“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

When you awaken with a dream photograph in mind, it may appear meaningless because it does not seem to correlate with the official order of activities you recognize. You may make one particular decision in physical and waking consciousness, and that decision may bring forth certain events. Using your dream camera, you can with practice discover the history of your own psyche, and find the many probable decisions experienced in dreams. These served as a basis from which you made your physical decision. There is some finesse required as you learn to interpret the individual pictures within your dream album. This should be easy to grasp, for if you tried to understand physical life having only a group of snapshots taken at different places and in different times, then it would be rather difficult to form a clear idea of the nature of the physical world.

The same applies to dream reality, for the dreams that you recall are indeed like quick pictures snapped under varying conditions. No one picture alone tells the entire story. You should write down your description of each dream picture, therefore, and keep a continuing record, for each one provides more knowledge about the nature of your own psyche and the unknown reality in which it has its existence.

Moods obviously exist when you are dreaming as well as when you are waking. Physically the day may be brilliant, but if you are in a blue mood you may automatically close yourself off from the day’s natural light, not notice it — or even use that natural beauty as counterpoint that only makes you feel more disconsolate. Then you might look outward at the day through your mood and see its beauty as a meaningless or even cruel facade. Your mood, therefore, will alter your perception.

Shadows can be pleasant and luxurious, and on a hot sunny day you are certainly aware of their beneficial nature. So some dream hallucinations are beautiful, comforting, refreshing. They can bring great peace and be sought after for themselves. You may believe that God exists as a kindly father, or you might personify him as Christ or Buddha. In your dreams you might then encounter such personages. They are quite valid, but they are also hallucinations cast by your own thoughts and feelings. Dreams of Heaven and Hell alike fall into the same category, in those terms, as hallucinations.

In the dream world, however, each feeling or idea can be immediately expressed and experienced. The physical world has buildings in it that you manufacture — that is, they do not spring up naturally from the ground itself. In the same way, your thoughts are “manufactured products” in the dream world. They are a part of the environment and appear within its reality, though they change shape and form constantly, as physically manufactured objects do not.

The earth has its own natural given data, however, and you must use this body of material to form all of your manufactured products. The dream world also possesses its own natural environment. You form your dreams from it (long pause), and use its natural products to manufacture dream images. Few view this natural inner environment, however.