“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

They were of great aid, of course, in human politics, so that through dreams the intents of tribal leaders, say, were known to the others. Some people within the tribe specialized in such dreams, and again, dream content was and is directed by the individual intents, purposes and interests of the dreamer. In a certain manner dreaming, then, helped sharpen such individual tendencies while still directing them toward the public value fulfillment. The person interested most in herbs and plant life would also find that nightly dreams mirrored that daytime preoccupation, so that nightly dream excursions might find the dreamer examining strange herbs in another location than the native one. Or he might be given knowledge as to how the herbs could best be used for healing purposes. People are natural mimics, as are some animals and birds, so when tribal members related their dreams, they did not just tell them but acted them out with great mobility, carefully mimicking whatever animals or people or elements of land they may have encountered.

(8:47.) The origins of drama began in just that fashion. Tribal leaders were usually chosen only after long “dream investigations,” in which the new leader’s name cropped up, say, time and time again in the people’s dreams. They expected to receive counsel from their dreams. Such information was then aired and shared, studied and examined along with all physical considerations that applied before important decisions were made (all intently).

[...] Tribal life became a series of ritualized activities. [...]

Self-disapproval in that context became a virtue, for indeed survival depended, it seemed, upon constant self and tribal evaluation. [...]

[...] They rarely congregate in large groups, but do have a family and tribal-like organization, with at the very most twelve adults in any given area. [...]

[...] When man knew no more than a simple tribal life, his brain already had the capacity to learn anything it must, for one day it would be responsible for the life of a planet.

We parked here today
and the green world swirled
jungle-quick, downtown
across the river, and like
a city bushman I was in tune,
swinging through thought’s treetops
while the traffic stopped and started,
precise as a ceremony of animals,
almost formal, engines thundering
then purring, wheels pausing,
headlights hypnotized in sun.
You walked into the bank,
making an exchange as ancient
as any tribal dance.

[...] The growth of separate tribal cultures, for example, and later of nations, could emerge only through a sense of separation, and a certain kind of alienation. [...]

[...] In many ancient, now-forgotten tribal religions, recourse was also made to the gods to turn nature against the enemy. [...]

[...] The various tribal members would have dreams in which the problem was considered, each dreamer tackling whatever aspect of the problem that best suited his or her abilities and personal intents. [...]

In Turkey you dealt with an order rather than a family—a tribal order, so to speak, with males predominating. [...]

[...] Even now in some “tribal societies,” for example, the self is experienced far differently; so that, while so-called individuality as you understand it is maintained, each self is also experienced as a part of others in the tribe, and the natural environment. [...]