Mary's Project Continues...

[Deb]

Hopefully you all will notice this new board. If not, I'll have to find another way to get the word out to you.

As you all know, Mary Dillman transitioned on December 10, 2020 after a relatively brief illness.

In 1998 Mary threw caution to the wind, packed up, and moved to New Haven, CT to do her own research on Seth, Jane and Rob at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. The library houses 501 banker's boxes of papers related to Jane, Rob and Seth and many people who were in their lives (see Immediate Source of Acquisition on this page). It was a dream come true for her and as she called it, her "value fulfillment."

While Mary had completed most of her research (and I have to say I've not seen that much data, ever, collected by one person), she wanted to ensure that her work would end up in the Yale collection even if something unexpected were to happen to her before she could follow through. Rich's transition in April made her think more seriously about that. She asked me if I would consider that responsibility. We had been in touch for a few years, worked together on a few projects, struck up a friendship. Of course I said yes.

Fast forward to October, and she became ill. She was hospitalized, but still thought she'd have time to "get her house in order." That turned out not to be the case, and she died during the night of 12/9-12/10.

Her nephew and a good friend sent me several cases of "stuff," and the nephew gave me access to two of Mary's cloud backups. I've finally downloaded 200+ gigs of information—enough for me to pull together the research she'd done and get it into a format the library could accept. I think I'll be busy for quite a while...

Mary had also asked that I keep her website live, so people could be informed of the progress being made and eventually shared with not only Yale but the general public via her website. This morning I launched the new website, which will be publicly announced this week. It's the same domain name, https://sethresearchproject.com and I kept it as close to her original design as possible. I've been sent the remaining inventory of CDs of The Seth Overview and Jane's Little Book to Leonard to sell on the website and help defer some of the expenses I'm incurring. The Village Voice Interview is also for sale, the first part being a free download.

If you get a chance, visit the site and let me know if I need to fix anything. I worked on it for so long that I've become "error blind." Charlie, here, has helped me with proofreading. There's a new page with information about Mary, the Research page which explains a little more about what she was doing, the Resources page with several things you can download for free, a News & Updates section where I'll update my progress, and a Shop page where you can order.

In the cases of "things" I received from Mary's nephew and friend, I can say there are a few real gems*. I have not had the chance to go through most of it yet, being focused on downloading from the cloud and trying to figure out what I was downloading—and what to do with it—as Mary didn't have time to explain. There are some things I received that may not be shared publicly for a long time, but I may be able to share here in an area not visible to the general public. Such as this board.

https://sethresearchproject.com/

As usual, please let me know if you have questions or comments.

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* Such as a large reel (Super8?) tape (of video? audio?) of sessions. A few printer's proofs of UR1&2 and Nature of the Psyche with handwritten edits and notes by Jane and Rob. Books, tapes, CDs and audio books I did not know existed. A case of original Fan Letters. It will take me a while to go through all of this, and I'll update here.

[dougdi]

That's awesome! I would love to see the Robert Monroe sessions notes if they're now available.

[Deb]

I did see something about Monroe when I was downloading files, but Mary told me Laurel has possession of the actual session notes and was not able to make them available to her. If I find something in some way related to the Monroe sessions, I'll certainly share. I, like a lot of people, have been dying to see them.

[dougdi]

Thanks Deb! I look forward to reading the transcripts someday.

[Marianna]

Thank you so much Deb! Keep us posted - here and on the site. Fan letters! I wonder what they looked like. Interesting, what was people's reaction to the material.

[Deb]

I wonder what they looked like. Interesting, what was people's reaction to the material.

I haven't had a chance to look through them carefully, there's an entire banker's box full of them for just a two year period (can't remember offhand the dates, it was after Jane's death). I think Mary was also compiling a db on fan letters. Now that I'm caught up I'll be able to take a closer look at things like that.