“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You originate ideas then and receive them, but you are not forced to actualize unrealized probable acts that come to you from other probable selves. Now there is a natural attraction between yourself and other probable selves, electromagnetic connections having to do with simultaneous propulsions of energy. By this I mean energy that appears simultaneously both to you and probable selves in other realities; psychic connections having to do with a uniting, sympathetic, emotional reaction and a connection that shows up very strongly in the dream state.

You would learn the instrument far quicker, you see, if the impulse was originating with a probable self. It goes without saying then that probable selves exist in your “future” as well as your past. It is very poor policy to dwell negatively on unpleasant aspects of the past that you know, because some portions of the probable self may still be involved in that past. The concentration can allow greater bleed-through and adverse identification, because that part will be one background that you have in common with any probable selves who sprang from that particular source.

Dictation then: Probabilities are an ever-present portion of your invisible psychological environment. You exist in the middle of the probable system of reality. It is not something apart from you. To some extent it is like a sea in which you have your present being. You are in it, and it is in you. Occasionally at surface levels of consciousness, you might wonder what might have happened had you made other decisions than those you have; chosen different mates, for example, or taken up residence in other portions of the country. You might wonder what would have happened had you mailed an important letter that you subsequently decided not to mail; and in such small wonderings only, have you ever questioned the nature of probabilities. But there are deep connections between yourself and all those individuals with whom you have had relationships, and with whom you were involved in deep decisions.

[...] There are probable gods as there are probable men; but these probable gods are all a part of what you may call the soul of, or the identity of, All That Is; even as your probable selves are all a portion of your soul or entity.

(10:01.) From any given point of your existence, however, you can glimpse other probable realities, and sense the reverberations of probable actions beneath those physical decisions that you make. [...] Here the rigid assumptions of normal waking consciousness often fade, and you can find yourself performing those physically rejected activities, never realizing that you have peered into a probable existence of your own.

Ideas that you have entertained and not used may be picked up in this same manner by other probable you’s. Each of these probable selves consider themselves the real you, of course, and to any one of them you would be the probable self; but through the inner senses all of you are aware of your part in this gestalt.

You use probabilities like blocks to build events. This presupposes inner knowledge and calculations, for you must be aware of the probabilities in order to choose from them. [...] These probabilities include webworks, probable actions and reactions involving not only yourself but others. [...]

The dreaming self is to some considerable degree aware of the probable self. There is give-and-take between the two, for much data is received by the dreaming self from the probable self — the self that experiences what the ego would call probable events.

[...] The doctor you might have been once dreamed of a probable universe in which he would be an artist. He continues to work out his own probabilities. [...] You call his system an alternate system of probability, but this is precisely what he would call yours.

[...] In the same way you do not perceive the actuality of probable events on a conscious basis. A portion of your whole self is quite involved in these probable events, however. The I of your dreams can be legitimately compared to the self that experiences probable events. [That I would consider itself fully conscious and view the waking I as the probable self.]

In June of 1969 we were really startled when Seth told us that Rob might be visited by one of his “probable selves.” At the time of the session, we didn’t know what probable selves were, though Seth had used the term once or twice in the past. What is a probable self? [...]

“This system of probabilities is quite as real as the physical system, and you exist in it whether or not you realize it. [...] You may become aware of it [or of one of your probable selves] while in the dream state occasionally. [...] So do probable events. [...]

(10:59.) Any of those directions, followed, can enrich the existence that you know, and in turn open up other probabilities that now escape you. The main image of yourself that you have held has, to a large extent, also closed your mind to these other probable interests and identifications. [...] These probable achievements will lie latent unless you consciously decide to bring them into being.

If you are poor, you chose that reality from many probable ones that did not involve poverty — and that are still open. If you chose illness, again there is a probable reality ready for initiation in which you choose health. If you are lonely there are probable friends you refused to meet in the past, but who are readily available.

You must realize that you are indeed a probable you. [...] Your neuronal structure necessitates a certain focus so that other experiences counter to your conscious assumptions remain probable or latent. Alter the beliefs and any probable self can, within certain limitations, be actualized.

[...] The you that you are can make any changes you want to in your experience: You can change probabilities for your own purposes, but you cannot change the courses of other probable selves that have gone their own ways. All probable selves are connected. [...] Each probable self has its own free will and uniqueness. You can change your own experience in the probability you know — which itself rides upon infinite other probabilities. You can bring into your own experience any number of probable events, but you cannot deny the probable experience of another portion of your reality. [...]

[...] If they were not pursued by the self you recognize, then they were by a self that is probable in your terms. [...] If you find a line of development that you now wish you had pursued, but had not, then think deeply about the ways in which those activities could now fit into the framework of your officially accepted life.² Such musings, with desire — backed up by common sense — can bring about intersection points in probabilities that cause a fresh realignment of the deep elements of the psyche. In such ways probable events can be attracted to your current living structure.

As you are looking at one photograph in your personal history, that represents your emergence in this particular reality — or the reality that was accepted as official at the time it was taken — so you are looking at a picture of a representative of your species, caught in a particular moment of probability. [...] As there are probable selves in private terms, there are probable selves in terms of the species. [...]

On many occasions then you set yourself a problem — “Shall I do this or that?” — and form a dream in which you follow through the probable futures that would “result” from the courses available. [...] Even in your accepted reality, then, to that extent in such a dream you react to probable events as well as to the events chosen for waking physical experience. Your daily life is affected, because in such a dream you deal with probable predictabilities. You are hardly alone, however, so each individual alive also has his and her private dreams, and these help form the accepted probability sequence of the following day, and of “time to come.” [...]

[...] A small amount of self-examination should show you that in a very simple way you are always thinking about probabilities. You are always making choices between probable actions and alternate courses. A choice presupposes probable acts, each possible, each capable of actualization within your system of reality. [...]

2. In Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, Seth designed all but two of his eight exercises, or practice elements, to help the reader directly explore some of the aspects of probable realities — although even the exceptions (numbers 6 and 8) aren’t far removed from probability concepts. His first practice element grew out of Jane’s projection into a probable past in her hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Any of the probable actions that a person considers are a part of that person’s conscious thought. Just underneath, however, people also consider other sets of probabilities that may or may not reach conscious level, simply because they are shunted aside, or because they seem to meet with no conscious recognition. I want you to try and imagine actual events, as you think of them, to be (pause) the vitalized representations of probabilities—that is, as the physical versions of mental probabilities. The probabilities with which you are not consciously concerned remain psychologically peripheral: They are there but not there, so to speak.

In like manner, England in all probability next year will not suddenly turn into a Mohammedan nation. But within the range of workable probabilities, private and mass choices, the people of the world are choosing their probable 1980s.

[...] All of the probable versions of 1980 spin off their own probable pasts as well as their own probable futures, and any consciousness that exists in 1980 was (again in those terms) a part of what you think of as the beginning of the world.

According to the intensity of the situation, now, another also desirable solution may be worked out in a probable reality. On an unconscious level you are aware of your probable selves, and they of you. [...] It does mean that your probable selves and you share in a body of symbolism, background, and ability. The multistructured nature of the dream state allows for dream dramas in which probable selves do appear. [...]

(Slowly:) The dream state, however, does operate as a rich web of communication between probable selves and probable existences. All probabilities spring from inner reality, from the psyche’s own inner activity and structure. [...] Instead it must recognize its power as the director of probable action, and no longer inhibit its own greater capacities.

[...] It does mean that even in those terms, and consciously unknowing, mankind is experimenting with a probable species and working out quite spiritual issues. Your probable futures and your probable pasts, in larger terms, exist at once. [...]

You use probabilities like blocks to build events. [...] This presupposes inner knowledge and calculations, for you must be aware of the probabilities in order to choose from them. [...] These probabilities include webworks and probable action and reaction, involving not only yourself but others.

[...] (Long pause.) There is no end in those terms to the source or supply of probabilities, therefore notime is not a static, completed cosmic storehouse. [...] Each event that you form from any given set of probabilities automatically gives rise to new probabilities.

They have evolved beyond all probabilities as we understand them, yet outside of probabilities they still have existence. [...] Yet also all of this and all of probabilities does not minimize nor deny the individual, for it is the individual upon whom all else rests, and it is from the basis of the individual that all entities have their existence, and from which all kinds of evolutions spring.

[...] The body is at any given moment, however, a mass conglomeration of energy formed from that rich bank of probable activity. [...] On deeper biological levels the cells straddle probabilities, and trigger responses. [...] Each probability — probable only in relation to and from the standpoint of another probability — is inviolate, however, in that it is not destroyed. [...]

All probable worlds exist now. All probable variations on the most minute aspect in any reality exist now. You weave in and out of probabilities constantly, picking and choosing as you go along. [...]

[...] Any consciousness automatically tries to express itself in all probable directions, and does so. [...] You grow probable selves as a flower grows petals. Each probable self, however, will follow through in its own reality — that is, it will experience to the fullest those dimensions inherent to it. [...]

[...] The fact remains that in speaking of probabilities thus far, I have simplified the issues considerably. (To me:) I said, for example, that you died as a child in one probability, and again in the (military) service, and I gave you a small sample of your parents’ probable history. [...]

All matter is based upon the units mentioned, with their unpredictability and their propensity for exploring all probabilities. Even your atomic structure, then, is poised between probabilities. If this is true, then obviously “you” are aware of only one small probable portion of yourself — and this portion you protect as your identity (underlined). [...]

[...] Give us a moment … In the life that you know, as given in Personal Reality, your beliefs act to specify the particular probable events that will become “real.”¹⁰ Because you are a probable self, an understanding of your own nature will show you some of the abilities, not used here, but present, that you can indeed choose to actualize. You can draw then from your own bank of probable abilities, for there will be traces of them in you. [...] (To me:) In deciding to do some writing (for the Seth books, as an example), you are also drawing upon abilities that you have worked on in another system, and through your intent you are to a certain extent blending probabilities.¹¹

It’s one thing to accept the idea of probable systems and probable selves as an exciting intellectual concept, and quite another to accept the practical considerations involved if you think of probabilities as plain facts of existence. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect any of us to have practical experience along these lines, thinking that any probable realities were beyond our reach. [...] As you’ll see, Sue kept in touch with the probable Rob and Jane in her dreams. [...]

Each probable event is changed by each other probable event. [...] These ‘separate’ probable systems do not operate isolated from each other, then, but are intimately connected. [...]

Now, Ruburt has also done the same service for a probable Sue in another system of reality, though in an entirely different way. And you [Rob], incidentally, have helped a probable Carl [Sue’s husband] in the same manner, using his creative abilities. The probable Carl, in other words, has strong creative abilities, and you have helped him understand this.

The relatively insignificant example of probable events and their interaction just given (in the last session) provides a few important clues to the nature of probabilities in general. [...] This small private experience is repeated endlessly with different variations in all areas of daily living — that is, probable events constantly interact, and (intently) through their interaction you end up with one recognized series of episodes that you accept, called physical reality.

[...] Probabilities involve the atoms and molecules, therefore, and the cells. [...] Your bodies are probable-constructs (hyphenate that if you want to), in that they exist only because of the atoms’ appearance at certain points of probability. [...]

[...] The EE units² within matter, within the atoms and molecules, are aware of the probable fields of action that are possible. While the body’s integrity must lie in a constant reiteration in one probability, and maintain within that probable system a certain “constant,” and while physically perception is largely directed there, the basic integrity of the body system and consciousness comes from outside the system into it. [...]

(I told Jane now that had my mother received any additional energy during her 50’s, she might have expressed its benefits through the habitual mores of our society, in terms of changes rather than of probabilities, say “My life changed for the better at that point, when I made that decision.” I added that perhaps the important thing for us now was to observe our unfolding lives with Seth’s ideas of the larger, or whole self, in mind, and so achieve insights we could interpret in terms of probabilities. So we decided not to ask Seth to backtrack and give us material about the son my mother’s probable self had had in her reality, even though that son was a probable self of mine.

Now: When I speak of probable selves, of course I am not speaking of some symbolic portion of the personality structure, or using the idea of probabilities as an analogy.

[...] Ruburt’s mystical nature was such a strong portion of the entire identity that in his present reality, and in the probable reality chosen — as mentioned when I discussed this picture (of Jane) — the mystic impulses and expressions were given play. Intersections with probable realities occur when one psychic grouping intensifies to a certain point, so that fulfillment as a self results.

Other probable events could just as well become physically experienced ones. [...] You will choose from those nonphysical probable events, therefore, only those you feel you are in accord with.

[...]

Continuing with the heading: “Your Daily Reality as the Expression of Specific Probable Events.” [...]

Often, for instance, you handle probabilities very well, while remaining consciously blind to them because of your concepts. [...] You may also be unconsciously reacting to quite pertinent data regarding the probable actions of others. [...] You are far more aware than you realize of the probable future in areas with which you are concerned. [...] In terms of probabilities that particular kind will not enter your experience.

[...] This provides you with areas of choice, gives you manipulability, and allows for the myriad of probable activities “possible.” You are the judge and the final word in that regard, so that as your ideas change, as you move toward one probable self and decide upon that as your official³ self, you will always have a rich bank of probable actions to choose from. [...]

[...] The nature of probabilities determines the framework in which these fulfillments can take place, and “frames” living developments. The structure of probabilities provides on the one hand a system of barriers, in which practical growth is not chosen or significant; and on the other hand it insures a safe, creative, rich environment — a reality — in which the idealization can choose from an almost infinite variety of possible actions those best suited to its own fulfillment.

[...] Ideas of probable realities and probable men and gods may strike some of you as quite absurd, and yet as you read this book, you are but one of the probable you’s. Other probable you’s would not consider you real, of course, and some might indignantly question your existence. Nevertheless, the probable system of reality is not just a philosophical question. [...]

As the various qualities of the Lumanians are still present in your psychic atmosphere, as their cities still coexist in land areas now called your own, so other probable identities coexist with the identities you now call your own. In the following chapter we will discuss you and your probable selves.

Because of the nature of probabilities there is also, of course, a system of reality in which the Lumanians succeeded in their experiment with nonviolence, and in which a completely different type of human being emerged.

Therefore the probability is already altered. Whether or not our Jesuit even knew of Ruburt’s impressions, that probability was altered. Knowing the impressions alters the probability further, and taking the steps that I have given still further changes the probabilities. [...]

[...] Unnumbered elements can still intrude to change their probability, even now, however; but the probabilities when Ruburt perceived the impressions were that the event would occur. For the reasons given this is now far less a probable event.

Now, the information given automatically changes the nature of the probability that was foreseen, for in that probability no forewarning had occurred. [...]

(10:17.) Now give us a moment … As the cells operate with the knowledge of probable actions and still maintain the physical body in your chosen system, so the psyche, operating in the same way, “seeds” itself in many different probabilities. In this case specifically, I am speaking of other physical probabilities — alternates, in other words, of the world as you know it. Those alive with you, your contemporaries, do not all belong to the same probable system. You are at a meeting ground in that respect, where individuals from many probable realities mix and merge, agreeing momentarily to accept certain portions of the same space-time environment.

6. See the 565th session as it’s continued in Chapter 16 of Seth Speaks. Seth talked about the myriad probable actions available to any self. After 10:19: “To the extent that you are open and receptive, you can benefit greatly by the various experiences of your probable selves … often what seems to you to be an inspiration is a thought experienced but not actualized on the part of another self … Ideas that you have entertained and not used may be picked up in this same manner by other probable you’s. Each of these probable selves considers itself the real you, of course, and to any one of them you would be the probable self; but through the inner senses each of you are aware of your part in this gestalt.”

(9:29.) Now: In greater terms, probabilities operate to an extent you may not suspect. For one thing, any focus point of physical life is caused by a merging of probabilities. [...]