“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“Shapes that are stacked. Something like Jungle Gyms in a playground.” Jungle Gyms in playgrounds, made of tubular metal formed into various sizes of cube and square, give the impression of being stacked cube on cube. Games and playgrounds figure prominently in chapter five of Jane’s dream book; the envelope object is the first page from chapter five. Jane’s childhood playground in Saratoga Springs, NY, is described in chapter five, as well as a vivid recurring dream which had this playground for a setting. In both waking life and the recurring dream, games such as Jungle Gyms played a leading role.

(“Give us time… Mention of building, or implied mention.” This too came through in answer to the second and third questions, concerning the content of the lettering on the envelope object. Jane believes it refers to her recurring playground dream, and the fact that her school was directly across the street from the site of her dream. See the notes under “A border. Perhaps in black.” on page 157, describing the physical relation between the school, the priests’ home quarters, and the playground. The relation with building here is a little unusual. Although the building was directly across the street from the playground there was no access between the two. A high fence surrounded the block-size playground, with the two entrances on an opposite side and end from the school; hence a child to reach the school from the playground had to travel at least one full block, and possibly two.

(“A border. Perhaps in black.” My own idea is that this refers to the recent death of a priest Jane knew in her teens. A couple of weeks ago she received notice of his death, with a photo of him edged in heavy black. There is a connection between the priest, Father Ryan, and Jane’s playground dreams, and the playground itself in Saratoga Springs. The playground is directly across the street from the Catholic school Jane attended. The school was actually housed in a complex of buildings that contained also a church and the headquarters and living area of the particular priestly order serving Saratoga and environs.

(This data is amply reinforced in the 257th session by two impressions: “Squares. Perhaps a game connection.” page 147, and “Connection with four people, one of them disheveled,” page 147. The notes interpreting these two impressions will explain both Jane’s playground dream, and the playground itself, in more detail.

(“Can you tell us something about the significance of playgrounds for Jane?”)

[...] She early became aware of it in playground.

Playground intuition and poem.

[...] The same child might see the image of a merry-go-round on the television screen, or be told about another youngster’s visit to a playground, and a subsequent ride on a merry-go-round.

[...] There will be some involvement, of course, as the child watches the images of the merry-go-round horses on the television station, while the story about another child’s visit to the playground will not take nearly as much of his interest.

[...] See the recurring childhood playground dream, mentioned in the data dealing with the interpretation of “a game connection.” [...] In the dream Jane constructed a set of games, involving physical apparatus like swings and jungle gyms, in a section of the playground where in physical life none existed. The morning after one of these dreams Jane would hurry to the playground before going to school, to investigate to see if by chance there were swings, etc., in that particular section of the playground. [...]

[...] This dream involved the large playground she visited often in waking life, across the street from her school in Saratoga Springs, NY. There were many kinds of games to be indulged in at the playground in waking life. In addition, in her recurring dream Jane kept recreating a series of games at the playground, in a section where there were none. [...]

(“Playground.” This is good personal data as far as Jane is concerned, since from early childhood she has had a strong association between playgrounds and schools. This has cropped up before in these experiments also. [Jane’s note: Donna Taylor had shown me the playground for her 1st graders, during my 2nd teaching job.]

[...] Playground. [...]

[...] This reminds Ruburt of Jungle Gyms at a playground.” [...] And Jane said the design of the painting, with its interlocking angular shapes and lines, reminds her of a Jungle Gym at a playground.

[...] This reminds Ruburt of Jungle Gyms at a playground.

[...] The geometric data recalled Jungle Gyms to her mind; these in turn reminded her of a photograph of herself, which she still has, that was taken of her at a playground in Saratoga Springs, NY, with a Jungle Gym in back of her.

Now all of you, in your own way and even you (Nadine), have begun to be familiar enough with concepts so that in your dream states and in some of your conscious states you are beginning to play around with them, and so we are in a new playground. And in this playground the root assumptions and the rules and the regulations are somewhat different. [...]

[...] Jane is very attached to playground accoutrements; she has especially fond memories of children’s seesaws and swings. Indeed, playgrounds have an almost mystical significance for her and she uses them often in her paintings.

[...] At least twice a week, I would like Ruburt to alter the memory of that playground in Rochester, so that he successfully climbs down the jungle gym.

(While she was giving Seth’s data, Jane said she had images of a childhood playground in Saratoga Springs, NY, with houses nearby, but recognized this as her own data and did not give it as Seth’s. She felt sure the test object had a northern, as versus a southern, background, but did not say so because Seth did not say so.

(The Jungle Gym reference is another example of one of Jane’s favorite associations, since she was much attached to playground jungle gyms as a child. [...]

(Headed across playground to strange street, not on my ordinary route. [...]

[...] There were two huge swings, the playground type, whose ropes reached straight up into the sky. [...]