“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The tests concerned two main approaches. The first, for our own study, was for Seth to describe objects thoroughly sealed in double envelopes; the envelopes were prepared [unknown to Jane, of course] by myself and by others. The second was for Seth to give long-distance impressions on a regular basis about the reality of an eminent, elderly psychologist at an Eastern university. We met “Dr. Instream,” as Jane called him in The Seth Material, but once, a few weeks after I’d written him in the spring of 1965 about Jane’s growing psychic abilities. Seth conducted 83 envelope tests for Jane and me, and within a concentrated period of nine months during that “year of testing,” gave impressions for Dr. Instream on 75 occasions; those I mailed to the doctor as they came through.¹⁸ Often both tests were held during each of our twice-weekly sessions.

When communication takes place between a survival personality and one who exists within the physical system, this involves a reshuffling on the part of the survival personality, where the ego is momentarily given greater reign … If this was not done, then in most cases communication would not be possible, just because the survival personality would have such difficulty impressing the personality who was still ego-oriented within the physical system.

I speak as my whole self to you … since my personality structure is more advanced than is usual for communications from other systems. Therefore, I do not need to adopt a past ego [of my own]. Perhaps because this is not necessary, the psychological bridge is required to make my messages comprehensible to Ruburt. This connecting framework does some of the translating for me that a reassembled ego would do. It delivers information to Ruburt in a way that he can understand. Occasionally [in your tests] I do impress him directly, telepathically (see Note 19), with a concept. When he receives data in the form of images the framework is operating. With my direction, this framework uses Ruburt’s personal associations to direct his impressions toward the correct point. Then when we are successful I insert the right information.²³

18. As Jane wrote in Chapter 8 of The Seth Material, the Instream tests were very unsatisfactory for us. Since we were never informed as to their results, we were left with no way to judge what proportions of Seth’s impressions could be considered hits, near-misses, or failures. Our nine-month involvement under those conditions revealed both our naïveté at the time and our stubbornness in trying to learn. But learn we did, if not always as we’d expected to; for besides gaining valuable insights into Seth-Jane’s abilities through our own envelope tests, we discovered much through our dealings with at least some kinds of “authority.” Overall, the affair of the tests was most instructive.

“In our experiments, often, I will give him an impression, and he will automatically translate it into visual terms … There is sometimes at his end a last tug and pull, so that the vocal mechanism will finally speak the correct interpretation. Of course Ruburt’s own associations are used by me, up to a certain point, to lead him to the proper subject or image … When we are successful there is a divergence from his associations so that he says the correct word, even though for him personally it may be the wrong word.