“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

What you will be, you are now, not in some misty half-real form but in a most real sense. You simply are not aware of these selves on a conscious level any more than you are aware of ‘past’ lives. But each of you creates a dream world of validity, actuality, durability and self-determination, in the same way that the entity projects the reality of its various personalities. As there is usually no contact between the entity and the ordinary conscious ego, there is usually no contact on a conscious level between the self who dreams and the dream world which has its own independent existence.

The dream world is, then, a natural by-product of the relationship between the inner self and the physical being — not a reflection, but a by-product — involving not only a chemical reaction, but also the transformation of energy from one state to another.

In some respects, all planes or fields of existence are by-products of others. For example, without the peculiar spark set off through the interrelationship between the inner self and the physical being, the dream world would not exist. But conversely, the dream world is a necessity for the continued survival of the physical individual.

Such developments would mean the releasing of added energy into your field. Ideas and concepts are nonphysical actualities that attract unaligned energy, direct and concentrate it. The dream world exists more closely in that spacious present of which the inner self is so aware. It is not as involved with camouflage. …

We have seen that all experience is retained in electrically coded data within the cells and that the material of the cells forms about this coded experience. We have seen that the ego begins, sparked into being by the inner self, greatly influenced by heredity and physical environment; and that this ego, as it continues to exist, builds up an electrical reality of its own and forms its experiences … into the coded data within the cells.

Yet the inner self offers so many clues. … It operates outside of physical references. It is, of itself, free of the distorted effects peculiar to the physical system. A study of dreams, for example, would make many of these points clear, yet many scientists consider such work beneath them.

All motion is mental or psychological motion, and all mental or psychological motion has its electrical reality. The inner self moves by moving through intensities. Each new experience opens up a new pulsation intensity. … To move through intensities within the electrical system gives the result, in the physical field, of moving through time. We will also discuss this later, in connection with so-called astral travel.

The eye movements noted in the beginning of REM sleep are only indications of dream activity that is closely connected with the physical layers of the self. These periods mark not the onset of dreams but the return of the personality from deeper layers of dream awareness to more surface ones. The self is actually returning to more surface levels to check upon physical environment. There is a transference of main energy in deeper dream states from physical to mental concentration.

Quite simply, the self travels to areas of reality that are far divorced from the physical areas of mobility. The muscles are lax then because physical activity is not required. The energy that is not being expended physically is used to sustain mental actions. The chemical excesses built up in the waking state are automatically changed as they are drained off, into electrical energy which also helps to form and sustain dream images.

Though each person progresses differently, generally speaking, the more advanced dream work follows the earlier stages of simple recall, to more frequent self-knowledge within the dream state and from there to manipulation of dream images and projection. The following chapters deal, then, with our experiences with different kinds of dreams and their effect on daily life. Later chapters will be concerned with the expansion of consciousness that results from the earlier experiments.

But every self
Sneaks out alone,
In darkness with
No image on,
And travels freely,
All alert,
Roads unlisted
On a map.

No man can find
Where he has been,
Or follow in flesh
Where the self tread,
Or keep the self in
Though doors are closed,
For the self moves through
Wood and stone.

No man can find
The post or sign
That led the self
Through such strange land.
The way is gone,
The self returns
To slip its bony
Image on.

My Dreaming Self

My dreaming self
Looked in the window
And saw me on the bed.
Moonlight filled
My sleeping skull.
I lay nude and still.

My dreaming self
Came in
And walked about.
I felt as if doorknobs turned,
Opening rooms up
In my head.

My dreaming self
Had eyes like keys
That glinted in the dark.
There was no closet
Within my bones
They could not unlock.

My dreaming self
Walked through
The framework of my soul.
He switched lights on as he passed.
Outside the night
Was dark and cold.

My dreaming self
Lay on the bed.
I stood aside with awe.
“Why, both of us are one,” I said.
He said, “I thought you knew.”