The "Guide to This Chapter" and "Key Points of This Chapter" were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).
Introduction
This chapter discusses how "probable selves" operate in everyday life: consciousness is composed of energy, the specific personality is the core of a gestalt of conscious energy, and the core forms and changes according to intent, attracting corresponding energy patterns. Probable selves truly exist in parallel realities, and they differentiate, merge, and interpenetrate one another depending on the focus of energy and the strength of intent. The main text uses Ruburt, Joseph, and their parents as examples to illustrate how different probable realities influence present talents, emotions, and family relationships. The notes point out that the system is not closed, and that different levels can perceive one another.
Key Points of This Chapter
- Probable selves are selves that truly exist in parallel realities, not personifications or metaphors of the personality.
- Consciousness is composed of energy, and therefore possesses the laws and properties implied by energy; the laws of energy at the physical level cannot be wholly applied to the spiritual level.
- The specific personality is the core of an energy gestalt of consciousness; the core is formed by intent and purpose, and can change according to intent; the core attracts corresponding energy patterns according to its intensity.
- The entity is composed of many probable selves; an incipient self can be absorbed by the primary personality, or it can, through being highly charged, branch off into a new probable reality.
- Probable reality systems are not closed; they permeate, communicate with, and merge into one another, influencing an individual's talents, emotions, and family relationships.
Main Text
When we talk about probable selves, I am certainly not referring to some symbolic part of the personality structure, nor am I using the concept of possibility as a metaphor.
This sentence seems plain and unremarkable, but it actually carries a profound meaning. The title of this session is "How Probable Selves Work in Daily Life," so right from the start Seth is making clear: the probable self I am talking about is the probable self that truly exists, not some symbolic thing within your personality. It is not saying, I have a talent, I have a possibility, as if I had multiple personalities, or I have an emotional side, or there is another kind of character trait within my personality. That is not what he is referring to. He is not referring to the probable self as some part of your personality traits or character traits. Nor is he using the concept of possibility as a metaphor -- he is not saying "I might exist in some time and space" as a figure of speech. That probable you truly exists in another time and space.
Then he goes on to say:
Consciousness is composed of energy.
"Consciousness is composed of energy" -- this sentence must be remembered. Where does consciousness come from? Consciousness is composed of energy.
Here let me give everyone a brief introduction. Actually, throughout this process I have been constantly cross-referencing the English original, because for a lot of the content here, if you want to understand its true meaning, you still need to consult the original text. But when I am teaching, I will not keep coming back to this point, since after all we are going through it in Chinese. I am only giving everyone a reference and an introduction to some of the implications in the English original. There are places that are very hard to understand and grasp in Chinese -- in other words, places you can easily slip right past without noticing.
For example, take the point he makes in the first sentence. See how easily we slip past it. He says consciousness is composed of energy, and here the word "is" is underlined. This "is" is something that can only be intuited, not fully expressed in words. You can understand it as consciousness being composed of energy, but this is not the "is" you understand. What does that mean? It is not the kind of "is" you understand on the material level, like "a table is composed of petroleum or wood," right? It is not the "is" of being composed of metal, petroleum, or atoms. But what kind of "is" is this "is"? I do not know how to describe it in words either. It is that kind of "is" that can only be intuited. That is as far as I can understand it.
There are many more places like this later on. I will introduce them when needed, and when not needed I will not keep switching back and forth between Chinese and English, because that would make everyone feel very disjointed and confused, without an overall concept. We need to first understand it as a whole, from the content, and not get stuck on specific words and characters. When you read it a second time, a third time, and really want to digest it thoroughly and study it deeply, you can take the original text and go through it word by word, sentence by sentence. But do not do that on the first pass. If you do, you will completely lose the essence of understanding its overall meaning. Right now we need to extract that essence.
All right, now it is enough if you can understand this point in what he says about "consciousness is composed of energy." On the first level, on the material level, you can understand what kind of "is" this "is" is: consciousness is composed of small things like matter, just as metal atoms compose metal, water is composed of water molecules, and water molecules are composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom -- you can understand it as that kind of composition. But I am telling you, it is not that. It is actually not that kind of composition. It is just that there is no other way to explain it to you clearly, so you can only be made to understand it this way for now.
This is why Seth emphasizes that every passage must be understood at different levels of consciousness. At the three-dimensional level of consciousness it is understood one way; at a higher level of consciousness it is understood another way; at an even higher level of consciousness it is yet another way of understanding -- even though the words are the same.
Let us continue.
Therefore everything implied by energy is also contained within consciousness.
Consciousness is composed of energy, so are not all the things, laws, and regularities implied by energy also contained within consciousness? Does consciousness not also contain these laws of energy? In other words, the things that energy embodies are also things that consciousness possesses -- are the attributes of energy, the regularities of energy, the laws of energy, also the regularities of consciousness and the laws of consciousness? Because consciousness is composed of energy, it must follow the laws of energy.
What I am saying now again involves several levels of meaning: one is our understanding of energy on the material level, and another is the understanding of energy on a higher level. In other words, this energy is also not the energy you understand. It is not the energy we understand in the material world. The energy we understand in the material world is only one form of expression of this energy, or a program through which it is manifested. It is not that the energy we understand is the energy that composes consciousness -- it is not the light energy, electrical energy, electromagnetic energy, chemical energy, or nuclear energy that we understand. Those energies are also a three-dimensional manifestation of that energy, but they are not that energy itself. I do not know whether you can understand what I am saying. So this passage is quite difficult. This is a lot of the essence of this book. Everyone must really take it to heart and not be impatient.
You need to understand that the word "energy" is one word, but do not understand it as the energy of the three-dimensional world. Of course, in the beginning you can understand it that way. So then, what exactly are all the things implied by energy, that is, the regularities that consciousness possesses? What are these regularities of energy? I have briefly summarized them for everyone, and this is also something I have compiled for everyone from various materials.
First, what are the basic attributes of energy? We need to remember and understand these. That way, when you are trying to understand consciousness, it will be easier -- what exactly are the regularities of this nonphysical world, that is, the world of the soul, the spiritual world, the world of consciousness, the world of energy, beyond the material world?
As I just said, the attributes of energy I am listing now all refer to the attributes of energy in our material world -- thermal energy, light energy, electrical energy, electromagnetic energy, and so on, the whole series of energies we currently recognize in physics. And the energy Seth is talking about is above or below this energy, or rather, at a higher level, the more foundational core part, the source part of energy.
So let us first look at what attributes this energy has in the ordinary physical world.
The First Basic Attribute of Energy: Transformability
Within a system, energy can be converted, transferred, and transformed among various energy carriers and energy forms. This is quite miraculous. Because it can be transformed, it also has reversibility -- this energy can at one moment become this, at another moment become that. You can understand that, right? You can understand it as water becoming ice, or becoming water vapor. This is energy in different states. We know that when water becomes ice, the energy is relatively low; when it becomes steam, the energy is relatively high. Steam engines, steam locomotives, steam internal combustion engines all use the principle of steam. The same water, when it becomes steam, has that energy; when it becomes water or ice, it does not have that energy. So you can understand it this way: in different energy states of water, its form is different, and its carrier is also different -- when it is in a higher energy state, it needs water vapor as its carrier, and at that point ice can no longer serve as its carrier.
All right, because it can be transformed, it has reversibility. It can turn back, it can turn forth; water vapor can also become ice. This is the first point: transformability.
The Second Basic Attribute of Energy: Additivity and Subtractability
Energy can be calculated. We all know this. Energy has E equals MC squared1; energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. This can be calculated. Regarding the calculation of energy, if we have studied heat, mechanics, and electricity in physics, there are many methods for calculating energy, and they are very important. Energy also has its own unit; the unit of energy is called the joule.
The Third Basic Attribute of Energy: Universal Action
The three basic attributes of energy -- transformability, additivity and subtractability, and reversibility -- cause the movements of all things in the world to influence one another. Because energy and matter can be converted, right? Our most important mass-energy equation, the equation of mass and energy, is E equals MC squared1. It equates mass and energy -- all the matter you see is itself a manifestation of energy; one can also say that all energy can also have material forms of expression.
And earlier we said that consciousness is composed of energy, and energy equals matter, so does consciousness not equal energy equals matter? This is the simplest reasoning, and you can understand it.
The meaning of universal action is that because energy can act upon all matter, upon all tangible worlds, the myriad changes of our tangible world, its internal connections and mutual influences, can all be expressed through energy. Therefore the whole world can be connected into a single whole.
The Fourth Basic Attribute of Energy: Relativity
If the position and state of the energy carrier are different -- remember, this is not the energy itself, but the carrier of the energy -- if its position and state are different, the view and judgment of the energy will also be different. Energy needs a carrier; this is very normal. When the position of this energy carrier -- its spatial position, its material position -- and its surrounding environment, its surrounding energy environment, are different, its judgment and view will also be different.
Let me give a simple example to help you understand. For instance, an ice cube. It is already very low in energy, much lower than water vapor and water. This ice cube serves as a carrier, a carrier of some kind of energy. Now put this piece of ice into liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen, at more than one hundred degrees below zero. This ice at zero degrees is, relative to them, a state of very high energy.
So the state of energy has a relativity. You can only say what it is compared with, what it is relative to. You cannot say something absolute, like this energy is high and that energy is low. Its highness and lowness must have a relative reference. Without a reference, you cannot say whether this thing's energy is high or low. All calculations of the magnitude of various energies are relative, relative to certain reference frames and reference objects. And when the reference frame is different, the magnitude of the energy is completely different, but the energy pressure difference remains unchanged.
How do we understand this energy pressure difference? For example, the energy difference between this energy and that energy is unchanging. How much they differ is unchanging. But when the environment is different, the magnitude and the meaning of the data are also different. Yet the energy difference is unchanging, the pressure difference is unchanging. This is the same idea as electric current and circuits.
Let me give an example. Our electromagnetic signals are a form of energy. The energy pressure differences in the information within electromagnetic signals are all very small -- because the energy of electromagnetic signals is already very small to begin with, just a few microwatts or milliwatts. Our cell phone signals, radio, WiFi signals are all at such small power levels. But with such small power, they can transmit such precise data. The television, movies, text, and phone messages we see are all transmitted through such small amounts of energy.
And around us there exist enormously powerful energies. For example, the microwaves emitted by your microwave oven, roughly in the 2.4 GHz frequency band2, have very high energy -- generally the power of a microwave oven is around 1000 watts3, or even higher, and the smallest ones are several hundred watts. Several thousand watts or several hundred watts, compared with electromagnetic signals of a few milliwatts or microwatts, is an absolute order-of-magnitude crushing and covering. But even so, it still cannot erase the differences between the high and low points within these weak signals. In other words, if you have a modem or a receiver that can successfully receive this cell phone electromagnetic signal, even if there is a very powerful energy outside, it will not affect the energy differences within this electromagnetic signal. This is a very subtle point.
But the premise is that you can receive this energy information. If you are covered by it and cannot receive it, or if your receiver's sensitivity is not enough to distinguish this energy difference, then you will not receive anything at all. This is also the principle of electronic warfare in the military, where signals influence and cover and interfere with each other in frequency. I am describing the simplest state, without discussing the possibilities of content.
The Fifth Basic Attribute of Energy: Coordination
Energy has transformability and universal action. These two attributes give energy the capacity for self-regulation, which is also called coordination. The process of coordination follows the three great principles of energy. What are the three great principles of energy? One is the principle of conservation of energy4, one is the principle of least energy, and one is the principle of natural distribution of energy. These three basic principles lead to energy having coordination.
What does coordination mean? This is very hard to understand. It means that energy will distribute itself, arrange itself, all following its own set of regularities. Under these regularities, its operation feels relatively coordinated and natural to you; it will not make you feel that it is very abrupt. In the microscopic world, energy does indeed have leaps; at more macroscopic levels, such as black holes and supernova explosions, there are very intense energy leaps. But in our daily lives, in your actual material world, you basically never come into contact with these large energy leaps. Although these energy leaps are happening all the time, you cannot feel them. The energy you feel is all very smooth -- how to put it, a feeling of harmony and coordination. Although the energy differences in between are indeed quite large, you do not feel them so obviously. This is the coordination of energy.
Here he also points out the three great principles of energy. These three principles are also very good tools for our understanding. But I emphasize again: what I am talking about now is all energy in the physical world, the material world, the three-dimensional world. These principles of energy do not apply to energy on the spiritual level. For example, the first one, the principle of conservation of energy4, does not exist in the spiritual world -- at that level, energy is not conserved.
The Principle of Conservation of Energy4
The law of conservation of energy is a statement about the total amount of energy movement in a system. First, it is a system. What does system energy mean? It means that within a relatively closed system -- we cannot say absolutely closed, only relatively closed -- this energy is conserved. For example, within our material universe, we can understand this energy as conserved. But we do not have only this one universe; we do not have only this one time and space. In other dimensions and other times and spaces, after their energy enters our time and space, we no longer have this concept of conservation. But what it does not deny is that within our specific system -- remember this, within a specific system -- the total amount of energy movement is conserved.
Let me give another simple example, an example of spiritual things in reality. For instance, a family. Suppose the husband and wife have no children, or the children are too young to play a role. The overall spiritual energy of their family, at certain times, also maintains a relatively conserved state. For example, if the wife is very dominant, the husband will be relatively more passive; conversely, if the husband is very dominant, the wife will be more passive. Within this relatively closed family environment, it is conserved. Observe your own family carefully, and it is basically like this. If both are very strong, then they are fifty-fifty, evenly matched opponents, equal in strength, neither gaining an absolute advantage. If not, then one side is seventy percent and the other thirty percent, and the seventy percent side has the upper hand and is the dominant one in the household. I give this example to help you understand.
The Principle of Least Energy
The principle of least energy consumption is a statement about the direction of a system's movement. Its meaning is that the tendency of a system's evolution always proceeds along the path of least energy consumption. It is the unity of order and disorder in the process of the evolution and development of things. These few sentences are also very important.
In the material world, it is like this: energy always propagates along the places where energy consumption is least. In a circuit, for example, wherever the resistance is smallest, the current goes there. It absolutely will not go to places of high resistance, because the resistance is too great. I use a circuit as an example.
Then on the spiritual level, the same principle applies. In the law of attraction, in the process of manifestation, how can we make our universal energy manifest better in the material world? You need to give it the least impedance -- give it the smoothest channel, the channel of least resistance, the channel with no obstruction. What is that channel? It is keeping yourself aligned with your inner self at all times. Do not fight with it, do not twist against it. When you are aligned with it, when you are relatively in the flow, your energy flows the fastest and most smoothly, and manifestation is also the easiest.
Do you understand now? Why do so many of the exercises we do, so many of the things we practice, all guide you to adjust yourself into a state of greater alignment with the inner self? It is to minimize your impedance, to make the process of manifestation the easiest. Otherwise, if you are stumbling and twisting everywhere, whether in emotion, feeling, or belief, if everything is knotted up and opposed, then how can you manifest what you want to manifest? I am only giving such simple examples. The deeper meaning within is far more complex than this. What I am giving are the most superficial principles.
The Principle of Natural Distribution of Energy
The principle of natural distribution of energy is a statement about balance in the movement of energy. Its meaning is: under the action of energy pressure -- when one is high and one is low -- when a certain amount of energy is distributed among several interconnected systems, the final result is that the distribution of energy is proportional to the energy capacity of each system, that is, the energy pressures become equal. To put it simply, it is balance: all energy pressure differences will eventually return to zero; there will be no energy pressure difference.
Among different systems, when they are connected, the principle they follow is to seek balance -- the high will automatically supplement the low, and the low will automatically be replenished. This is why many people say that when we are with negative people, our energy gets pulled down. From the perspective of physics, this is indeed the case: suppose you are your system, and he is his system, two realities. When he is doing consultation, treatment, or healing with you, his energy is very low, and your energy will naturally supplement his. He will feel very comfortable at first, but you may feel affected by his energy. But actually it will not happen, because your energy is in fact inexhaustible -- and the energy I am referring to is no longer physical energy. As long as you are well connected with your inner self and well connected with the energy of the universe, your energy is infinite. You do not need to worry that this kind of negative energy will pull your energy down.
As I just said, on the physical level this exists, and these are the three reasonable laws of energy. But these three laws, in the spiritual world, are sometimes followed and sometimes not. It depends on the environment at the time, the relationship of the systems, the position you are in, and also the intention we will talk about later -- what your intention is will affect it.
All right, today we have gone over these basic attributes of energy, so that you can understand what he means by this sentence -- everything implied by energy is also contained within consciousness. In other words, consciousness also possesses the attributes of energy that I just described.
The Psyche Is a Conglomerate of Highly Charged Particles of Energy
Let us continue.
The psyche can be considered as a conglomerate of highly charged particles of energy.
Here "psyche" actually refers to spirituality. Teacher Wang Jiqing always translated it as "psyche," and it means spirituality. What does he say spirituality is? Spirituality can be regarded as a state of materialized energy. Spirituality is already something that can be seen by us, something that has been manifested. I do not know whether you can understand what he means.
What he means is that the truly pure energy, the truly universal consciousness, is something we cannot capture or cannot be aware of. The spiritual things we can be aware of are things we have already become aware of, or things we can already perceive -- they themselves are already materialized. Remember, they are already materialized. The materialization he refers to is not pure materialization; it means they already have materialized attributes. In other words, they already possess some of the basic attributes of energy in the physical world. Understand it this way.
And then it follows certain laws and attributes -- the ones we just discussed, and also the ones we have not discussed, which are the energy attributes and laws of the nonphysical world, or the attributes and laws of consciousness, or what can be called the attributes and laws of spirituality. It is not within the regularities of the material world.
These laws and regularities, many of which you do not know at all.
There are many regularities and laws that we simply do not know -- not that we know a little, but that we do not know them at all. For example, laws like value fulfillment, we do not know them. So what he means is that we know a part, and there is much that we do not know. The part we know is the examples I just gave -- in the spiritual world, in the spiritual world that we humans can perceive, it follows a portion of the attributes and characteristics of energy that we just introduced. Although it is implied in, you cannot assume that those are all of its regularities and all of its laws. There is much more that we humans cannot understand or know. If you can understand to this level, you are already quite remarkable.
The Laws of Dynamics Can Be Applied to the Energy Source of the Self
Furthermore, on other levels, the laws of dynamics can be applied to the energy source of the self.
This sentence is again very subtle, because this sentence itself is something quite paradoxical. The laws of dynamics refer to Newton's principles and laws of dynamics -- Newton's first law, second law, and third law5, those things of Newton.
"On other levels" here means that on some levels -- apart from those parts we fundamentally do not know, on the levels we do know -- at this point the material attributes of energy, those rules, can be used to describe or apply to the energy source of our own self.
"Self" is in quotation marks. What does "self" refer to here? It refers to that entity, or that personality. Where does the energy of your own personality come from? In other words, the reason you are you -- for example, Ruburt and Joseph, who in this lifetime may be called Jane and Rob -- here it refers to Jane and Rob at this level, that is, Jane and Rob on the material level, the "self" in quotation marks. Why quotation marks? Because it is not the true self. The true self, one level up, is Joseph corresponding to Rob, and Ruburt corresponding to Jane, right? And going further up, is there not something even higher? There is also the self at Seth's level, at Seth Two's level. But let us not go that far for now. We are just talking about each of us in the material world, the self we think we are. The reason you exist here -- where does the energy behind you come from? Your life energy, your movement energy, your activity energy, the energy behind your existence in the material world -- the source of this energy conforms to the rules of the material regularities of energy. We will take a rough look at this later. It is quite interesting, right? But going further up, do not apply this anymore. At this level, some of it still applies.
Think of a self -- each person in our physical reality -- as the nucleus of an energy gestalt of consciousness.
That is, each of us in the three-dimensional world right now -- think of yourself as the nucleus of an energy gestalt of consciousness. The word "nucleus" he uses here, in the original text, is actually more often used for the atomic nucleus, but Teacher Wang Jiqing did not translate it as "atomic nucleus"; he translated it as "nucleus." I think he did not want to guide the reader too much.
This "nucleus" is the English word "nucleus." You can look it up; it more often refers to the core of an atom. Of course, translating it as "core" is not wrong either; it does also mean core. So why does Seth use this word here for the core? Why doesn't he use the word "core"? Because here he is saying that the source of the energy of your own physical world can be compared to -- or can be suggested by -- using the laws of Newtonian, or physical-world, energy to think about it. So he uses a term from physics. What he wants to hint at is that on this level, on the level of us physical humans, the operating pattern of the energy behind you is very similar to the operating pattern by which a nucleus forms an atom -- you need a core, that atomic nucleus, and then around it there are the atoms, and outside there may be electrons, and the electrons are further divided into many layers, so throughout there is a certain relationship of progression and suggestion contained within it.
Let us continue reading.
That nucleus, according to its intensity, will attract to it certain masses of the entire energy pattern available to that individual, to that identity.
First of all, "certain masses" is not a very good translation. Actually, what it refers to here is a great amount, not just "masses." Translating it as "masses" does not make it easy to understand.
What this sentence means is that each one of us in the physical world, this self of ours, can be understood as the core of a gestalt of conscious energy. This term itself is very profound: "gestalt of conscious energy." This is both easy and difficult to understand. First of all, consciousness is composed of energy, so at that point it would be enough to say it is a gestalt of consciousness. Why then is there also "gestalt of conscious energy"? It has many layers of meaning.
To put it simply, first of all it is a gestalt of energy -- with more of the physical attributes contained within it, that is, the physical attributes of energy. The "physical" spoken of here does not refer to matter itself; it refers to the physical attributes of energy contained within it, so it emphasizes "energy." Second, it speaks of "gestalt." What does gestalt mean? Gestalt means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is extremely subtle. It is composed of a great deal of consciousness, but its whole is greater than the sum of that consciousness.
What consciousnesses is it composed of? First of all, it forms a core, and then around this core it attracts a great many of all the energy patterns available to that identity -- a great many of them are attracted over.
This part may be hard to understand. Let me give a simple example -- this is only an example, because this thing is very difficult to describe clearly. For example, when we first began discussing Seth, I set up a QQ group, hoping everyone could communicate in it. At the very beginning there were only a few of us, and then there were more and more, and later it became a group of three thousand people, and then there was another group of two thousand, and then there was a second group, a third group, and then later many WeChat groups and many small groups and many things branched out from it. In a certain sense, at the very beginning, when I wanted to share Seth and I went to teach, the QQ group I set up -- that process, at that stage, I was that core. Around this core, a whole series of things was built up: these groups, the group members, the atmosphere of everyone studying together, and so on, all arose. But all these later possibilities, all the entire energy patterns that could be available, were attracted over.
How were they attracted? No one can say clearly. Can you say clearly why you joined this Seth group at the time? Can you say clearly your purpose and intention in coming? Yours may have been the simplest. Yet in such a state, from one very small point, it can attract out a great many, many, many things.
When each of you is born, it is also like this. You have a core, and your core may be different for each person. According to your core, you will attract all those parts of all the possibilities of your entity that resonate with this core -- those that do not resonate, that repel each other, that are of a different kind, will not be attracted. For example, the personality you came with in this lifetime, if your core is very fond of sports, if your athletic talent is especially strong, then you will attract in all the other possible versions of you that love sports, all those energy patterns will be attracted over -- this is content that we will expand on later.
Core and the Attraction of Energy
Energy is all that can be available, and whatever conforms to this energy pattern is attracted over. This is a very typical example. In other words, the greatest core of our QQ group lies in the fact that everyone likes the Seth material, and to some degree, more or less, everyone accepts the Seth material. It does not matter whether they accept all of it, or accept part of it, or none of it. This is one common characteristic they share, and they were attracted into this by such a Seth.
The Birth of the Entity and Probable Selves
In that way of speaking, just as you said, when the atomic nucleus attracts those external things, the identity at birth is composed of many such selves, each carrying their cores. And the specific personality has complete freedom to draw from that stockpile.
Here everyone must understand that an entity, or an identity, at the moment of its birth, already possesses all the attributes of all your possible selves, all contained within it. It is composed of many such selves -- the self that loves art, the self that loves singing, the self that loves painting, the self that loves dancing, the self that loves sports, the self that loves business, the self that loves writing -- all of them are you. All these selves have their own different characteristics and cores, and together they form this entity. But the entity they form is itself greater than the sum of each part. It is not that these possible versions of you, or these reincarnational possible versions of you, added together, equal that entity. Your entity is far vaster than that. This is the meaning of gestalt.
As for the specific personality, that is, when it comes down to one particular person, that person is completely free to draw from the vast stockpile of the entity whatever energies, potentials, knowledge, skills, and experiences he needs -- he can draw on all of them.
Ruburt's Mystical Nature
Ruburt's mystical nature was such a strong part of the entire identity. For the entity that is Ruburt, the mystical nature is an important and very powerful part. So much so that in his present reality, in Ruburt's actual present reality, and in the selected probable realities -- that is, in the other realities he did not select -- as I mentioned when discussing that photograph, the mystical impulses and expressions were given the opportunity to be manifested.
The reason Jane manifests a mystical nature is that on the level of the entity, this mystical nature is a very important and very powerful part. Therefore, whether it is Jane in this lifetime's reincarnation, or all the probable selves within this lifetime's reincarnation -- whether it is this reincarnation, or other reincarnations, or the many probable selves within each reincarnation -- all these specific personalities carry within them an attribute of mystical nature. This is something brought from birth; we call it something carried from the womb, something brought from the mother's womb.
In the world they chose, in the reality they chose, in the probable realities, this mystical impulse of theirs -- this impulse originating from the mystical nature of the entity -- will be expressed, and then given the opportunity to be manifested. Although their life experiences are not the same -- for example, in one lifetime Jane became a nun, and that was also an expression of her mystical nature. In a probable world she was still a writer, and the first half of her life was spent writing as a writer. When she was a writer, she also wrote those mystical poems. Look at the poem she wrote earlier -- tomorrow is today, today is tomorrow -- that was also part of expressing her mystical nature. Later, in 1963, when she began writing the automatic writing about ideas constructing the world, and began transmitting the Seth material, then she completely and thoroughly expressed a part of her mystical nature, to the fullest extent, and even made contact with the unknown world. His meaning is that no matter what she does, this thing is one of her most primary core parts.
The Strengthening of the Psyche and Probable Realities
When a psychic or spiritual gestalt is strengthened to a certain point, intersections with probable realities occur. Achievements as a self are then accomplished.
When your spiritual gestalt -- what kind of gestalt? It is when this mystical nature attracts and combines with other attributes -- when it strengthens to a certain point, when it must realize itself, must manifest itself, when this impulse cannot be suppressed, then it will intersect with probable realities. Once it intersects with probable realities, with those parallel worlds, it will create a new parallel world. In that new parallel world, another self, the achievement of a self as a probable self, is accomplished, and another probable self appears.
How does each probable self come into being? They all come into being this way, under strong impulse and the desire to manifest -- but in the present world of the here and now, what you cannot realize is realized in that probable world.
For example, right now you very much want to become a musician, or a singer performing in a bar, and this is one of the greatest impulses in your heart. But your present environment -- for example, you are a school teacher, a university professor -- does not allow you to realize your wish to become a wandering singer. When this wish becomes strong enough, there will be a probable you in another parallel world living the life of a wandering singer.
In that world, he was doing very well as a university professor, and then one day he suddenly resigned, and no one could stop him, and after resigning he went off to become a singer. This was something that shocked everyone. In that world, that is how it happened. In this world, perhaps you did not have that courage, and you continued being a university professor until retirement. After retirement you felt you were too old to be a singer, and so it came to nothing. But the impulse in your heart was always there, only it was not strong enough to make you resign and become a singer. But the you in another parallel world was strong enough to that degree, and really did resign and become a singer.
That other probable you who wanted to become a singer -- that wish was accomplished. The achievement of a self as a singer was accomplished.
The original translation is even more interesting than this, but it depends on how you understand it. There are two levels here: one is from the material level, that is, a probable self branches out and becomes a wandering singer; the other, from a higher level, is that it is a value fulfillment of the entity. The term "value fulfillment" was only uniformly translated this way in the book Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. Here we can understand it as this value fulfillment being a result of a self. There are two ways to understand this: one is that as a self -- we have many selves under one entity -- as one of those selves, it realized a value fulfillment; you can also understand it from another angle, that value fulfillment was realized as an automatic result. The two understandings have different meanings on different levels, and you can feel into them.
I give this example to tell you that every sentence, every paragraph of his has different levels of understanding. In the future I cannot possibly unfold every sentence for you on two or three levels like this; only for the key points will I speak this way. When you read on your own, you can also try to understand it from different angles. This is the most essential and most meaningful part of reading this book by Seth, and also the most interesting part. You cannot understand only one layer. If you understand only one layer, you completely lose the essence of this book.
Selves in an Incipient State
Within that identity -- identity and entity, from now on when you see "identity" and when you see "entity," they mean the same thing; different books sometimes translate them differently. When Teacher Wang Xingjian retranslated The Early Sessions, he unified all the English terms. One English word corresponds to one Chinese translation from beginning to end, which makes it easier for us to understand and avoids ambiguity. Of course, after studying for a long time we can also understand that the "identity" spoken of here is that entity.
Within that entire entity or identity, there may be, say, several selves in an incipient state. Besides those selves that have strengthened to a certain degree and can differentiate into probable worlds, there are many selves that are in an incipient state. These incipient selves cannot form probable selves; they have not strengthened to that degree; they only have an incipience. But these incipiences possess the strength and ability to form a specific personality around a core.
In many instances, a primary personality is formed, and those incipient selves are drawn into it. For example, for Jane, the mystical nature is her primary personality, and it has already been formed. But for example, being a poet, writing poetry, is also an incipient state of Jane's, and it was drawn in and became a potential of Jane's.
For example, there is a Jane who loves cooking, whose cooking is excellent. But this Jane with excellent cooking did not ultimately become a real chef; she was just good at cooking, and it did not develop into a profession, nor did it become a probable reality. That self who loves cooking is one of these incipient selves. Therefore their abilities and interests become subordinate, or remain for the most part in a latent state. They are trace selves, selves that have only a certain trace, hidden selves, or one could call them a potential version of the self.
However, on many occasions, such latent selves can be as highly charged as the primary personality. What is meant by "highly charged" is that the energy has also received extremely strong empowerment. Since in the body a certain structure of personality must be maintained, trace selves are therefore created. You must have one primary human body structure, so it is impossible for two to exist at the same time. You cannot say that the self who is an athlete and the self who teaches spirituality can exist at the same time in such a real society.
When these latent, trace selves are suddenly activated, when this situation occurs, then one or two of those charged selves will actually leap out of the space-time structure as you know it. To leap out of the space-time structure means that it goes off to open up a new reality, or one could say, opens up a probable world.
Here several possibilities are pointed out: first, a very strong nature, as the most powerful part, will become a primary personality and directly form a probable self; second, those hidden selves are absorbed by the primary personality or a very strong personality and become latent, hidden things; third, those selves latent within your own body, under certain circumstances when they are highly empowered, will again become probable selves, producing intersections and branchings in life.
The Branching and Multiplication of Energy
From your viewpoint, these branches of energy become unreal. From the perspective of our present world, these probable branches are unreal. For example, you have always wanted to be a singer in your heart, but it is only a thought, and it is not real. Perhaps at some point when you watch a concert, or when you see a wandering singer performing in a bar, you are very fascinated and fantasize that one day you will be like that too. But it seems to have no real intersection with your life. These branches of energy become unreal.
But their existence is as certain as your own existence. In terms of energy, this multiplication of the self is a natural principle. Energy has a principle, which is that it multiplies itself, reproduces itself, and turns into countless probable selves. The energy does not decrease. This multiplication of natural energy is very interesting. Part of it conforms to the energy laws of the physical world, and part of it does not. In the physical world, when energy is divided, it decreases, but on this level it does not. The multiplication of energy is a natural principle; it does not decrease.
Rob's Athlete Self
Seth then turned to Rob and said, your athlete self -- see The Oversoul Seven trilogy, in which there is a special discussion of what the athlete self is like.
Rob has a probable self who became an athlete. In that probable world, he earns a great deal of money. In America, a professional athlete earns more than people in the vast majority of professions. Those American basketball stars, football stars, and other athletes earn at least several million dollars a year, and normally it is in the tens of millions. Apart from those in listed companies, fund managers, or people in high positions in the financial industry who might be comparable to them, for the vast majority of people, athletes have very high incomes.
This self who became an athlete was never given the same kind of power as your painting and writing selves. The athlete self cannot paint, and cannot write; it does not have these abilities, so it became subordinate. But it was drawn upon. Although these abilities were not manifested, they could be drawn upon by him. Conversely, through the joy you derive from athletics, his vitality was added to your primary personality.
For Rob, the primary personality is painting and writing. The athlete is not the primary personality; it is a probable self formed after a latent self strengthened to a certain degree. The vitality of that athlete self was also added to Rob, so Rob absorbed these potentials and vitality, and his body was very good, and he lived until 2008 before passing away, living into his nineties.
If it had been given additional strength through your environment, circumstances, or your own intent, then unless your artist self became subordinate or supplementary -- if the energy selves were of nearly equal intensity, then one of them would form a branch, propelled by their own need for fulfillment into a probable reality. He said, do you understand?
If that Rob who became an athlete, through Rob's present environment and circumstances, and through the intent and additional strength you gave him, then either you would make the artistic attributes subordinate to the athlete's attributes. But in this lifetime's reality space, painting is Rob's primary core energy, so Rob would not be willing to do this. Or the athlete's talent would be evenly matched, and when evenly matched, it would leap out and become a branch. Because it cannot find expression in the painter -- it is not that painter and athlete are inherently in conflict, but in practice it is indeed rare for a professional painter to simultaneously become a professional athlete. When this athlete self strengthens to a certain degree, he will take his need and will to fulfill the athlete's talent, and under that drive, propel it into a probable reality, forming a probable self.
Rob said, I understand.
Parents Living in Different Realities
He waited for a while -- Seth paused here for a moment because this material is difficult, and he did not know how to explain it. He continued:
Your parents did not share the same reality at all. They did not live in the same world.
What he is saying here is about Rob's parents; do not apply it to everyone. Rob's parents themselves lived in two worlds. Yet this is not as unusual as you might think.
They met at a place between their respective realities. They each had their own realities, but at the place where the realities intersected, they met. They lived in two parallel worlds, but there was a place where they met. When they met, the two of them came together and produced interaction -- the kind of interaction that involves making love -- and through such interaction they had their children. Of course there was also living together and eating together, which is also interaction.
It is not that they disagreed with each other's interpretation of the world -- it is not that their cognition, understanding, or feeling of the same world was different, but that the world itself was different. They were experiencing different worlds; they were living in two parallel worlds. This situation is not as unusual as you think; it occurs often.
Intent and the Core
In terms of energy, intent has a stabilizing force. In the physical world, for energy to be stable it needs to reach a state of equilibrium: either in a closed system, or the surrounding energy must be similar to it in order to remain stable; if the surrounding energy is too high or too low, stability is impossible. But in the spiritual world, for energy to be stable, only one thing is needed -- intent.
This consciousness composed of energy -- its own intent determines the stability of the energy that composes the consciousness. In the spiritual world, there is only one way to make energy stable, and that is your intent. You have firm intent, clear intent, stable intent, sustained intent. Why do we say that when we manifest, we need a sustained and stable stream of consciousness? That sustained and stable stream of consciousness is intent. Only intent can make your energy stable, and only when energy is stable can you manifest what you want.
The self has a center. Each of us has a center, and this center plays the role of a core. It is not the core, but it plays the role of the core.
This core can change, and this center can also change. As your intent changes, your energy core changes. So your intent is very important. Why is the arising of a thought so important? Why is our belief system so important -- is your belief intent, and is the belief system also a form of expression of intent? What is intent? Only what is relatively stable is intent; what is unstable is called a thought, an idea, the little sparks of various thoughts. Only what is sustained and stable can be called intent.
Let me give the simplest example. For example, when you are in the stage of being in love, your center remains in the sweet process of romance, and love is greater than the sky. After the passionate period passes, perhaps your center is no longer the state of being in love. After having a child, for a mother, taking care of the child becomes the center. So this center can change.
It will always be the center from which the physically embodied being radiates outward. No matter how it changes, that center must be this self of the physical body -- our physical body -- the center that radiates outward, and all outward projections are centered on this.
Specifically, intent and purpose form that center. The world around you is attracted to you around this center. This is the law of attraction -- your surrounding environment, people, events, and things are all attracted by this center. Why is it so important and so effective? Well, how is this center formed? Remember, it must be your intent and purpose that form your center.
Regardless of what their reality is in terms of energy. This "reality" refers to the reality of energy. To put it plainly, it means that no matter whether your energy is high or low, no matter what kind of real state you are in, no matter what your environment and circumstances are, and no matter whether you are in an enlightened state or in a state of ignorance where you understand nothing -- these are all differences in the reality of energy, but differences in the reality of energy do not affect your intent and purpose forming that center.
In other words, if you want to use your thoughts and intent, your purpose, to form this center, you do not need something that matches it in terms of energy. It is not that you have to wait until your energy is very, very high before you will do those things of saving all beings, before you will have compassion to love others. No. He tells you again and again, do not worry about the state of energy; you only need to form your core, form your center, using your thoughts, your intent, your purpose, and do not worry about what energy level you are currently at.
Of course, I have only spoken of one level just now; there are many other levels you can understand it on -- the material level, the spiritual level, the higher level -- you can try to analyze it.
The Shifting of Energy
In this reality, in your family life, your parents' behavior was opaque to each other, and incomprehensible. Because his parents lived in two parallel worlds, and although they had intersections, at the intersections they could not understand each other. Why? Because they were not in the same world, so how could they understand each other? To each other they were both opaque; he did not know what the other was doing, nor what the other was thinking.
Have you not also encountered such things in your life? You and another person are completely on different frequencies; you are simply not on the same channel. You do not understand him, and he does not understand you; you do not want to understand him, and he does not want to understand you; it is completely the feeling of each going his own way.
Then there was a strong shifting of energy. What is meant by the shifting of energy is the conversion of energy, shift, the switching of energy. They were in different parallel space-times, and when they were at that point of intersection, half of them was still in their own world, and half of them was in the world where they intersected. Both of them were in this state, so their energy was at one moment in that space-time, and at another moment in this space-time, constantly switching. In the process of switching, they could not understand the other, could not comprehend the other.
You can understand it as your constantly switching among different energy frequencies. While switching, you don't understand that state, so sometimes we often have this feeling: a bit unfamiliar, a bit mysterious, a sense of lonely unfamiliarity, and a sense of familiarity, very subtle. At those times you are switching your energy. Many people sometimes suddenly become unfamiliar with themselves, no longer know themselves, don't know what they should do at this stage, don't know what the first half of life was about, and don't know what to do next; there is a gap in the middle, and continuity can't be maintained. Then after those few days, they don't know what to do, and nothing holds their interest.
Let's return to Rob's parents. The two of them did not directly meet. They only intersected at the meeting point of two parallel space-times, but there was no real meeting. They did not really live in the same world; though they seemed to live in the same world, they were actually two people living in two parallel worlds.
Then Seth said, wait for us a moment; again he didn't know how to put it. He said some of these things are quite difficult to explain. In a certain way, they were unfocused. They had not focused within the reality they shared; they still kept their focus in their respective worlds.
Rob's father and mother were actually both probable personalities within the life of another mainline, primary personality. Their energy focus and attention focus were actually both within that primary personality; they did not invest much attention in these branches, so they were unfocused, and their consciousness was not completely focused in this world. Yet each had strong abilities; the abilities were indeed very strong, but they were scattered, scattered into the primary personality.
The reason for doing this is quite interesting. Within themselves they contained strong but vague talents; each person had strong but actually unclear talents. But their children—they were used by their children as a source of energy. In their bodies they all had very strong potential, but in this lifetime it was not manifested; nevertheless, this did not prevent the potential in their bodies from being drawn upon by their children.
As far as their shared reality is concerned, their coming together was entirely for the birth of this family. Their meeting in this parallel world was for the purpose of bringing this family into existence; they had no intention of actualizing other potentials. It was enough for the two of them to marry and form a family. This personality branch just wanted to accomplish that purpose, to live an ordinary family life, marry and have children. Rob's parents came into this lifetime so that the two of them would meet, marry, and have three children; then their life mission was complete, nothing else.
Having said this, think carefully about yourself; each person can put themselves in that position and look at what your own life is like. Then they sowed a generation.
The Parents' Probable Realities and the Flow of Energy
He then went on to talk about Rob's parents. He said that Rob's mother loved physical reality—she loved money, she loved material things, and although she complained a great deal, she was able to derive the greatest pleasure from the smallest aspects of the world. She liked money and liked material things, yet she did not get as good a material life as she wanted, but that did not stop her from obtaining tremendous joy from the smallest aspects of real life, from those little pleasures and little things. People who love material things are easily satisfied. Some people are hard to satisfy, while others are very easily satisfied.
Rob's father, on the other hand, loved physical reality but never trusted it.
In human terms—judging from our values—the strongest reality of Rob's parents was not in this world, but in a probable reality system. From a higher level, there is no stronger or weaker distinction; every branch has its own significance, and there is no such thing as a primary personality or a main line. But for our human understanding, we tend to think that accomplishing great undertakings is the main line, while family life is a branch line. By human standards, Rob's parents, in this present world, were a branch, a side branch, of that probable reality. To them, this system always seemed strange, as it were.
An Inventor in Another Reality
Then Seth began to speak of another reality system. In that system, Rob's father had been -- and in fact still is -- a very famous inventor. He never married, and he brought his talent for mechanical creation to its fullest expression, pouring all his energy into mechanical creation while at the same time avoiding emotional commitments. He met Stella -- Rob's mother -- and the two prepared to marry, which, in terms of the era, historically took place in the same period. In another probable world, Rob's father and mother also met and also discussed marriage, but in the end he fled, avoiding the marriage.
This is very common among scientists and inventors. You know Newton: he had a woman he loved, his cousin6, and the two were very close, already at the age when marriage was being discussed. But Newton achieved success at a young age and poured all his energy into scientific research, so he put the matter aside for a few years. A few years later he remembered: I must marry my cousin. When he went to find her, she had long since married -- in that era, girls married in their teens. Newton was deeply regretful, but he did not look for anyone else, and from then on he remained alone until his death, devoting his life to scientific research. His cousin's marriage happened to give him a reason not to marry. All of this is very interesting. When you look at many questions from a spiritual perspective, you can see them very clearly -- that was his primary mission. Just like Rob's father: the marriage was set, and he ran, fleeing the marriage.
In the past as you think of it, your father once met Stella, but in the end he did not marry her. In that era, this was indeed quite hurtful -- not like now, when you reach the point of discussing marriage with a girl and then do not marry her.
In that parallel world, his father was a world-class famous inventor in mechanical motorcycles, mechanical design, and invention, blending creativity with metal. At that intersection point, the equal desires and intents within him became the cores of two twins. He met Stella and still wanted to marry her -- if he had not wanted to marry, a person who loved mechanics and invention so much would never have gotten to the point of discussing marriage with her. Since he was willing to marry, there must have been a very strong intent within it. And yet in the end he did not marry. But his desire and intent to marry had always been very strong, so they became two cores: one was his fervent expectation for mechanical motorcycles, and the other was his longing to marry her and live a family life. In both directions, he had intent and desire.
As we said earlier, intent and desire form a core of energy. At this point it became two cores, and a complete reorganization of energy took place. Two equally important cores -- one to invent, one to marry -- both the psyche and the mind imploded, exploding from within, splitting into two equally valid personalities. But in one world, only one could live. So the two cores split, becoming a probable self.
Why could he not be both a scientist and marry her? Many times that is possible, but sometimes it is not. If you truly understood scientists, you would not ask this. He really did not care at all about real life -- let alone emotional life -- even basic needs like eating and sleeping he could completely ignore, to say nothing of having a woman who needed his love and care. A person who devotes himself wholly, body and mind, to science finds this very difficult. But a scientist of ordinary achievement can do it; he may not be that kind of great scientist, and he can balance both very well -- but in that case, it is very hard for him to achieve great things in science. Wanting to have it both ways is a very common thing.
The Parents in This Life Are a Branch of That Reality
Clearly, the personality with the talent for mechanical invention began to surpass the other one—because invention and creation involve a stronger release and burst of energy, and that was his primary, most capable part; whereas family life does not require so much expenditure of energy. So this personality began to surpass the other personality.
The father you know is that probable self—your father in this world is actually a probable self of that inventor's father, a branch of that reality. You cannot see that reality. That inventor's father avoided an emotional reality, and that indeed was his only intention. And in this life, Rob's father's only intention was not to avoid the emotional reality, but to accept and welcome it, so he married Mother.
Seth says, this is not to say that a personality who marries and has children is narrow, nor that he does not gather some new interests and challenges around him. He has complete free will and autonomy, but his main purpose was to meet the emotional challenge, to marry the woman he loved and have children.
By having and raising children, your father brought into being physical, living, emotional existences. We often say children are the crystallization of love, and he produced three crystallizations at once. For him, on the emotional dimension, this was a great achievement. Whereas that inventor did not trust himself enough to feel too much emotion; he felt he was emotionally impoverished, so he avoided emotion—let alone producing emotional children.
Stella's Other Life
In another probability in which your parents first met, your mother married a doctor. In that reality, Stella became a nurse, helping her husband with his medical practice. This was the 1910s7 -- a time when a woman had to make considerable effort to stand out. Yet she became an independent woman, stepping ahead of her era, out in public every day.
In that probable reality, she gave birth to a son, then deliberately had a hysterectomy. To make it clean and thorough, she had the uterus removed outright. In that era, a woman with that kind of boldness -- how many women today would dare? She educated herself rigorously, frequently entering social circles in a male-dominated world, while hiding the unpolished, innocent sides of herself.
For example, in that life, she obviously would not have tied a red bow in her hair -- whereas in this life, the one Rob lives in, his mother often tied one on her head. In that probability, she was a career woman, someone who regularly moved in social circles. All that controlled energy left her somewhat bitter at heart -- her innocent, artless side was suppressed, because to move in social circles she had to put on the manner of a refined lady. But she was not being her true self.
She died at the age of 59.
The Overflow of Energy
Here comes the more interesting part. In that world of probabilities, after she died, her energy was so strong that it overflowed into this system and flowed into the mother who lived with your father.
Seth said that one day he would try to explain this more clearly in terms of energy patterns. Because how could the energy of a person from another parallel world, after death, come into the person in this parallel world? Why did she not return to the level of the entity, but instead overflow from the parallel world into this one?
However, historically speaking — according to our human timeline — many probabilities exist simultaneously. If these probabilities exist simultaneously and are inwardly connected, then the concept of time does not exist, and there is no such statement as "only after she died did she give her energy to him." They are simply different levels of expression of one energy gestalt. You might also think of it as a kind of energy recycling, using the energy laws of the physical world as a strained explanation — as long as it helps you understand, do not get hung up on whether it is really like that.
When your mother died in her fifties in one probable system, the mother in this system was the receiver of that returning energy. Your father's greatest vitality was in that inventor's reality. Therefore, in your terms, the father in this parallel world got somewhat shortchanged — from a human perspective, he accomplished nothing at all, just an ordinary person who got married and had three children.
But Seth said this does not mean that every personality, no matter which probability it is in, was not given free will. It does not mean that the father in this life could only get married and have three children. He had complete free will and could do anything he wanted to do. But his energy was all directed toward the inventor over there, and that side took up a great deal of his energy, so he did not have much room to develop over here. It is not that he lacked the ability, nor that his free will was taken away — he simply was not willing.
No matter which system it is in, each one is born and developed from the gestalt energy of one source. From a human perspective, probable worlds each have their strengths and weaknesses, their good and bad; but from a higher perspective, no matter which probable you it is, all come from the same source of energy, and there is no distinction of better or worse, higher or lower among them. It is not that the inventor father is the main one and this one is a secondary branch — there is no such statement. I emphasize this repeatedly because I am afraid many people will misunderstand in the middle of it: they will ask, what is my main personality? Where is my main probable self? Is this life of mine just a side branch, unimportant? I stress this again and again precisely to help you break that kind of thinking — the initiative is always in your hands.
The Time Point in the Photograph
When your photograph was taken -- Seth said to Rob again -- when the photograph of you at age two was taken, your parents were already living in a probable reality. Relative to the reality of the inventor father and the nurse mother, the reality in the photograph was a probable reality. But you and Linden were not living in this probable reality.
Isn't that interesting? Their parents were each living in their own probable realities, with some overlap between them, of course. So were Rob and Linden also living in a probable reality? Seth said, no. How many parallel worlds are there by this point? You can count them if you like. Many people have drawn many diagrams, and I think drawing diagrams makes it easier to understand -- you can sketch out these probable worlds one by one, and it is quite fascinating.
In other words, for Linden and Rob, this lifetime was their primary reality -- remember, the premise here is always from the human perspective. Rob's father and mother were living in a branch of their primary reality, in a probable reality.
Discussion During the Break
There was a break in the middle, at 10:25. Jane's trance state was very good. She said that when she was immersed in it, she thought the material was simply incredibly complex -- like in all of this, where are you, where is your soul? Where is your main focus? Where is your main energy? This was her intuition. Jane did not know what she had said, but she felt that the material Seth transmitted to her had so much complexity.
Then I said to Jane: if my mother had received any extra energy in her fifties, she might have expressed its benefits through the conventions of our society -- that is, in terms of change rather than possibilities. When I made that decision, my life became better from then on. What I mean is, if my mother had received energy returned from another probable self in her fifties, her energy would have become stronger, and she should have made some changes, made some decisions different from the usual ones.
Perhaps what is important for us now is to keep Seth's concepts about the larger self or the whole self in mind, and then observe the life that is blossoming right now, and thereby gain insights that we can interpret in terms of probabilities. That is, to look at our lives from the perspective of the whole self and the larger entity, to keep these concepts in mind, and then to observe the life that is blossoming in the present moment, so as to gain a deeper interpretation and insight into those aspects of life that involve probabilities.
When you understand these principles, when you face the circumstances of life, whether good or bad, your perspective is already different from others' -- this is the most valuable part. The matter is still the same matter, but the way you look at it is already on a different level from others'.
So we decided not to ask Seth to come back and give us the material about the son in that probable reality of my mother's. Even though that son might be one of my probable selves -- in that reality where my mother was a nurse and married a doctor, she gave birth to a son and had a hysterectomy right after the birth. Seth did not give me much information about that son. I was very curious to know, but I felt it was more interesting to observe and gain insight on my own.
While we were talking, Jane decided to return to the trance state and continue receiving the Seth material. She herself was getting so much leakage about the material, the information was about to overflow, that she began to feel consciously confused -- there was too much material, and he had not spoken it, and Rob had not written it down, so it was all piled up in her mind. But if she had the time to transmit it, Seth had all the material ready.
How Probable Selves Influence One Another
At 10:45, they continued. Seth said, basically the self is without limitations -- remember this point -- and all portions of the self are connected. Therefore probable selves are unconsciously aware of their relationships. The self has no restrictions whatsoever; do not think, because of what was said earlier, that this life of yours is limited -- no. Because no system is closed, there is an exchange and interaction of energy among them. Some of these inner, latent communications are extremely difficult to put into words.
Why are they difficult to put into words? Because the word "structure" itself is not only serial in nature, but also particle-based. You want me to explain clearly how these probable selves transmit among one another, what their theoretical structure is -- I cannot say it clearly -- because your limiting beliefs have already locked this word down. For example, why do we often use this materialistic way of thinking to conceive of existence as particle-based? Instead of conceiving of it as awareness, as alert energy waves, or as a pattern? The moment I say existence, you think of matter. But existence may be a kind of awareness, a kind of alertness, a kind of self-cognition, or some kind of pattern -- it does not exist in material form, but exists as a pattern.
He paused for a minute, not knowing what example to give. Then he said: Imagine Ruburt at the age of 13, when three powerful, highly charged energy centers came to the surface of that personality. One person cannot fully satisfy the desires or abilities he faces -- partial satisfaction is possible, but full satisfaction is not. When you want to be a professional athlete, you cannot fully satisfy your desire to be a painter, and vice versa. At that time Jane had three energy centers -- one was to be a nun, one was to be a writer, and one was to be psychic in the way she is now. So at the age of 13, there was a triangular split.
You may have undergone a tremendous change at the age of 13 and made an important decision. By the age of 40, each of these three selves might recognize that age 13 was a turning point, and wonder what might have happened if a different path had been chosen back then -- if at 13 I had not chosen to join the army, if I had chosen to go to work, what would I be like?
But none of these are predetermined. Whichever one you choose, nothing is fixed in advance. The probable self of each probable branch, perhaps, so to speak, left one of your realities at the age of 13, but for various reasons could rejoin you at the age of 30. And for you, you might suddenly change careers, or become aware of a talent you had forgotten, and find yourself developing it with astonishing ease.
Why does this happen? The reason is: that branch, during the seventeen years from age 13 to age 30, had already learned and accumulated abilities and experience in that direction; when it merges over, you acquire it effortlessly. So in life, have you ever made an important decision at some turning point and suddenly found yourself possessing certain abilities?
Birth in Two Realities
Seth again talked about how probable selves connect with one another. He said that in another reality, the birth of your mother's child happened at the same time -- in that probable world where she was a nurse, the moment she gave birth to that child was exactly when Rob was born in this reality. So she had strong feelings for you. That probable mother's love for her child in her reality also seeped into this reality, which meant Rob received the love of two mothers. So she had very strong feelings for Rob, because she layered the feelings she had for that parallel-world child onto Rob as well.
Your birth, and the birth of your younger brother Richard, were both very exciting for her. Rob's birth corresponded to the birth of her son in another reality; and Richard's birth represented the time when her mother had a hysterectomy in another reality. In that probable reality, the moment her mother had her uterus removed was exactly the moment in this reality when her mother gave birth to her third son, Richard. I suspect there may have been several abortions in between -- I'm just guessing, I don't think that in all those years she never once had an accidental pregnancy, but she didn't reveal that detail. I suspect she simply couldn't stand any more accidental pregnancies and just had her uterus removed.
Richard's birth represented your father's final attempt to deal with emotional reality -- to resolve his problems with emotional connection in this reality by producing a crystallization of feeling. His father's main energy was still invested in the inventor side, so the birth of this third child was his father's last deep emotional connection with his mother. After that, his father's main energy returned to the inventor side -- until later, when his father had already reached a state of senile dementia, basically no longer recognizing people, and Seth said his energy had all gone over there.
Both of your parents poured the strongest emotions of their natures specifically into the third son. Because that was his father's last time investing in emotion, and his mother conceived him rebelliously after the usual childbearing age -- his mother was probably around 38 when she conceived Richard. By today's standards, getting pregnant and giving birth in one's thirties, forties, or even fifties is nothing unusual, but don't forget this was the 1920s, when 38 was truly an advanced maternal age.
Compensatory Childbirth: Echoes Between Parallel Worlds
Why did she want to have another child? It was almost a reaction to that hysterectomy. In another probable world, wasn't her uterus removed? So in this parallel world, she had a will of "I still want to give birth." Why? Because having her uterus removed meant being permanently deprived of the right to bear children. To compensate -- in that world, the probable world where she was a nurse and had the hysterectomy -- she must have felt uneasy in her heart. A woman who has her uterus removed feels uneasy inside, because it means she has forever lost the possibility of bearing children. To compensate, she gave birth to another child in this world.
Very interesting, you never would have thought it would be like this, right? So in this world, she could and wanted to have another child. She felt, "Sure, so what if I'm older, as long as I still have a uterus," that's what she thought -- I'll prove to everyone that I can still give birth. It was actually a compensation for the hysterectomy in that other world.
Linden was the only natural child of this marriage. Because Rob's birth happened when the nurse mother in that probable world gave birth, and Rob was also born in this world at the same time. So Rob's birth was actually a point of overlap between two probable worlds -- giving birth at the same time, two mothers giving birth simultaneously. And the third child was born because in that parallel world the uterus was removed, so this world compensated by having one more child. So they were all mutually influenced -- all affected by another parallel world. But Linden, the second child, Rob's younger brother, was not affected by this. He was simply a child the couple felt they should have in this marriage, unaffected by other probable realities, and he was born normally.
He said you should be careful how you interpret this. You need to understand, carefully interpret what "the only natural child of the marriage" means. Natural means not influenced by another probable reality. But for that very reason -- because he was not influenced -- and because of a certain trait in your parents' personalities, psychically they did not give him equal attention, and he felt that lack. Because the first and third children were both special, while the second was natural, but because the second lacked that specialness, he also did not receive the influence of probable space-time, but he also did not receive the support of probable space-time. So the second child, compared to the first and third, felt he did not receive the same kind of attention, or focus, or care, or love from his parents. And the second child could feel that lack.
Isn't it fascinating? Just listen to him talk about these things, then reflect on your own family and your own life, and you'll find this world of probabilities is so interesting.
Ruburt's Three Parallel Lives
I have told you that in one probability, Ruburt was a nun, expressing mysticism within an extremely disciplined, highly regimented framework. And in that one, mysticism had to be watched over, which was why he did not lose control. In that probable world, Ruburt was a nun in a convent, and he had to submit to the convent's strict regulations, so his mysticism was under surveillance, and he could not do whatever he wanted. But under those circumstances, he would not lose control.
Therefore, because once again there was an unconscious flow of material and experience -- because Ruburt's underlying experience and consciousness flowed unconsciously -- and in this world, for example, when he was transmitting the Seth material, the knowledge and experience he gained would also flow unconsciously over to the nun version of himself. If it were not controlled, then that nun version of himself, receiving this material and experience transmitted from this side, would be in great danger, because he would have completely transcended religion, broken through all the religious restrictions and rules, and he definitely would not have been permitted. So at that time, he was held in check by the convent's rules and regulations. Therefore, this became one of the reasons for Ruburt's caution in psychic matters, and his fear of leading people astray -- because the convent's rules were too strict and rigid, so Jane was also afraid of leading others astray, of forming something new, something like a Seth religion. She feared that most of all, hated that most of all.
There were three branches. One was the nun, whose mysticism was expressed traditionally -- in the convent, mysticism could only be expressed in the convent's way, but in a cautious environment, it was certainly cautious. The second branch was that he was a writer, using art to disguise mystical experience -- he wrote poetry, strange poetry, or wrote strange things, using that to cover it up. And there was the one you know, the present Ruburt, who directly experienced mystical experience and also taught others to do the same -- he experienced mystical experience himself, he held ESP classes, teaching others how to obtain mystical experience. And through writing, a marriage of the two was formed -- he also wrote, linking the mystical and the writerly together.
Very interesting. You have already met two of these three branches -- one was the writer version of him, and one was the present him, the one who combined spiritual things through writing. And when Ruburt wrote the automatic writing piece "The Physical World as Idea Construction," that was when he was born -- Ruburt was that third branch. One was the nun, one was the writer, and one was the Ruburt you know. So when the third branch of Ruburt was born, he said, Rob, you were there on the scene.
At that point, did life branch off? Yes, around September of 1963, Jane suddenly one day automatically wrote an article, something like "The Physical World Is Constructed by Consciousness." After writing that article, Jane was very surprised. Then about three or four months later, in December, she and Rob began trying to use a Ouija board to contact these unknown spiritual things, and eventually connected with Seth -- that's where it all started. That is, from the writing of that article, this probable self of Ruburt had already made its entrance. And the writer self continued being a writer in his probable reality, continuing to develop his writing. But this branch was born at that moment of automatic writing -- September of 1963.
The Birth of Joseph
He said, wait a moment -- the birth of Joseph. The birth of Joseph, he was not talking about Rob's birth -- Rob's story comes later, and Rob's story is also very complicated and interesting. How was Joseph born? Joseph was the one sitting there taking notes for Jane, who also came into contact with spirituality, and later became a main force in disseminating the Seth material. After Jane died in 1984, from 1984 to 2008, a full 24 years, Rob kept on disseminating or organizing the Seth material throughout those 24 years. So that was one of his roles, or this probable self -- the birth of this Joseph. Before that, he was a painter -- one of Rob's own probable selves was a painter. Of course Rob had other selves too; he also had a self who was a pilot, who died in World War II.
Alright, let's not go too far afield; let's follow the order of the book first. When did the birth of Joseph begin? It began with the York Beach dancing episode. The York Beach dancing episode -- I don't know if you still remember, it was mentioned in the early sessions, and he also mentioned it in The Seth Material8. The general idea is that in an earlier period of 1963, around May or June, they went to a beach in Miami called York Beach for a vacation. During the vacation, they went into a bar on the beach, and in the bar the two of them danced. While dancing and in the bar, they encountered an elderly couple, and the two of them found it very strange -- they felt these two were very familiar, but couldn't say why, just felt it was strange. Later this impression was especially deep, and then later, they didn't know where these two people went, they just disappeared. And then later, after he came into contact with Seth, very early in the early sessions, Seth told him about it. He said the two you encountered were projections of the two of you -- your thought-forms, and also probable versions of yourselves -- another probable version of you. That is, if you had not come into contact with the Seth material, in that probable version where your lives had not changed and Seth had not appeared -- where you were still a painter and she was still a writer -- he said those were projections of that version of yourselves. I won't expand on this, because it was actually a very important event in the early sessions.
He said the birth of Joseph began from that time, so chronologically it was slightly earlier than the birth of Jane's Ruburt. Therefore in your reality, your example took place in adult life. He said in your present experience, your present example -- the example concerning your probable self -- took place in your adult life. Whereas for Jane, it happened at age 13, a very major turning point. Age 13 -- Jane was photographed at age 12 when she was young, that photo was taken at age 12 -- at age 13, a major life transformation occurred in Jane's childhood. And he said for Rob, it was in adulthood, when he was already in his thirties or forties, maybe forty.
How Probable Selves Influence One Another
Of course, I cannot tell you everything in one evening. He said I cannot explain all these branches of your lives clearly; before I say something to Ruburt, let me give you a few more glimpses -- let me show you a few more of your probable selves.
One was an athlete who was very good at making money. That probable you, the athlete, was very good at making money. Therefore, for that and other reasons, you earlier turned to commercial art, a profession where artistic talent could command a good price. Because the athlete self made a lot of money, it influenced you as a painter -- you also went into commercial activities, also went to make money. The reason was that the athlete version of you was too good at making money, and it influenced you.
So sometimes, when you think back over your life, about many decisions you made and strange things you did, you'll find that the reasons were not on this side at all -- which side they were on, you have no idea. Isn't that interesting? You do many things inexplicably, but if no one explains it to you, you would never know where the inner reasons lie.
There were other seemingly trivial but pertinent connections -- many trivial things. What he meant was that probable selves are connected internally. He had been talking about the earlier subject -- how probable selves are connected internally. He said, for example, as a painter, you liked drawing cartoons of outdoor scenes -- Rob as a painter liked drawing outdoors. Why? Because he had that probable existence as an athlete -- animals in motion, because you had that athletic talent, the body in performance. These were all characteristics of you as a painter in this life; you liked drawing these things, just as an audience watches an athlete's performance, you sketched it down. Therefore those who read the cartoons watched your performers acting out movements across the pages.
He was saying that the reason you drew these cartoons or animations was that you wanted to express the athlete version of yourself in this life's drawing -- as if that person lived within your drawings. All hidden patterns -- all hidden, you can't feel them, but each one has meaning. These small trivial things are all hidden, but each one has meaning.
I will discuss the birth of Joseph, but for now, I have a few words for Ruburt. Then at 11:15, after giving Jane two pages of other material, Seth ended the session at 11:33.
Supplementary Notes on the Previous Sessions
Now let's look at some notes. First, no system is closed; the probable parallel worlds interpenetrate one another. Seth said in Session 12 of the early sessions: "I use more of my senses than you do." Because he was aware not only of his own plane, but also of our plane and other parallel planes; however, there were still environments he could not see from his own perspective. To perceive different planes, change had to occur within himself, not by changing those planes.
In Session 13, Seth explained why he had to use analogies or images: he could only explain things through the world we were familiar with. Session 14 said that everything on our plane was a materialization of something that existed independently outside our plane. Session 15 said that imagination could allow us to enter these planes.
He used the cat Willy as an example: pretend that you not only understood the cat's sense of time, but could experience its time sense through Willy. Doing so would not disturb or anger the cat, nor would it be aware of your presence, nor could it be considered an intrusion. Going further, as an observer, experience from within the furry coat and the cat's other sensory apparatus. In this way you would understand not just Willy the individual cat, but the overall sensations of the cat species. Seth said that his method of visiting other planes could be roughly represented by this analogy: not changing the other, but changing one's own psychological structure and inner senses.
From this it can be inferred that Seth could not travel to environments "higher" than his own, because the senses there would immediately perceive him. On many planes, he could be seen by the inhabitants of that plane; on other planes, he was invisible; likewise, there were planes invisible to him.
Someone asked what form Seth currently had. He said he could be many forms, but it was not really changing shape, but more like choosing to become part of something. His initial form was human, but not materialized in the same way as ours; in our terms, it was not physical at all. At this point we hit a wall of cognition; saying more would only cause misunderstanding.
These were the notes Rob excerpted here from the previous sessions, some more closely related to this session, some less so. The focus of this session was still on how energy consciousness serves as the core of a person.
注释与核实
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Source: Einstein Online, "equivalence between mass and energy" (https://www.einstein-online.info/en/explandict/equivalence-between-mass-and-energy/) ↩ ↩2
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Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, "Cooking with Microwave Ovens" (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/cooking-microwave-ovens) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, "What is energy? Laws of energy" (https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/what-is-energy/laws-of-energy.php) ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Source: OpenStax, "3.2 Newton's Great Synthesis" (https://openstax.org/books/astronomy/pages/3-2-newtons-great-synthesis?modal=MH) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "Newton: he had a woman he loved, who was his cousin"; upon verification, it should be "In his youth Newton was reportedly briefly romantically involved with the stepdaughter of his landlord Clarke; she was not Newton's cousin." (Source: Oxford University Newton Project, "The Life and Work of Isaac Newton at a Glance," https://newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/his-life-and-work-at-a-glance) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "Messages from the Spirit World"; upon verification, it should be "The correct title of the Seth book channeled by Jane Roberts is The Seth Material, published in 1970, not Messages from the Spirit World." (Source: Wikipedia, "Seth Material," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Material) ↩