“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Actually, the session might better be called a Jane/Seth session, in that Jane’s own consciousness was often uppermost, riding upon Seth’s underlying and steadying influence. This rather unusual situation came about because after lunch today she wrote excellent analyses of two dreams I’d had recently. As we sat at the kitchen table discussing her work, Jane felt that she could go into a trance state that was her own for a change, instead of being in “just” a Seth trance. She began delivering the material at a measured pace in her usual voice. As soon as I realized that she wanted to have a session I asked her to wait until I found my pen and notebook. Then Jane proceeded to come through with much evocative material on dreams—our second reason for excerpting the session for Mass Events. Some of the more generalized dream material is presented below; some of the more individualized portions [which, in fact, came at the start of the session] are given in Note 2.

(2. Much of Jane’s trance material on how individuals use dreams personally came through in answer to a question of mine that we’d often speculated about lately: If most people do not remember their dreams most of the time, of what use can their dreams be to them? The question was really based upon our belief, indeed our certainty, that everything in nature is intentional and useful; therefore dreams must fulfill important roles in peoples’ lives—but how, in ordinary terms? [...]

“Because dreams are such a perfect combination of stimuli from the inner environment and the exterior environment, other events are often used to trigger inner dream messages, just as the opposite occurs. And in a gathering of three people watching the same TV drama, say, each of them might be interpreting different portions of the program so that those portions correlate with their individual dreams of the night before, and serve to bring them their dream messages in ways they can accept....”

“You might dream of going away on a long trip by car, only to find that a tire blew when you were driving too fast. You may never remember the dream. [...] Even then, you might not recall the dream, but the situation itself as it comes to your attention might make you check your tires, decide to put off your trip, or instead lead you to inner speculations about whether you are going too fast in a certain direction for your own good at this time. But you will get the dream’s message.”

“Great discrimination is used so that, for example, one newspaper item is noticed over others because a certain portion of that item represents some of the dream’s message. Another portion might come from a neighbor—but from the dreamer’s interpretation of the neighbor’s remark, that further brings home the dream message.”

“Even if you don’t consciously remember your dreams, you do get the message. [...]

“In such cases the individual will scarcely be aware that a dream is involved....”

(This afternoon Jane finished typing her analyses of my dreams of March 29 and 31. The dreams were excellent ones and she did an excellent job interpreting them. [...] This dream made a considerable impact on Jane—so much so that it’s led us to some interesting new dream material that is dealt with in today’s session. Both dreams are on file in my dream notebook, of course. An extra copy of this dream is attached to my own notebook that I’m letting grow all by itself into ideas that may be used in a work of my own, similar to Seth’s original suggestion forThrough My Eyes.

(Rather often lately we’ve speculated about why most people don’t remember their dreams. [...] Since we certainly think nature has given our species—and probably most others—a dream life for a reason, we take it for granted that the dream material is put to good use in ways we may not understand. Dreaming could hardly be a useless creation on nature’s part. Nor did we want to wait for science or psychology to explain dreams, since here we were having them all of the time. [...]

In the past, if people didn’t remember their dreams, they’d project their dream events upon natural events, or read objective events as symbols that would actually express the dream itself. Now, even though people might forget their dreams, they often react to certain portions of TV dramas, or events that correlate with the dreams of the night before.

Because dreams are such a perfect combination of stimuli from the inner environment and the exterior environment, other events are often used to trigger inner dream messages, just as the opposite occurs. And in a gathering, say, of three people watching the same TV drama, each of them might be interpreting different portions of the program so that those portions correlate with their individual dreams of the night before, and serve to bring them their dream messages in ways they can accept.

You have many other ways, however, of deciphering that dream message. Dream memory and interpretation is the best, of course. It only occurs, however, under certain conditions, when the individual involved is at a certain state of awareness, in which he is ready to consciously accept such information as originating in dreams, and when the dreams are recognized by him as being an acceptable way of receiving information.

You might dream, for example, of going away on a long trip by car, only to find that there were difficulties and a tire blew when you were driving too fast. You may never remember the dream. [...] Even then, you might not recall the dream, but the situation itself as it comes to your attention might make you check your tires, decide to put off your trip, or instead lead you to inner speculations about whether you are going too fast in a certain direction for your own good at this time. But you will get the dream’s message.

The Christ drama is a case in point, where private and mass dreams were then projected outward into the historical context of time, and then reacted to in such a way that various people became exterior participants—but in a far larger mass dream that was then interpreted in the most literal of physical terms. Even while it was, it also got the message across, though the inner drama itself was not recalled, and as the dream merged with historical events, and as it was interpreted by so many, its message also became distorted—or rather, it mixed and merged with other such dreams, whose messages were far different.

(Jane finished her typing the dream material at about 3:30 PM today. [...] As she sat at the sink she began to get more dream material, this time from Seth. She called me as I wrote my own dream material in my writing room. [...]

Even if you don’t consciously remember your dreams, you do get the message. [...] Our discussion about the Gallaghers not liking animals—really not liking them, was the exterior part of the dream (of March 31, involving the dogs). It brought up the same kind of questions, and Bill was in the dream (on March 29) before the one of the animals.

(This material touched upon part of the discussion Jane and I had earlier today—that dreams should be studied in sequence, for additional meanings. A sequence of dreams, Jane said, would give a much better perspective on the dreamer’s challenges, fear, etc., in life, and yield much better insights. Subject matter assumes a new kind of importance, then as does the relationship of one dream to another.)