“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I was really delighted when the whole thing checked out. I saw just what I could have been expected to see had I been in the cab physically. Peg and Bill were never aware of my presence.

Talk about being excited! Immediately I drew a diagram of the motel and surrounding area. I couldn’t wait for the Gallaghers to return, so I could check this and the Seth impressions. I asked Peg to draw a diagram of their motel and its nearby neighborhood. Peg’s diagram matched mine! My description of the motel was correct, including the center door that led to their room. The motel was on St. Thomas, an island near Puerto Rico. Peg and Bill were there the day of my experiment, and the following day.

Usually no one was present at these sessions but Rob and I—hardly a scientific state of affairs. But with the envelope tests we weren’t trying to convince scientists or psychologists of anything. We were trying to see what we could and could not expect of the sessions. We wanted something we could check out for ourselves right away. I wanted to know how we were doing!

The items were enclosed in one sealed envelope between two layers of lightproof bristol cardboard, and then the whole thing was placed in another envelope, which was also sealed. I never knew when we would have such a test, and I never saw the envelope before a session. Rob would hand an envelope to me in the middle of a session. I was always in trance, and usually my eyes were closed. (In any case, the test item was enclosed within the two pieces of cardboard and two envelopes, and was quite opaque.) Sometimes I held the envelope to my forehead while delivering impressions. After the session we checked our results. (Specific examples will appear in the next chapter.)

Talk about a seesaw! When Seth did well on the tests, I felt light as a feather for days. When anything didn’t check out to my satisfaction, I felt as though I weighed 450 pounds and was gaining a pound an hour. I thought that anything less than a perfect performance cast doubts on Seth’s independent nature.

Our own tests gave me a standard against which to measure my performance and Seth’s, providing an immediate check of accuracy and teaching me to sharpen my subjective focus to go from the general to the specific. All of this training was important as far as my reception of the Seth Material itself was concerned. Seth has often spoken about the necessary distortions that must occur in any such communications, and he is most concerned that the material be as little contaminated by distortions as possible. He discusses this thoroughly in later sessions.