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 Teacher Xiyu said during the lecture. The main text comes from Teacher Xiyu's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the parts Teacher Xiyu read aloud).
Introduction
Starting from Rob's private experience of looking at houses, this explains that probable events exist simultaneously and interact with one another within a nontemporal underlying organization, and that physical reality is composed of a series of probable events that are chosen and accepted. Atoms and molecules straddle probabilities; the body is a structure built of probabilities; the senses can only perceive things within their own probability system. The time structure "seemingly unifies" all events, and choosing different organizations of probabilities causes different events to rise into actuality. Joseph's mother continues learning after death and comes to understand her son's decisions, showing that probabilities, beliefs, and desires influence one another.
Key Points of This Chapter
- Probable events exist simultaneously and interact with one another in a nontemporal underlying organization; physical reality is composed of a series of probable events that have been chosen and accepted.
- Atoms, molecules, and cells straddle probabilities; the body is a structure built of probabilities; the senses are made of physical atoms, so they can only perceive things within this particular probability system.
- The structure of time is closely connected with probable actions; all events exist simultaneously at the underlying level, and time "seemingly unifies" these events.
- Choosing different organizations of probabilities causes different events to rise into prominence; unchosen probable events do not enter perception or reality, but they still exist.
- Joseph's mother, after death, is still learning and understanding her son's decisions; her expectations are not manipulation, but a desire to remain connected with her son; these reactions occur simultaneously.
Main Text
In this session we see Seth take Rob's small private experience of looking at a house and peel back the nature of probabilities layer by layer. He says that in all areas of our daily lives, small private experiences of this kind are constantly being repeated in different variations. That is to say, probability events are frequently interacting with one another, and through their interaction we get the recognized string of events -- that is what we call physical reality.
To put this passage simply, these probability events occur frequently in our lives. Most of the events in our lives have this kind of probable reality -- different versions of you in different times and spaces, different probabilities -- and they interact with one another, pull on one another, and intertwine with one another to form what you experience. You generally do not know about this mutual influence, but they have always maintained this interaction. And ultimately, from these interactions, you perceive a string of events. This string of events is what you can accept -- those you cannot accept, you simply did not choose. And this string of probability events that you can accept is what you call physical reality.
Can you understand this? That is, we think that every event that happens in our lives actually interacts internally with other probability events, and we choose to accept it because it fits our existing cognition of our present life experience -- we feel it is reasonable, it makes sense, it matches our expectations and anticipations. That is, it is what we have chosen and accepted, and then this forms our physical reality, what we call our life experience.
The Underlying Organization of Probabilities
Seth says that there is indeed an organization that exists, among these probabilities, in terms of how they relate to one another, and we can call this kind of interconnection an organization. But it is not the kind of order you are accustomed to recognizing. Why not? Because it has no temporality. All the orders we understand carry the characteristic of temporality, but this one has no temporality, and that is its greatest feature. So this organization has its own order, and it is non-temporal.
He goes on to say, however, that beneath this recognized order of events, that is, beneath what we call physical reality, beneath the official life experience we acknowledge, there is actually a vast field of actions constantly taking place. These constantly occurring actions form an underlying structure, and the actual physical reality we see above, or the actual life experience we have, is organized and supported by these underlying probable events. These probable fields are the source of the actions in your reality.
But the actions in your world are also a part of these other probabilities. That is to say, other probabilities are a source of the behavior of our physical world, and the behavior of our physical world is also a source for other probable worlds. They influence each other mutually -- it is not that other worlds only influence us; our decisions also influence others, and those others are probable selves and probable worlds.
This applies to all levels, not only the mental but also the biological. This influence has an effect on the biological level, on the cellular level. So you can understand that the illnesses of your body can be healed and treated in this way, and that becomes easy to grasp. Probabilities involve atoms, molecules, and cells -- it does not simply refer to the experience of you as a single individual; it even involves the underlying levels. You must remember this: it is not simply a matter of the transformation of a single thought of yours; it involves the simultaneous change of your entire being, from the mental level to the physical level. They also involve thoughts, as well as obviously more specific events.
Your body is a construction of probabilities. Composed of probable atoms and probable molecules and cells, it becomes a construction of probabilities. They exist only because atoms appear at certain points of probability -- the reason our body appears in this world, alive, is that some atoms appear at certain points in time within probability, and thus form our body. And in another probable space-time, where they appear there, they form another probable body in that probable space-time.
And on other levels, atoms do not exist at those same points. That is, in other space-times, or in other parallel worlds, this atom does not exist at the same point where it exists in your present physical body. So the body you have there is not constructed of the same physical material. Therefore, in some space-times, because the probable points of atoms are different from those in your physical world, they cannot construct a physical form exactly the same as the one in your world. In other words, the very manner in which your physical form is composed is different -- it may not even be this kind of cellular structure; it could be a plastic structure, an electromagnetic structure, a micro-circuit structure, and so on.
If you have read the investigation records about Roswell, you can see this meaning. In 1947, a flying saucer crashed in Roswell, USA1, and later the military first admitted it, then denied it. There is a great deal of material that has come out about the Roswell investigations, all kinds of it, some true and some false. In the Roswell accounts, it is said that the small grey beings, when communicating, said: my body is not the kind of life form you humans think it is; my body is similar to a -- how to put it -- a body composed of electrostatic micro-circuits. You could regard me as a kind of分身, or something of that sort. That is, in certain space-times, our bodies may not appear in the manner of our physical flesh, but may appear in other forms.
In science, all of your instruments, to this day, can only see atoms that exist within your own probability system. That is, atoms have many forms, but we can only see this one state of atoms, the state within our probability; the other states of atoms cannot be seen by our scientific instruments and equipment. Why can they not be seen? The reason is very simple: since your sight is through the body, you see through your eyes, and your eyes are composed of your atoms -- the eyes are composed of cells, cells of molecules, molecules of atoms, and your eyes are all composed of atoms. So your sense organs, your perception, naturally block you from the cognition of other probable stimuli or responses. Because your eyes are composed of the atoms, molecules, and cells of this physical world, they can only see structures such as atoms and molecules within this physical world; other atomic states or other forms of matter produce no response in these eyes of yours, and you will not perceive them. This is why our physical eyes can only see the physical world -- the reason lies here. Of course, if we see through consciousness, if we see through the mind, we can see much more. But if you choose to insist on acknowledging only what the eyes see, then there is no way around it: your eyes can only see these atoms, this matter, that conform to the physical world.
Ruburt, in Adventures in Consciousness2 -- he mentioned what he called prejudiced perception, and in that regard it is an excellent term. Actually, Buddhism has said a great deal about this: knowledge-views, prejudiced views, annihilationist views3, many kinds of views -- and this "view" is perception; it means that your view is not correct, and your judgments are all incorrect.
Atoms Straddle Probabilities
Seth went on to say that some of this is very difficult to put into language, impossible to state clearly in words. Because within matter, the units within molecules and within atoms are aware of the range of possible actions. Don't molecules and atoms have probabilities? They might be here, they might be there, they might take this form, they might take that form. And how wide the range of these probabilities is, how many forms there are, how many possibilities there are -- the units within molecules and atoms know all of this completely.
Although the integrity of the body must depend on a constant repetition within one probability. That is, your present body maintains an existence of integrity, but it is actually constantly repeating within one probability -- now here, now not here. And the integrity you feel, that the body is always there, is the result of this repetition of probability. And each time it arises and ceases, each time it is different again. So this kind of combination, or this kind of repeated continuation of probability, gives you the concept that your body is whole.
And although the body's awareness is largely directed there -- you feel that your body is a stable, "normal" (in quotation marks) state. Yet the basic integrity of the body system, and consciousness, enter this system from outside the system. The integrity and constant validity of our physical body are caused by the probabilistic results of the recombination of these uncertain probabilistic molecules, atoms, and cells. And these repeated probabilistic results are not in our space-time; they are all happening in another space-time, so he says they enter from outside the system.
At this point, after Jane had indicated all the punctuation, Seth ended the last sentence with a triumphant tone. That is, when Seth was channeling through Jane, possessing Jane's body, he often had to watch Rob finish writing the sentence, and often had to indicate where the punctuation should go, whether it was a comma or a period. So you know, Seth, in this process of transmission, strove to make sure the material was accurate. So when he found there were no errors, he was very happy.
He went on to say:
Although atoms behave properly within the system, and seem to comply with its rules and assumptions, nevertheless they actually straddle probabilities.
Although atoms seem to behave properly within our physical world system, all the behavioral laws of atoms that we humans have grasped, they all conform to -- whether using electron microscopes, our scientific calculations, or laboratory observations, they all conform to all our scientists' predictions and the calculations of scientific theory. But he says, no matter what you think, this atom is above probability. It might be this state, it might be that state. At the time people may not have understood, but now people generally accept it -- at the level of particles in the material world, at the level of atoms and electrons, their motion truly has no regularity, it truly is probability, only probability, no regularity. It is very hard for you to specify the position of a certain electron at this moment, very hard to specify the position of a certain atom at this moment, and even whether it is in a particle state or an energy wave state is uncertain, both states exist. So we now all know that atoms truly do straddle probabilities. In the past people did not understand, they thought an atom should be like a tiny grain, like the tiny grains of the physical world we imagine, it is just the smallest unit, it should be definite, how could it change? But in fact it does change, and not only does it change, it changes with no regularity at all.
Time Structure and Probabilities
Your time structure is intimately connected with the behavior of probabilities and with the range of events that are actualized. This sentence is extremely profound.
For example, in your terms, it seems as though Joseph could not possibly have seen that house for sale until a whole series of established events had occurred. For instance, many years ago when the two people were still young, his mother's encounter with Mr. Ma; his daydreams and fantasies in later days; the death of Rob's mother; Mr. Ma's old age, putting the house up for sale; and his own letting go of that house, wanting to sell it at a high price, and so on. All of these seem like coincidental events, but in fact they are all connected within inner probabilities. Yet in this reality of yours, in the space-time reality of us humans, these probabilities must be embedded within this timeline in order to occur. It is as though certain preconditions must be met -- that his mother and Mr. Ma had once liked each other, that his mother had daydreamed, that his mother died -- you think all of these are the preconditions for Rob to see that house at that point in probabilistic time, but in fact that is not the case at all. All of these probabilities exist simultaneously.
You must have this concept firmly: they must exist simultaneously and occur simultaneously. It is only that in this reality of ours, they must be arranged according to a chronological sequence of time, so that it seems reasonable and logical to you. This is a blind spot of belief that everyone must break through. Do not think that these probabilistic events -- because this happened first and that happened later -- are what led to Rob seeing that house today. No, that is only the surface appearance we see. What lies beneath, at the inner level, is that all of these probabilities are occurring simultaneously.
For example, Rob's mother might have married Mr. Ma, or might not have married him -- both states, married and unmarried, exist, and these several storylines are all developing in parallel. If you put them together into a matrix, you will find that so many probabilities exist simultaneously within a probabilistic matrix, each one occurring at the same time, and there is no question of which comes first and which comes later. But in this space-time of ours, it must necessarily display its temporal sequence, and therefore it must be placed within a time structure. Your time structure is intimately connected with the actions of probabilities and with the range of events that are actualized.
We must mark on time: this is a probabilistic event, but it did not happen. For example, Rob's mother and Mr. Ma developed mutual affection, but nothing happened between them. This is a probability, and within this space-time we define it that way -- we consider it a probability, but it did not happen. Yet in another space-time, this event did happen, and the two of them got married. But in that space-time, perhaps Rob would never have met Jane -- only in this space-time is the meeting of Rob and Jane a probability. So you can see that this is how the operating mechanism of this world works, and this is also how the mechanism of each of us works. In our lives we mark some events as probabilities, and we mark other events as actualized, as having happened. But those things we mark as probabilities may actually be truly occurring in other realities; and the things that happen in this world may likewise be merely a probability in other realities.
What I want to say now is this: within the framework of time, some things are probabilities and some things truly happen; at a higher level, beneath the material level, they are all occurring simultaneously and all influencing one another simultaneously, so it is an extremely complex process.
In your terms, it seems as though all those things had to happen before that house was put up for sale, and therefore Joseph, passing by a few days earlier, was able to see the for-sale sign and decide to look at that house. In more basic terms, all events exist simultaneously, just as atoms and molecules also appear simultaneously in all possible positions. Atoms and molecules appear simultaneously in all possible space-times and all possible positions -- it is not as you think, that at this moment it is here and at that moment it is there; that is understanding it with human comprehension. In fact, it is both here and there at the same time. Those probabilities are the same: they both happened and did not happen; they are both at that point in time and not at that point.
In time, the acting body makes use of a time structure. When we speak within the framework of time, within the three-dimensional world, this body that does things and acts makes use of a time structure, and acts naturally within it. And the acting body must be a material structure -- that is, our physical body. Beneath this physical body, at the level of cells, atoms, and molecules, there is an unchanging structure -- that unchanging structure lives simultaneously in all probabilities, and that structure endures through time; it is always there. So all events occur simultaneously. This must be understood from a multidimensional perspective, with a higher-dimensional consciousness. At this point, you definitely cannot use three-dimensional consciousness to understand it, or your brain will collapse; you will not be able to think it through, and it will cause all your cognition and logical worldview to crumble. So at this point, you must use a multidimensional perspective, multidimensional consciousness, and multidimensional thought to accept it.
Within that framework, time is indeed experienced. And when that underlying organizational structure is used -- when the underlying organizational structure of the inner connections among probabilities is used -- time seems to unify all those events. This is very subtle. He did not say that these events all occur simultaneously; he used the word "unify."
You cannot simply understand this as "occurring simultaneously," because simultaneous occurrence has no duration -- an event requires a temporal process. For example, he saw the house, got out of the car to consult the agent, and then made an appointment to view the house -- this is a temporal process. If you say it occurs simultaneously, there must be a process, so how can this process occur simultaneously? This is actually both contradictory to human cognition and difficult to understand. So Seth did not use the word "simultaneity" again here. When he used "simultaneity" earlier, he used the phrase "in more basic terms" -- what does "in more basic terms" mean? It means this is not yet the most real state, but only a statement closer to the facts. It is aimed at our belief that time has a mutual sequence and that there is causality, to tell you: no, everything occurs simultaneously. But then you cannot explain how this simultaneity actually happens.
So here, he used a different word to describe it. He said "time seems to unify all those events" -- seems, not truly. What does it mean that time seems to unify all those events? It means that within such an organizational structure of probabilities, the occurrence of each event happens within its own respective space-time, within its own respective probabilistic reality. At the underlying level there is no concept of time; they occur simultaneously. But within each respective space-time, it must unfold into a chronological sequence -- this event happens first, that event happens later -- because once there is space-time, there must be a sequence of before and after. And the meaning of so-called unification is this: all the probabilistic events that occur in sequence within different space-times -- the interconnections among them neither conflict nor contradict, and can be unified together. This concept is not so easy to understand. At the underlying level it is simultaneous; when manifested in different space-times, it becomes separate linear time. It is itself a multi-state superposition, but once placed into space-time, it unfolds into linear events -- event one, event two, event three. Yet the inner organization of this superposition, and the life experiences of these unfolded linear events, do not conflict or contradict across different space-times. And such a state, he calls "the unification of time," but with the word "seems."
I can only explain it to this extent, because I do not know what language could make it clearer. This is very hard to put into words, truly very hard.
The Choice of Meaning and the Organization of Possibilities
Because of the particular kind of organization that was chosen—that is, the organization of possibilities we chose—those events then rose into importance. If the organization of possibilities at our base were different, the events that could rise into importance would also be different. If you choose one kind of matrix of possibilities, then certain events within it become important; when you switch to another matrix of possibilities, those events become unimportant.
That is to say, at the bottom there is a structure of possibilities, an organization of possibilities—you can think of it as a matrix of possibilities, or a superposition of possibilities. When you choose one of these superposed states, or choose one kind within this matrix, or, to put it in quantum mechanical terms, when you choose one collapsed state within this wave function and give it physical actualization, then certain things become concrete, become physical. In quantum mechanical terms, the wave function collapses4, and the cat that is both dead and alive must be either dead or alive—it will always give you a definite state.
And other events that are almost equally valid appear not so important. Those possibilities could actually also become real events, but because you did not choose that kind of combination, what is important in the kind of organization you chose and could become a real event is, in another combination of possibilities, merely a combination—it will not become a real event, and it becomes unimportant. They will not rise into perception or reality, and you cannot feel their existence. But they do exist; whether you are aware of them or not, they exist.
For example, in one reality, Joseph's mother married Mr. Ma, and Joseph inherited that house. In that reality, Mr. Ma died before Joseph's mother, so Joseph had no need to look for a house at all, because he already had one. So in that reality, the event that actually happened today in this one would never occur for Joseph—driving past the town of Sel, seeing that house for sale. In another reality, this event would absolutely never happen, because it would be impossible for him to have a house and still go looking for one, let alone see that house—it was his own house, how could he see it? That event, in that time and space, was impossible, could never happen. But just because you say it could never happen, does that mean it does not exist? Does something that seems impossible in that time and space, and will never happen there, truly not exist? No—in this reality, it has become something that actually happened.
In this world, Rob's mother and Mr. Ma never married, and the possibility of their marrying may exist, but it is only a possibility; whereas in another reality, it actually happened. Seth gave this small example, and in doing so he really explained thoroughly the mutual influence between this reality, possibilities, and possibilities themselves. Of course, with more complex matters, the variables in between would be more numerous, and the variables and states of possibility would be more numerous as well—he only used this one simple example to explain it to you.
In that reality, Joseph did not marry Ruburt—in the world where Mr. Ma and Ruburt's mother married, Rob did not meet Jane. But in this reality, you and Ruburt know of this event. Ruburt instinctively felt rather distant from that house; he had no feeling for it, and not merely because he had never lived there, but even more because when Ruburt lived in that house, he was not married to him.
So Ruburt instinctively felt distant from that house, and disliked it. You could say Rob liked it very much, but Jane did not—now you understand. How subtle these matters of possibility are. Sometimes when you dislike a person or dislike a thing, and often you cannot find the reason, you should think about it: is there some other reason behind it? Why do you particularly dislike a certain kind of person, a certain kind of thing, a certain person, a certain thing?
Rob's Question
At this point Rob couldn't sit still any longer. It's quite interesting—Rob hurriedly interrupted; he didn't want Seth to keep going. You can see Rob's little calculation coming out here.
He said: May I ask a question? I don't like interrupting the transmission of the material, but this timing—this is a good time to raise a question that has been lingering in my mind since last Sunday night.
Actually, you can see that during the transmission of this material, Rob very rarely interrupted Seth abruptly while Seth was speaking. Even when he asked questions, he would wait until after the session content had been transmitted; he didn't want to break the continuity of the transmission. But at this point he couldn't sit still any longer.
As for who was actually behind this interruption—who knows? We won't go into that. Who made him suddenly interrupt Seth at this moment? You can imagine what Seth would have said next—that part I just mentioned, the part Seth didn't get to say: that in that time and space, in another probability, Rob and another woman lived in this very house. So Rob's attachment to this house wasn't just from playing here as a child with Mr. Ma's son—he lived in this house his whole life, and once he was grown, his feeling for this house was that it was his home; it would be in his cellular memory. But Rob didn't want Seth to keep talking about this—at this point, he didn't want it said any further; saying more would have touched a sore spot.
So he interrupted and said: My mother did not, from her nonphysical reality, try to force Jane and me to buy Mr. Ma's house, yet I have always wondered how other people conceive of the idea of feeling influences from the other side within our reality. Rob's question went around in a big circle. What he meant was: My mother—from the other side, from the other side of the unknown world—wanted me to buy the house, but she didn't force me to buy it; she merely hoped for it. But how should we regard this kind of information coming from that side?
See how Seth responded. Seth first paused for a moment, then said: Write your question down, and I will answer it. That was his first instinctive reaction—if you want to ask a question, write it down first. But you'd better not interrupt me right now. Then Rob said: You go ahead and speak; I'll write it down later. He didn't want to write it down. Seth wanted to keep going, but Rob didn't want Seth to continue, so he said: Just go ahead, just answer it; I'll write it down later.
And Seth then handled the question in his own way. By this point Seth was already somewhat displeased—you could hear the displeasure in his tone. He said:
I made it clear that the decision rests with Joseph and Ruburt. Whether or not to buy the house—your mother had a certain expectation or a certain fervent wish, but the decision rests with you.
You can see he was already speaking rather bluntly: I already addressed this question long ago. But there is more to it than that. The whole question concerning that house brought considerations of very important values and privileges into their lives.
He would go on to explain that there were still very important questions of value and privilege regarding that house. That is to say, whether or not to buy this big house came down to a question of Rob's and Jane's values. Joseph was unconsciously aware of that house, and he could have chosen not to drive down that street, in which case he would never have seen the house. But he and Ruburt both placed relatively little importance on money and social status; they had instead kept living in an apartment, not caring much about appearances. Yet in your society there is always pressure to buy a fashionable house, and material possessions are often regarded as badges of ability.
Seth said that whether or not to buy this house was primarily up to the two of them—it had nothing to do with your mother. It's normal for your mother to have a wish; any mother would have such a wish, whether before or after death. But for the two of you, this is your own issue. Your society always has this kind of pressure, pushing people to do such things. Fortunately, the two of you don't place much importance on these external things; you have chosen to keep living in an apartment.
Because in this society, people judge you by how much wealth you have, what kind of house you live in, what kind of car you drive—if you're capable, you must live in a big house and drive a nice car; if you don't live in a big house, that proves you lack ability. This is the conventional level of understanding in your materialistic society right now; there's nothing to be done about it.
The Mother's Part
Seth went on to say that, financially, Ruburt and Joseph were beginning to be a bit more comfortable. Because the books were being published, and publishing books meant making money. Only at this point did the traditional concepts begin to surface -- once you were financially comfortable, those traditional concepts came to the surface. Before, even if they had wanted to surface, the conditions weren't there; the conditions didn't allow it.
And in this regard, those concepts themselves attracted certain aspects of Joseph's mother. Joseph's mother was very materialistic. He had talked about his mother before; his mother's pursuit of material things was quite serious. And as far as he was concerned, it was simple: he wanted his son to succeed -- any mother would have that expectation, wouldn't she? That's not too much to ask, is it? For him, that meant having a good house could be called success. If he was still living in an apartment, he considered that not successful. On his mother's part, it was an ambition without any ulterior motive, innocent enough. It wasn't a bad ambition; it was a mother's purest, most unadorned ambition -- simply wanting her son to succeed, to live in a big house, a nice house, to showcase her success.
Because you were now financially well-off, the two of you had money, and you began to want to live in a big house. That was normal too. But the moment that thought arose, in emotional terms, that thought attracted his mother -- even though his mother had already passed away by then. Even a deceased mother, on the other side of the world, when her son gave rise to such a thought, she was aware of it, she had awareness. It attracted that kind of feeling in his mother. When she sensed Joseph's strong desire to also want such a house, then, in your terms, from the different frameworks after his death, he began to bring that opportunity into Joseph's experience -- that is, he made him specifically pass by that street and see that house for sale, when normally he wouldn't have seen it.
In our human terms, it seems as though his mother still hadn't settled down after death, still arranging this kind of chance encounter, this coincidence, so that Joseph would see that house. But he immediately emphasized: this is not manipulation. If you understand it as his mother manipulating from beyond death, then you've misunderstood. What is it then? It indeed shows a part of Joseph's mother -- the part connected to her son. You see, this connection between mother and child is very deep; it transcends time and space. This is why many people, after their mother passes away, still maintain that emotional connection with her. It's also for this reason.
You can understand it this way: although his mother had passed away, the intention of the mother wanting her son to succeed had not dissipated, and that intention was the part of his mother connected to Joseph. If his mother still had any expectations for Joseph in the human world, it was this -- wanting him to succeed, wanting him to have a big house. It also showed his desire to have a house in Sayre, and this "he" refers not to the mother herself, but to that connected desire, longing, expectation.
Then Seth said in a deeper, more forceful voice:
And such a bringing about would bring about certain events -- that is, the event of him being able to see this house. If he wanted it, he could have such a house.
So now you understand the process in between. This episode also reflected his beliefs -- that is, why, out of the blue, he passed by a street, saw this house for sale, and immediately stopped to contact the agent, then came to look at the house, and after looking at it, had the desire and impulse to buy it, and in the end he didn't buy it. An experience like this reflected a belief of his, namely: he would have to give up certain freedoms, and he wasn't ready to do that.
What kind of freedoms? Can everyone understand? When you live in an apartment, you have fewer things to worry about. If something breaks, you can call the property management directly -- abroad this is called property management; there's a manager, a management person, who will come and fix it for you, because you pay a management fee every month. So you have fewer things to worry about, and the house is also smaller. But if you buy a big house, especially in America, you have a lot of things to worry about; you have to spend a lot of time and energy maintaining the house. The house isn't something you can just leave alone, unless you're wealthy enough to hire someone to take care of it for you. But in America, the rates for hiring people are relatively high, so ordinary families, unless they're affluent to that degree, won't hire someone to do this. As the homeowner, you yourself have to spend a lot of time and energy. And for Rob, this meant he would have to give up some freedom -- give up some time for painting, give up some time for organizing the Seth material, in order to take care of the house. This was also something he wasn't very willing to do.
Worlds Colored by Probability
These worlds basically exist simultaneously. Although on your level, you must perceive them within time, yet in our world -- he says "in our world," we must let the sequential order of time perceive them. That is to say, Rob's belief has always been there. This episode of looking at the house and ultimately not buying it was also a manifestation of his belief.
Just as your immediate daily reality can be touched and colored by probabilities. In our everyday lives, we may all be touched by probable events from other probable realities, and be tinged and colored by them -- just like Rob's experience of looking at the house this time, he was influenced by other probable realities, and the feeling is the same as when you are led into your actual life experiences by your own desires and beliefs. That is to say, this event is influenced both by your beliefs and desires, and by probabilities.
Your group's culture, the history of your world, and the orientation of humanity are also colored by probable events. It is not only for individuals -- for the development of large human civilizations, group cultures, world history, and the direction of human development, all are colored by probable events. That is, it is not a single, isolated event; beneath it there are things that cannot be seen. In historical events, we must also look at issues from a multidimensional perspective, and not only look at what happens in this world alone; we should see whether there are some underlying inner laws behind it.
Those events that do not fit your officially recognized concepts of physical reality are not officially recognized by us, because when you talk about these things, there is no evidence. For example, if you say that this pandemic was internally influenced by probable events from which parallel space-time? If you say it, can you produce evidence? Of course not. Even now, you cannot produce evidence as to where this virus came from or what its source is -- within your own reality you cannot produce evidence, so how could you say anything definitive about the tingeing or coloring of this pandemic from other parallel worlds? Even if you know it in your heart, can you say it? If you say it, will anyone believe you? That is the meaning -- it is not officially recognized by us.
Possibilities Apply to Humanity as a Whole
Then he said alternative persons, probable yous -- he still uses this kind of possibility to tell you that these questions apply to individuals, and they also apply to all of humanity. There are probable yous, there are alternative yous, and there are possible yous.
What does that mean? You may not understand. Let me give one example and you will get it: it is the question from the previous session -- whether Mr. Ma married Rob's mother or not, these are two parallel-world matters. But within these two parallel worlds, what is amazing is that both have their eldest son, that is, the person Joseph. If Joseph is the name of an entity or the name of a soul, then in this lifetime his name might be Rob, but in that other one he would not be called Rob. Seth did not address them by their names in that physical world; he addressed them by their entity names. In other words, in the reality where Mr. Ma married Joseph's mother, the eldest son they had might not be called Rob, but are their souls both Joseph? That is quite amazing. Then are they each other's probable persons, each other's alternative persons? Who is the alternative one, who is the one being replaced, who is the main one? In Teacher Seth's words, this physical body is your vehicle, and it can be occupied by multiple souls -- it can be one soul or two souls; and then your soul can also occupy different physical bodies and enter different vehicles. So in that state, which one is you? Which identity can you maintain? Which identity should you maintain? Or should you maintain multiple identities at the same time?
Seth's point is not here; he has talked about this question before -- it was already discussed in Session 692, and if you did Teacher Xiyu's exercise after that class, you would be able to understand that feeling of identity replacement. What he wants to say now is that the same is true for all of humanity: there also exist probable human civilizations, probable human societies, probable versions of Earth, which we do not know about.
And these possibilities, they apply to your future, and they also apply to your past. This possibility not only has an influence on the future, it also has an influence on the past, because it happens simultaneously -- past and future happen simultaneously. Interesting, right? Very interesting.
Great Scientific Discoveries
He said:
Great scientific discoveries are always accidents; they come from intuitive creativity, when suddenly a new significance that could not previously be anticipated is seen.
Be sure to remember this. He put "accident" in quotation marks, meaning it may be a probability event—when it comes to this kind of scientific discovery, this accident may be an influence from other parallel worlds, or an influence from a probability event. Scientific discoveries all come about this way: the significance was not seen before, but now it is seen, and with new insight, new discoveries in invention and creation follow.
You accept all material that fits your ideas, and you ignore the clues to the contrary. You humans accept all data that conforms to your theories, while data that does not conform to the theories, the clues to the contrary, you do not explore—you think these do not conform to common sense and are not worth exploring, because they have no logic and do not fit your theories, so you do not explore them. And what he wants to say is that those things that do not conform to logic, that do not conform to theory, are precisely the places where probable realities may emerge. But you end up strangling them all, so you cannot explore the influence of these probable realities on our reality.
Yet beneath all this, you are creatures who create significance, formers of patterns—patterns are the templates, and you are the formers of those templates. He emphasizes again: you are creatures who create significance, immersed in time, yet basically separate from time.
This passage has very deep meaning. He says you are immersed in time; every event you make cannot be separated from time. But these events, in essence, are basically separate from time. Why? Because they are formed by probability events and influence one another. Beneath our physical reality, beneath the historical events of our life experience, there are actually countless probability events composing them. That organization is what matters—that invisible underlying organization formed by all the probabilities is the source of our physical reality. So he says we are immersed in time, yet we are indeed separate from time.
We are creators of significance. What significance? It means whatever things we feel draw our attention, whatever we feel is important, we bring into the physical world; and whatever we consider unimportant, we choose to ignore, and what we ignore are those probabilities.
Thus new insight enters into your awareness, and truly changes the nature of any given reality at any given time. When you have such an insight—when you understand how things in this world happen and what determines their inner foundation—you truly change the nature of any time, any space-time, any reality. Because the different worlds in different space-times and different realities are all the result of the interaction of these probability events. When you see this, you see everything—all space-times, all times, all things that have happened, and their inner connections.
Once you understand this, you understand why our ancestors' I Ching—the Zhouyi5—emphasizes that change is fixed, that change is the only unchanging thing in this world. The word "Yi" means change. Through the eight trigrams, the eight trigrams give rise to the sixty-four hexagrams, and within the sixty-four hexagrams each hexagram has six lines, representing six states, each one in change, and things are always changing. When you cannot understand the sixty-four hexagrams, what do they actually point to? They point to their inner connections. These connections may not make sense on the surface logically, but if you can make them make sense logically, then you are forcing an interpretation—you do not know the underlying things at all. And it has this ability: through the surface phenomena, to see the mutual influence and mutual connection among the underlying inner probable realities. So they influence one another, and it is always changing; it is not fixed.
Jane's Trance State
Seth said, you may take a break. Jane had very little conscious awareness of this book -- that is, of the various things in it. When Jane was delivering this book, she basically knew nothing at all; her trance state was very deep, and after she came back she had no idea what she had said. By contrast, when she was delivering The Nature of Personal Reality, her personal consciousness participated much more; she knew what she was talking about and knew roughly what each session had covered. But in this book, she did not even know what she was saying.
As we discussed the general implications of the material Seth gave about my mother -- that is, that she not only lives after my death, but that a portion of her is also infused in Jane and me -- I knew Seth would not go on endlessly describing my mother and her present reality. Nor did I want him to continue with that. Because such a study could easily grow into another book. Besides, there is a deep prejudice against giving material on after-death personalities -- see the material in Appendix 2. I also thought that this book would continue with Seth saying a bit more about the beliefs behind his feelings toward his mother.
Then Seth delivered the following three paragraphs of material quite forcefully, continuing at 10:50. He went on, and what follows is a statement.
Stella After Death
Joseph's mother is not merely living on another plane of reality, but is still learning. She is not only living in that place, as you understand it, she is still learning there -- learning after death, continuing to learn in that reality.
She was quite aware of Joseph's decision not to buy that house from the Ma family. She knew why Rob did not buy it. In her reality, she was aware of the fact that Joseph really wanted that house -- she knew that a part of him wanted to own a big house. Even though this would require maintenance, attention, and upkeep that another part of him was unwilling to provide, because he felt it would take up too much of the time he needed for painting and dictating this work.
The part of Joseph that momentarily wanted that house immediately attracted Joseph's mother. Actually, Joseph had two parts: one part wanted a big house, and another part did not want to be burdened and troubled by that big house. But the part of him that wanted it attracted his mother's attention -- that side had the same desire. His mother wanted him to succeed and live in a big house. And on another level of nonphysical activity, this re-triggered their old conflict.
What old conflict? It was that Rob had always wanted a free and unfettered life, not wanting to be dragged down by the material world. In his forties he was still renting with Jane, and by this time he may already have been in his fifties -- he was born in 1925, so in 1974 he would have been nearly fifty. At fifty he was still renting, because he did not care about these things. But Rob's mother was an extremely materialistic person, so they had a conflict in values. Rob was a person who did not care about external material comforts, while Rob's mother was an extremely materialistic person, so the two of them had a conflict. This conflict was triggered once again.
For a moment, their desires united -- both wanted the big house. His mother had always wanted him to have a big house, and a part of Rob also wanted it. However, the current Stella, that is, the current Rob's mother, was more able to understand. After death, his mother actually understood her son better, because she could consider and view this issue from more angles. Through his decision of whether or not to buy this house in this reality, she finally began to catch a glimpse, in another reality, of the reasons behind Rob's past behavior -- which had previously been incomprehensible to her.
After death, seeing that Rob in our human world ultimately decided not to buy this house, she understood why Rob did what he did, because her son wanted freedom and did not want to be burdened. And this matter of wanting freedom and not wanting to be burdened was something she could not understand while mother and son were alive -- his mother could not understand her son, could not understand that in this world there were people who did not want to enjoy material things and did not want a big house. But after death, she understood, because she saw it.
This is why his mother has been learning -- she is learning in this respect. When you study the Seth material, are you not also always learning? Yes, you are also always learning. When you see through many things, when you understand others, when you know the background or the inner reasons behind what happens, you are growing, you are learning. Some people may not have learned enough, and may have to wait until after death to learn. If you can become clear, think things through, and understand while you are alive, then after death you can learn other things, and you will not need to learn, as Rob's mother did, to understand her son only after death.
Simultaneous Occurrence
He tried to understand all these reactions, and they really were happening simultaneously. Seth said, you have to try to imagine these things, these reactions really are happening simultaneously. This is not easy to understand; you need to use your extra-dimensional consciousness to understand it. With three-dimensional thinking and consciousness, you cannot understand it. Try to imagine the whole thing as happening simultaneously, and see whether you can understand it. If you can understand it, then not bad, your consciousness has been expanded and elevated; if you cannot imagine how these things could possibly happen simultaneously, then you may need to go back and carefully review this chapter and the previous two chapters, that is, Sessions 693 and 694, the part about buying the house.
Joseph's desire at this end attracted his mother's similar desire. And then, in your terms, this reaction is still continuing. Is this matter finished? No. Has this matter passed? It has not passed. His connection with his mother has always been there, and this reaction is still continuing.
Seth said, please wait for us a moment. Then at exactly 11 o'clock, the book work came to an end for the day, and that was it. Jane then delivered a great deal of material on several other matters, and then the session ended at around 11:40-something -- 43 minutes.
On "Prejudiced Perception"
The note that follows concerns the very beginning of this session, about Jane's definition of "prejudiced perception." This is not particularly important; it is Jane's own definition. He said: the propensity to organize undifferentiated material into definite, differentiated sensory terms. What does that mean? What is prejudiced perception? It is when you insist on describing something that clearly cannot be clearly stated by using definite things, or things that can be clearly stated, describing it through your sensory preferences. That is what is called prejudiced perception.