PROBABLE SYSTEMS, MEN, AND GODS

(9:24.) And now we begin the next chapter: “Probable Systems, Men, and Gods.”

It seems to you that reality is composed of those actions that you choose to take. Those that you choose to deny are ignored. The road not taken then seems to be a non-act, yet every thought is actualized and every possibility explored. Physical reality is constructed from what seems to be a series of physical acts. Since this is the usual criterion of reality for you, then nonphysical acts usually escape your notice, discretion, and judgment.

(9:30.) Let us take an example. You are reading this book when the telephone rings. A friend wants you to meet him at five o’clock. You stand considering. In your mind you see yourself (A) saying no and staying home, (B) saying no and going somewhere else instead, or (C) saying yes and keeping the engagement. Now all of these possible actions have a reality at that point. They are all capable of being actualized in physical terms. Before you make your decision, each of these probable actions are equally valid. You choose one of these, and by your decision you make one event out of the three physical. This event is duly accepted as a portion of those serial happenings that compose your normal existence.

The other probable actions, however, are as valid as they ever were, though you have not chosen to actualize them physically. They are carried out as effectively as the one you chose to accept. If there was a strong emotional charge behind one of the rejected probable actions, it may even have greater validity as an act than the one you chose.

Because you do not accept them all as physical events, you do not perceive their strength or durability. Your lack of perception cannot destroy their validity, however. If you wanted to be a doctor and are now in a different profession, then in some other probable reality you are a doctor. If you have abilities that you are not using here, they are being used elsewhere.

The soul can be described for that matter, as a multidimensional, infinite act, each minute probability being brought somewhere into actuality and existence; an infinite creative act that creates for itself infinite dimensions in which fulfillment is possible.

The tapestry of your own existence is simply such that the three-dimensional intellect cannot behold it. These probable selves, however, are a portion of your identity or soul, and if you are out of contact with them it is only because you focus upon physical events and accept them as the criteria for reality.

(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. Some people have done this spontaneously, often in the dream state. 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.

If there are individual probable selves, then of course there are probable earths, all taking roads that you have not adopted. Beginning with an act of imagination in the waking state, you can sometimes follow for a short way into the “road not taken.”

Go back to our man at the telephone, mentioned earlier. Let us say that he tells his friend he will not go. At the same time, if he imagines that he took another alternative and agreed on the engagement, then he might experience a sudden rift of dimensions. If he is lucky and the circumstances are good, he might suddenly feel the full validity of his acceptance as strongly as if he had chosen it physically. Before he realizes what is happening, he might actually feel himself leave his home and embark upon those probable actions that physically he has chosen not to perform.

Such an experiment will not carry you too far, however, and the probable self who has chosen the action that you denied, is in important respects quite different from the self that you know. Each mental act opens up a new dimension of actuality. In a manner of speaking, your slightest thought gives birth to worlds.

(10:19.) Each probable system of reality of course then creates other such systems, and any one act, realized, brings forth an infinite number of “unrealized” acts that will also find their actualization. Now all systems of reality are open. The divisions between them are arbitrarily decided upon as a matter of convenience, but all exist simultaneously, and each one supports and adds to the other. So what you do is also reflected to some degree in the experience of your probable selves, and vice versa.

To the extent that you are open and receptive, you can benefit greatly by the various experiences of your probable selves, and can gain from their knowledge and abilities. Quite spontaneously, again, you often do this in the dream state, and often what seems to you to be an inspiration is a thought experienced but not actualized on the part of another self. You tune in and actualize it instead, you see.

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.

In fact it is not a product in those terms at all, but a process of becoming. All That Is is not a product, finished or otherwise, either. 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.

The dimensions of actuality possible to All That Is of course far exceed those presently available to you. In a manner of speaking, you have created many probable gods through your own thoughts and desires. They become quite independent psychic entities, validities in other levels of existence. The one All That Is is aware not only of its own nature and of the nature of all consciousness, but is also aware of its infinite probable selves. We go here toward subjects in which words become meaningless.