“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Dictation … The cells of course are changing. The atoms and molecules within them are always in a state of flux. The CU’s¹ that are within all matter have a memory bank that would far surpass any computer’s. As cellular components, the atoms and molecules, therefore, carry memory of all the forms of which they have been part.

At deep levels the cells are always working with probabilities, and comparing probable actions and developments in the light of genetic information. The most intricate behavior is involved and calculations instantly made, for instance, before you can take one step or lift your finger. This does not involve only the predictive behavior of the physical organism alone, however. At these deeper levels the cellular activity includes making predictive judgments about the environment outside of the body. The body obviously does not operate alone, but in relationship with everything about it. When you want to walk across the room, the body must not only operate using hindsight and “prediction” as far as its own behavior is concerned, but it must take into consideration the predictive activity of all of the other elements in that room.

(Pause, then humorously:) You “know” that a chair is not going to chase you around the room, for instance — at least the odds are against it. You know this because you have a reasoning mind, but that particular kind of reasoning mind knows what it knows because at deep levels the cells are aware of the nature of probable action. The beliefs of the conscious mind, however, set your goals and purposes. “You” are the one who decides to walk across the floor, and then all of these inner calculations take place to help you achieve your goal. The conscious intent, therefore, activates the inner mechanisms and changes the behavior of the cells and their components.

For an exercise, keep notes for a day or so of all the times you find yourself thinking of probable actions,² large or small. In your mind, try to follow “what might have happened” had you taken the course you did not take. Then imagine what might happen as a result of your chosen decisions. You are a member of the species. Any choice you make privately affects it biologically and psychically.

You can literally choose between health and illness; between a concentration upon the mental more than the physical, or upon the physical more than the mental. Such private decisions affect the genetic heritage of the species. Your intent is all-important — for you can alter your own genetic messages³ within certain limits. You can cause a cell, or a group of cells, to change their self-image, for example; and again, you do this often — as you healed yourselves of diseases because of your intent to become well. The intent will be conscious, though the means may not be. Period. In such a case, however, the self-healing qualities of the cells are reinforced, and the self-healing abilities of the species are also strengthened.

On many occasions then you set yourself a problem — “Shall I do this or that?” — and form a dream in which you follow through the probable futures that would “result” from the courses available. While you are sleeping and dreaming, your chemical and hormonal activity faithfully follows the courses of the dreams. Even in your accepted reality, then, to that extent in such a dream you react to probable events as well as to the events chosen for waking physical experience. Your daily life is affected, because in such a dream you deal with probable predictabilities. You are hardly alone, however, so each individual alive also has his and her private dreams, and these help form the accepted probability sequence of the following day, and of “time to come.” The personal decisions all add up to the global happenings on any given day.

2. In Volume 1 of “Unknown” Reality, Seth designed all but two of his eight exercises, or practice elements, to help the reader directly explore some of the aspects of probable realities — although even the exceptions (numbers 6 and 8) aren’t far removed from probability concepts. His first practice element grew out of Jane’s projection into a probable past in her hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.