“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

While that largely invisible—emotionally invisible—belief is carried, then anything the self does must be scrutinized, put to the test, while in the meantime beliefs that have sustained others are suspended.

[...] He has put to the test much of what he has learned. [...]

He has been testing out our information in the world that he knows. [...]

(I planned no envelope test for this evening’s session, thinking its place could be taken by the third and final Gallagher clairvoyant test.

(We think this passage helps explain some of the results Jane has been obtaining in her envelope tests.)

[...] Resume at 10:06, with the 11th Dr. Instream test.)

(This is the first time Seth has mentioned Dr. Instream to us, since we halted the tests with Dr. Instream. The series of tests, held twice weekly, ran for one year.)

Our results with him were good as far as the tests were concerned, though there was considerable distortion simply because Ruburt’s (Jane’s) abilities had not been sufficiently developed. [...]

Robert and Jane operated in a vacuum, since he did not tell them anything regarding the tests, negative or favorable. [...]

(Tracing of the test paper used in the 18th envelope test, in the 212th session for November 29,1965.)

(No envelope test was held during the session.

You could perhaps learn something from such innocent tests as these. [...]

[...] No instructions were given to me except to close my eyes as the test progressed. (Pause.) Some kind of white gum, or glue, had been rubbed into my scalp through my hair to improve the electrical contacts, and when the test was finished the attendant simply grabbed one area of the equipment and pulled the entire mess off my head in one motion—which felt like my entire scalp was coming off. [...]

[...] One of the blood tests showed that I was slightly anemic. But other tests and X-rays revealed that I had sound lungs—in spite of my smoking—a good heart and stomach and other organs. [...]

[...] I asked that she be tested for food allergies, since I’d read that reactions to various foods and additives can trigger arthritis, but Dr. Mandali said that “if Jane is allergic she (Jane) would know it”—a position I came to most thoroughly disagree with. [...]

(Jane told me she was nervous, however, when it came to our own envelope test. She did not think I had a test for her. She said it was hard to say exactly when she became nervous, but that it was probably as I handed her the test envelope.

(For the envelope test this evening I chose a piece of an old furniture label that Jane and I had peeled from the back of a bureau a couple of weeks ago. [...] I found the label, or rather part of it, in my studio this afternoon and decided to use it for the test. [...]

[...] By now however the pace was not as slow as it had been during the first few such tests. [...]

Our visiting psychologist left us a couple sets of the tests Seth referred to. [...] Even our guest said the tests were very experimental; I believe that actually a colleague of his had devised them in large part. I thought they’d been [perhaps unwittingly] oriented in certain negative directions—that is, the one taking the test has to choose from a series of more or less negative possibilities, listing specific choices in an order that depends upon his or her personal belief systems—I think.

[...] He is very enthusiastic about his value tests, and his enthusiasm is what is important. The nature of the subjective mind, however, will never open itself to such tests, which represent, more than anything else, a kind of mechanical psychology, as if you could break down human values to a kind of logical alphabet of psychic atoms and molecules. [...]

You may do what you wish yourselves (about taking the tests), of course, but our main purpose is to drive beyond psychology’s boundaries, and not play pussyfoot among the current psychological lilies of the field.

[...] Thursday a nurse from Arnot-Ogden drew blood from Jane for the tests Dr. K wanted, including the thyroid. This morning Dr. K’s nurse called and gave us the results of the tests—all but the thyroid, that is, which is to run this coming Wednesday. The eight tests that were run were all normal; I have a list of them. [...]

[...] A test case. [...]

The public, or the people, have also been involved in this test case. [...]

[...] In other words for a test case he produced a miniature symbolic situation physically materialized. [...]

(I planned no envelope test for this session, thinking that the test material on the Gallaghers in Puerto Rico, and on Dr. Instream, would be enough for one session. [...]

(It was now time for the second clairvoyant test with the Gallaghers in Puerto Rico. [...]

[...] This is the 10th Dr. Instream test.)

(No envelope test was held during the session.

(It was now time for the 35th Dr. Instream test. [...]

Do you have a test for me, Joseph?

[...] We will indeed try our own tests on various occasions. [...] He tries too hard with his own tests. [...]

(The above passage refers to tests Jane uses on herself. [...] Jane has not really extended herself in such tests, mostly due to a lack of time. [...]

[...] Her pace was fairly good in the beginning of the test but eventually slowed considerably. This is the 18th Dr. Instream test.)

(No envelope test was held during the session.

(An overall impression I have is that Seth is very interested in the forthcoming dream-recording project, and that along with various tests this will occupy us for a long time. [...]

(Next, in an effort to “break through” Jane’s mood, we tried a matching numbers test that failed. Then I tried a word association test. I could see well enough to write without turning on lights; the test revealed that Jane was concerned with some associations connected with books, publishers, stories and New York City, but did nothing as far as enabling her to “accomplish” something this evening, at least quickly.

(During our first test on Saturday, November 28,1964 at 8:10 PM, I told Jane that I would think of a series of random numbers. [...]

(In the second test, each time I spoke a word Jane answered it as quickly as she could, without thinking. [...]

[...] But then, I didn’t know what to call it any more, particularly when the hospital tests had pinpointed it as exactly that; the blood tests especially. [...]

[...] The test object is a leaflet concerning highway signs to be used in case of an atomic attack. [...] I had ordered them December 3,1965; as will be seen this date plays a part in the test results.

Now, do you have a test for me? [...]

[...] We had decided to call these studies envelope experimentsinstead of tests. [...]

[...] A test of fluid drawn from the heart area had shown free-floating cancer cells. [...] I may have tuned into the testing of the fluid around the heart, but I doubt if this can ever be confirmed. [...]

RESULTS OF GALLAGHER TESTS, OCTOBER 1966

(The tests concerned two main approaches. [...] 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.

18. As Jane wrote in Chapter 8 of The Seth Material, the Instream tests were very unsatisfactory for us. [...] 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.

(Jane’s account of “a year of testing” Seth’s [and her own] psychic abilities is given in chapters 6 through 8 of The Seth Material. The tests began with the 179th session for August 18, 1965] and finally ended with the 310th session for January 9, 1967, although actually most of them were held during the year following their inception. [...]

[...] While we were there Dr. K. called him and gave him the results of the blood tests begun in the hospital the week before: One was normal, one said vasculitis could be present, the third one didn’t work—so after all of that the results were very meager and frustrating. [...]

[...] He feared that his own strong disinclination was simply the result of negative conditioning, and because he was interested in the doctor’s opinions, since this would be the first specialist in that field of arthritis—that he would have a chance to talk to, with all tests completed, and so forth. [...]

(8:25.) Ruburt also learned more or less of the ambiguous results of the blood tests held previously (last week). [...]