“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

First of all, there are rhythms of consciousness. It is almost true to say that your species could not survive if all of its members were awake at any given time.

Deeper communications than you realize happen between the waking and sleeping members of the species, and in such a manner the formation of physical events is to some extent timed, or paced. The planning stages for events, and the inner communications necessary, occur on the part of the sleeping members, while the waking doers are involved in objective events.

Inner cooperation is maintained on the part of people in opposite portions of the world—methods that could not be utilized if all woke or slept at the same time. This hardly seems of ordinary interest at all, yet preplans for battles, for example, have been received in sleep states, in which an enemy in a far country planned an invasion and the signals were received through the world’s internal network of communication.

Again, the alternate waking-sleeping patterns keep the traffic signals clear, so to speak. This also allows for a clear focus in each given area—but more, it assures that no overloads occur. Certain kinds of energy are utilized in the formation of physical events. If all of the nations were awake, say, at the same time, such an overload would be almost certain.

(10:20.) In practical terms there is a dream consensus of opinion, where tomorrow’s physical events are decided upon. They will be physically checked when they occur. In ages past, the most proficient dreamers picked up ahead of time the news, and passed it on to others. They dealt with symbols, but the populace understood the symbols as you understand your newspaper.

The alternate wake-sleep patterns of the world then, again, help pace the information. Some of those communications are cellular. You pick up broadcasts from all over, and literally on a million stations. The world mind needs all of that information in order to produce continuous world events. Because of its particular structure the work is divided. The world mind, then, in your terms, could not be conscious all at one time, and the varying graduated waking-sleeping patterns—the overlapping between the extremes you mention—provide overall balance and allow for smooth communications of an inner kind.

In the past, farmers used dreams to plant their crops, and weather dreams were very popular—that is, people actually dreamed about the weather in the past because of their concern and their more intimate relationship with the natural environment. Times of famine were indeed predicted in dreams and guarded against. Kings and courts, chieftains, needed their soothsayers. Even though, now, you rely upon physical communication, portions of the species are still connected through those ancient means—though there is not the same need to become consciously aware of the information.

When man really intensified “rational” thought, and developed the electric light, he lengthened the time of waking consciousness to some extent. Those abilities were concentrated upon. The importance of symbols was minimized, and intuitive thought to some extent, went out of style.

Now: you spoke earlier this evening of moments in boyhood when you simply observed and appreciated the natural world. If you are each ahead of your times in certain terms, you are very much in the natural world. You are in your times then in important biological and psychic ways, interconnected with all other physical creatures, and with the natural world itself. There is a cultural world, and a natural one.

A dream may be said to be “ahead of its time” if it occurs tonight but foretells events that will not occur for a while. The dreamer is still very much couched in the physical world, however. It would be of some considerable value if you both emphasized your belonging in the natural world, rather than emphasizing the fact that you are ahead of your cultural times.

(11:42.) Now Ruburt has been concentrating upon the symptoms, imagining this or that, often not responding to the moment as it is, but to imagined future events and moments filled with threat or difficulty. Three hours of free writing time are not supposed to be three hours of worry. His state of anxiety must be lessened. The eye condition would disappear, and much more quickly, if he would think of other things, and follow the instructions I have given.

I also want both of you to make notes, if you need to, of my suggestions. You can even take a session night to do so if the time element enters in.