“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN:

Probable Selves
and
Probable Systems of Reality

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.]

“In your time, the periods of high conscious activity would run approximately three days, followed by a day and a half to four days of inactivity, according to the circumstances. This involves the transfer of conscious energy from a home system to an alien one, and certain more or less automatic changes must be made from system to system, involving the use of brain waves, certain patterns being normal in different systems.

“There are other brain patterns, for example, than those discovered by your scientists. The drugs help in changing these patterns when it is necessary. If these brain patterns were not changed on entering and leaving a system, theoretically at least, the consciousness could become trapped within any given system: acceleration or deacceleration, you see, but mentally.”

“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 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.”

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.

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.

“Action is action whether or not you perceive it, and probable events are events whether or not you perceive them. Thoughts are also events, as are wishes and desires. The human system responds as fully to these as it does to physical events. In dreams, often portions of probable events are experienced in a semiconscious manner. This amounts to a bleed-through, and I use the term purposely, for your tape recorder can be used as an analogy.

“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.

“This system of probabilities is quite as real as the physical system, and you exist in it whether or not you realize it. You simply are not focused within it. You may become aware of it [or of one of your probable selves] while in the dream state occasionally. I have told you that dream images have a definite reality. So do probable events. They simply do not appear concrete to you.

“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.”

The thought of such contact is highly intriguing, and we cannot help but wonder what effect it would have, not only on Rob and Dr. Pietra, but on their separate systems of reality. Only Seth’s assurances that contact is possible under certain conditions leads us to even consider it; the chances against such contact seem so high. We both feel that we need much more information and hard work, and look forward to further experiments along these lines through the years.