“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(See the tracing of the envelope object on page 289. I had used this for the object on the spur of the moment, more or less, without being concerned with whether Jane might know, or have on file, the letter the envelope had contained. Some of the data we could connect with the object, some we could not. When Jane began to go through her file of correspondence with her publisher, F. Fell, we began to see what complications could evolve from what seemed to be a simple envelope object.

(Letter #1: Written January 20. Jane wrote Frederick Fell giving approval of the title given to her ESP book. She also offered her help in writing copy for mail order ads, and offered her small collection of ads for various ESP books which she has collected, as a guide. She told F. Fell copy for the ESP field is hard to write without experience in the field.

(Letter #2: Written January 25. This acknowledged Jane’s letter of January 20, and was written by F. Fell’s secretary, Rhoda Monks. She informed Jane that F. Fell was out of town for two weeks, and that he would be back in town—NYC—on February 7. F. Fell was out of town from Monday January 24, to Monday February 7. It developed that he was in Florida on a selling trip and vacation.

(Letter # 3: Written January 25. This too was from the offices of F. Fell, written the same day as letter # 2, and was a simple note from an Emma Hesse, of the bookkeeping department, requesting that Jane send in her social security number for tax purposes. Actually the letter was a form letter and Jane was addressed as “Gentlemen:”.

(Letter # 4: Written January 25 by Jane, before the receipt of the two lettersfrom F. Fell on the same day. Our mail arrives late in the day. In this letter Jane discussed the 200 pages she has finished on her first book on the Seth material itself. She also discussed the title for the ESP book, again offered her help on publicity ideas re this book, and told F. Fell that she was ready to help in any way she could.

(Both letters of January 25 from F. Fell to Jane, although on different-sized paper, bore fold marks that revealed either one could have been enclosed in the experimental object, which is an envelope front from F. Fell, postmarked January 25. Since the data obtained from the experiment this evening refers to both letters, as will be shown, we have no way of knowing which letter was actually mailed in the experimental object. I did not realize until after the session that it would have helped to ask Seth this.

(“With the numbers four three”, was also general. Jane speculated that it could refer to the age of either the publicity director of F. Fell, or to Rhoda Monks, the author of letter # 2. Jane telephoned Frederick Fell on February 8th, and in so doing spoke first to Rhoda Monks; to Jane she sounded as though she could be about that age.

(“A package.” A package was mailed to F. Fell on February 10. It contained the manuscript for the book on the Seth material, plus that of the poetry book. See page 269 of the 232nd session for Frederick Fell’s request to see the book plus the tape recording Jane made of some of the poems. The connection here with the envelope data is the January 25 postmark on the experimental object; Jane discusses the book on the Seth material in letter #4, written on January 25. Also, the tape was mailed to F. Fell on February 10 in a separate package.

(“Ruburt’s association is with something that did not arrive on time, but let that one pass.” After break Seth tells us he hoped to make this clearer, but could not. Jane and I thought this was a reference to the fact that F. Fell left for Florida on January 24, Monday, before reading Jane’s letter #1, of January 20, the previous Thursday. Letter #1 would not have arrived at his office by the next morning, Friday. Thus letter #1 was acknowledged in letter #2, written by F. Fell’s secretary, Rhoda Monks, on Tuesday, January 25.

(We think also that Seth’s statement above might refer to letter #4, written by Jane on January 25. At the time she wrote this letter Jane had yet to receive letter #2, and thus did not know F. Fell would be out of NYC until February 7. Actually Jane’s letter #4 was never answered by mail. It was discussed in the telephone call between Jane and F. Fell on February 8. This is the call discussed in the notes on page 269 of the 232nd session. And again, the connection here with the envelope object is the January 25 date on which Jane wrote letter # 4, and the January 25 postmark on the object.

(“An achievement and a scarcity.” We think this a reference to letter # 1, written by Jane on January 20. Achievement being a general reference to her ESP book, and scarcity being a more specific connection in that Jane offers her own small collection of ESP ads to F. Fell’s office for use as a guide in writing copy. The connection with the envelope object being that this letter #1 was answered on January 25, by letter #2, and that it is quite possible this is the letter contained in the object used in this evening’s experiment.

(“The impression of cleverness”, meant little in particular, other than that Jane received the impression that F. Fell is the shrewd businessman type, through her telephone talks with him.

(“A long passage of time, and then a meeting.” This is a connection growing out of letter #4, written by Jane on January 25, which is the postmark date on the experimental object. As stated, F. Fell did not answer letter #4 by mail. The letter was answered by telephone in the call of February 8, between Jane and F. Fell. Jane said the passage-of-time reference grows out of Mr. Fell’s questions as to when she was coming to New York, and her reply that she saw no use in it until the ESP book was out; then, in May, she wanted to be in NYC to help with publicity. Thus a year or so is involved from the time F. Fell agreed to publish the book and Jane began her final draft of it. The “meeting” grows out of Mr. Fell’s reference that in this telephone call of February 8, he felt he was getting acquainted with Jane as a person, meeting her personally; also that he looked forward to their meeting in May.

(“A willingness to achieve.” In both letters #1 and #4, Jane expresses her willingness to do all she can to help with publicity re the ESP book—write copy, appear on radio or TV shows, etc. In the February 8 phone call, F. Fell told Jane he would try to get her on some shows to publicize the book.

(“Paws, and netlike shapes, and triangles.” These are very good references to letter #3, and take the form of doodles executed by Jane. She remembers making these on February 8, just before her telephone call to F. Fell. Letter #3, again, was written January 25, and the date connects this letter with the January 25 postmark on the envelope experimental object. Either letter #2 or letter #3 was enclosed in the experimental object.

The “grand view”, I am afraid, was not nearly specific enough, and referred to Mr. Fell’s view of the ocean in Florida.