“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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? According to Seth, each of us has counterparts in other systems of reality; not identical selves or twins, but other selves who are part of our entity, developing abilities in a different way than we are here.

In our system, for example, Rob is an artist. A few years ago he did some medical artwork and was amazed at his proficiency at it, and with the medical procedures and terminology, which were quite unfamiliar to him when he began. Each of Rob’s sketches and paintings won prizes for the doctors for whom he did them. In this session, the 487th, Seth told Rob that in another system of reality, Rob has a probable self who is a doctor who paints as a hobby. This is why Rob took to the medical drawings so easily! (To the doctor, of course, Rob is a probable self.)

Seth told us quite a bit about this “man” that night, and described some of the methods he was using in an attempt to contact this reality. Seth said: “There are, in fact, infinite varieties of matter, existing in what you would call one space framework. Using the physical senses, of course, you can never perceive these other systems. Advanced training in the use of the Inner Senses can lead to such explorations, however. Your friend [probable self] is more advanced—his system is more advanced in this respect.

“In the same way that thoughts can be sent through space, so individual consciousness can be sent through systems of reality [other dimensions]. As a seed can fly through the air, so individual consciousness can travel through these systems, but it must be protected. Certain drugs can protect it. [All of this is the method used by Rob’s probable self as he projects out of his probable system.]

“During the unconscious periods the drugs injected into the physical brain give increased nourishment to those areas of the brain involved in these ejections of consciousness. Therefore, even though your probable self is within reaching distance, so to speak, he is sometimes in these blackout-nourishment periods.

After the session, when Rob told me what Seth had been saying, we just sat looking at each other for a few minutes. “Probably you have a probable self,” I said finally, with a laugh.

“I’m ready,” Rob said; and he was. Over the next few weeks he did psychological time exercises suggested by Seth, and tried to be intuitively alert to anything out of the ordinary. In the meantime we had another session, and Rob had quite a few questions ready to ask Seth. According to what Seth told us, this probable self is a Dr. Pietra. He is an older man in his system of reality than Rob is in ours, and while he is engrossed in his painting, this interest is subordinated to his medical work.

“He knows of your hypothetical existence,” Seth said. “He believes that he has a probable self, and he is endeavoring to visit this probable universe. He has no idea, however, that you might be expecting such a visit, or that you might be planning to meet him. … He has been working on the drug himself, along with two others.

Here I want to include excerpts from three sessions in which Seth explains the difference between a physical event and a probable one, and the relationship between us and probable systems of reality. (Remember, Rob and Dr. Pietra are each individuals. Seth explains this relationship by saying that the two are related, like distant cousins.) He begins with what I think is an excellent description of the whole self or entire identity as it is related to this and other existences.

From Session 231: The Self and Probable Realities

“Imagine the whole self as composed of some master tape. Your recorder has four channels. We will give our recorder numberless channels. Each one represents a portion of the whole self, each existing in a different dimension, yet all a part of the whole self [or tape]. You see it would be ridiculous to say that Mono One on your tape was any more or less valid than Mono Two. Mono One could be compared to your present ego.

“Your stereophonic setting can be compared to what we have termed the inner ego. Each of the selves experiences time in its own manner according to the nature of its perceptions. When the stereophonic channel is turned on, the selves then know their unity. Their various realities merge in the overall perceptions of the whole self.

“Until the whole self is thus able to perceive its own parts simultaneously, then these seemingly separate portions appear to themselves isolated and alone. There is communication between them, but they are not aware of it. The tape is the element common to all channels. Now the inner ego is the director, but the whole self (or soul) must know itself. It is not enough that the inner ego knows what is going on. Ultimately the inner ego must bring about comprehension on the parts of the simultaneous selves.

“Each portion of the whole self must become aware of the other parts. We are not dealing with anything as simple as a recorder, of course, for our tapes [selves] are constantly changing. …”

“Take, for example, Event X. This probable event will be experienced by the various portions of the self in their own way. When it is experienced by your ego, it is a physical event. When it is perceived by other portions of the self, the ego does not know of it.

“It is actual all the same and is experienced in variation. The whole self perceives and is affected by probabilities, then, and perceives these as actions whether or not the ego has chosen to accept any given event as physical. The time sequence also varies. Past, present, and future are realities only to your ego.

“Now the inner ego, as you know, exists in the Spacious Present. The Spacious Present is the basic ‘time’ in which the whole self exists, but the various portions of the self have their experiences in their own time systems.

“The ego maintains much of its stability by looking backward into a ‘past’ and finding something of itself there. The portions of the self that deal in probabilities do not have experience with a ‘past’ to give them a sense of identity or continuity. Permanence, as the ego thinks of it, would be an alien concept to these portions of the self, and highly distasteful, adding up to rigidity.

“Flexibility is the key word here, a voluntary changing of the self as it is allowed to explore each probability. Experience is of a plastic nature. The basic sense of identity here is carried by what you could compare to the subconscious that you know. In other words, it is this portion of the psychological structure that carries the burden of identity, and it is the ego whose experiences are of a dreamlike nature.”

“You may dream of holding an apple, for example, and awaken to find it gone. This does not mean that it did not exist, but in the waking state you do not perceive it. 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.]

“Let us consider the following. An individual finds himself with a choice of three actions. He chooses one and experiences it. The other two actions are experienced also, by the inner ego, but not in physical reality. … The results are then checked by the inner ego as an aid in other decision-making. The probable actions were definitely experienced, however, and such experience makes up the existence of the ‘probable selves’ just as dream actions make up the experience of the dreaming self. … There is a constant subconscious interchange of information between all layers of the whole self.”

“The package of experience upon which you can focus is indeed composed of many small packages, but the whole package of reality is much larger than this. A portion of the self can and does experience events in an entirely different fashion [than the ego does] and this portion goes off on a different tangent. For when your conscious self perceives Event X, this other part of the self branches off, so to speak, into all the other probable events that could have been experienced by the ego.

“The ego must choose one event because of its limitations. But this other portion of the self can and does delve into what you could call Event Xl, X2, X3, et cetera. It can pursue and experience all of these alternative events in the same amount of physical time that it takes for the ego to experience Event X alone.

“This is not as farfetched as it might seem. The shaking of a hand may be perceived by you as a simple action. You are not aware of the million small acts which make up this seemingly insignificant action. They exist nevertheless. It does not take you time to perceive them one by one. You perceive them in their completed fashion. Now this portion of the self experiences these probable events consciously, with as much rapidity as you subconsciously perceive the million small actions that make up the handshake.”

“These portions of the self simply operate in a different dimension of reality, with different fields of activity. In this particular instance, compare the various portions of the whole self to the various members of a family: The man may work in the city. The woman may work at their home in the country. Of three children, each may attend a different school. They are all members of the same family unit and operate out of the same house. There is no basic reason why any of the children could not spend his days at his father’s office, but he would not be able to understand the events or activities there.

“There is within the family a general realization of the experiences of its members, but these are secondhand except for those events shared by the family as a whole, as a unit. There is also a generalized intuitional knowledge on the part of any portion of the self as to the experiences of the other portions.

“Some events will be perceived by all layers of the self, however, though in their own fashion, and experienced as a unit. There are few of these but they are very vivid and they serve—as do the family’s joint experiences—to reinforce the identity of the entire psychological structure.

“Again: probable events are as real as that one event chosen from them to be a physical experience. Take our Event X again. It is only one of numberless probable events. For its purposes, however, the conscious ego chooses Event X. But until this ego experiences the event, it is only one of all the other probable events, different in no way. It becomes actual in your reality only when it is experienced by the physical self. …

“These other probable events become just as ‘real’ within other dimensions. As a sideline, there are some interesting episodes when a severe psychological shock or deep sense of futility causes a short circuit so that one portion of the self begins to experience one of its other probable realities. I am thinking in particular of some cases of amnesia where the victim ends up suddenly in a different town with another name, occupation, and no memory of his own past. In some instances such an individual is experiencing a probable event, but he must experience it, you see, within his own time system.”