Mike's commentary · The "Unknown" Reality, Session 695

The "Reading Guide" and "Key Points" for 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 block quotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).

Introduction

This chapter covers the practice session in the second half of Session 695. Exercise 6 asks you to think of time as space, and to think of your ancestors, yourself, and your descendants as members of the same tribe who have gone to different places to explore at the same time, so as to experience the simultaneity of time. Jane's dictation explains that personal and human experience are only focused versions of possibilities. Exercise 2 starts from one event of the day, traces it back to its source, and redoes it from another person's perspective; Exercise 3 uses photographs to experience the echoes of possibilities; Exercise 4 superimposes photographs from different ages, bringing unchosen possibilities into the present; Exercise 5 treats a photograph of yourself as a representative of the species, and regards time as a cage.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Exercise 6 asks you to imagine time as space, and to think of ancestors, yourself, and descendants as the same tribe setting out for different places to explore simultaneously.
• Personal and human experience is only a focused version of possibility within continuous time, supported behind it by unfocused probable events.
• Exercise 2 starts from one thing that happened that day, traces back to its source, unfolds the branches of possibility, then does it again from another person's point of view.
• Exercise 4 asks you to choose something you wanted to do but did not do, and with desire imagine how the unchosen possibility could be embedded in your present life.
• Exercise 5 treats your own photograph as a representative of the species and a part of the environment, regards time as a cage, and the photograph as an inviolable probable reality.

Main Text

This part corresponds to Part Three of Volume One of The "Unknown" Reality, and is the second half of Session 695. Because the original book already separates it into its own part, I am also treating it here as a standalone section. It continues the sixth exercise of this book.

Seth begins by saying that this is the start of the next step. The title of this part is: The Personal Probable Man, the Personal Probable Woman, Humanity in Probability, and the Blueprints for Reality.

We are using here some of Ruburt's and Joseph's personal experiences. Now, however, I would like each reader to think of the members of his or her own family.

This is not just about looking at the family histories and life experiences of Ruburt and Joseph as a couple; rather, you need to bring it into yourself -- think of your father, your mother, your grandfather, your grandmother, including your own children.

The reader can therefore find, in a more direct fashion, in private experience, some realization of the concepts I want to express.

Only by thinking about it this way can you truly empathize, and the experience becomes more real. When studying The "Unknown" Reality, this is the way to get the best results -- you have to bring your personal experience into it.

Exercise 6: Think of Time as Space

He then went on to explain the content of Exercise 6.

In your terms, think of those ancestors in your family history.

That is, think of your grandparents on both sides, or you can think further back. Some people don't know anyone further back -- for example, your father's grandfather, you may not be familiar with him.

Now, think of the members of your family in your own generation.

That is, those family members who are in the same time as you and still alive, such as your parents and grandparents. The ancestors he mentioned are those who have already passed away. When doing this exercise, try to imagine time as something like space. In the previous exercise, he treated time as a cage, a mine, a solidified gel, or amber formed from ancient pine resin; in this exercise, he shifts again, asking you to think of time as space.

If your ancestors lived in the 19th century, then think of that century as a place.

For example, think of the 19th century as South America, or Argentina -- as certainly existing as any part of the earth you know. If you are not familiar with foreign countries, think of a place in your own country: for instance, if you live in Shanghai, think of the 19th century as a certain place in Tibet, or Lhasa. Then think of the era you live in as another place. You are now living at this point in time, 2021, so think of 2021 as another place you are familiar with, such as Xi'an. If you have children, you can imagine your children's experience fifty years from now as another place, such as Hainan. You can choose freely -- if you are familiar with foreign countries, imagine foreign countries; if you are familiar with your own country, imagine your own country.

Now think of your ancestors, yourselves, and your children as members of one tribe.

This is a thought exercise. Seth's exercises are basically exercises of consciousness and thought. In this thought exercise, you are to think of yourself, your children, your parents, and your ancestors all as members of the same tribe, each traveling to different countries rather than in time.

That is to say, they appeared at different times in time -- for example, your ancestors may have been in the 18th or 19th century, and you can imagine that as being in Tibet, rather than imagining it as the 18th century or some ancient era. Make this kind of shift.

Culture is real and natural, just as trees and rocks are.

Every region has its own culture and human environment, and you think of that as the geographical environment of that country or region. That is, think of the different cultures of the three groups as the natural environments of different places or countries. Which three? Your ancestors, the people of your generation, and your children. Then imagine each group exploring the unique environment of the place to which they have traveled.

That is, these people of three different eras -- ancestors, those alive now, and the children who will explore in the future -- are to be thought of as three different groups from the same tribe going out to explore, each going to different places. The characteristics of each place are different, and they explore there, just as they explore in time. For example, going to Tibet and exploring there is like exploring the era of the 19th century; going to Xi'an is like exploring year by year in the present era.

This exercise relies on imagination. You must rely on imagination to explore, and you must imagine that these three teams are happening simultaneously. It is not that the ancestors finish exploring, then the parents go explore, then it is your turn, then the children's turn -- you are exploring simultaneously in three different places. Think of time as place, and the three teams are exploring simultaneously in three different places: you and your contemporaries are exploring in Xi'an, the children are exploring in Hainan, and the parents and ancestors are exploring in Tibet. Three groups come to different places to explore at the same time.

Each group, therefore, would have some difficulty in communicating with the others.

Because when Seth wrote this book, it was the 1960s and 1970s, when mobile phones were not yet widespread, so communication was indeed difficult. Now this is no longer a problem. So if you want this experiment to be more realistic, you can imagine them exploring on different planets, though that may not feel familiar enough. So here we first assume they have difficulty communicating.

Imagine, however, a home from which our group originally came.

Assume that your ancestors, the people of your time, and your descendants -- these three groups -- each came from a common homeland. This homeland is not your ancestors; you must be clear about that. These three groups represent the past, the present, and the future, and they come from a common original home. For example, we Chinese all say that we come from under the great locust tree in Hongdong County, Shanxi¹, and that we are all descendants from under the great locust tree. Why from under the great locust tree? There is a legend that during the Ming Dynasty, because of widespread devastation and suffering, various famines caused large numbers of people to die², and many villages were left empty. The state then carried out population migration, moving people over so that those places could come back to life.

But the working people of ancient China were unwilling to move. They recognized their roots and their ancestors; their ancestors were buried in that place, and they had lived there for generations. It is said that a notice was posted: those unwilling to migrate should gather under the great locust tree, while those willing to migrate should stay at home. So many people gathered under the great locust tree, and later they were seized by the government, tied together in strings³, and moved from densely populated areas to sparsely populated ones. That is why Chinese people later said that our ancestors may have come from under the great locust tree.

This is a legend, but it also left behind many customs. For example, in the inland regions, why do many people say "release the hands" when they mean going to the bathroom? It is because during the migration, people's hands were tied behind their backs with hemp ropes, strung together in a line like locusts. When they needed to use the toilet, they had to ask the escorting officer, who would untie their hands from the rope before they could go, so the phrase "release the hands" has been passed down from that time. Also, in rural areas you see many old people walking with their hands clasped behind their backs -- that is actually a habit from ancient genes.

Alright, back to the exercise. Imagine that your old home is in Hongdong County, Shanxi. Imagine there are three expedition teams, and you all send letters home -- put "letters" in quotation marks, meaning you send word back to the old home. Then you comment on the behavior, customs, environment, and history of the place where each expedition team is located.

The letters are written in the language of the original home.

Written in the home dialect, having nothing to do with any language later learned in any given country. For example, if an expedition team goes to South America or Tibet, the local places have local dialects, but those are all languages to be learned later. Their original language is the home dialect of the old home, and they write letters home in the home dialect.

In other words, the mother and father left at home also write to their children in the home language.

Here, do not confuse the "mother and father." These are not your real mother and father; your real mother and father form an expedition team with you, and they are wandering around the old city walls, hutongs, and snack streets of Xi'an. What is referred to here is the mother and father in the homeland -- that is, the old home of these three expedition teams, equivalent to the mother and father who stayed in the homeland while the three children of the family went out exploring. They know where the children have gone.

They read the children's letters with interest, surprise, and curiosity. They see that the places the children went to have different local customs, behavioral habits, and natural landscapes. In this rough analogy, the mother and father write back, writing to their children in the home dialect.

However, as time passes, the children forget their memory of the home language.

Just like second-generation immigrants, whose mother tongue is no longer fluent. For example, among second-generation immigrants in the United States, their Chinese basically remains at the level of simple spoken language; by the third generation, they basically cannot speak Chinese at all. So they can no longer read the letters from their mother and father.

The mother and father know, and those in the homeland know, that there is no such thing as time, and that time is only a difference in geography.

Their children have merely gone to different places, but the children have forgotten this point, forgotten that time is simultaneous, forgotten that those three expedition teams are actually exploring at the same time. Therefore they cannot read the home language anymore. So they gradually come to believe that they are separated from their mother and father far more than they actually are.

In a different way, they have been assimilated.

Put "assimilated" in quotation marks; it has a double meaning. It is equivalent to being assimilated by the culture, environment, nature, and customs of the place where they are; in terms of the concept of time, they have been assimilated by that era. Just like Chinese children who go to European or American countries quickly adapt to Western food and enjoy eating cheeseburgers and pasta -- they adapt to those first. So they become assimilated.

The mother and father understand that the children have forgotten that they can move in time just as easily as they move in space.

The mother and father understand that the children have forgotten that they can move in time. They think space can be crossed, because you can take a plane or a car; but they think time cannot. They have forgotten that time is also a kind of space.

This example is brief and simple, but its meaning is very deep. It gives us a new understanding of time, and of the past, present, and future. Such a simple thought exercise can accomplish that.

Seth asks you to remember: in this analogy, those children represent your ancestors, yourself, and your children. The mother and father -- the mother and father in Hongdong County, Shanxi -- and the children below them correspond to your ancestors, you, and your children, these three generations. Do not confuse them with your real mother and father in the present.

They are actually exploring in time -- in places like Tibet, Xi'an, and Hainan, only using space as an analogy. In this way you can easily understand the simultaneity of time.

In your physical world, it is obvious that nature grows more and more. And in this world of time, time itself also grows more and more.

In the space of the physical world, all things are growing; in time, time also grows more and more. From the time you are born, your memory of time grows longer and longer; with each additional day, your time becomes more and more. These two analogies are like your exploring in time, just as you explore in space, both exploring in more and more space. Just as you can climb up and down a tree, you can also climb up, down, forward, and backward in time. But we do not know we have this ability. The mother and father in the old home know that you can move up, down, left, right, forward, and backward in time, but the children are too far from the old home, so they have forgotten.

The tree only appears as a tree in the world of time.

The family tree -- in English it is called a family tree, and Chinese people call it a genealogy -- this exists simultaneously. In the genealogy there are ancestors, then the second generation, the third generation, the fourth generation, branching out and spreading. We often say someone is the so-and-so-many-th generation descendant of Confucius; that family tree has already become lush and full. What Seth wants to tell you is that the people in this family tree actually all exist simultaneously. You can imagine the first generation went to one place, the second generation went to another place, and the third generation went to yet another place, rather than thinking they have all passed away.

But that tree only appears as a tree in the world of time. From the perspective of time, it begins with one ancestor and grows larger and larger in time like a tree. This tree does not grow in physical space, but in the world of time. In this world of time, from the roots to the trunk, branches, and leaves, every branch and every leaf -- that is, every member of the family tree -- is alive. It has always existed in that world.

On this family tree there are branches you do not climb and do not recognize, which are things you have not experienced. You may only be familiar with one particular branch, for example, starting from your grandfather's branch -- your grandfather, your father, your great-grandfather, and so on. You are not familiar with the other branches. Further down, you are not familiar either.

The branches, therefore, become unreal to you.

Because you are not familiar with them, do not understand them, and are not interested in them, they gradually become unreal. The affairs of your ancestors gradually become unreal to you; you know your son's affairs, and you know your grandson's affairs, but you do not know the affairs of your grandson's grandson. Suppose you kept living; within this family tree, would you be familiar with the descendants of the descendants of the descendants who branch out later? You would not be familiar with them either.

Do those unfamiliar places cease to exist? Of course not. They have their own family tree.

And the same applies to the species.

It applies to the overall civilizational development of humanity. The human civilizations of different periods can be imagined as different continents and different countries in different periods, each with its own cultural geography and human customs. They all exist simultaneously.

There are alternate realities, that is, probable realities, that exist only because of the nature of probability.

They exist precisely because of the essential attribute of "probability." What is the essential attribute of probability? As discussed above: they influence one another, but do not force or compel one another; deep within, they are intimately connected. These probabilities influence one another and nest within one another, and in their respective parallel worlds they do not interfere with one another, yet their inner organizations are connected.

The potentials of the true self are so multidimensional that they cannot be expressed in one space or one time.

Why are so many probable realities needed? This is a fundamental attribute of consciousness. If we must give a reason, it is that the true self is a multidimensional, multi-dimensional existing consciousness with infinite potential. Its abilities are too great and too numerous to express all of its attributes in one time or one space. It needs different times, spaces, and probabilities to express different aspects of itself, to express all of its potentials. For example, it has both a masculine side and a feminine side, and these two aspects cannot be expressed in one time, so they are divided into two lifetimes, one as a man and one as a woman. A person's character has many facets; one cannot express only the strong side, for there is also a gentle and soft side, so different spaces and times are needed for expression.

Anyone who loves another person recognizes the infinite potentials within that person, and those potentials require infinite opportunities.

When one person loves another, they can know that the other person's potential is infinite, and that is why they love them. That potential requires infinite opportunities.

The reality of the true self requires an ever-new, changing situation.

Your own world requires a constantly new, changing, and different situation. Each experience enriches that true self, and thus also increases its own possibilities.

In your terms, this is also true of humanity as a whole.

In our analogy, that mother and father -- the mother and father in the old home of Hongdong County, Shanxi -- refers to the infinite potential within a basic unit of consciousness.

What this sentence means is: the world we see, our ancestors, our generation, and our next generation, are actually all different organizations, different scales, and different infinite potentials of consciousness formed from a basic unit of consciousness at the bottom layer. The fundamental particle that makes up this universe is this unit of consciousness; it is the core and basic constituent unit of all things. They have different organizations, with smaller ones forming larger units: units of consciousness form EE units, EE units form elementary particles, elementary particles form atoms, atoms form molecules, molecules form proteins, cells, and macromolecules, and step by step life and the physical world come into being. At the bottom layer is this basic unit of consciousness.

Using the mother and father as an analogy for the unit of consciousness means that no matter what we humans become, no matter what form, what shape, in what space-time, or in what probability, at the bottom layer we are all connected -- that is the old home. You all write letters to the old home. You have different identities, probable selves, male and female, and each reincarnation is different, sometimes as a king, sometimes as a beggar, and all must write letters to this old home, communicating with the unit of consciousness at the bottom layer.

Think of your ancestors, your closest family members, and your children, and feel the great potentials within them.

Your ancestors, the people of your generation, and your children all have great potentials -- not only you, but everyone.

Imagine your species in the way you think of it.

Imagine that every one of your people has great potential, and then think of how great the potential of humanity is. Every person is a multidimensional existence, requiring endless space and time to express their potential. Then as a whole, how great is the ability and potential of humanity?

He asks you to make an imagination: just imagine the fields you are familiar with. If you are a computer expert, imagine how the field of computing will develop in the future; if you are a genetics expert, imagine how far humanity can develop in genetic engineering. Start from your field, from your standpoint. For example, if you are in business, imagine what business models will be like in ten years: whether virtual currencies will continue to prevail, whether paper currency will gradually withdraw from the stage of history, whether blockchain technology will change the mode of human production relations. We used to focus all our efforts on improving productive forces, while production relations have not changed for hundreds of years -- is it possible that there will be innovation or revolution in production relations? In every field you can imagine.

The practically endless expressions and creativity of your species.

Imagine what possible breakthroughs and developments humanity can achieve in the fields you are familiar with, and what you want to realize -- think of all of it. This is the main purpose of this exercise: to develop potential.

No single time or space can contain that creativity.

The potential of that creativity is enormous, and no time or space can cover it.

No single historic past can explain it.

What is meant by a historic past? It is that history which has already been fixed. In fact, the past is still happening.

As an individual, or as a member of a species, what you are now depends on both the future and the past.

No single space-time can contain human creativity, so as you, in the creative fields that give you infinite possibilities, how should you plan your personal future, as well as your imagination of humanity's future? This should be combined with your professional knowledge. Do not speak recklessly about fields you are not familiar with, and do not talk about wild, fanciful things. Probability is not wild fantasy, not daydreaming; the two are essentially different. Probability can be boldly imagined, but it cannot be so far-fetched that even you yourself do not believe it. Probability is what you still believe in, but it has simply not yet been realized -- only that is called probability.

The content of this session focuses mainly on Exercise 6. This exercise may seem to have no very specific requirements, but the entire thought system is extremely vast. If you do this exercise carefully, you will see a very grand, very historically rich picture. You can start from a small place and unfold step by step. Imagine each family tree connecting into a patch, and that becomes a forest; what do forest after forest constitute? Imagine it carefully, and the picture is very grand.

Today we continue sharing from The "Unknown" Reality, Volume 1, Session 695. The title of this session is "A Session of Exercises for the Reader." This session contains four exercises. Earlier, in Session 686, there was already a session of exercises, and the exercises following that one are Exercise 2, Exercise 3, Exercise 4, and Exercise 5 -- all four of these exercises are in this session. The difficulty of the exercises increases gradually.

This session is very important; within the whole of The "Unknown" Reality, its importance is very high, mainly because these exercises are very capable of changing our cognition.

This session began on Monday, May 6, 1974, at 9:29 p.m.⁴ While waiting for the session to begin, Rob and Jane chatted for a while. Then at 9:03, Jane told Rob that she wanted to dictate some additional material herself, and asked Rob to write it down. Remember, this material did not come from Seth, nor was it Jane's own.

Jane's Additional Dictation

The material Jane herself transmitted was as follows:

What we know about the human race can be compared to what we as individuals, each individual, know about ourselves. In one respect, the two concepts are on the same level, and both deal with reality in a sequential order of time.

What does this mean? It means that each of us knows that we have probable selves and probable practices. Of what we ourselves consider to be our real life experiences, there is what we know, and there is much we do not know. And as individuals, it is the same as for the human race as a whole. The human race as a whole also has many probable events happening that we do not know about; the events we have now all emerge supported by and on the foundation of those probable events. But neither human individuals nor the whole are aware of the existence of those probable events.

Because whether as individuals or as humanity, we all experience within the framework of continuous time. Individuals are just like humanity; each person and the entire human race are the same, both existing in a multidimensional way. We are in ourselves the existence of a higher-dimensional conscious body, or we are in ourselves a spiritual existence. And this existence itself is multidimensional; it is multi-dimensional, not merely three-dimensional. But we do not think so.

The following sentence is very important:

And it hovers around the focus of probabilities.

We are originally a multidimensional existence, hovering around the focus of probabilities, constantly weaving in and out of alternate realities. It is like a piece of tapestry; the patterns and floral shapes we see have surfaced on the front. If you look at the back of that tapestry, it is another set of patterns and floral shapes. In other words, which floral shapes and patterns emerge is determined by those patterns and shapes that have not emerged.

To expand further, as this kind of multidimensional individual, or as the existence of the entire human race, we are constantly jumping in and out of probable events. Whichever we choose emerges, and those not chosen still exist in other probabilities.

A photograph of any individual represents an experienced probable identity.

That is, a photograph of each one of us represents an experienced probable identity. That identity is one we have experienced; it is a probable event. Then it is captured and recorded through the photograph.

And it is focused within a recognized sequence of time.

We recognize this sequence of time, meaning we acknowledge it: this is a photograph of me when I was five years old, or a photograph of me in my third year of university. This sequence of time is recognized by you, so this probable event has been captured by you and solidified by you. This is a probability.

Its validity is dependent upon those other photographs that were not taken and are not seen, just as the given notes that make up a symphony are important, but because of the notes that are actually used and implied.

What he is saying is still what I just said: this photograph of yours is a probable event; you took it and made it a historical record of your life experience. Looking back at your personal photo album, you can see the trajectory of your life. Then you feel that these life trajectories make up your whole life. But what you do not know is that every one of these historical moments, every historical event in your life, is composed of those photographs you did not see, did not experience, and did not take. Those form the underlying structure of the life experience you now see, and it is supported by these countless probable moments or probable events that you now have this life experience that surfaces into your line of sight or range of perception.

This is like a symphony, which is of course determined by every note; the notes that are played are important, no problem. But the reason these notes are important and exist is determined by those notes that are not played, the notes that are implied. In other words, it is determined by those intervals, those blanks, those things without sound. If a symphony had no gaps at all, and the sound continued continuously without pause, do you think it would sound good? If all the keys of a piano were struck at the same time, do you think that would be music? So when you think music sounds good, you think it is the beauty of the notes and the melody, but the beauty of this melody and these notes is precisely determined by those blanks between the beats that did not sound. But we humans do not think so.

In the same way, one picture of humanity represents only one version of humanity.

We are currently in this state -- for example, the pandemic we are experiencing now, the situation facing various countries, whether in Europe, India, or the current resurgence of the epidemic in Guangzhou or Guangdong -- these things are all a picture that humanity is experiencing. But it only represents one version of humanity, captured within a particular sequence of time. It is only one possibility. It is effective because there is an unfocused, unseen reality, and reality rides on top of it.

Why are these historical moments of our humanity important? Or why do we feel they are so real? It is because they have been focused upon. Those other possible events have not been focused upon; they are brought out by those unseen events, those unfocused events. Yet this reality rides on top of those unfocused realities. In other words, behind all the historical events of our present humanity, there are countless possible historical events jointly determining them. Those that you have not focused upon, or that humanity has not focused upon, have not been recorded by history, or have not occurred in our world, but in other space-times, they have occurred.

Jane soon came out of the altered state of consciousness. In this altered state of consciousness, she was neither speaking for Seth nor speaking for herself. Jane said she did not know where that material came from. She said Jane had a similar experience last Saturday. Then in between, Rob was still waiting for Seth to come, and during that time he read Jane the content of the previous session. Jane's characteristic in this book is that she completely does not know what she is talking about. So after every session, Rob has to repeat it back to her.

At 9:51, Seth came through, and right away introduced the exercises.

Exercise Unit 2: Let Possible Events Come into Your Experience

Seth said:

I want each reader to try both exercises.

How is the first exercise done? You try it too.

Any event that happened to you on the day you read this material.

Think of today, just today. The day you hear this video or audio, whether you are on a public account, on YouTube, or through some other way someone forwarded it to you, the day you hear this audio, any event that happened on this day, pick one at random. Then regard that particular chosen event as one that came into your experience from a vast storehouse of other possible events.

The first exercise is this: choose one event among anything you have experienced, and then you must think: this event is one of all possible events; you chose it in your life; you focused your consciousness on this event again; then this event manifested in your life, materialized, and became real. It is one of many possible events; it is not the only one; it is just one of them.

All right, now let us begin. The exercise has not started yet; this is only the first step: first think of one event. Once you have definitely settled on this event, we are going to begin below.

After you have thought of this event, you must examine the event you just thought of. This event can be anything: for example, you had a meal with a friend, you called someone, you did some housework at home today, or you went out to buy something today, or you met a colleague you had not seen for a long time and went out for a drink -- anything is fine.

Then his exercise begins from here:

Then try to trace them back to their source in the fine threads of your past life as you understand it, and then project outward from that source other events that may arise in your mind, as possible future actions of yours.

The next part is the difficult part of the exercise; everyone must concentrate. The difficult part is this: you must now try to find the source of the possible events similar to the event you thought of. You must trace its source -- not find the cause. For example, if you went out to eat with a friend today, of course the friend called to invite you, or you invited him -- that is not it -- do not look for that cause; that cause is meaningless. It is not finding the cause; you must trace the source.

What source do you trace? First, the event of going out to eat with a friend is one possibility. Now you understand that it is only one of many possibilities: maybe today you would not eat, maybe you would go out to eat something else, maybe today you had something to do and could not go. These are all possibilities. But you went today, and this event happened; in your event it is no longer called a possibility, it is called something that really happened. But in fact there are still many other possibilities: maybe you did not go, maybe something happened at home, maybe you had to work overtime at your unit, or he had something come up and canceled -- all kinds of reasons. So these other possibilities also exist.

Now take this group of possibilities -- including the event that really happened to you -- all of them count as different branches of this one event, or different possibilities. Now find where their source is. Think carefully: where is this source? Why did it happen? This event, why did it happen in your life? Where else might the source of this occurrence still be? Here you must distinguish carefully, look for its traces and clues, and find this source.

Let me give you an example to keep you from going astray. For example, today you bought something, whether online or on the street; you bought something, and this is a very ordinary event. First think about why you bought this thing: had you seen something similar before? Or was this thing exactly what the shopping platform APP recommended to you? Or had you talked with others about something similar before, so the APP website recommended it to you? Or some time ago you had seen someone else use this thing, buy this thing, or someone recommended this thing to you? And so on. What exactly was that clue? That is, why did the event of buying this thing happen, and what was its source? Look for it carefully.

Just like the example of eating I mentioned earlier: why did you go out to eat with this person? What exactly was the clue behind the two of you going out to eat? Do not look for the surface clue; everyone knows the surface clue -- of course you two made an appointment; without an appointment you could not go out to eat -- but that is not the clue. The clue is why it actually happened. What did you want to talk about with him? What need or appeal did you have in meeting him? What appeal did he have in meeting you? What did the two of you want to do? What was there to express, to communicate, to exchange? Or was it simply that you were bored and just wanted to meet him? Or had you not seen each other for a long time and wanted to update each other on your recent lives? Or did you meet again with one of your exes? And so on. What I mean is, in this key point, what you must look for is the clue, not the cause.

After finding the clue, it is like shopping: you must have planted the seed at some point. For example, you went to buy a piece of clothing; you must have planted the seed at some point. Now he asks you to find: what kind of scene did you see, or what kind of event did you experience, that planted this seed in your heart to buy that piece of clothing? Why this one and not that one? Why buy this style and not that style? Why buy this brand and not that brand? And so on. There must be reasons in the middle.

What is the purpose of finding this reason? What is this exercise for? It asks you to find the source of an event, where its source came from. For example, the seed-planting I just mentioned, or the origin between the two of you, the inner reason for your meeting. After you find this point, this is an event, and also a starting point. Although it is also one of many possible events, for your subsequent events -- the event of buying something and the event of meeting him -- it is a preceding clue, a source, of the subsequent events.

After you find the source of this event, you must think about those possibilities that did not happen. Starting from that source, begin to branch out and think. For example, you wanted to meet him because recently there was something in your heart you wanted to discuss with him -- for example, you had an idea for starting a business, some inner distress, or you had some new emotions you wanted to share with him, wanting him to receive your comfort, and so on. Then this is one point, and this point is the source of this event. Then it has several possibilities: first, meet him; second, call him and pour out your feelings; third, do not go to him, but find another person to confide in; fourth, maybe just keep it inside and do not confide in anyone. And so on. That is, starting from that source, branch out your possibilities, and then think through all the possibilities, imagining the next step that follows each possibility. Now you do not need to think about this step anymore; this step has already happened -- you met him, ate, and talked. Then those that did not happen, for example, after meeting there are many possibilities: the meeting might have gone very pleasantly, or might have gone unpleasantly, and so on. Branch out and think about all these possibilities, using your imagination.

This is the first part, the first step, of the first group of exercises. Do you understand? It is to find any event in your real life, then trace its source, find its source, then branch out again from its source, unfold all the possibilities you can think of, and then follow these possibilities, imagining how each possibility might have happened. This is the first exercise. Not difficult, right? As long as you have imagination, you just need to unfold your imagination.

Part Two: Practice Again from Another Perspective

When you have finished the procedure just given --

Then change your viewpoint.

When you have become very skilled at the first step, you may do it once, or do it several times. Practice at different times until you are skilled. That is, at any point you can trace the source, trace it back to the source of its possibilities, and from that source of possibilities unfold all the branches of possibility. When you have practiced until you are very skilled, you must begin to advance, to raise the difficulty.

What difficulty? You must look at that event from the standpoint of another person involved in it. Now you must change your angle, change your perspective on this event. You began by looking from the perspective of the ego, from your own angle. All right, now he asks you to change to another angle.

You say this event only involves me, no one else. He says no --

No matter how private the experience may seem, there is always another person connected with it. See the episode through his eyes, and then continue with the procedure just given, only this time change the viewpoint of these events.

Now do you understand? Still the same exercise, still the same events. For example, you and your friend arranged to meet and eat today; this is an event that happened. Then trace back to the source of this event, and from that source find -- for example, just pick randomly -- six possibilities, and imagine all six possibilities. But at this time, when you are imagining the subsequent development of these six possibilities, do not look from your own angle; look at this event from the angle of that friend you met. Imagine standing in his position to see how these six possibilities develop. If other people might be involved, then change to their angle. It does not have to be one person; maybe one of these possibilities is that you did not go to this friend but went to another friend -- that is fine. As long as you leave your own perspective and change to someone else's angle, redo the exercise just now. This becomes interesting.

He continues:

No one can do this exercise for you.

You can only do it yourself; no one else can do it. But --

The subjective results can be quite startling.

After you finish, you will experience the effect for yourself; it is quite startling.

Different aspects of the event that did not appear before may suddenly become obvious, and the amplitude of the event will be more fully experienced.

The most direct benefit of this exercise for you is that this event may have many aspects you originally did not think of. The experience of this event may not be quite the same as you originally imagined; its richness, its amplitude -- that is, its richness -- will increase. Some details you had not noticed before, or aspects you had not noticed, will now all be noticed and felt. This event becomes for you a multi-angled, multi-perspective, multi-possibility experience, rather than something as simple as you understood it to be -- just meeting him, or just going shopping and buying a piece of clothing. Then this one event becomes very rich. Just experience it; even things you had not experienced before, things in this event you had not noticed before, things you had not discovered, will all emerge here. So do this exercise well, and train your imagination.

Exercise Unit 3: Photographs and Echoes of Possibilities

We will stop here with Exercise Unit 2. Now we begin Exercise Unit 3. In this session, this is the second exercise.

Take a photograph of yourself and place it in front of you.

Everyone has photographs, right? Take a photograph of yourself; it can be from the past, or from the present, or taken yesterday, or taken a couple of years ago -- all fine.

And try to regard it as one self in a balanced, perfect focus.

What does a self in a balanced, perfect focus mean? It means this photograph emerged from an underlying dimension. This photograph is not simple; it emerged from those other possible events behind the photograph that did not happen.

In which other probable photographs might also have been taken... You see that triumphant self emerging. Then in their own experience, unique and inviolate.

You cannot say this photograph is only one of the possibilities, and then I will go change that possible self of that time. No. The experience of this photograph is unique and inviolate. You cannot casually erase it, saying this does not exist, that historical moment is wrong. Once any possibility happens, it exists forever; you cannot change it. But it has many possibilities; this is only one of them.

But in the image you see before you -- I mean the posture, the expression, and some glimmers of light, the coloring, or the shadows -- those all belong to echoes of other probabilities. Try to feel those.

This exercise, simply put: take a photograph, and imagine that this photograph emerged from those possible events that did not happen in your world. It was also chosen from among many possibilities; you chose this one: chose to pose this way, chose to pose that way, chose to take it under these circumstances, chose to take it under those circumstances.

Then imagine that at the same time this photograph was taken, many other photographs might also have been taken. Not just this one; several were taken. But you only liked this one; you liked this one, and the others you thought were not good. Girls often take photographs like this; if she thinks they are not good-looking, she deletes them, deletes them all, does not keep them herself, and does not allow anyone to keep them -- if she thinks they are not good-looking, they must be deleted. Imagine that this photograph is one that emerged from among those possible photographs, one branch of many possibilities.

The point of this exercise comes later. Then you look at the details in this photograph that you had not noticed before: your expression, micro-expressions, demeanor, posture, changes in the surrounding light and shadow, changes in color. Then what do you imagine them as? Imagine them all as influences, shadows, continuity errors, key points from those other photographs that were not taken. Go and feel this feeling.

Why did I pose this way at that time? Is this pose related to other photographs I took in that possibility? Or related to another possible mood I had in that possibility at that time? Or were the changes in light and shadow I saw at that time from another scene in another photograph, or another pose, or another framing, and then some of the light and shadow from that one influenced this one?

He says try to think of all those details as echoes of other photographs -- echo means a reverberation, some influence of other possible space-times upon this possible space-time. Like the example he gave in the previous session, the example of buying a house: when Rob happened to see a house, was it influenced by events from those possible, other possible space-times? Now he asks you to feel, in that historical moment when you took this photograph, in that event, what other things were influencing you? Feel it.

Exercise Unit 4: Overlay Two Selves of Different Ages

All right, Exercise 4. The fourth exercise:

Now take another photograph -- of a different age from the one just used. Simply ask yourself this question.

Take another photograph; the ages in these two photographs must be different, with a few years between them. Then look at this photograph and ask yourself this question:

Am I looking at the same person?

Are the people in these two photographs the same person? How familiar, or how strange, is this second photograph? The first photograph is the one from Exercise 3 just now; that is the first photograph. Now he asks you to find a photograph a few years apart in age from that one. He asks you to look at that newly found one, the photograph a few years apart in age from the previous one, and see between the two -- strange? Or familiar? Are these two people really one person?

Continue:

How does it differ from the first photograph you chose earlier? What are the similarities?

Where are the similarities and the points of resemblance? Where are the differences?

Then put both photographs in your mind, and join them together; try to merge these two photographs, overlay them in your mind. And at the time each photograph was taken, what kind of experience did you have?

The meaning of this joining is to join these two experiences together at the same time. For example, what was your state of mind when the first photograph was taken? What was your mood at that time? Then what were you like when the second photograph was taken? What had you experienced at that time? What had happened? What did the people taking the photograph with you say? Do you still remember? What did you say at that time? Do you still remember? What happened afterward? Do you still remember? All of these. Then think about the two photographs together; think about the first photograph for a while, think about the second photograph for a while, put the two experiences together and think about them.

The key point of this experiment comes next. First complete the very first part of this exercise -- not difficult -- connect the two exercises. All right, now it begins.

Now these two photographs: one is of a younger you, one of an older you. Now from the first photograph -- that is, the younger one -- imagine the things you wanted to do at that time:

The things you wanted to do at that time, and wanted to follow, but which were not followed in the other photograph.

Those paths are those life choices, or those life trajectories. For example, the first photograph was taken when you were young, and you wanted to go somewhere else, for example, you wanted to go to another city to work; there was such an opportunity. But in the second photograph, that thing never happened at all; you did not go. After weighing things, you ultimately did not go. But this was something you wanted to do.

You must remember, choose the thing that you wanted to do at that time but never did afterward; this is a very important point. You must choose something you wanted to do when you were young -- when the first photograph was taken -- but did not do. Not doing it means that by the time the second photograph was taken, you still had not done it, or you had given up, or you thought you would do it later; in any case, by the time the second photograph was taken, you still had not done it.

Then you have chosen such a possibility: wanted to do it but did not do it. Then think, those things you wanted to do but did not do were indeed followed -- followed by whom?

If they were not followed by the self you know, then they were indeed followed by a, in your terms, probable self.

When you think of this kind of event, follow in your mind the directions that self might take.

If you find a line of development you now wish you had followed but did not, then think deeply about the ways in which those activities might now be embedded in the official you -- embedded in the framework of your officially accepted activities.

This is the climax of this exercise, the key point. Choose to think of something you always wanted to do at that time but did not do later. All right, now carefully and in detail imagine: you chose that thing at that time; the fact is you did not choose it, but now reimagine it: if you had chosen that thing at that time, what would have happened afterward?

All right, among the things that would have happened afterward, which things might overlap with what is happening now? Or which might appear in your present real society? This is the core point of this exercise -- how it can be embedded in your present life.

Let me give an example; you may not have fully understood. For example, suppose back then you wanted to marry a certain man, but later for various reasons you did not marry him. But that man was the one you most wanted to marry; later, for various reasons, you married your current husband. The premise is that you really did want to marry that person at the very beginning; of course there may have been various reasons. All right, at this point you think: suppose you had married him, what would have happened?

The characteristic of this experiment is not merely imagining what would have happened; you must think: if that thing had really happened, then what changes would it bring to your present life? Would your work change? Would your living habits change? Would the place you live change? Would your personality change? Would your outer clothing and appearance change? And so on. That is, find points of convergence with your present life, find these points of entry and points of intersection.

In other words, take another example: for instance, you went to another place, for example, there was a job opportunity at a foreign company, but at home, because your parents were old, you could not get away, and there were younger siblings to take care of, so you gave up the opportunity to go elsewhere or go abroad. Then think: suppose you had chosen that path, and at that time there had been no such problems at home, and you had gone abroad. Then after going abroad, what changes would there be? For example, your English would have improved, or your French would have improved, you would have work experience abroad, you might have started a family abroad, and so on.

After you have thought this through, then compare it with the life lived by the person in the later photograph of older age -- the life lived by the present you -- do these two lives, these two possible lives, have points of intersection? Do they have places of overlap? Are there places of overlap?

What do you mean by places of overlap? They are the points of entry between them. For example, if over there your English had already become good, and later you returned to China. Suppose after returning you found a new job, and then continued to develop your career domestically, and so on -- is that another possibility and path? Then what kind of influence would it have on your present life? Would your English at least be better than before? Would you have work experience in international or foreign companies? I am giving this example.

You can also give examples from relationships: what changes would there be if you lived with another person? He might take you to live in another city. Then what intersection is there with your present city? For example: several years later you might come back to see your parents, and stay at your own home for a few days. And are you now living in your present home? Can you imagine that you are now that self who married and moved away, coming back to visit relatives and staying at your parents' home, only back for a visit? Rather than as it is now -- you never went elsewhere, never married that person, found a boyfriend locally and got married, and never left this city. You are still at your parents' home, only today is the weekend and you are on vacation, resting. Can you make a crossover between these two possibilities?

I have given several examples of possibilities; think for yourself whether such possibilities exist.

I will repeat the key points of this exercise. The first is that the thing must be something you wanted to do but did not do; you must remember this. Because if it is something you did not want to do, then do not think about it. It must be something you wanted to do and that carries regret with it -- in other words, if you were given another chance today, you would be willing to walk that road rather than this one. You must understand what I mean; you cannot just think about anything randomly. You must choose the one you did not choose at the time, the one you now regret, the one you should have chosen. Choose that one. Why will be clear later.

Then do an exercise like this: unfold that possibility, and then overlap the life experience of that possible world with your present life experience. Overlap them at a point in time, and see whether they have any intersection point, any point where time and space coincide -- whether there is a point where time and space exactly overlap. If there is such a point of spatiotemporal overlap, what would happen? Imagine it for yourself.

Then imagine yourself as that probable self. Because that possibility is the life you yourself wanted; do not forget that, that possibility is the life you wanted. After you find the point of spatiotemporal overlap, go and replace that probable state, and imagine yourself living within that possibility. Because there is an overlapping point, just like the example I gave earlier.

This is a very useful method. Remember to keep reading; this exercise is extremely powerful.

This desire-charged contemplation, supported by your common sense, can bring about points of intersection within probabilities.

Remember, it must be charged with desire -- that is, you especially want this kind of life; it must be desire-charged contemplation. Contemplation means deep reflection; it must be charged with desire, charged with emotion, charged with deep emotion, charged with deep desire. Of course you must analyze it through your common sense.

It can bring about points of intersection within probabilities.

What I said just now was the key point of probabilities; here it becomes a real point of intersection -- this point of intersection within probabilities is the part where two probabilities overlap.

That can cause a fresh rearrangement of the deep components of the psyche.

Remember this sentence. When you have this kind of cognition, when you discover this point of intersection, or when you can experience the state of that point of intersection, it can bring about a change in the components of the depths of your psyche -- that is, your spirituality or the underlying part of you -- its very composition changes. And this change in the deep components changes into what? Into a completely new, fresh rearrangement. We can say that this person has been completely transformed, reborn; the change has occurred from the depths of the soul.

In such a way, probable events can be attracted into your present life structure.

What does this mean? Let me give an extreme example. This example is not quite appropriate, but it can let you quickly understand what Seth is saying. When you think about it this deeply, when you truly think about it this deeply, perhaps one day in your future life you will meet that person you longed for day and night, the one you wanted to marry back then but did not. Perhaps he is still single, perhaps he has just divorced. And at that moment, fate gives you a second chance to choose. But the choice is still yours: you can also choose to divorce your current husband and rush toward the life you most want; or you may be pressured by worldly conventions and environmental influences and make no choice at all, merely nodding politely or having a cup of coffee and then turning away, letting tears flow silently in your heart. Both are possible.

Through this example, which sounds like a movie plot, you can understand what Seth is talking about. The significance of this exercise lies right here: it can bring the possibility in another parallel spacetime, the life you are living there, into your present life structure. The principle by which it is brought in is that your inner heart, the components of the depths of your psyche, have changed and been rearranged -- a fresh rearrangement. If expressed in many other terms, your inner frequency has changed, and you have become resonant with the frequency of that probable self. The terminology does not matter; the meaning is exactly this.

So as I said just now, you cannot do this exercise casually. You cannot casually pick a life you do not want at all and think about it -- do not think randomly; it is very dangerous. So you should do this exercise, but absolutely do not use it as an excuse for future infidelity or marital breakdown; it has nothing to do with that. I am only talking about the exercise as an exercise, and giving examples only for the exercise. This example is one everyone can understand, and it can immediately make clear the key point of Seth's exercise.

We have been speaking of probable man... as it applies to your species. Yet the events of mankind begin with the individual.

Earlier this time we have been talking about the different histories of probable human beings in ancient times, different versions of humanity, and indeed we intend to discuss such probabilities more deeply, as they apply to your species. Just as they apply to our humanity, all are probable. Yet the events of mankind begin with the individual.

If we speak of human history in terms of development, it is truly long-standing and vast. Because when we speak of humanity, it involves billions of people over thousands or tens of thousands of years of development, a grand panorama. But no matter how grand human history is, no matter how many people are involved, it is composed of one person after another; it is every single thing done by one person after another that forms human history.

All the powers, abilities, and characteristics inherent in mankind are also inherently present in any individual member of the species.

The powers, abilities, and characteristics inherent in humanity are all innate, present in every person. In other words, these exercises, this ability to manipulate within probable realities, is actually an ability every human being has. And when we humans can all understand this matter, we humans can also manipulate the probabilities of our own future, rather than being passive. You think you are passive, but actually you are not, just as you can manipulate your own future. Although this exercise is very small and seems very inconspicuous, can you imagine how powerful this exercise is?

Here he shifts the topic to humanity as a whole. Because throughout this entire second part, his focus is on ancient human beings, probable human beings, and so on; he has not forgotten the theme. You see, Seth is like this: no matter how he turns, within his thinking, he never forgets the key points and center of gravity of this knowledge transmission and knowledge structure. From the beginning of this part, what he has been talking about is the developmental course of probable human beings in ancient times, that is, the development of the probabilities of human consciousness.

Therefore, by understanding your own unknown reality, you can learn much about the unknown reality of mankind.

This exercise is for you to gain an understanding of your own unknown reality -- those realities that did not happen, that you do not know, or that you re-examine from another perspective. When through the three exercises above you have gained a deep understanding, you will also be able to understand those unknown realities as they apply to humanity, and you will be able to have a deeper experience of them.

Exercise Unit 5: A Photograph Representing the Species

All right, let us look at the last exercise of this session, Exercise 5. Every exercise is fun, especially the previous one. You can do that exercise repeatedly, often; when you truly want to manifest some of your ideal life states in life, you can use this exercise. Many people do not know how to use it; you see, Seth has told you the specific method of the exercise.

Seth says:

Now choose another photograph; put away the two photographs from above. He says I want you to look at this photograph somewhat differently.

Now this begins to become grand. How is it different?

This should also be a photograph of yourself alone, that is, a single-person photograph of you, with no one else; this photograph is just you. Then, you regard it as a photograph of yourself representing your species at a particular time and space.

What does this mean? Choose any single-person photograph, and then now identify this single-person photograph as: at that point in time, for example June 4, 2018, or June 12, at this point in time, where were you when this photograph was taken -- for example on Mount Huangshan, or in some big city, it does not matter -- at that point in spacetime, in this photograph, imagine that in that photograph you represent humanity. You have been chosen; at that point in time there may have been seven billion people on earth, but at that momentary point in time, we choose you to represent humanity appearing in that spacetime. At that point in spacetime, you are the representative of humanity.

Can you understand this? Imagine yourself as the representative of humanity; you are not one person, you represent all of humanity.

Then it continues; this exercise has not yet fully unfolded; this is just the first step.

In the second step, when you look at it, he uses the animal "it." Because he is using species, because you no longer possess a merely individual human nature; you represent a species.

What does this mean? You may not be able to find this feeling; let me describe this feeling for you. For example, you see a photograph of a wild Siberian tiger, suppose it was taken in the wild; or you look at a photograph of an African lion on the African savanna. Then is not your cognition of lions derived from this photograph? You look at it and say this is a lion. Would you say, is this Simba? Is this Scar? Is this so-and-so? You would not.

For example, you see a photograph of a kitten; suppose it is not your cat, but someone else's, one you do not know. Your first feeling is -- this is a cat. Would you say, oh what kind of cat is this, what breed is this? No -- this is a cat. Can you understand the feeling I am describing?

Suppose an alien comes to visit earth at this time and wants to collect some specimens. At this time he uses a photograph -- snap, suppose it is a three-dimensional photograph -- snap, and he captures your whole person. Then at this time the alien takes you as the representative of humanity; he looks at it and says: this is a human. Right? That is a cat, that is a dog, that is a tree, that is a house. If an alien came to earth, would it not be like this? Would he ask your name? No. He would just know you are a human.

What I mean is to let you find this feeling. Now look at yourself in the photograph; now imagine yourself as an alien -- you are an alien who has come to visit earth, to do research, to do scientific investigation. You come and look; take this photograph, the one in your hand, and it is the representative of this earth human; it is the symbol of earth humanity.

Have you found this feeling? As I speak, take the photograph and look at it. Find a photograph of yourself and look at it; take out your phone and look at this photograph. Not a headshot, not a headshot. It should be the kind with a person and scenery, but with only you in it.

All right, continue the exercise:

It is like looking at the you in the photograph as you would look at a photograph of an animal in its environment.

Just as I said, it is the same feeling as when you look at a jaguar or an African lion. It certainly has an environment; an African lion is certainly on the grassland or in the desert, right? An African lion cannot run off to the South Pole, can it? You cannot put a penguin in the desert, can you? It certainly has its own ecological environment.

If the photograph was taken in a room, for example, then think of the room as a particular environment -- as natural as a forest.

If this photograph was taken in an artificial setting, not in nature, but within artificial structures or artificial scenery -- in a room, a building, a high-rise, and so on -- if it was taken in such places, then take these artificial rooms or whatever...

The Self in the Photograph, and the Cage of Time

Look at a photograph of yourself right now, and imagine yourself as an alien who has come to Earth to visit, to investigate, to do scientific research. The photograph in your hand represents an Earthling; it is a symbol of the human race on Earth. Have you found that feeling? Find a photograph of yourself—preferably one with both a person and a setting, but with only you in it, not a headshot—and look at it.

Then do the exercise: look at it the way you would look at a photograph of an animal in its environment. When you look at a jaguar or an African lion, it definitely has an environment—an African lion is certainly on the savanna; you cannot put a penguin in the desert, right? It definitely has its own ecological setting. For example, if the photograph was taken in a room, imagine that the room is a special environment, just as natural as a forest. If it was taken in an artificial building, among high-rises, then imagine all these man-made rooms and scenes as things of nature—not by replacing them with trees, but by imagining that this is an environment in which the person in the photograph lives, and that this environment is alive.

The table, chairs, sofa, bookcase, computer in the room—imagine all these things as a living ecological environment. And you are a representative of the human race, living in just such an environment. If you photograph a young person today, he certainly lives amid a pile of computer games—Switch, phone, handheld console, main console, PS5... no problem, these are also that young person's living environment. Take a photograph, and imagine the television, consoles, and game discs around him as his environment. Imagine the environment in your photograph as alive, and then look at yourself in the photograph in this way.

At this point, you should mix the self in the photograph together with the other elements in the photograph, or separate them. Look again at yourself in the photograph. Looking at it this way, have you separated yourself from the environment, or have you mixed yourself together with it? Those other elements should be seen as characteristics of that image, and as qualities that belong to the extension of your own nature. They should be seen as extensions of your attributes—your room or your surrounding environment is an extension of a part of your attributes.

What does "extension of your attributes" mean? It is like a tiger living in the forest: the forest is an extension of the tiger's attributes. Without this forest there would be no such tiger; the two complement each other. The tiger cannot leave the forest; if you put a penguin on the African savanna it would be finished, and conversely, if you put an African savanna lion in the Antarctic it would also be finished. So the African savanna is an extension of the attributes of the African lion. A fish tank is an even more precise analogy: the fish tank is an extension of the attributes of the fish. The ocean is the relationship between the dolphin leaping out of the sea and the sea itself. You live in this room, and the room is an extension of your attributes. Human beings have their own extensions of attributes. So at this moment you should treat the surrounding environment as an extension of your own attributes, merge yourself into this environment, and become one with it.

Seth gives an example: if the photograph is dark and has shadows, then in this exercise, regard those shadows also as the you in the photograph; think of the shadow as a part of you as well. For example, if there is a large table in the photograph and you happen to be leaning on the table looking at a computer or reading a book, think of the table as a part of you too. Can you understand this? That is the idea—think of it as one whole. When we observe an animal, such as a wolf or a monkey, and collect data on it, do we not have to collect its environment along with it? Yes, otherwise how could you define it? Once it leaves that environment, it can no longer be called itself. By the same logic, once you leave your environment, you can no longer be called yourself either.

Looking at Yourself from Another Perspective

Now begin the exercise. Imagine—this is where it gets interesting—examining your image from a viewpoint somewhere else in the photograph. This requires your imagination. Suppose there is a hanging lamp in your room; now imagine looking at yourself from behind the hanging lamp. Suppose there is a window in the room; imagine that you are looking at yourself and the whole environment of the room from outside the window. You need to look at yourself from another angle, not from the angle of the person who took the photograph—the photographer might have been in front of you or to your side—you can look down from the sky, from outside the window, or from a corner of the table. Look at yourself from another perspective, and then see how that image can be regarded as part of the overall environmental pattern.

Keep looking at yourself from another angle. At this point, can you turn yourself into a part of your entire environment? The room, the furniture, the yard—whatever it is—whether you are standing in a forest, at some scenic spot, or on a beach, can you at this moment see yourself as a part of the environment you are in? You are one whole. Just as when we show children "this is a monkey" or "this is a penguin," it is best to show them together with their environments. Of course you can simplify it to the surrounding environment and draw an image saying this is a penguin, but at that point your cognition of the penguin is very thin, lacking that substantial feeling. If you take a photograph of a penguin living in Antarctica, the child understands immediately: it lives in this world of ice and snow.

So when looking at a photograph of yourself, you should see yourself as a part of the environment in the photograph. Then Seth says, when you see a photograph of an animal in its environment—a monkey leaping among branches, an African lion, a giraffe, and so on—you often make connections that you would not make when looking at a person in his environment. What does that mean? When you look at a photograph of an animal in nature, you connect the animal with nature. For example, with a panda you naturally think of bamboo; you feel that these animals are relatively natural, that they are a part of nature. When we say "nature," does it not include animals and plants? But we alone have taken ourselves out of it. When we say "nature," we default to animals, plants, mountains and rivers, but we do not include ourselves. The self is outside nature; the self is appreciating nature, and does not consider itself a part of nature.

Seth is now asking you to shift to another angle and re-acknowledge yourself as a part of nature. When you look at a photograph of an animal in its environment versus a photograph of a person at a scenic spot, your feelings are different. You do not feel that the person and the scenic spot are merged into one; you feel that "this person came here for a visit," "the water bungalow on the beach is beautiful," "the hotel on this island in the Maldives is nice." You have not merged yourself into it. Yet every place is just as unique as the dwelling of any animal—the environment in which each person is photographed is the same as the environment in which each animal lives. It is just that animals live in forests, in nature, in the ocean, while we humans live in cities, in a steel jungle—it is the same principle. For this person, and for the species of which he is a part, it is equally private, equally shared, equally important.

Equally private: this room is your own; others cannot just walk in. But shared? Of course it is shared—if you sell the house in two years, someone else will live in it; when you stay in a hotel and leave, someone else moves in. This space is shared, yet it is also private. And equally important: just as the forest is to the small animals of nature, each animal seems to feel that the forest is its own private domain, but it also knows that the forest is shared by everyone, and it also knows that this environment is equally important to itself and to all the other animals in the forest. These cognitions all exist.

A Representative of a Species

Then Seth says, just to stretch your imagination, do the following exercise. As you look at your photograph, imagine that you are a representative of a species, caught by chance in that particular pose. "Caught" here means photographed. It is like the amber you have seen—a small insect happened to be wrapped in pine resin, and that moment of history was frozen inside it; after tens of thousands or millions of years, when the amber surfaces again, that little insect is frozen into the present. The only difference is that we do not use pine resin; we use photographs, the method of the camera.

Imagine this: when this photograph was taken, you were representing the human race. Whether you were standing, sitting, walking, laughing, making noise, eating, drinking, or lying down, that pose of yours happened to be photographed, and then you came to represent humanity. Seth says, the frame of the photograph represents a cage of time. Imagine this photograph—if it has a frame, make it into a frame, or if you are looking at it on a phone or computer, it has a border—think of this border as a cage of time. In other words, think of this photograph as a cage of time.

How can I make an analogy for this? It is like the great age of British exploration, when they went all over the world, discovered many rare animals their country had never seen, and would capture some marvelous animals to bring back for their king to see. At that time they would build a cage and put the animal inside; of course the environment could not be brought along—sometimes a part of it could be, some local plants, the things the animal ate—and then they would ship this cage across the ocean back to Britain, to show the public and let the king see it. Imagine that time is also a cage. At the instant the photograph was taken, you were fixed in place; you live in that one second of time, in that instant, and you cannot get out. In that photograph of time, you have been caught, captured, frozen.

You can imagine that every photograph is a cage of time, and inside it there is a person—that person is you, representing humanity, being looked at as a specimen by aliens. Suppose aliens have 3D holographic photographs, able to see up, down, left, and right; you and your environment have both been photographed, and the aliens hold this holographic photograph and study it: so this is what humans are like. Can you imagine this scene? Yes, you can.

Now continue moving forward. Suppose you are that alien, and you look down at that photograph—you look down from the sky, from above a flying saucer. Look at this you who represents humanity; maybe you are lounging comfortably, maybe you are lying flat doing nothing—whatever you are doing, you have been photographed. You are now the alien, and you are outside the cage in which this specimen is kept, outside of time. Although this specimen looks very much like you, looks exactly like you, you are the alien, and you are looking at this specimen. This specimen is the living self, the living self living inside the cage of the photograph. You are looking down at this cage, and the you in the photograph represents not only yourself but also one face of your human race. If you are lying flat, the aliens see all humans as lying flat; if you are standing up striving, exercising, then humans are active. The face you had at that moment, the state you were in at that moment, represents the state of humanity. Just as when we catch a monkey, the state of that monkey at that moment represents the state of that monkey's species.

Time Is Like a Fish Tank, Like a Picture Frame

Good, hold on to this feeling—you are now an alien, looking at yourself as a specimen, framed by the cage of time. You are observing yourself. Hold this feeling. Then the time element will become just as real as any other object in the photograph. What does that mean? When you hold this feeling, when you imagine the existence of such a cage of time, can you feel that time really is like a cage, similar to the tables and chairs in that environment? It is also a thing, also something that truly exists. As he said, time. If you understand it at this moment, it really is as real as a cage.

Imagine that feeling again: click, a photograph is taken, and you are photographed in that space-time; that holographic image seals you inside the photograph—it is a holographic three-dimensional photograph, and you are three-dimensional and alive inside it, just like a real person. What is your feeling at this moment? You feel that time is like a tool. It is like the scientists of long ago making a specimen: they caught a butterfly and sealed it with a frame, or put the butterfly in a cage. Although the butterfly is still flying inside the cage, still alive, still moving, still fluttering its beautiful wings, to the human being this butterfly is already a specimen.

We humans live inside time, just like living inside that butterfly's cage. If you still do not understand, let us use a goldfish as an example. You catch a strange fish from the deep sea, one no one has ever seen; you pull it up from the sea and put it in a glass tank, giving it an environment that meets all its deep-sea conditions, and it lives inside it, on display. For the fish, it is still alive, time is still passing; for the person looking at it, this cage is like time, like the shutter of a camera—it locks the fish firmly inside.

We humans living inside time are exactly the same as this example. As long as you can hold the feeling from before—that you are an alien, standing above and looking down at yourself, the self living in the human world, the self doing all sorts of things inside time—you will have this kind of feeling: time is like a prison, trapping you inside. Time is like that fish tank, trapping that fish inside. From the outside, it is just a fish, and it represents fish. For the fish, it seems that time is still alive inside—yes, it is alive, no problem, inside time it is alive—but it is sealed inside forever, and can never get out of that fish tank.

At this moment, the greatest feeling for you is this: time is as real as tables and chairs, as a fish tank, as a butterfly specimen, as a picture frame. It is equally material, equally can be an object, equally is also a tool that can be taken up and used by us. It is not, as we humans tend to think, something invisible and intangible that cannot be grasped. Can you now understand his feeling? Yes. So at this point he asks you to think of time as something just as real as any other object. Although you cannot see it, time is that frame. Although it is not visible like a fish tank, it is that frame, it is that fish tank, it is that picture frame, it is that click of your phone camera. That click also has no frame, but it frames you inside it, and you live forever in that photograph.

Raise Your Head and Look Up

All right, now comes the exciting part. Just now you were asked, as an alien, to look down at the you on Earth. Now, Seth says, raise your head and look up. You were just looking down—put the photograph on the ground, and you were looking down at yourself, observing the human species, thinking of the photograph as a cage of time. You have finished thinking about all that—merging the scenery in the photograph together, seeing it as a natural living environment, as an extension of your own attributes—and now begin by putting the photograph on the ground. You have observed enough already; that exercise is enough. When you do not know what time is, just think of that photograph. Imagine that photograph as an invisible frame; that is time.

Then he asks you to look up. Whether the photograph is on the table or on the ground, you were looking down at it just now; now he asks you to raise your head and look up. When you raise your head and look up, what does that photograph become? It becomes a small object within your entire field of vision. Just now, when you were focusing on the photograph, you saw a representative of the whole human race, a specimen, and the environment in which he lived—when we say specimen, we mean the person and the environment taken together. Now when you raise your head and look up, what do you see? You can still see that photograph out of the corner of your eye, but you can understand: that photograph is only a small part of all the world within your field of vision.

And then, you are not only outside the self in your photograph—you are already that alien, you are no longer inside the self in the photograph, you have come out—and it also represents a small portion of your reality. That photograph is a small portion of reality. Including the reality you are now in as the alien looking at that photograph, this reality is also a small portion of the whole of reality, let alone that photograph. Yet that photograph, within its own framework, is still inviolate.

This point is very important. What he wants to tell you, besides this exercise of breaking the illusion of time, breaking the illusion of space, breaking the illusion of this dimension, is mainly to help you understand the following principle: even if you are an insignificant little representative of humanity—and there is no problem with you serving as a representative of humanity, you indeed can serve as a representative of humanity—within that photograph, within that probable reality, within that framework of time, you are inviolate. Within that space-time, within that probability, you are inviolate.

What does "inviolate" mean? It means no one can change it. For example, if you were wearing a hat when the photograph was taken, no one can take that hat off. In that space-time, you are always wearing that hat. You might say, I will just Photoshop it out later—no, in that space-time, even if you Photoshop it out, he was still wearing that hat at that time. What he wants to say is this: you cannot change the position of any single thing. For example, there was a vase in front of you when the photograph was taken, but later you felt the vase was not quite right and wanted to move it away—it cannot be moved. Although in a probable space-time perhaps you did move it away, that is another probable space-time; that is another photograph. At that one point in time when the photograph was taken, inside that cage of time, all of it can no longer be changed.

Seth says, even if you destroy the photograph itself, you absolutely cannot destroy the reality behind that photograph or its truth. You can tear up the photograph, destroy it, modify it again with Photoshop—no problem, you can modify it however you like—but you cannot change what truly happened at the moment the photograph was taken, at that point in time and space. It will exist forever, eternally, and no one can change it.

For example—he gives an example—suppose there was a big tree behind you when the photograph was taken, and you photographed the tree. But can you kill that tree? Can you say, I chopped the tree out in Photoshop, so the tree has been cut down in reality? No. You chopped it out of the photograph, or you tore up the photograph—no problem—but the tree is still fine, still living there in that space-time, in that time. Perhaps in a probable world that tree was also cut down by someone, but that is in another probable world, not in the probable world where you took the photograph. In the probable world where you took the photograph, the tree is right there, and no one can change it. In that space-time, in that photograph, no one can change it.

The Natural Interplay Between Probabilities

What he wants to say here actually leads to something even more important. He can no longer touch the person in that photograph—that person is already in history, or in your photograph, in another probable reality of space-time. Although he is still alive there, it is already a parallel space-time to your present moment; it is already probable. And as for you, you can change anything you want to change; you can alter probabilities for your own purposes—these probabilities can all be changed, because when your purpose changes, the probabilities change. But you cannot change the course of other probable selves that have already set out on their own paths.

Do you understand what he means? That is to say, as a being existing in this probable space-time, you can change however you like, you can transform however you like, you can bring events from other probabilities into this probability. But you cannot change what other probable selves in other probabilities, in other parallel space-times, are doing. They have absolute free will and their own path of development, entirely beyond your control. Do not think of interfering with them from this side, of influencing them.

You might say, that is not right—what about Rob's mother last time? Did she not want him to have a big house, and then made him seem to see that house by chance, even go inside to look at it, and want to buy it—did that not change him? Was that not his mother changing this reality from that reality? Remember, Seth specifically emphasized there: it was not his mother changing him; it was not his mother manipulating this matter or operating something behind the scenes. At that time he repeatedly emphasized that it was a shared wish between his mother and him, a wish that at that moment amounted to the link between his mother and him still existing. This link was his mother always wanting her son to live a better life, wanting her son to see what success looks like—it was the link between his mother and her son at work, not his mother operating something in the afterlife to make him do it. You must understand this. If you cannot understand this, you cannot understand what probable realities and those unknown realities of the future are really about.

You always think in human terms: I will change it, I will influence it. Wrong. You can change your present—that is no problem. Remember, your own reality can be changed, your own future can be changed. But you cannot change the choices of those probable selves who have already chosen other probable paths. For example, after you graduated from college, you might have gone abroad or might not have. The one who did not go abroad—you cannot change what the one who did go abroad wants to do; conversely, the one who did go abroad—you cannot decide what the one who did not go abroad does. But there is still mutual influence between the two of them; however, that influence is not forced, not coercive; it is a mutual inner connection and influence. And this is the most subtle point of the world of probabilities, and it is also what Seth repeatedly wants you to understand.

He has you do so many exercises, so many methods, precisely because he wants you to have a correct cognition: regarding probabilities, all probable selves are connected; every probable self is connected at the foundational level, connected biologically. They each influence one another; they influence one another mutually, with a natural interplay—remember, a natural interplay, not an artificial one. This natural interplay is the key. How do they interact? He gave some examples earlier, including Ruburt's mother and father, Jane's life experiences, and the example of looking at the house—he used living examples to show you the mutual influence between them. But he emphasizes again: this mutual influence happens naturally, not through artificial intervention, and there is no coercion. You must remember this sentence: there is no coercion. Every probable self has its own free will and uniqueness.

You can change the experience of the probable self you know—that is, you can change the life experience within the probability in which you are currently living. That experience itself rides on top of endless other probabilities. Your life experience is originally on top of all probabilities, riding on top of these probabilities. You can also say it is all in Framework 2, all happening simultaneously; you can also say you are riding on a superposition state in which all events may happen. It does not matter how you say it; that is the meaning. You can freely choose the probability you like, make it your focus, and bring it into your reality. But you cannot change others', and you cannot change it even if you try. You can bring any number of probable events into your own experience—like Exercise Four, is that not bringing events from other probabilities into your probability? If you like, you can bring it into your probable experience—but you cannot change the probable experience of another part of your reality. That is to say, you cannot eliminate it; you cannot change the decisions made by another probable self or his life experience.

Let me give a simple example: suppose at this moment you want to drink cola, and you also want to drink plain water. You feel that drinking cola might make you gain weight, but you also feel that water has no flavor. You hesitate for a long time, and finally go to the refrigerator and take out a can of cola and drink it. But at this moment, the desire to drink water, as a probable existence, that probable self goes and drinks water. And at this point, what he does is no longer up to you—it is his own business now; whether he drinks hot water or cold water, or adds a little honey, you cannot control any of it.

When you look at a photograph from your personal history -- a photograph from your past life -- that represents you emerging within that particular reality, the "official" reality that was accepted at the moment it was taken. Every photograph in your life means that you manifested, that you emerged, within that space-time of possibility. That possibility became real within the reality of your life. "Emerging" means it was perceived by your perceptual system, it became real. So you are looking at a photograph that represents your species, captured at a particular instant of possibility.

You can also understand it this way: each photograph of you is a photograph of humanity at that particular time, with you as an individual happening to be photographed. That photograph can also represent humanity. In other words, if at the same moment -- say, at twelve o'clock international standard time, I took one photograph of each of the seven billion people in the world, would those seven billion photographs represent the entire panorama of humanity? Yes. Are you one of them? Yes. So if we simplify, can you represent those seven billion people? You can, and you cannot. To say you can: you are indeed a representative of humanity. To say you cannot: you cannot represent the whole. But can you say you are the whole? You are also the whole. This is the difference between a noun and the entity behind it. Since when you photograph a cat, can that cat represent cats? Of course it can represent cats. If it cannot represent cats, can you represent cats? It is certainly a cat. Is it all cats? It is not all cats. But can it represent cats? It can. It is that simple.

Gaps and Possibilities in History

That species, with its many branches and developments as you privately know them -- humanity, unbeknownst to us, privately has many other branches and developments. Human history is not just this one; it has many branches, many versions, many possibilities, and what we experience is this one. Privately, there are probable selves; collectively, there are also probable selves. Individually, you have many probable selves; collectively, humanity also has many probable species, many versions of humanity. Just as there is an official personal past that you acknowledge -- you have an officially acknowledged personal history, and your history, photographs, and life resume are all in it -- there is also an official collective history that you more or less accept within your practical system. Your humanity is the same: there is an official collective history, saying how human history developed. But beneath that, there are also probable histories that we do not know about.

Yet under examination, the history of that species shows many gaps and inconsistencies. But if this history is carefully examined, if you scrutinize it, you will find that it has many inconsistencies, and it shows many gaps. Gaps mean things that are inexplicable -- you do not know how something suddenly connected or suddenly broke off. To us, that kind of thing is a gap. And it leaves many questions to be answered; there are many questions that cannot be answered or explained.

For example, the SARS outbreak in China at the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003 suddenly disappeared by summer⁵. At that time there was no vaccine, unlike now when the whole world is vaccinating. Back then, it was a matter of discovering one case and treating one case, and the measures were not as strict as they are now -- though they were quite strict; schools were closed then, but it was not as severe as now. Yet look at the current pandemic: it has been over a year, a year and a half, and there is still no sign of easing. The numbers are declining with the rollout of vaccines, but back then SARS suddenly vanished overnight. Humanity does not even know where that virus went, or whether it will come back. This is an example everyone is familiar with -- these gaps leave humanity unable to explain them.

The Trump election is the same. People in America know that on the night before the election, many felt there was little suspense about Trump winning -- in the swing states, Trump was far ahead in the vote counts, and as long as the counting proceeded normally, they could just wait for the victory announcement the next morning. But then at two in the morning, the counting suddenly stopped, and when it resumed at six in the morning, Biden was ahead⁶. We are not saying what the real situation was, but can we not wonder: between two and six, was there a gap in this history? Although we know there may not have been a gap in between -- many things happened -- for most people, that period was like a switch. Was there another space-time in which Trump had already been elected? That is possible. These are all other probable branches, other versions of the history of our human civilization that we humans do not understand. So he tells you: if you carefully ponder human history, you will find many things that do not add up, many holes, many things he calls inconsistencies, or many gaps.

All right, that concludes our introduction to this content and the exercises. These four exercises -- Exercise Two, Exercise Three, Exercise Four, and Exercise Five -- are all very important and very useful. Exercise Four in particular is extremely powerful; Exercise Five is even more macroscopic, rising to the level of humanity, giving you a broader awareness and also enabling deep reflection in thought.

注释与核实

1. This claim could not be verified. ↩

2. Source: Chinese Text Project, "History of Yuan: Treatise 3, Part 2, Five Elements 2" (https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?chapter=98350&if=gb&remap=gb) ↩

3. Source: Kou Xingyao / People's Daily, "Searching for Roots at the Ancient Pagoda Tree in Hongdong," 2006 (https://www.cctv.com/folklore/20060323/101520.shtml) ↩

4. Source: Jane Roberts, The "Unknown" Reality: Volume One (https://www.nowdictation.com/q/Unknown/) ↩

5. Source: World Health Organization, "Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)," 2004 (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-%28sars%29-executive-board-113) ↩

6. This claim could not be verified. ↩