“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Seth’s series of sessions on projection continued through 1966, 1967 and 1968. In 1966, portions of the sessions were also given over to the clairvoyant experiments, and much of Rob’s time was taken over in writing up the results. By late 1967, Seth was also devoting some sessions to helping strangers who had written us, as mentioned in The Seth Material.

The frog did not learn to tell time from his watch, though, and it’s difficult to see how this would have helped him if he had. The Seth Material, on the other hand, is more like a map, vitalized through Seth’s personality, and as we follow it, we do become aware of other realities that had been unknown to us earlier.

My ESP classes didn’t begin until 1967, so Rob and I tried out the projection experiments alone, and only later were we joined by my students. I had given up my gallery work, and was teaching nursery school during part of this time. This was the framework in which most of these sessions took place.

I have told you that the form in which you are traveling can be a tipoff to you. If your levitation experience seems to carry you outside of the solar system, then you know that you are in the third form and that your abilities for the time are almost limitless, comparatively speaking. Any image you see here must be accepted. It does no good to call these forms hallucinations, for they are no more hallucinations than the chair in which my friend Ruburt now sits. Ruburt told one of your friends to respect physical reality. ‘Whether or not the automobile is a sensory hallucination, it can kill you,’ he said. And I tell you that whether or not these projection images are hallucinations, they can be dangerous and you must respect the reality in which they exist. I want to be sure that you realize that some of these constructions will belong to other systems. You are safe as long as you do not meddle. You may explore, and freely, and that is all.

In awake-seeming dreams you are indeed awake, but within a different psychological framework, indeed, within a different framework of reality. You are operating at a high level of awareness, and using the inner senses. These enable you to perceive an added depth of dimension which is responsible for the vividness and sense of exhilaration that often occurs within the kind of dream. The next step, of course, is to allow the ego to awaken its critical faculties while within this state. You are then able to realize that while you are indeed awake as you seem, you are awake while the body is asleep.

Only then can you fully begin to manipulate the conditions that exist and communicate this knowledge that you receive to the ego. For the time, you see, the ego becomes a direct participator in such experience, at least to a degree.

Without moving my physical body and with my physical eyes closed, I reached over and checked my dream book, finding that the page was blank. Really angry at this self-deception, I decided to get out of bed entirely, go into the living room, turn the light on and make sure that I really wrote the dreams down this time. (When I got out of bed here, I believe that I was in my dream body, without realizing it.)

During this time, I was experimenting with waking projections also. The idea behind those was different: I wanted to go someplace in an out-of-body state, record my impressions of what I saw, and check the results in whatever way I could. With the dream projections, I was more intrigued by the manipulations of consciousness involved (the trick of staying between hallucinations and physical reality) and the methods. These tell far more about how consciousness works, and I was always intrigued by trying to continue normal awareness throughout dreaming.

About two days later I met her downtown, the first time I’d seen her since her move. My first book was already out, and she knew about my work, so I told her of the projection and asked if the room meant anything to her at all. Her eyes widened as she told me that I’d described an inner room in her new house perfectly, down to the bare bulb in the ceiling and the paneling. The room was really far too large for a closet, though small enough for a normal room. She hadn’t known what to use it for, and so she’d finally turned it into a closet.

This same chemical reaction must also occur, only more strongly, before a legitimate projection can occur. This is one of the main reasons why deliberate projections are not more numerous. Usually the chemical access is used in normal dreaming. In periods of exuberant energy and well being, a more than normal excess accumulates. This can trigger a projection. In periods of momentary indisposition, however, the dreaming process may be blocked and the chemical excess accumulated. Again, a good time to try projection.

I still suggest a more thorough examination of your dreams for many of them contain spontaneous projections. They are most apt to occur in the early hours, between 3:00 and 5:00 A.M. The body temperature drops at such times. Five in the afternoon is also beneficial from this standpoint. The drinking of pure water also facilitates projection, although for obvious reasons, the bladder should be empty. The north-south position is extremely important, and, indeed, is a necessity for any efficient dream recall. … Energy is most easily utilized in this position for one thing, and this cuts unnecessary restructions to a minimum.