“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.]

“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 is studying the use of painting in therapy,” Seth said. “Not only working with patients and using art as therapy, but working with the idea that some paintings in themselves have a healing effect.” Seth went on to say that “certain paintings can capture and direct the healing abilities of the viewer. … The painter’s intent is embedded in his medium and in his painting.”

“He will be able to manipulate in his own system while he is gone. Your state of mind and receptivity will be communicated to him and serve as a beckoning area that he will recognize. The sympathetic aspects of your personalities will serve to open clear channels between you. The passageway, you see, is not physical, of course, and yet molecular structure is to some extent involved.”

“You should see him visually—either entirely objectified or in an unusually vivid inner image. But more than this, there should be an inner communication between you of a telepathic nature. He is also visually oriented, you understand. He may be able to show you images from his own system of reality. He may be able to take you there in a projection, and from that point you should be able to look into your own system, and in a series of flashes see your life and Ruburt’s with greater clarity.”

“I believe that within seven hours he will be within your system, whether or not you perceive him. The drug may have the effect of coloring his image, so do not be surprised at a yellow or purplish tinge. For various reasons we cannot discuss this evening, the experiments are now being conducted over a period of some weeks, and they will not be tried again until your autumn. This has to do with the conductivity of cell structures, and your particular atmosphere during these periods.”

Rob had been working on portraits and human figures, so this data made sense to him. He didn’t recall any strong inner image of the interior of a body, though; yet he said that he had been thinking of body interiors—something that I didn’t know. Seth went on to say that fuller contact was still possible, “though Dr. Pietra’s focus is not certain, and the intensity of his presence varies.”

Seth also had a little more to say concerning the drugs that Pietra uses in his experiments. Apparently they insure that consciousness will not return to the physical brain too quickly. He also said that there were methods “by which the relative behavior and condition of the traveling consciousness is monitored at the other end. In case of any severe dangers, the consciousness is pulled back, but this is highly dangerous.”

In case anyone is uncertain, this probable system of reality is as “real” as ours, according to Seth. To its inhabitants, it is composed of physical matter, and it is just one of an infinite number of systems or universes between matter and antimatter. The people in Pietra’s system have hypothesized the existence of other probable universes, and Pietra is one of the first explorers, mostly because of his excellent medical background.

“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.

“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.”