with some dark coloring on it, perhaps dark blue.” (The bill is rectangular. The back of it is printed in heavy black.)

The second impression that I was supposed to complete (“something bright and small beneath this overhanging or threatening portion”) was to lead me to the word “roller pan,” which also appeared on the bill beneath the word “roofing.” A roller pan is small, bright, and shiny, and the one Rob purchased that day had been a shiny aluminum color.

“A building with a long narrow section; a roof supported by posts. The roof is long and narrow also. With a floor of stone or cement, sand-colored. A veranda outside their door, and a large bucket filled with sand. There are rocks beneath the veranda, and beyond that, the ocean or bay. Right at the shore, down and ahead, is a scooped-out circular indentation where there is a swift current because of the rocks. And at this particular point, by this indentation, there is no beach, though there is a beach to the left and right, rather large ones.”

Rob has a strong visual memory. Once he sees such an image, he retains it and can refer back to it at will. My visual memory is poor, in contrast, and so is my eyesight (I have no depth perception). Rob is a professional artist, an excellent draftsman and technician. Yet in sessions, Seth has given Rob excellent advice and information on the techniques and philosophy of art. This strikes us as really funny, since I paint as a hobby, with a stubborn lack of perspective. Rob used to try to teach me perspective, but the lessons just wouldn’t take. I’ve never studied art, and my paintings are rather childish in execution, done with raw color. Yet Seth told Rob how to mix and use certain pigments, and Rob has added the information to his repertoire. Seth says that he has no artistic ability either, but questions artists who have entered his own field of reality.

“Now, oils suggest the earth. Let that medium stand for the physical appearance of permanency in any object, the physical continuity of any given human form in a painting. Let the transparent oil colors represent the constant renewal of energy that always escapes the form.

After the session Rob told me he was quite certain that I didn’t consciously possess such knowledge—that my mind “didn’t work that way.” Rob had never tried this particular method of building up color tones in portrait work, and it is this technique he used in the painting idea that “came to him” a few days after this session. Later Seth added to this information. We are still accumulating material on art, art philosophy, and painting techniques.

Seth did say, however, that Rob’s picture using the color-building technique is a portrait of the artist in question. (See illustrated section.) He also said that Rob would do other paintings of both the artist and his environment, including possibly the artist’s studio.