“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

But what initiated the “Idea Construction” experience? Even when I wrote The Seth Material, I didn’t clearly understand why it happened or connect it in any way with my previous life or beliefs. It seemed like a complete intrusion. This present book, devoted to dreams and subjective experience, led me into deeper self-examination. In preparation, I reread my own records and poetry. The poetry itself provides a clear record of subjective thoughts and emotions. And it was through reading this old poetry that I found clues that showed me the points of continuity between my life before my psychic initiation and after it.

The poems show my attitude toward life in general just before my psychic experiences began. When you see the type of poetry that I was writing then, you will understand immediately why the ideas in “Idea Construction” were such a revelation to me. Incidentally, I considered these poems as aesthetic creations. I made no effort at the time to examine my own subjective states — I simply expressed them as best I could and then criticized the poems on their aesthetic merits. The way I saw life was the way life was! It never occurred to me that my own attitudes had anything to do with it.

In other words, my poetry finally revealed to me my state of mind before “Idea Construction” and Seth. Little by little, using it as a guide, other memories came back to me — all trivial in comparison to real tragedy and yet, to me, bitterly depressing. The death of a kitten that year led me to write:

I think that my “Idea Construction” experience was initiated, then, at least in part, by the need that is apparent in these poems. The last two show early indications of emerging intuitive knowledge. I believe that I had gone as far as my intellect and normal creativity could take me and that new channels were opened when I needed them most. Generally, I think, these other channels open when we have ceased to rely upon most of the answers that have been given to us by others and found wanting. (Along these lines, I wonder if tranquilizers often cut us off from such intuitive breakthroughs by preventing us from coming to grips with the true “darkness of soul” that can precede such experiences and by allowing us to accept temporary, objective and artificial solutions.)

I suppose that the “Idea Construction” experience could have gradually faded from memory, losing much of its vitality if the manuscript did not exist as a constant reminder; but this is difficult to imagine. Instead, the theories were made manifest in my life, becoming facts of my existence. I never would have been able to accept Seth and the sessions without that initial introduction to nonphysical information. That experience, then, led to the sessions and to this book, containing enough energy and motive force not only to change my life but also to affect the experience of others.

At the time of the “Idea Construction” experience, the Seth sessions themselves were undreamed of, of course. So while this book is devoted to Seth’s theories on the nature of dreams and his instructions on their use, it is not meant to be a definitive statement. Seth continues to deliver material on dreams, along with other subjects. Those of you who want a more general idea of Seth’s views can refer to The Seth Material. Here, I’ll give the material on dreams as it was given to us in succeeding sessions — particularly in the early part of the book. This automatically presents the material in order, preserving the sense of continuity, and serves as a progressive, subjective journal of dream experiences as Rob and I, and later my students, followed Seth’s suggestions. This method of presentation also gives the reader a built-in opportunity to try the experiments for himself, just as Seth gave them to us as we went along.