“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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.

Give us a moment … At basic levels, of course, the motion of a muscle involves the motion of cells and of cellular components. Here I am saying that the atoms and molecules themselves, because of their characteristics, not only deal with probabilities within the body’s cellular structure, but also helps the body make predictive judgments about entities or objects outside of itself.

(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.

(9:48.) The “private psyche” sounds like a fine term, but it is meaningless unless you apply it to your psyche. A small amount of self-examination should show you that in a very simple way you are always thinking about probabilities. You are always making choices between probable actions and alternate courses. A choice presupposes probable acts, each possible, each capable of actualization within your system of reality. Your private experience is far more filled with such decisions than you usually realize. There are tiny innocuous instances that come up daily: “Shall I go to the movies, or bowling?” “Shall I brush my teeth now or later?” “Should I write to my friend today or tomorrow?” There are also more pertinent questions having to do with careers, ways of life, or other deeper involvements. In your terms, each decision you make alters the reality that you know to one degree or another.

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.

Now. Your private psyche is intimately concerned with your earthly existence, and in your dream state you deal with probable actions, and often work out in that condition the solutions to problems or questions that arise having to do with probable sequences of events.⁴

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.

4. In Volume 1, see Session 687 at 10:01: Seth discussed how the dreamer and his or her probable selves, having “the same psychic roots,” can share in working out a given challenge in a probable reality.

I also suggest a rereading of the material on dreams and probable realities in chapters 14 and 15 of The Seth Material.