“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The outer senses as you know are themselves camouflage constructions, specific tools formed for a specific reason to manipulate camouflage reality. They are not equipped to handle other realities, nor should they be expected to do so.

They were adapted to meet a specific situation in which the inner self found it must operate, and it therefore took unto itself the adoption of these specific constructions. Therefore since dreams are manifestations of inner reality, they cannot be interpreted or investigated with any success through the use of the outer senses.

They must be interpreted instead through the use of those inner senses of which I have spoken, for these are the basic tools of the inner self. I realize that it is frowned upon to speak in terms of a limited intellect, which cannot understand a whole reality because of a built-in deficiency; nevertheless while it is true that the intellect by itself cannot grasp or comprehend inner reality, this should not be thought of as a deficiency inherent in intellect.

A study or investigation of inner reality was not the purpose of the intellect. The intellect, again, was also and is a means by which the inner self relates itself to the camouflage physical universe which it has itself constructed.

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.

(I would like to remind the reader here that when Seth uses the term “area,” he means what up until recently he has called a “level” of the subconscious. Actually, he states, the subconscious is not neatly divided into levels, but is marvelously intertwined, like a labyrinth. Seth has mentioned this at various times.

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.

(“Do you know what year it was?”)

But though you met both the present Dick and Loren, neither of you knew what your relationship would be in this life. You intended a brother lifelong relationship with the man who is, instead, your father. Hence he passes you by, the bicycle being a symbol of youth. That is, because you imagined that he would be a contemporary in age, you saw him on a bicycle, a child’s method of transportation, but because he was born earlier the vehicle carries him past.

An entity is composed of what you may call feminine and masculine characteristics, but when all energy is focused into masculine-oriented personalities then a backlog develops, so that the entity is left with only unused, unmanifested, so-far-denied feminine characteristics.