“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt’s dream represented several layers of information. On a superficial level, it represented his inner knowledge that he is not physically afraid of childbirth. On another layer, it represented the knowledge that a future endeavor would at first seem to be two separate ones — two accomplishments, but on later examination, it will be seen that they are unified. These have not yet come to pass and they represent a new birth — from the unconscious. This spring will be the time. I am one of those represented in the dream, as Joseph is the other. The affair will be beneficial from many viewpoints and represents a creative endeavor. Again, he will think that two are involved and will realize that one unified product has been achieved instead. He saw a female baby because the product will be intuitive and psychic rather than born from logic. It will begin about the time of his own birth date, another reason why birth symbolism was used.

At the time, I had just begun two books — an initial draft outlining the ideas in the Seth Material and a manuscript on dreams that I thought of as my “dream book.” It didn’t occur to me that these two manuscripts could have anything to do with the dream interpretation because they were in the present rather than in the future. They were definitely two books, each with its own identity, and covering different subjects.

I was disappointed, naturally, but again I sent the dream manuscript out; this time to Prentice-Hall, on April 2, 1968. On April 12, as I did psy-time, I received a strong impression that Prentice would give me a contract if I revised the book rather drastically. On April 19, I received a letter from Assistant Editor Tam Mossman, stating that the house might be interested in a book on Seth, utilizing parts of the dream book manuscript. I wrote back to see exactly what they had in mind.

First there was an extremely vivid dream in which Rob and I were in a little town in New York. Then I experienced a false awakening: I thought I was awake, and about to get up to write down the dream. The phone rang. I jumped out of bed, rushed into the living room. But as I reached the phone, it stopped ringing. At the same time, I felt an instant sense of strangeness. It had been bright and cloudless before I went to bed; now the sky was much too dark. A brooding quality filled the room, and outside the windows, everything was dimly lit as if it were suddenly the hour just before dawn.

At this time, the alarm rang. I snapped awake, in my body in bed. Angry at having the experience cut short, I dozed off again, once more giving the suggestion that I would learn what was going on at Prentice-Hall.

On May 14, I dreamed that I was doing something wrong about the prospectus. The dream bothered me so much that I called Prentice and learned that I’d misinterpreted Tam’s letter. All I needed was a simple prospectus and outline. Except for the dream, I would have spent considerable time gathering data long before it was needed. I felt much better and mailed the whole package off on May 17.

The following day, we learned that a young Italian man had died — a former neighbor who had lived in this apartment house some time before; hence, the connection with our landlord in the dream. From experience, I knew that if one element in a dream sequence is precognitive, then the others usually are, too — at least in my case. So I waited. The next day, I heard that a friend of Lanna’s had died. But still I heard nothing from Prentice-Hall.

Apparently Rob, too, has his dream eye out for my writing interests. Back in 1964, a national magazine accepted my short story, “Big Freeze.” Payment was to be on publication. As time went on, I heard nothing from them, and the magazine was not one that we regularly purchase. I made a mental note to write them but kept putting it off. Then, on October 21, 1965, Rob dreamed that my story, “Big Freeze,” had already been published. Rob told me about the dream and recorded it in the morning.

Clair McClure, a friend, had the following dream several times from June 26 through June 29. She saw herself having an automobile accident at an intersection. Two other cars were involved, though only one hit Claire’s car. On the corner was a Mobil gas station. The dream upset her, since she was planning a trip to New York on June 30. During the trip, she was very careful, and she told her dream to her family, to me and to a friend in New York. Three days after her return, she was in an accident just outside of town. Everything, including the Mobil gas station, followed the dream events.

In a strict sense, Claire’s dreams may or may not have been precognitive. She may have been accident-prone at that time in her life, and the dreams themselves may have acted as suggestion — as a sort of post-hypnotic suggestion that she could fight off for only so long. Or the dreams may have been legitimate glimpses into the future. If so, even though she used extra care in driving, she didn’t change the events.

But is the future predetermined? Seth says no — that time is being changed at each point. It’s impossible to speak of time and precognition without considering probabilities. The following two chapters on probabilities and dreams contain some of the most intriguing material Seth has given us — and precognition must be seen against this larger perspective. First, however, here are some excerpts dealing more specifically with dreams and precognition.

The ego chooses channels of reception with great discrimination, and again, it censors anything which it feels is a threat to its dominance. In sleep, however, many dreams are of a telepathic nature, with strong clairvoyant overtones. [It is the ego’s persistent discrimination in choosing the stimuli to which it will react that determines the nature of physical time as it appears to the personality.] The ego, because of its function and characteristics, cannot make swift decisions as can the intuitive self. Therefore, it perceives events almost in slow motion.

It would be necessary to take your temperature many times during the night and to correlate the findings with the levels of the subconscious as they showed themselves within the dream series. … It should be noted, however, that with the exception of several other circumstances, these various subconscious levels fall within definite temperature ranges. To some extent, this can be ascertained through hypnosis. However, suggestion to the effect that the subject’s temperature rise or fall would tend to obscure the effect. …

If we can see future events in dreams, does this mean that the theory of free will is a myth? Not at all. But in order to answer this question, Seth considers it along with the nature of time and probable events.

On the other hand, as I have told you, your past itself continually changes. It does not appear to change to you, for you change with it. The question of precognition, however, is not at issue with information concerning the past. Your future changes as the past does. Since precognition deals with future events, it is here that the issue [of changing time] shows itself.

Any given personal association may originate from a dream event, as well as from a past waking one. Psychologists, generally speaking, have not yet accepted the theories of your own physicists, and they continue to consider time as a series of moments. The inverted time system recognizes the actual nature of time. There is room in it for a rather complete explanation of the mind’s associative processes. The mind, as opposed to the brain, perceives in terms of a spacious present. Therefore, it draws its associations not only from your present and past but also from your future.

Frederick may be reacting to an unpleasant event experienced in the dream state in which the upsetting situation was accompanied by the particular odor. [But] he could also be reacting to a future event of the same nature, for again, the mind does not break time into a series of moments. This is done by the physical brain.

The ego, as a rule, is not aware of this broader time experience, but the subconscious often is; and associative processes of the mind can and do react to the future. Therefore, it is possible for our Frederick to become ill this year at the smell of a particular perfume because, say, subconsciously he knows that in 1980 his mother will be wearing it when she dies. The associative processes work both forward and backward.

Long ago, primary and secondary constructions were explained. I emphasized that each individual perceives only his own physical constructions. Basically, there is no difference between telepathy and clairvoyance. The apparent difference is the result of an inadequate understanding of the nature of time. The important fact in both cases is that information is received that does not come through normal sense channels.

There are many kinds of mass or shared dreams. For now, we will be concerned with mass dreams that have an almost universal nature; that is, dreams that are shared at one time or another by the majority of living persons on your planet.

They occur, comparatively speaking, just above that layer which Jung refers to as the collective unconscious. If you could tune into these dreams, you would have a good idea of the main events of the future because you would see them being born. They are concerned with significant events that affect many countries. They represent deep intents, wishes and purposes. At times they have immense power to bring about world-shaking changes of beneficial or destructive nature.