“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There are some matters that I said we would discuss, concerning experiments in recording dreams via your recorder, using suggestion to awaken you after a dream sequence. I also told you that we would discuss some implications arising from the fact that Philip was able to hear my voice, and we shall not overlook these matters.

Now. A word concerning the dream experiments. You may try these at your convenience. Obviously because of your schedule you cannot at this time embark upon any rigorous experimentations in this respect, for your sleep would sadly suffer.

Now we all know that various kinds of experimentation is being done, are being done, concerning the dream state. However, very little work, if any, is being carried on along the lines I am about to suggest.

Ruburt’s dream notebook has come along very well. In most cases however he writes down only those dreams which he remembers upon awakening. Suggestion will allow him, or will allow you Joseph, to awaken yourself as soon as a dream is completed.

The dream will be fresh. If your recorder is suitably situated with the microphone easily at hand, then you can speak your dream with less effort than is required to write it down. Of course records should be kept. The simplest part of the experiment will involve the use of self-suggestion in dream recall.

The number of remembered dreams should be much higher than your present system allows. There are some interesting elements however that I want you to look out for. I will not tell you much about them however, since your own minds should be free, and you should come to your own conclusions.

I would suggest however that the first recalled dream for any given evening be compared with the first recalled dream from other evenings, that the second recalled dream from any one evening be compared with the second dream from other evenings, and so forth. This should prove highly interesting, and if such experiments are carried on consistently over a period of years, then the results could lead to excellent evidence for the various layers of the subconscious and the inner self, of which I have spoken for so long.

Particular notice should also be taken of characters and settings, and the approximate period of history in which the dream action occurs. If a dream seems to occur in no specific location and in no particular time, then these facts should also be noted.

Unknown characters within the dream action, persons unknown to you in everyday life, should be given careful attention also, and the roles which they play within the dream drama. The primary colors of a dream should be noted. It certainly goes without saying that all remembered dream events should be checked against reality, as you have been doing, so that any clairvoyant dreams are clearly checked and recorded.

Of course telepathy within dreams also occurs, as you know. I am sure you realize the difference between these, but basically such dreams are the same. The distinctions are you own. All attempt also should be made through correspondence to check such details.

There are many ways that you can approach these dream experiments. You may if you prefer begin by suggesting that you will awaken after each of the first five dreams. If possible we want to get the continuity here.

You have many more than five dreams a night, however. I believe Ruburt’s top number of recalled dreams for one night was thirteen. Now there is something else here that must be considered. The very self-suggestions that will enable you to recall your dreams may also change their nature, to some extent, for any action changes any other action.

(Seth dealt with this problem to some extent in the 194th session, when he spoke concerning the article on dreams in The New Yorker magazine for September 18,1965.)

This is all right, and the effect will be minimized when the newness has worn off. Again, if preferable we want to record the dreams in the sequence in which they occur, so that the self-suggestion should always include “I will recall the first three dreams,” or the first five dreams or whatever number you arbitrarily chose to begin.

You may try two different wordings for a start, and now I am speaking of the precise wording. The first: “I will wake up after each of my first five dreams, and record each one immediately.”

Now the second alternative wording would be the same as the one I have just given you, but the “wake up” could be omitted. That is, it is possible you see, for you to record these dreams, speaking into the microphone without awakening, in your terms.

This is definitely not only possible but certainly the most convenient. You should however try both methods, and discover which works the best for you. By all means, if at all possible, the recorder, Joseph, should be in your bedroom. It is the immediate dream recall we are after. We want you to record the dream at the instant of awakening, or at the instant that the dream is about to dissolve.

The time involved in going from one room to another could result in the loss of dream content and vividness. The very motor responses demanded on the part of the body, and the extra arousal tendency, would force you to lose a great deal of valid material. I would much rather that you work less, if necessary, using the recorder in the bedroom, than work more intensively leaving the recorder in another room.

For it is the dream we are after, the dream experience itself in all the vividness that we can capture, and if you are going to get a watered-down version in any case, then you might as well continue with your present method of dream recording, and not lose any sleep.

You will experience the vivid realization of your own dreams in this manner, and with some training you will record as much of the whole dream experience as any investigators manage to record when the training is done by a mechanical device, or another individual. And you will also be gaining, additionally, excellent discipline and training over your own states of consciousness, and this in itself you see will be an important yardstick of progress for you both.

And added to this, the training will give you valuable information regarding the nature of dreams in general, the stages of the subconscious, and the inner life of the personality when it is dissociated from its physical environment to some considerable extent.