“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Our region is supposed to be outside the danger zone—yet we see conflicting newspaper reports about whether the prevailing wind currents would make us vulnerable to the aftereffects of a meltdown. Even now local civil defense officials monitor the air several times daily with radiological survey meters—equipment similar to Geiger counters. Jonestown was far away, remote in another land, I said to Jane, but the potential mass tragedy of Three Mile Island hovers at the edges of our personal worlds. The whole affair has a sense of unreal immediacy, because there’s nothing to see, and because I don’t think most people really understand the probabilities involved. It would hardly be a coincidence, I added, that the mass events at Jonestown and Three Mile Island took place within less than six months of each other, and that they represented the two poles, or extremes, of mankind’s present main belief systems: religion and science.

(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? Here are quotations from the answers Jane gave while in trance:

“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. One way or another, however, you will hit upon some kind of situation—a portion of a TV drama, perhaps—in which a tire is blown; or you will see an item of that nature in the newspaper, or you will hear a story, told directly or indirectly about the same kind of dilemma. The magnitude of the physical stimuli with which you are surrounded makes it possible, of course, for any number of like situations to come to your physical attention during any given day. 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.”

(Jane finished her typing the dream material at about 3:30 PM today. Next she got on her stool to do the dishes. 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. In the kitchen, she began to quote to me the first paragraph of what she was getting.

(I tried hard to focus on what she was telling me, so that I could write it down at once, but as she continued I saw that I’d inevitably lose a lot of it. I asked her if she could repeat her material if I got my notebook. She said yes. While I made ready for dictation she sat in her chair at the kitchen table. Neither of us had expected a spontaneous Seth session, but that’s what developed. Jane started over. The first paragraph below substantially repeats what she first told me. She always kept her “own” voice, and spoke in a conversational manner throughout. Her dictation was a little fast, so that I scribbled notes at times. Although I worried about deciphering them later, I anticipate no problems.

(Rather often lately we’ve speculated about why most people don’t remember their dreams. And if they don’t, how can they make use of them? 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. All of the material referred to in these notes, then, came together and furnished a foundation for the session to follow.)

Then earlier I got (Jane said), that when we’re interpreting dreams, we should also look over groups of them, over a period of time, to see if you see yourself as a hero, a victim, a victor, bravely grappling with problems or whatever.

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. One way or another, however, you will hit upon some kind of situation—a portion of a TV situation—in which a tire is blown. Or you will see an item of that nature in the newspaper, or you will hear a story, told directly or indirectly about the same kind of dilemma. The magnitude of the physical stimuli with which you are surrounded, makes it possible, of course, for any number of like situations to come to your physical attention during any given day. 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.

(“I should mention a couple more things, though. This happened at a time of day when I’m not usually at my best – around four in the afternoon. And I’ll often get things like I did the first part of this session, when I was busy with the dishes. I’ll notice it, then say to myself that I’ll tell Rob later.... So I wonder how often I’ve missed out on some good stuff by doing it that way, especially when I even forget to tell him about it.”

(“Well,” I said, “you might have lost some things by doing that, but don’t worry about it. You can’t be turned on all the time.”