“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

As the Seth sessions continued, our activities fell generally into three main divisions. First of all, the emphasis was on the delivery of the Seth Material itself, as in the twice-weekly sessions Seth continued to explain the nature of nonphysical reality. Second, we became involved in trying to obtain “evidential” material, some definite instances of extrasensory perception on Seth’s part. Along these lines, we embarked on long-distance tests with a psychologist and a year’s series of envelope tests in which Seth was asked to identify the contents of doubly-sealed envelopes. At the same time, Seth began to send me on out-of-body journeys during some sessions and to offer, on his own, other instances of “paranormal” activity.

In my book, The Seth Material, I explained some of these episodes. They convinced us that valid instances of ESP were being demonstrated. In the out-of-body experiences, Seth correctly described events that happened across the country and in Puerto Rico. Our own envelope tests not only demonstrated ESP but also offered evocative glimpses into the methods by which such information is received.

Third, we were involved in vigorous subjective activity as we began to experiment with Seth’s psy-time regularly and to follow his suggestions concerning dream investigation, recall and utilization. When we began, neither Rob nor I really suspected that there was a separate dream dimension in which dreams happened. Though Seth told us that the experiments in dream recall would automatically make our consciousness more flexible, his real meaning didn’t come through to me until I found myself manipulating dreams and later having out-of-body experiences from the dream state.

The interior universe is at least as rich, varied and complicated as the exterior one. Dream reality is only one aspect of this inner universe, in the same way that our planet is only one of many others in a physical sky. Before our experiments began, I used to think that dreams were relatively chaotic productions, with a few subconscious insights thrown in for good measure, now and then — a nightly retreat into idiocy for the tired brain. I considered sleep a small death in which all sense of continuity vanished. Most of the dreams I’d recalled until then had been nightmares — the self gone mad, I thought — so I wasn’t prepared for Seth’s emphasis on the importance of dreams.

Yet, even when we admit the inspirational and supportive nature of dreams, even when we learn to recall dreams and apply them to daily life, we still only begin to glimpse their multidimensional reality. Dream interpretation is important to our three-dimensional mentalities, for example. We believe in utilization; if dreams can’t be useful, then what good are they? Dreams can give us consistent, valid information about our motives, needs and decisions. They can be utilized as very practical aids to daily life. But this is only a portion of any real exploration of dream reality.

Dreams are not just psychological events. There is a dimension of reality (an “objective” dimension, if you prefer) in which all dream events happen. There are rules; Seth calls them root-assumptions that operate in all realities, our own included. We have to learn what root-assumptions govern dream reality. I know that we can on occasion manipulate dream events; my students and I do this frequently. If we follow certain “rules” given to us by Seth, we will get more or less predictable results in the dream state — an indication that an “objective” dream dimension exists quite independently of us or our dreams, a dream dimension in which my dreams and yours have their being.

Because we must start somewhere, however, we will begin with dream recall and those practical aspects of dream investigation that let us use our dreams in daily life. For one thing, Seth followed this procedure with us, and it is the method I use to lead my students into dream reality. This is a gradual process that gently leads the ego into largely unfamiliar territory and at the same time encourages flexibility of consciousness.

Seth gave us our first instructions in 1964. The whole idea of deliberate dream recall was new to us. The methods are not new, though we had never heard of them at the time. I’ll paraphrase them here: Simply buy a notebook to be used exclusively for dreams. Keep it with a pencil or pen by your bed. Before you fall to sleep at night, give yourself this suggestion: “I can remember my dreams and write them down in the morning.”

The unseen self is not a dungeon of repressed ideas and feelings, dangerous to behold, but the fountainhead of individual existence, upon which our present physical survival is dependent. Beyond this, it is our pathway to creative expression, inspiration and wisdom — a doorway to our own greater identity. This does not mean that we do not repress fears and desires beneath consciousness. It means that we must allow ourselves greater flexibility, look into ourselves, admit the fears and release the energy used in repression. As you will see later in this book, dreams can often release such repressed material for your conscious examination.

Peg and Bill Gallagher, friends of ours, attended the next session in which Seth continued with his suggestions for our dream experiments. He started out in a jovial manner: I am indeed glad to see that you are all in such high spirits. For a spirit, I am in a rather high mood myself. Of course, I welcome our Jesuit and cat-lover, as always. (Seth always referred to Bill as “The Jesuit” because of his quick, inquiring mind and to Peg as “the cat-lover,” humorously, because of her strong dislike for cats.) After a few more personal remarks, he launched into the discussion.

My dear Jesuit. Do I not try to explain things clearly, and am I not grossly misunderstood? (This was pure banter, between the two of them.) I have said all along that I am myself, and Ruburt is someone else. It follows that our gestures would be different. Wouldn’t you say so?

Until we actually tried the dream experiments, we didn’t really have too clear an idea of what to expect. This series of sessions in which Seth explained dream reality and gave us instructions about exploring it, always struck me as highly evocative, yet oddly ambiguous. In a way, Seth was as nebulous as dreams are, but we already had over two thousand pages of manuscript he had dictated through me in trance; and surely he had changed our lives. Now here he was, telling us how to travel through a territory more naturally his, I thought, than ours.

For this series of sessions, we had also moved into the quieter bedroom. Seth usually devoted the first hour or so to his discussion on dreams and the last part of the sessions were given over to the experiments mentioned earlier with the envelopes and the long-distance tests with the psychologist. Compared to the large living room, our bedroom was quite small, and it was quite warm during these summer months of 1965.

“I have the impression that it’s a lot more than just theory,” Rob said, and I had to agree with him. The material on dream locations particularly intrigued me. Seth had told us to leave room in our dream records to note the locations and advised us to examine them carefully. I was quite surprised at the different kinds of dream locations in my own dreams and made up the following list of them. Look for these when you examine your own dreams:

Chapters Fourteen to Twenty will show you the value of dream recall and illustrate how dreams may be used to promote health, solve problems and strengthen identity. Besides exploring our own dreams and our dreaming selves, there is also the adventure of discovering the greater dimension in which all dreams take place.

But if all this is so important, why can’t we do it more easily and naturally? Why do we need experiments? According to Seth, the way we use the ego and its idea of reality stand in our way. When he was still outlining these experiments for us, Seth explained this in some detail.

The ego in that case will therefore fight against what it then considers an unknown threat to survival. Struggles are initiated then that are entirely unnecessary. We want to bring intuitional comprehension to a point where the ego will accept it. In our dream experiments, this is one of the purposes we hope to achieve. The ego is not equipped to delve directly into nonphysical realities, but if it is trained to be flexible, it will accept such knowledge from other wider horizons of the self.

In our dream experiments, then, we will allow you to bring such messages to the ego. We will attempt to map this exotic country in such a way that the ego can understand what is there in terms of resources that can be used for its own benefit.

As mentioned previously, we will also deal with the nature of space, time and distance, as they appear in the dream environment. Some of our experiments along these lines will be most illuminating. Here the ego cannot go, but it can benefit from the information, and perhaps in time, even a shadow of the ego may pass through that strange land and feel in some small way at home.

Seth had set us some task and fulfilling it will be a lifetime proposition. There is a rhythm, even now, to my own experiments in dream reality. Some methods, to be given later, allowed us to come awake while dreaming, to take our conscious selves into the dream state, manipulate it and have deliberate out-of-body experiences while sleeping. (In some of these, what I saw later checked out against physical reality.) Sometimes I do very well and feel that I am learning to manipulate in two levels of reality at once, to be aware both in waking and dream states. And then for months at a time, I am plunked down in physical reality again, dumb and blind to my dream experiences. My students have noticed the same rhythms; so has Rob.

Before we go into the various kinds of dreams and our experiences with them, the following chapter will give some preliminary material Seth gave us on the general nature of dream reality and our place in it.