“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Hypnosis is one method of examining dreams. Our method is perhaps the best one. The inner self constantly changes its focus. I have said that consciousness is merely the direction in which the inner self focuses at any particular time. In order to examine the reality of dreams it is necessary to change the focus of the inner self to those directions in which the inner self moves, when the ego does not limit its scope to camouflage reality only.

This in itself, this change of focus, is not difficult. What is difficult is the ability or facility to change focus from one area to another, always leaving the door open for a return to the usual necessary daily focus point, in order that effective balance be maintained and manipulation in the physical area remain fairly uninterrupted.

A state of dissociation is necessary, a letting down of egotistical barriers in order that inner symbolisms can be appreciated and distinguished. The change of focus alone will aid in intuitional enlightenment, and association can then rise more easily through the subconscious areas.

In the interpretation of your dreams then Joseph, as with Ruburt’s, we must change our focus, for what appears as a logical interpretation through conscious examination is often distorted.

(True. See page 48. At this moment, there also popped to mind the fact that I have a collection of perhaps 30 books on old sailing ships, the sea, pirates, etc. I had not looked at them recently, indeed having begun the collection over ten years ago, before I was married, when I became interested in the subject while doing research for some artwork. But ever since I built up the collection, I’ve insisted on carting it about with us each time we changed location.)

Because of the present situation, where the man in your present life is a mere lad, the dream then changed levels. The vessel becomes a masculine symbol. The first symbol was built around Ruburt’s dreams, which involved a female symbol; that is, the present Ruburt interpreted vessel as tub, hence washing machine, the leaking vessel becoming a leaking washing machine.

Your dream began with this, but you quickly changed into a masculined interpretation. A ship is thought of as a she. The symbol changed then to a woman: she who carries men within her. Because of the originating area of the dream, you chose the Potter lad’s mother, and she was the connecting image from one area to another. Even in your dream, she carried you in a car from one location to another.

(Actually, I had been well aware that Seth was skipping breaks, and had watched Jane rather closely to see if she became uncomfortable. This was her longest uninterrupted delivery by far since the sessions began last November 1963, and she appeared to go through it without any visible change in manner beyond the quite natural hoarseness toward the end. As for myself, I can state that by the time break arrived my right hand and arm ached all the way up to my shoulder.