“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Today my wife was once again very much at ease for most of a day—so much so, in fact, that she slept several times. Many beneficial muscular changes appear to be taking place in her body. After supper I suggested that if she had a session tonight Seth could comment upon her current series of relaxations. At 8:30 she called me out of my writing room. Now she was nervous, for she felt that Seth was ready to dictate his Preface for Dreams.

The universe did not originate from what you like to think of as an external, objectified source. Your own physical body provides you with sturdy corporal images, exterior presentations. Your dreams do not suddenly appear exteriorized upon your images in place of your features, for example. They remain hidden. Your dreams appear on the interior screen of your mind.

I never want any of my remarks to be construed in such a fashion that it seems I am in any way negating the fullness, validity, and magnificence of physical existence. I do want to point out, however, that a state you usually call dreaming is but a dim indication of an inner reality of events (intently), an inner order of events from which the physical world emerges. I hope to show how the nature of dreams has helped shape man’s consciousness. I hope to show that consciousness forms the environment, and not the other way around (with many gestures).

This further unites all species in a cooperative venture that has remained largely invisible because of beliefs projected outward upon the world by both your sciences and religions, generally speaking. All of your grandest civilizations have existed first in the world of dreams. You might say that the universe dreamed itself into being.

Dreams can be highly specific. They can be used to provide sources of information. I hope to show their practical importance, both as a part of man’s “evolutionary development” and their possibilities in what you think of as modern life. The answers are where you have least looked for them. The universe is still being created, even as each person is in each moment.