“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Distortions occur at transitionary points, or at points of imbalances. There is a meshing then of data from various levels. A projection obviously need not be conscious. The waking self may be engaged in normal activities while the inner self is someplace else entirely. There are more brief periods of forgetfulness however than people usually realize, and in these periods often projections have occurred.

Projections continue in the waking state, beneath it, as they continue beneath the dreaming state, you see. Now you have learned the methods at least that allow you to become aware of some projections that occur during the dream state. You realize that knowledge alone is not enough, that practice and ability play a considerable part. There are methods that will allow you to catch yourself in the middle of projections embarked upon from the waking state. This is considerably more difficult.

It can only be achieved as a rule after some proficiency has been gained with recalling dream projections. Here you are dealing with the waking consciousness in its normally strong and dominant condition. You must be able to let it operate and yet perceive beneath its surface the other conditions, the projection conditions, that are also operating.

You must allow the normal waking consciousness to become transparent, so to speak, without however disturbing its flow. When this is accomplished you can also become aware of the projection conditions. This is almost like working backward, for directly beneath the thoughts and impressions of waking consciousness, you will glimpse dream images like those that appear just as you fall to sleep.

These also must be allowed their motion and should not be hampered. Beneath these however you will sense either light or darkness, images of light or darkness, and these will lead to the projection conditions or environment. The only way to prove waking projections of this type to yourself is by following this method.

You are not attempting a projection here. You are following levels of your own consciousness until you discover yourself in an environment of which the ordinary waking consciousness had been previously unaware. This is a relatively difficult feat, for the waking consciousness must not be shut off, or you defeat your purpose.

Obviously the self that engages upon this study is not the waking normal consciousness, which becomes instead part of that which is studied, so another portion of the self is brought into activity. All of these exercises provide training that helps you in all your other work. This particular exercise however definitely requires some success in the recognition of dream projections.

The ordinary waking consciousness is left intact, you see. Another portion of the self catches it unaware, leaves no ripple upon its surface, and looks beneath it to other layers of reality. You are watching the self in motion.

We must use analogies. It can be thought of as the most exterior projection of the inner ego. When you find yourself, so to speak, watching what you think of as the ego, then you are in contact with this portion of the self. It is aware of both conscious and subconscious motivations and realities, and it is also aware of projections into other fields of actuality. I have hinted before of these matters, for when I say that you will use this other portion of the self to examine waking consciousness and probe beneath it, I already presuppose a you that uses this self. In other words, you are already magnifying the limitations of the self and extending them.