“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now, before we plunge into the nature and characteristics of dream reality, let us briefly consider the relationship between emotions, space, and distance as they occur within the waking conditions.

An emotion obviously does not take up physical space, yet it takes up varying amounts of psychic space according to its intensity. It seems to recede in time and to shrink in psychic space as the intensity of it begins to diminish. An intensive emotion will represent the present in time, a particular instant of now.

Whenever circumstances tend to revitalize such a charged emotion, that particular now will be re-created. The emotion will once again rush into the psychic space which is formed by elements in the personality’s psychological environment. The immediate emotion of any moment, therefore, forms the framework of your present time within the waking state. As the emotion diminishes it takes up less of your psychic space, fills up less of your inner environment, and you seem to yourself to recede from it.

As far as distance, physical distance, is concerned, this whole idea is subconsciously taken into consideration. That which appears ahead of you in distance, and has not yet been experienced, under usual circumstances has not yet entered the psychic space of inner environment. When you reach this imaginary physical experience, and if you are emotionally involved in it, then it becomes the PRESENT, in capital letters.

The moment is remembered because the emotions experienced at the time almost completely fill the psychic space, forcing all other experiences out. The stronger the emotion the more vivid the moment becomes, the more totally it is recalled. And even in future years such past instances can be experienced as vividly as any present experience. In other words, to some large extent such a strong emotion unites experience and knocks down the artificial barrier of past, present and future.

Red is the most present or immediate of colors. The cool colors are more contemplative, or more indicative of contemplation. They do not however have the same type of intensity. They leave room within psychic space for other emotional experiences also.

There are electrical connotations here also that are important, electrical components that compose the emotional experience, and that tend to show themselves in certain auras of color. Within the dreaming state however inner experience is not limited as it is in the waking condition, so that the time barrier can be largely dispensed with. There is an additional psychic space to be filled.

Spontaneity is more the rule. Images appear and disappear, for there is no necessity to construct them as continuous physical constructions. There is therefore greater opportunity for new creations. These dream experiences take up psychic space, as do waking experiences. Their intensity is immediately felt however without any reliance upon physical time.

They are felt according to their intensity only. You might say, returning to our analogy, that there is more color-mixing within the dream state, and the materials are immediately at hand. Distance is then seen in its true light, not in relation to physical space but in its basic relationship to emotional intensity. As you seem in the waking condition to travel out of an experience, or as you seem to separate yourself from it, then physical time enters into your awareness.

The number five, and several buildings. Much space. Something to do with two people, and a yard. Wind, and blue, perhaps a dress.

(Wind is an intangible, and is not overtly indicated in the drawing. These are a draftsman’s drawings, quite precise in detail. The background material is rather freely and loosely brushed in, so that a breezy and modern effect is indicated. We do not know if this effect prompted Seth’s mention of wind. The effect of the drawing was one of “much space.”