“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.

These probable personalities are further removed from us than our reincarnational selves, more like distant relations who bear a family resemblance. According to the information we have so far, some of them have methods of perception different from ours.

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.)

“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.

“But when will he be here in our terms?” Rob asked quickly, because it was almost time for the session to end.

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.

Such travel between probable systems is done through projection of consciousness out of the body, as was explained in the excerpts, but this seems to involve a welding of medicine, physics, and other disciplines. In other statements in the past, Seth told us that any far-ranging space travel within our own system would also involve mental rather than physical journeys.

“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.

“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. …”

“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. …