Primaries and Secondaries in Dreams and Dream Experiments

From The Early Sessions, Volume 5

Session 210

Dream Forms Representing Function in Primaries

Now, speaking once more about our primary and secondary conditions, it should be said now that this will not be as simple as it might appear. Many breakdowns and also syntheses will be needed. Ruburt brought up a point, I believe; he observed that the experience of talking occurred in both the waking and the dreaming states, but did not think that these represented primaries.

Talking represents a primary, the primary of communication. Walking represent a primary, the primary of motion. We will have much more to say along these lines, and I give you these as examples only. We shall see if you can work out others by yourselves.

Session 211

Dream Experiments

… There are however some points that I would like to clear, and I would also like to add to your instructions concerning our dream experiments—since I know,

Joseph, that you can't wait to begin them.

Now, I would suggest that two main categories in particular be given special notice. These as you know will have to do with primary and secondary reality. And each dream should be scrutinized first of all with these main points in mind. You must look out for pitfalls, and use your critical faculties. Ruburt uses his critical faculties supremely well in scrutinizing my activities and nature, so I have no doubt that he can also apply them to the job at hand.

You will need to use your wits carefully, for secondary realities will often appear to be primaries. I mentioned earlier that it might seem that walking, for example, was a primary, since it appears that you walk in your dreams. You also walk in the waking state, and you can actually walk, and also appear to walk, in the trance state. Nevertheless, walking is part of the primary of motion.

Now there are several kinds of time, that will appear within your dreams, and you must sort these out carefully. While sleeping in your present time, you may have a dream that concerns your personal past, while the dream is concerned with events that you know to have occurred many years ago. Nevertheless you may experience these events as happening within the present.

The present within which you seem to experience the dream is not, however, the present in physical time, the present in which your body lies upon the bed. There is a fine distinction here, and one that you shall learn through experience for yourselves, for I shall not tell you all.

It should be obvious to you also that within your dreams a spatial location that belongs in present physical time can be experienced in the past or in the future within the dream framework, and there is much more here than meets the eye; and you must be careful so that you catch it. What you do with it will be up to you.

I am particularly interested myself in these projected experiments, and as a preliminary for them we shall have you work with suggestion alone before you attempt to begin with your recordings.

... For the dream will not be captured in a laboratory by scientists who will not look into their own dreams.

The nature of dreams will only be discovered in such a manner as I am suggesting.

… Man will not learn the basic nature of reality by studying the physical universe alone, nor will he learn it by studying the personality as it operates within the physical universe alone.

The nature of reality can only be approached by an investigation of reality as it is directly experienced in all levels of awareness: reality as it appears under dream conditions, under other conditions of dissociation, and as it appears in the waking condition.

Most studies even dealing with the conscious state are extremely superficial, dealing only with those upper layers of egotistical awareness that are immediately concerned with the manipulation of the self within physical reality.

All layers of the personality are indeed conscious layers. They simply operate in the manner of compartments, so that often one portion of the self is not aware of other portions. As a rule when you are awake you do not know your sleeping self; you know your neighbors far better, so your sleeping self appears mysterious indeed. When you are awake, as Ruburt himself has written, you cannot find the dream locations that have been so familiar to you only the night before.

In your sleep you may have greeted friends who are strangers to your waking self. But consider the other side of the coin. For when you are asleep, you cannot find the street upon which you live your waking hours, and when you are asleep you do not know you waking self. The sleeping self is your identity.

Now there are indeed connections between these two conditions. And there are definite realities that exist in both states, and these uniting realities will be what you are looking for. For only by finding these can you discover the nature of the human personality and the nature of reality within which it must operate.

We have also spoken of the dream as a drama, and you must discover the various levels upon which these dramas take place. It will not be as difficult when you are underway as it may seem to you now.

You will also discover, as I have mentioned, that the various levels of the subconscious will yield their own characteristic data, and as your records grow this will become apparent to you. It is obviously necessary then that your suggestion is given precisely as I gave it to you, for we want the dreams recorded in consecutive order whenever possible.

(See the 206th session.)

This is most necessary. Certain questions may appear too simple to ask, but you must ask them and you must use your brains here.

Are your muscles tired after a dream of much activity? I was not inquiring after your welfare. However, I am glad that you are in good condition.

I want you to ask questions along these lines, and attempt to answer them through your records and experience.

You see, the work involved in these experiments will of itself allow you to be extremely flexible, and you will discover finally that you can bring a portion of your consciousness with you while you sleep. A portion of the self will be investigating other portions of the self. We shall also have you using suggestion to bring about certain types of dreams in which we may be interested.