“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane of course had never seen this object, or any others like it, because I have never made them before. I made two of them on May 10,1966; I dated one of them and used the other in the envelope. The pigment color is quite dark, but not black. The stonelike or rough surface and the dark color enter into the experimental results.

You do exist therefore in both of these dimensions. The ego cannot participate directly in such experience. There is a compliance on the part of the ego, however, that allows it to step aside so that it does not block inner awareness of other-dimensional existence. It is difficult, but not impossible, for the ego to correlate the information gained. Dreams involve as you know several dimensions. The dream state itself is a very loose term, for there are several layers of consciousness within it, and there is no limit to the states of consciousness that can be achieved, ideally speaking.

When you reach adulthood, following our analogy, then you will learn to be successful in manipulating dream reality as you now manipulate objective reality. For if you create your dreams, you also create your objective environment. The dream reality is as real and actual as physical reality, but it can be changed you see by you, as physical reality can be changed.

You are at the early stages of this development, but it will come. These realities within the dream universe may be created by you, but they are as actual as the piece of cake that you eat, or the poison that you may swallow. As your common sense protects you in the physical universe, so you must use discretion as you progress into the manipulation of dream objects.

Now. There are indeed portions of dream reality that you yourself may not have constructed, but that are constructed by others. You recall that in physical reality you can only perceive your own constructions, as a rule. Now, my dear friends, this does not apply to dream reality.

A year ago this information would not necessarily be practical for you. With the experiments you have in mind it becomes highly practical. Your abilities are developed enough so that these experiments should be successful, with some additional training that can only be achieved through experience. Some hints from me will help, but I would like to give you some idea, you see, of what to expect.

Waking consciousness is taken into the dream state, but the ego is not. The ego would immediately falter, and cause immediate failure and catastrophe. What you will meet in your experiments are varieties of conditions, and until you have learned the control it may be difficult to distinguish between them. Some you can manipulate, some you cannot.

Now I do not like the term astral bodies, simply because of the sometimes weird connotations connected with the phrase. There is a kind of idea, or mental body, a counterpart in many ways, but not always, to the physical body, which is the structure the self takes in what you may call for now fourth dimension.

In physical existence usually you simply do not perceive it. There is a psychic structure also that has a form. This is the self as it appears within what you may call for now fifth-dimensional reality, but it does not exist at all in terms of matter. On occasion you travel in this form.

The object does not belong to Dr. Instream, but was borrowed, and has a strong connection with a woman. Still, it seems to be mechanical, rather than for example a jewelry chain. It has a mechanical use, and perhaps a connection with two boxes, rather small in themselves, which are raised and lowered or moved, by the chain.

With a block or blocks, as rocks or steps of stone. (Jane gestured, her eyes still closed.) Also a connection with a building that is not seen from the front but from the side, perhaps from a verandah.

(“Dark printed matter.” As stated, the pigment used on the object is quite dark, a burnt gray brown, but it is not black. Jane’s impression of it, I noted, was that it was darker to her than to me. I don’t know whether Seth uses printed here to mean an ink applied to paper or newsprint, or just some other substance applied to a surface as in the case of the object.

(“Also a connection with a building that is not seen from the front but from the side, perhaps from a verandah.” This building data could thus have resulted from the steps mentioned above. If Seth is talking about a photo here, Jane and I do not know offhand what one it could be. We have photos of buildings in our album, of course, but no specific building or location comes to mind.

(“The feeling of a fluid dark color, broken by white shapes that appear like blocks.” The wet pigment used to make the object was a fluid dark color, of course. Seth now uses the block data to refer to the whites scattered through the object on the original. Some of the whites are of a block shape, roughly, but more often simply irregular just as the pigment is.

(“Perhaps J B and a date.” Jane, or Seth, getting at the idea of photograph again. As stated earlier, I made two similar objects with the same pigment on May 10,1966. I dated and initialed the one not used in the envelope experiment; this gives an RB and a date, but I doubt if this is what Seth is getting at here.