The "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 blockquotes are Seth's original words (the parts Mike read aloud).
Introduction
This chapter uses metaphors of mountains, rock strata, violets, and daffodils to explain that time is not a linear sequence of reincarnations, but rather a multi-layered field of probable realities existing simultaneously: each period of time, like a rock stratum, continues to create, and a person is born in a particular "season," while other versions run concurrently but remain isolated from one another. The chapter reiterates that the individual is stronger than any system, discusses the mutual changes between Seth and Ruburt, the plant's precognition toward flowering and value fulfillment, and includes two notes on time and the cognition of reincarnation.
Key Points of This Chapter
- The individual is stronger than any system; systems such as probabilities, reincarnation, and counterparts all serve the individual.
- Different time periods exist simultaneously like rock strata in a mountain, and each layer is constantly creating and changing.
- Re-experiencing a certain year of the past does not return to the same history, but enters another "season" or probable reality.
- Plant roots grow toward flowering and fruiting, and human beings also inherently possess the desire toward maximum blossoming and value fulfillment.
- Seth is a future probable version of Ruburt, but Ruburt's current experience is not in Seth's memory, and it will change Seth's past.
Main Text
Session 728: Precognition as a Stimulus for Growth, at Various Times Within a Year
This session began on Wednesday, January 8, 1975, at 9:16 p.m. Before it began, Rob said that in last night's ESP class, Jane had given a long, powerful, humorous, and dramatic session. That session was extremely long, and Seth talked about many interesting topics. Jane will present the entire session in a slightly abridged form in Chapter 15 of the book The Nature of the Psyche. So if you want to know what happened in that session, you can look for that chapter.
Rob made excerpts of the previous night's session, which contained five main topics, and these topics were interrelated. These excerpts are very important because they are the essence of that entire evening's session.
First, the individual is stronger than any system
Remember this well: the individual is stronger than any system. So no matter what position of reality you are in — the world of probabilities, the reincarnational self, counterparts — within all these systems, what is the strongest? The strongest is yourself. Because you are right here, right now, at your present focus of consciousness, and you can only exert your greatest effect at this focus of consciousness.
Do not turn yourself into a little ant, bobbing up and down among these higher selves, unknown realities, and probable selves — that is not right. All of these are here to serve you. You are the strongest. They are all here to help you bring out all your potential and capabilities and to maximize your personal value — not for you to serve them. The individual is always the most important.
Second, about an ancient existence such as Seth
Seth said, speaking without modesty — and he was joking too — that one characteristic is that old hatreds do not last. Perhaps the students asked him, "You have lived through so many reincarnations — will your old hatreds from before persist?" He said they will not persist, because you learn a sense of humor. And on the other hand, love is also a kind of humor, and it becomes very precious, and love is large enough to fully contain old hatred.
Then he talked about his life in the fourth century A.D. as a minor pope. He said, "I was an insignificant religious politician, and an old pope with a politician's mentality and a crooked mind." Regarding this history, you can look at Seth Speaks, Chapter 22, Sessions 588 and 590, where his actions in that lifetime are described.
Seth also said that if he were to relive the pope's life, it would be impractical and boring for him. He added:
Even so, many people do choose to re-experience what you would call a past existence, in order to change it as they go along.
Indeed, there are some people who are repeating some of their past existences, and their purpose is to change it as they go along, rather than to go through it again exactly as it was. There are many regrets, many things left undone, or many things they thought at the time were the right thing to do but later discovered they should not have done — all of these they want to change. But this kind of re-experiencing of a lifetime is different from the original lifetime; they are two versions.
Again, in Seth Speaks, Chapter 10, Session 539, he said:
In other words, you may be the perfection of that past life — but you cannot again enter that reference framework as a fully participating consciousness.
You can regard that past life as something already completed. Although we say the past still exists, and the past is still ongoing, from a certain perspective, you can no longer fully participate in that same framework again.
Then, for example, the historical currents of that time joined into that mass-hallucinated existence — the result of the application of consciousness by yourself and your contemporaries.
What he means is that even if you return to that era — for example, you want to live a life over again, and you return to the era of the Great Revolution, or any era in history you like, and perhaps in that lifetime you had an incarnation, and then you want to relive that lifetime — he says you cannot completely return to that lifetime, because that lifetime has already passed. That historical dynasty, those historical things, were the reality of that era co-created by you and the people around you at that time, your contemporaries. When you go back, it is already different from what it was then — because you are different too, and the people around you are different too. So it seems like it is still that era, it seems like it is still roughly the same era background, but what you are experiencing is already completely different from your previous incarnation. In other words, those are two parallel space-times, two parallel eras, with two parallel versions of you incarnating in that era simultaneously, but these two have no repetition whatsoever between them.
Third, the relationship between Ruburt and Seth
Seth said to the students in the class:
You are yourself, I am myself, I am not Ruburt, and Ruburt is not me... and Ruburt is me, but I am myself.
The first part needs no explanation — you are you, I am me, we are all ourselves. Then he says Ruburt is me, but I am still myself. What does this sentence mean? In the later period, Ruburt can be seen as an early existence of Seth — Ruburt, after countless reincarnations, not in our time direction but in other time directions, will eventually become Seth.
Let us understand this on two levels. First, from the perspective of time, Ruburt is a previous incarnational version of Seth. According to simultaneity, of course, the two of them do not have this kind of temporal relationship. So he says Ruburt can also be said to be me, just as one of your reincarnational selves can be yourself.
If we compare this within a three-dimensional world, it is like asking: is the you in fifth grade still you? Yes, it is you. But the you in fifth grade is you — is the you now still you? Of course it is still you. Your relationship with the you in fifth grade is exactly this kind of relationship: can you say that the you now can be like the you in fifth grade? No. But can you say he is still you? He is you, but you are not him.
It is like Seth is composed of a group of units of consciousness, and Ruburt is only one of those units of consciousness. That is the relationship.
Seth begins the formal session
In your terms, the mountain still maintains a more or less eternal position.
The formal session begins again.
In your terms, the mountain may still maintain an eternal position; the mountain does not change. Because our human lifespan is too short, mountains generally take millions of years or even longer to change1, and we humans cannot perceive their changes. But the vegetation and plants growing on different levels will change. Flowers, trees, and grass change every year, every season.
New flowers, for example, bloom each spring. Each year at roughly the same position at the foot of the mountain, you might find a patch of violets.
Suppose there is a place at the foot of the mountain, and every year a patch of violets grows there. They are not last year's violets, nor are they the violets that will grow next year — they are the violets of this present moment, of this season. And the pattern of those flowers is used to seed each new batch. If you regard the existence of this patch of violets as a pattern, then this pattern is part of what makes up the mountain. Although it blooms and withers year after year, it blooms every year, and so this patch of violets becomes a kind of patterned existence of the mountain.
And the pattern of this patch of violets seeds a new batch of violets every year. The soil beneath the mountain's levels also undergoes all kinds of changes.
The soil beneath the mountain is also changing. So although the different levels may appear more or less the same, this sameness is the result of minute changes, new growth, and seasonal variation. From the larger perspective, the flowers bloom and wither year after year, as if those flowers forever adorn that position at the foot of the mountain. The soil on the mountain is also undergoing minute changes — within it are vast numbers of microorganisms and plants that, after withering, rot and enter the earth to become its nutrients. These things that look unchanging to you — like a mountain, like the soil on the mountain, like the violets that bloom every year — are actually constantly changing. Together they make up the result of the mountain appearing unchanging. The reason you feel the mountain is unchanging is precisely because these small places are always changing.
In terms of our analogy, think of the different levels of that mountain as different time periods.
Suppose this mountain has different levels, and each level is a different time period, a different era. The different rock strata represent different time periods. From your perspective of time, it seems as though a new incarnational existence is layered on top of the previous lifetime, and then the next incarnation is layered on top of your present lifetime — giving you the feeling of layer upon layer stacked upward.
You may perhaps see that those existences exist simultaneously, like the mountain.
If each of these rock strata is a past existence of the mountain, an existence from a different period, then those past existences of the mountain exist simultaneously. Like a thousand-layer cake, layer upon layer. When you make a cake, you can only start from the bottom layer, but after it is finished, the earliest layer and the last layer exist simultaneously. He is using the mountain as an analogy to ask whether your past reincarnations also exist simultaneously.
But you forget that in that mountain all levels have endless creativity and change.
They exist simultaneously, but you have an illusion that the things of the past no longer change. The mountain's past rock strata, its past levels — you think they no longer move, that they are dead. But he says no, they are constantly creating and changing. Just like the soil beneath the mountain — is it changing? If the next layer down is considered the mountain's subconscious, then the soil of the mountain changing means the mountain's subconscious is also changing. He uses this mountain analogy to tell us that our past lives are constantly changing.
New flora, for example, will also grow on the bottom levels, just as they grow on the top levels.
How do you understand plants growing on the bottom levels? Think about it — do plants grow from their roots? You think plants grow on the surface, but actually plants grow out from beneath the soil; they grow on the bottom level first, and only then can they grow upward. Like a big tree, its roots go very deep. Without the growth on the bottom level, would the roots underground grow? Of course they would. If there were no growth underground, would there be growth above? So you must understand the relationship between them.
Each time is natural and creative.
That is to say, every level of this mountain is growing, changing, and creating — just like every one of our past lives.
They are like the levels of the mountain, bringing fresh life. When you finish your growth there, they do not disappear, but serve as a medium for the growth of its personality.
This year's surface vegetation, as the plants wither and decay, turns into soil when the snow melts in spring, and it sinks beneath the ground level. By the spring of the second year, it is as if a new earth has been born again. You feel that you have finished your growth in this season, as if this surface layer of the land no longer exists. But he says this layer has not disappeared; it continues to sink underground and becomes part of the mountain. For you, your past incarnation becomes part of your personality, and it becomes a medium for its continued growth. Without the past layers, there would be none of the present life. Your past reincarnations determine your present state.
Time periods themselves are somewhat like platforms, natural platforms, used again and again to bring fresh life.
A specific time period is like a transport platform that continually brings new life. For example, when the second spring arrives, new life is conceived, then passes through summer and autumn, and dies in winter. When the second spring comes, it brings new life again. You can think of time as this kind of platform that transports life.
He says this is difficult for you to understand. You always think of time as time and space as space, so when I say time is like a platform that brings you fresh life, you still cannot fully understand what I mean.
He begins to give an example. Suppose you were born in 1940. From your perspective, 1940 has already passed. This book is from January 8, 1975, so a person born in 1940 would only be 35 years old at that time. You feel that 1940 has indeed passed, even though it is the time of your birth.
Returning to our analogy, you are like a violet born in a spring on one rock level, and we will call that rock level 1940.
Suppose you are a violet, growing in a spring of 1940. And the spring of 1940, relative to the present of 1975, has already passed; it is already a past rock level, and you grew out of that past rock level.
Other people are also being born in 1940 now, but in a different season.
He is referring to those people who still want to re-experience 1940. Your original 1940 is no longer the same.
You are only aware of your own position in time, or on the platform, or your own position on the rock level as you understand it.
For example, the year you were born, the era you were born into — you can understand your position on the platform, just as you can understand your own position on the rock level — where this rock level is on the mountain, where this flower blooms at the foot of the mountain, it knows all of this itself.
Not only do these rock levels and time platforms exist simultaneously, but each one brings forth its own batch of personalities in its own different seasons.
The past not only exists simultaneously, but the most amazing thing is that within each level, within each reincarnation, there is more than one you — each level brings forth a batch of personalities. These batches of personalities live in their own respective probable worlds, existing in their own parallel space-times. Although they are in the same era, the lives they live are completely different.
You are only aware of your own season.
Here, season equals probable existence. In the analogy, you can only be aware of your own probable existence.
We may call a season a specific probable reality that you accept as real in physical terms.
We can call a season — a probable reality that you consider real, that you accept as real. You accept it as real — just one probability. Remember, this is an analogy. Later, whenever you see the word "season," just think of a probable reality.
Yet the rock level of 1940 is still as immediate as it was at your birth, and exists in the present.
The rock level of 1940 — that is, the year of your birth — is as real as it was when you were born. It is still a real existence, and it exists in the present. It does not exist somewhere in the past. Because it is like the next level down of the rock strata; from the perspective of time, it is now. If you use the mountain analogy, it is easier to understand his intent.
Again, other personalities are also born there — but their seasons or time phases are different from yours.
Other personalities are also born in that rock level of 1940, but their world is different from yours, even though they are born on the same rock level.
Yet psychically, you are all somewhat connected to one another.
Why does he keep using seasons as an analogy? Let me explain briefly. Some flowers bloom in spring, some bloom in summer. Spring flowers never see summer flowers, so they do not know summer exists. It is like the saying that a summer insect cannot speak of ice — how can a spring insect converse with the winter ice? Suppose a spring flower and a summer flower both bloom in 1940. For the two of them, they are in two different time phases. So Seth uses seasons to analogize different probable realities.
In the same way, for example, the violets growing in the same location this year are related to all those that have ever grown in the same place, or that will grow there in the future.
This patch of violets — the ones growing now, the ones that grew last year, the ones that will grow in the future — they are all related to one another. Of course they are related, because they all grow from one root system, or seeds and pollen enter the soil, and the next year's growth comes from last year's seeds. This year's violets are conceived by last year's violets, and next year's violets follow the same principle.
Every moment, every year, has dimensions that are not yet understood.
Every point in time, every moment, or every year has dimensions you have not understood. You see this year's violets and think they exist in this three-dimensional world — so beautiful, so lovely. But you do not see last year's violets, nor can you see next year's violets. Yet what he means is that the violet of this present moment simultaneously contains the violets of the past and the violets of the future, and you cannot see them. Every moment contains more reality, but we can only see one.
For you, other people now being born in 1940 would be born in a probable reality.
Suppose they exist simultaneously. Then someone who incarnates into 1940 at this time — for example, someone dies now and says, "I like 1940, I want to go back to 1940, I want to participate in World War II." Fine, you go back. But he says even if you incarnate today and return to the simultaneously existing 1940, that is still not the 1940 of that time. The era has changed. In that 1940, all possibilities were possible — for example, Germany had already unified Europe, or the Normandy landing did not succeed, or Germany developed the atomic bomb first. All these possibilities exist, so that is another reality, already different from our present world.
Yet you share the same background.
The larger background is the same — the flames of war.
When you look at an object, you can see its exterior; and when you experience time, you also experience its exterior.
When you experience an object, you experience its exterior; when you experience time, you also only experience its exterior. You have not experienced the richer existence of the spacious present within time. The same principle applies to space — we only see the surface of space. In the earlier The "Unknown" Reality material, he mentioned this viewpoint — we have always been traveling on the surface of a vast membrane, never truly entering the space within that membrane.
Time itself is multidimensional, but we can only experience a one-dimensional existence of time — a single line moving in one direction, at constant speed, in a constant direction.
1940 will continue to exist, just as the rock levels of the mountain continue to exist.
Every level of the mountain continues to exist, and every season brings new creativity. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter are all different, and they all enrich the mountain. Every probability brings creativity to your personality. Why are there many personalities born in 1940? Each one of them brings different creativity, just as every season of the mountain brings creativity to the mountain. You cannot say only spring is good; summer, autumn, and winter are also good. In other words, without summer, autumn, and winter, there would be no spring — it is a relationship of correspondence.
The violet on our hypothetical mountainside contributes to the life of the mountain.
A mountain with this patch of violets and a mountain without this patch of violets are two different mountains. Although they each have their own independent reality — the flower cannot say the flower is the mountain, nor can it say the mountain is the flower — they contribute to each other and become a unified reality.
The entire cycle of the seasons regulates the mountain, and the growth and development of all its manifestations.
The entire cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, repeating endlessly, gives the mountain its growth and development. If you replace the word "seasons" with "probabilities," then the cyclical adjustment of the whole of probabilities also leads to the growth and development of all the manifestations of our entire personality. These two can be substituted, because this is an analogy. All probable selves and probable realities exist to enrich and perfect the overall manifestation, growth, and development of our own personality.
Time, particularly, multiplies from within.
This is not easy to understand, but through the earlier examples you can roughly grasp it. For you, it is the same 1940, but it has countless versions. For you, all these countless versions are 1940 in terms of time, but internally, is it multiplying? It is increasing its content. The fact that time has countless 1940s proves that time is constantly increasing from within.
And when you think in terms of reincarnation, you are still dealing with very simple concepts of time.
Here, Seth is actually already negating the material about reincarnation after death from Seth Speaks. Of course, in that book he also made hints, but he would not be so direct. If he had directly negated reincarnation at that time, many people would not have been able to understand what he wanted to say afterward. But as you continue to study and improve, as your level and cognition rise, his viewpoints and expressions also continually change.
It is like the "gradual stages" spoken of in Buddhism. When you reach a certain stage, his viewpoint will negate the previous one — when your conventional truth reaches the level of ultimate truth, then the previous conventional truth becomes wrong and is upgraded to the next ultimate truth. But when that ultimate truth reaches the next level, it becomes conventional truth and must be negated, and after negation it becomes a new ultimate truth. This is not a matter of right or wrong; it is simply that the stages and levels of your cognition are different.
So when he emphasizes that when you think about reincarnation using your present concept of reincarnation — one life ends and another begins — this viewpoint is still a very simple concept of time. You have not yet realized the truth of time, nor the truth of this world. So Buddhism has its non-ultimate aspects, in that it uses the method of reincarnation to teach the Dharma, which was unavoidable in that era. But now you can understand where its non-ultimate aspects lie.
Because people in that era could only understand that, and the same is true of this present era — we are not much more advanced than they were. If you skip over reincarnation and tell them directly, I can tell you that 90 percent or more — 99 percent of people — cannot understand or accept it. Reincarnation they can barely accept, but if you say none of that is true and everything happens simultaneously, they understand even less. So when you tell them there is no karma and no cause and effect, they absolutely cannot accept it. They believe this world is a world of cause and effect, and the law of cause and effect is constant and unchanging. If you cannot understand the truth of time, then indeed the law of cause and effect cannot be changed — because where there is time, there is cause and effect; but if time does not exist, cause and effect do not exist either.
Suppose you were born in 1940, and you accepted a specific historical sequence.
Then, other people born in 1940, in a season different from yours, are in a different historical framework. Suppose a child born in the spring of 1940 — in that version, the final historical outcome might be that America defeated Germany; while for children born in the autumn of 1940, their historical trajectory might be reversed — Germany occupied the Soviet Union, then turned around and occupied Britain, and finally occupied America as well, unifying the entire world. These could be two completely different historical outcomes. This is something that can only be understood through the mind; you cannot use the three-dimensional world to understand it.
A different 1940 with its own probable reality.
You have always thought of reincarnation as being sent back into a history you once lived through or read about. But any given year has its own variations — meaning probabilities — with its own probable developments. You think you are returning to that historical era to incarnate again and experience it again, but he says no, that is a completely different historical variation, a new historical development.
In one way, you seed yourself into time — but you may choose to be born in 1940 five times.
You can give birth to yourself five times in 1940, sow yourself in time five times. If each of these yous were assumed to be born in different seasons of 1940, then each self that is born only perceives its own reality, and is not aware that other realities exist. There are five 1940s, and they are not the same. This is something that challenges the framework of our human thinking, and it would overturn a great many of our assumptions. But we generally do not understand it this way, because we are used to using three-dimensional time to understand such things.
As a physical creature, your beliefs and ideas form your reality. Your identity leaps out from the psyche, unfettered by the picture of a reality you have chosen. In other words, you choose to accept a given picture of the world, and you use that picture as a framework within which you form a life.
Why? Because you are a physically existing creature, and your beliefs and ideas form the reality you have at that time. Your sense of identity, that self-awareness you call yourself, leaps out from the part of the psyche that is not bound by the picture of reality you have chosen.
How is that picture formed? That picture has a historical background, and then against that historical background it is drawn out by your beliefs and ideas. It is like saying that when you paint, there is always a large background, and against that large background, your own personal beliefs and ideas form a picture within that larger background. Once this picture comes into being, it becomes fixed, and your sense of identity arises from within this picture; you are born within this picture. And once this picture comes into being, it becomes your framework, and within this picture you form your life.
And another probable you, born in another parallel world, has beliefs and ideas different from yours. He may have experienced more cycles of reincarnation, or his experiences may be different from yours. Although he is born into a physical body, and the body is a blank slate, the consciousness behind it comes from an old soul. When that consciousness enters, it brings its own beliefs and ideas, so each person's character is also different. After this child is born, the picture formed by his own beliefs and ideas is different from the picture of the child I mentioned above.
If you think of reincarnation in popular terms, then you may seem to be reading a book, examining a book, in which each page is a life. You read the book from the beginning, so you think one life or one page follows another.
If you insist on thinking in terms of three-dimensional time, then all your lives are like a book, and each page is one cycle of reincarnation. As you read, you think that after the first page comes the second page, and after the second page comes the third page — the first reincarnation is followed by the second reincarnation, which is followed by the third reincarnation. But what you should understand is that this entire book exists simultaneously. When you read it, you read page by page, but the whole book has always been here; the first page and the last page exist at the same time.
From the broader perspective of the larger psyche, this volume being read in a linear sequence — it is you. But there are many ways to read this book, and in essence it is more like a three-dimensional matrix book, rather than one page following another.
Quite the contrary, you are not only reading the book, but at the same time you are also writing these books of living experience.
You are not only reading, you are also creating the contents of these books. These books represent existence, and this existence is alive, and creativity is infinite and unlimited; the psyche is a great source of creativity.
Pretend you are a novelist, and you create a character, and this character is so independent, so lively, so real, that it in turn forms other characters.
Imagine a scene like this: you are a novelist, and you create a character, and this character is vividly alive. And this character you have written is also a writer, and he has created many, many characters. And each of the characters created by this writer you have written is also a writer, also creating their own characters, and their characters are creating in turn, and so on endlessly.
He says this is a more real picture for understanding reincarnation and all your many lives. You create all those probable worlds, those probable selves, and then they are also constantly creating, and all those completely open possibilities are constantly creating within their own realities. And they are also interconnected with one another — the characters in the novel you created are still creating, so this novel is never finalized; it is still developing, alive, just like your life.
This novel is such a nested layering: every person is a reality of their own, so it is reality within reality, and then within reality again. Like the self reflected endlessly between mirrors, there are countless yous. And to say that you read a novel and each page is one of your cycles of reincarnation — to look at reincarnation in this way is the simplest idea of people in the three-dimensional world, and it is not a real picture.
Physically speaking, the seeds of a plant fall to the ground, and they may be blown some distance from where they were born.
Physically speaking, seeds fall to the ground, or grow at some distance from the parent body. But your spiritual seeds also fly into other time directions. This is not a matter of distance, but a matter of space-time, a matter of dimensions. They enter other time directions, no longer in this world.
Within all of this, however, there is a most exquisite balance between spontaneity and order.
It is not so chaotic, so disorderly, so confused. He says there is a most exquisite balance between spontaneity and order. Within this seemingly spontaneous, unordered, automatically occurring creation — probability nested within probability, reality nested within reality, countless cycles of reincarnation existing and happening simultaneously, and mutually influencing one another — there is still an inner order among them. Between this unordered spontaneity and order, a most exquisite balance is maintained. But this is very difficult to describe in words.
Violets, for example, will not grow in winter. Only when certain conditions are suitable will their characteristics emerge.
When it cannot be said clearly, he gives an example. Violets will not choose to be born in winter, because the conditions are not suitable and they cannot grow. In other words, in what era you are born, or at what time you begin to open up your probabilities, it must be under the weather in which those conditions are present. The unfolding of the reality of the probability you choose must conform to certain conditions; it is not done carelessly or at random. When this probability will be born and when it will not be born — within this there is an exquisite balance.
The cells maintain their own shape and integrity, and to some extent maintain their positions within your organs.
The cells maintain their own integrity and their own shape, and also maintain their positions within the organs. Although the atoms and molecules within them change, the positions of the cells in the body are relatively fixed. And that overall pattern still exists; as the existence of a human body, it remains unaffected. Your body maintains its familiarity — although cells come and go, live and die, and the molecules and atoms within them constantly enter and leave, your sense of identity with and familiarity with your own body does not change.
In other terms, it is like a mountain maintaining its shape.
Within a mountain there is much vegetation, soil, microorganisms, and an environment that is constantly changing, but through the constant changes at every level of the mountain, it can still maintain the existence of the overall shape of the mountain.
The cells are used in one respect as patterns of development through which atoms and molecules express their existence.
Atoms and molecules express the meaning of their existence by forming a cell. And the cell, as the existence of a human body, also expresses the existence of the entire human body, while at the same time maintaining its own identity.
Each kind depends upon the others.
The maintenance of the cells depends on the molecules and atoms, and the maintenance of the body depends on the cells. Your own consciousness follows a certain line of development, and recognizes its own season.
In your terms, other branches of your own self operate in their own order in time, and are quite separate from your own.
To put it plainly, this set of cells, molecules, and body forms such a physical existence. It has a consciousness frequency of self-existence — whether it is the consciousness of the body, or the larger consciousness behind it that maintains the body — it has its own code system, and its frequency is different from others. And another probable self, in other probable branches, all of these have changed. After these physical changes, its frequency has also changed, so they are quite separate from one another.
Between one probable self and another probable self, it is as if two space-times are completely isolated from each other. They will not mix together, because their frequencies are different, and their encryption and decryption systems are also different. Even if they live in the same room, on the same earth, in the same space, they cannot see each other's existence, nor feel each other's existence. But at the bottom layer they are connected — on the nonphysical level, in dreams, when inspiration comes, when intuition comes, on these levels they are inwardly connected. But on the physical level, they are completely isolated and independent from one another.
The smallest root of a plant knows the best conditions for growth, and spontaneously grows toward the fullest possibility of development.
The tip of the smallest root, that capillary root, knows where to grow for the best result. All the probable events that occur for all your probable selves are oriented toward the fullest development.
At every moment, they can feel their position.
They know where they are, and are familiar with the surrounding soil. The most insignificant movement is very important to the root.
Even while the stalk is growing upward, they are also growing downward. And the flower does not yet even know where it will grow.
At this time the flower does not yet know where it will bloom, but the root knows its own position. The stalk is growing upward, and the stalk also knows. But at this time it has not yet bloomed, so the flower does not yet know where it will be.
What knowledge, then, resides in those roots!
It can make the stalk grow upward, and in the end it can bloom and bear fruit. How does the root know what kind of ground to develop into, what kind of nutrients and energy to absorb, in order to sustain the growth of the stalk, and in the end sustain the blooming of the flower and the bearing of the fruit?
And the plant itself yearns to achieve that which has not yet been achieved.
The plant also has this ability; it wants to achieve something not yet achieved — blooming, for example. Its roots grow downward with all their might, and in doing so they realize this fulfillment within all probabilities. If for a plant, the fullest state is the state in which it blooms and bears fruit.
What he means is that all your probabilities, including the self you are now, are also growing and developing with all their might. Although to you it may seem that the fulfilled result has not yet appeared, that the achievement has not yet been attained, he says that, just like the root, it is also striving with all its might to realize its own achievement and fulfillment.
Plants and Precognition: Your Inner Urge to Blossom
Seth continues using the plant metaphor to talk about probabilities and value fulfillment. He says even plants have precognitive ability—they know they are going to bloom, they know that blooming is their fulfillment, and they work toward that goal. If plants know this, do humans not? We often compare ourselves as being so much smarter than plants and animals, so many levels above them. But since even plants can know this most basic principle—even though the flower has not yet appeared, it is only a precognition, but has the plant not already precognized that the flower will come? Are not all its efforts, all its growth, for the blooming of that flower?
He says, how could you not know? If plants know this, would you not know it?
If every direction of root growth is called an exploration of probabilities—your explorations in different time directions and different directions—then the flower can be compared to a manifestation of self-value fulfillment in another, higher dimension. All probabilities and all probable events are for the sake of achieving this greatest realization of personal value, that is, the realization of value fulfillment. But this value fulfillment is not the value fulfillment as understood in our three-dimensional world.
He then asks in return:
Is the magic of your psyche any less than this plant's? Does not every reader possess the same innate ability?
Is he not saying that every one of us has this ability? Even plants have it—do you not? He asks again in return, again spurring us on.
So, every decision we make, every probable thing—when you do not know what final achievement it will lead to, you do not need to worry about it—it is definitely developing toward that most fulfilled direction, only the present you may not know it yet. Just as he said, the root knows why it grows downward, while you do not know why you do these things.
You have within yourself the same urge toward your own greatest blossoming.
He is like a plant, blossoming with his greatest urge. Seth again uses this example to encourage us—see how attentive he is, how warm, speaking again and again, using violets, using plants, using mountains, using all kinds of metaphors, using probable selves. What has he always been trying to encourage in us? To always try, to always trust yourself, to always believe in yourself, and in all probable selves. We are all working toward a common, greater value fulfillment, working toward the possibility of a greater blossoming.
The Narcissus Analogy: You and Your Larger Self
But you are multidimensional, you are multi-dimensional, so you should not think about this question from the three-dimensional world; you should consider it from a higher vantage point. You grow in different kinds of realities, and you do not exist in only one world.
You send your petals into other times and places, and you have the ability to mature in environments that are quite different from one another.
What he means is that the things you do in this lifetime may not show any meaningful results or achievements that you can see; many people seem to live their whole lives in obscurity. He says, actually, just because your flower did not bloom in this time and space does not mean it did not bloom in some other time and space. Do you understand what Seth means by the flower? As long as you strive, enrich yourself, live with awareness, with joy and peace, follow your inner impulses and joy, and live out this life, you have already achieved your value in the best possible way. You may simply not have seen the phenomenon of it flowering and bearing fruit, that result.
Why is that? Because you yourself are a multidimensional existence, you yourself are a multi-dimensional existence. The development of the three-dimensional world may be, for that multidimensional you, just one branch of one root. But are you important? Of course you are important — without this one branch of the root that is you, perhaps that flower could not bloom in the end.
So from this angle, he wants to comfort you: if your flower does not bloom in this time and space, it will surely bloom in another time and space. In other words, the flower that blooms in this time and space of yours is not necessarily the result of this time and space either; it may be the result of another time and space, causing it to bloom in this one. What he says here serves both as encouragement and as consolation for you.
But then, as for the claim that questions your reality — you say, I do not care about matters of other realities, I do not care about matters of other times and spaces, I only care about matters of this world of ours. Well, we seem to bloom through the seasons of the earth, through continuous stretches of time. We live in a continuous linear time, and if we want to achieve certain accomplishments in our physical world, we can only see and feel them on this.
He says:
You are like a bulb that puts out a different flower each time, while still following certain overall patterns. But each flower is entirely new.
Just like narcissus and such plants, each time they put out a flower, and when that flower withers, they put out another flower. This is seen according to sequence, according to time. From the perspective of the overall pattern, each flower is of course entirely new. Every one of these achievements you attain in the physical world is new. But from the perspective of the whole, you add to the whole.
Although when you think in your sequential way of time, it is very natural that you would think of the genealogy of your psyche in the same way — one flower blooms, one flower withers; blooming is an achievement, not blooming may be a failure. It is normal and natural for us to think this way in the three-dimensional world. But you must be able to understand that you are a multidimensional existence. Your psyche itself is multidimensional, it is multi-dimensional.
Each flower of that bulb brings a different expression, so although you share a certain relationship with your past self, you are not it.
Each flower represents a different expression, and all of these put together, we call one narcissus plant, or one magnolia, or one orchid. All the flowers that have ever bloomed are the complete whole of this magnolia. But as the blooming of one of those flowers, your life cycle may be only that short — it opens, and it blooms. Because of the fact of your existence, you only understand this one blooming in this time and space of yours. But for the whole plant, your existence adds to its existence. That is the kind of relationship between you and it.
In other words, you are one flower of the narcissus, you are not the narcissus. But the relationship between you and the narcissus is exactly this kind of relationship. Without you there is no narcissus, and without the narcissus there is no you. Besides you, there are other probable yous blooming different flowers. All of these flowers, together with the root and stem of this narcissus, combine to form a complete narcissus family. But as one flower, you are not the narcissus; you are just one flower of the narcissus, and the narcissus is not you either.
He is actually trying once again, from the angle of the three-dimensional world, to help you understand this relationship between a multidimensional larger self and the present you. Earlier he described it to you from a multidimensional angle, and now he comes back to the three-dimensional world — he is afraid you will have trouble understanding, so he uses the example of a narcissus plant blooming to talk about the relationship between you and the plant. If the plant is, hypothetically, your whole self, a complete you, then this life of yours is that one flower. He is explaining the relationship between the two of you.
You see, he really spares no effort, changing his metaphors again and again for you.
You must walk around a plant on a table in order to see it from different directions.
If you want to see this plant completely, you have to walk around the table once; otherwise you can only see one side of it — this is speaking in terms of space. If we make an analogy, you walk around time once, looking at yourself from all angles, and perceive all of your developmental unfoldings. Reincarnation can be understood, from a certain angle, as you walking around time once, to look at yourself from all angles.
See how exquisite Seth's metaphor is. With just this one simple metaphor, he gives you a deep understanding of the relationship between you and that real you — the multidimensional you. It is as if you have walked around time once, that is, you look at yourself in different times and spaces. You place yourself in different times and spaces, or in different versions within the same time and space, to observe your own performance; only in this way can you see the complete you. You cannot define yourself by a single time and space, a single background, a single storyline — that is unscientific, and it is also not objective. If you want to know a complete expression of yourself, is it not a matter of letting you display your abilities in different times and spaces? Just as we walk around a table to look at a potted plant once. Well, you have simply thrown yourself into different times and spaces, letting yourself reincarnate, live, and bloom out your life in different times and spaces. And then from these different times and spaces, you watch your own performance as if watching a movie.
Seth and Ruburt: Flower and Root
He asked us to wait a moment, then gave an example:
In a certain way of speaking, I am a future of Ruburt.
From a certain angle, I am a future of Ruburt. But the past always has fresh creativity—Ruburt as his past always has fresh creativity.
The life that Ruburt knows is not in my memory.
Here you must remember this: although Ruburt is a past of Seth, you might understand it this way—since he is his past, then does Seth already know everything Ruburt experiences today? No. He says the things Ruburt experiences today are not in his memory at all. What does that mean? It means Ruburt is living an entirely new life. Everyone must understand this point, because what he is saying is that Ruburt is not Seth, and yet Ruburt is Seth.
This is different from our three-dimensional world. For example, the you in fifth grade—the things you experienced then, the present you can remember—if your memory is very good, you know what happened back in elementary school. But in reincarnation, in the spiritual world, it does not work that way. We can only use that as an analogy. Why say it is an analogy? Because it is not real; it can only serve as a comparison.
What is real is this: the things experienced in fifth grade are entirely new to you. What would happen that day, you did not know. That is a more accurate analogy, more accurate than the one I just gave. So Ruburt is his past, but the life Ruburt experiences holds no memory in Seth's present memory—Seth does not know what Ruburt is going to do.
Because when I was Ruburt, I was doing different things, and he is not bound by my reality.
Remember this sentence—when he was in that past as Ruburt, he and the present Ruburt are not in the same time and space. Seth's past is Ruburt, but the time and space where that past Ruburt of Seth existed, and the time and space where Ruburt exists now—these are not the same time and space. He was doing different things, so Seth does not know what Ruburt is doing now. But when Seth existed as a version of Ruburt, in Seth's version of that time and space, when he existed as Ruburt, he did know what he was doing then. Is this a bit mind-bending? There is no way around it; this is how things are in the multidimensional world. The things of unknown reality are not something the three-dimensional world can understand. Many times, you have to switch into three-dimensional logical thinking to make sense of it.
He said his body leaned forward, very excited, very eager, and very humorous—he knew these two people were already on the verge of cognitive collapse.
I have memories of being Ruburt, but the Ruburt I was is not in his reality. He surprises me, and his reactions change my past.
He said I have memories of being Ruburt, but the Ruburt I was is not this present Ruburt—that is another probable Ruburt. He surprises me, and his reactions change my (Seth's) past.
This is a bit convoluted: the present Ruburt is creating his own brand-new life, the future is uncertain, he is creating his own new life. Yet this life he is creating changes Seth's past—Seth has a past version of Ruburt, and that version of Ruburt is not in the same time and space as the present Ruburt. That Ruburt can be called a probable existence of the present Ruburt. So the present Ruburt is changing the reality of that past Ruburt relative to Seth.
How does he change it? Keep reading for now; do not get shaken here. As long as you follow him, you will understand.
In Ruburt's terms, I am a future self with greater knowledge. Yet he uses that knowledge to change his present reality.
From Ruburt's perspective: Ruburt's future is Seth, Seth's knowledge is richer than Ruburt's, and Seth has now come back, through channeling with Ruburt, to give this knowledge to the present Ruburt. It is a bit like the future you is very intelligent, a wise person, and he comes back to the present, in the manner of channeling with you, to tell you the knowledge you want to know, to tell you the truth of this world.
And when I was Ruburt, I did not have that knowledge.
That other probable Ruburt did not have this knowledge, because Seth at that time was not in that reality, did not come back to transmit knowledge to that other probable Ruburt. Can you understand what he means?
So you could say that I am changing my own past.
Seth traveled back, and he did not change his own version of Ruburt; he changed another probable version of Ruburt. But in the end, when he develops to the end, is his future not Seth? No matter how many Ruburts there are—one, two, three, four, five—perhaps these five Ruburts all exist simultaneously—for example, one became a nun, one is the present novelist, one is a channeler, one is nothing at all. Say there are five Ruburts; for these five Ruburts, it is like a root. Suppose Seth is their flower, then do the roots of these five Ruburts not all finally produce the flower that is Seth?
And this flower that is Seth has now come back, and to one of the roots—one Ruburt—transmitted knowledge to him, telling him why this flower blooms, what kind of flower it is meant to bloom into, and what it will develop into in the future. From a certain angle, is Seth not changing his own past? If the root is the past of a flower—for the flower, the root is its past. Yes, without the root, how could there be a flower?
What is Seth trying to do with his examples? Break our three-dimensional world's understanding of time and space, of identity—which one is me, who am I, who is the whole self; what is our value fulfillment, and what is the relationship between value fulfillment and this life of ours. He has been telling you all along through these living examples. In other words, can our today change our past? Yes, that is exactly what it means.
But Ruburt's present experience also changes my present experience.
Ruburt's present experience now also changes Seth. Of course, they have been communicating all along, and Ruburt also has different experiences, different feelings, and then in the sessions they keep interacting, keep generating. These sessions are not fixed either; they evolve through their interaction. For example, Seth originally planned to transmit just two books, but because Ruburt interacted so well, he ended up transmitting dozens of books—that is what it means.
So there is an unending interchange.
Is there an end to this? No end. The root changes the flower, the flower goes back and changes the root, the root changes the flower again. You could say life after life, it never ends.
This is like what Buddhism calls—what is it? Dewdrops on a spiderweb. You can imagine dewdrops on a spiderweb, each one crystal clear, and they can reflect the images of the other dewdrops. Suppose they can all reflect one another—because a dewdrop is spherical, 360 degrees, it can reflect the entire surrounding environment—then any change in one dewdrop will cause changes in the surface images of the other dewdrops; and the changes in the surface images of the other dewdrops, will they not in turn affect the original dewdrop again? And what does this kind of change ultimately lead to? Between them there is always mutual, unceasing interchange. In the end, who changed whom—you can no longer even say.
Kindred Selves and Time
In your terms, the interrelationships of kindred selves occur in every person now alive.
We come back again to the angle of time. What does "kindred" mean? It means you as a group, this batch of people all incarnated in this era -- your different probable selves. These are called kindred selves. That is, the different versions of you incarnated simultaneously in this era, their interrelationships are reflected in every person. And the changes of people who are not in the same era are also reflected in you. But from the angle of time and space, we can rarely feel this sort of thing directly, yet it truly exists. That is, among all these reincarnational selves and all these probable selves on the same soul family, there is a relationship of mutual influence between them. What he means by kindred is this kind of kindred -- not only the same era, but also the same soul family, or the same higher self, the same larger self, any of those.
Whether or not a conscious awareness is involved, this communication exists.
Whether you are aware of it or not, this communication exists.
When Ruburt, then, explores the reality of his own psyche, he explores time.
From a certain angle, when Ruburt explores his own inner spiritual world, he is actually exploring time -- because the selves of different times together form his one psychic existence. Can you understand this? If Ruburt explores inward into his psychic existence, is this psychic existence not the sum of all the realities of his probable selves in different times? The sum of all these realities becomes his one psychic existence. So when Ruburt explores this spiritual world of his, it is actually equivalent to exploring different selves in time -- just different expressions in different times. As Seth says, looking at oneself around time. So Ruburt is exploring himself around time.
You must begin any study from your own viewpoint. But each person's living experience is always the main source of information.
He says you must begin your exploration from your present moment. You say, I want to begin exploring, how do I begin? He says begin from the present moment, from your current viewpoint, that is, begin from this era of yours, begin from your present experience, begin from each person's living experience -- it is your main source of information. Although the information of your living experience contains information from those selves of different realities or probable selves, it will also be mixed together with this information and transmitted to you. So you must train your keen perceptiveness, and from this living information, from this experience, obtain the knowledge and experience you want to obtain.
Within the self that you know, you have all the hints you need.
Within you there are all these hints, and the information all comes from here -- including information from the three-dimensional world and information from other times and spaces, all of it is here. As long as you are willing to follow them, as long as you are willing to explore and discover them, all this information can be discovered by you.
And these will not destroy the fabric of your physical reality.
It is not that because you explore these psychic worlds or inner worlds, your physical world will be destroyed or damaged in some way -- not in the slightest. On the contrary, it will let you see more clearly the structure of that magical flower's pattern. Not only will it not destroy the fabric of your present moment -- supposing the fabric of your present moment is prepared for embroidering a better flower on it in the future -- it will instead let you see the flower that may bloom on this fabric of yours in the future. Can you understand? A very beautiful, very elegant, very exquisite metaphor.
Suppose you are a piece of fabric, and ultimately, perhaps that flower of your value fulfillment, or the flower of your achievement, will not bloom in this reality of yours, although this fabric of yours is prepared for that flower. But he says, through the exploration of the inner world, not only will it not destroy the fabric you now have, it will instead let you glimpse that magical flower that may be embroidered on this fabric. It lets you see -- so you can know your own value fulfillment. Although it is not in this time and space, it can still let you feel its flower in another time and space, and let you feel it in this time and space. Why? Because you are exploring from the psychic level, and on the psychic level it is the same. They are in multidimensional space, and there one can see that flower.
Two Notes on Time
The dictation ends here, and the session ends here. You can see how each of his endings is like poetry. Then Seth transmitted a few more pages of material unrelated to this book, followed by some of his notes.
Note 1
The first note says that in the 13th session of the early sessions in 1964, Seth told us:
I will at some future date attempt to discuss the subject of time. Any such discussion must be kept simple and uncomplicated.
Seth said he would talk about time, but he would try to keep it as simple and uncomplicated as possible, because otherwise it would be very hard for you to understand it. If I explain it using analogies or images, that is because I must relate it to the world you are familiar with.
Of course, Seth has been spending time discussing time ever since. For example, at the beginning of Session 688 in this book, he also specifically discussed time, including time turning inward and outward -- not only forward and backward, and so on. He discussed the involution and extension of time, the inward thrust and outward thrust of time.
What Seth means is that when I talk about time, I often explain it to you through analogies. Why do I use analogies? He can only use analogies, because in your world, if I explain it in a way you can understand, using things you are familiar with, it is easier for you to grasp. If I were to explain it abstractly, without any analogies -- without flowers, without violets, without mountains, without rocks -- without using these as analogies, your understanding of time would only be very abstract, and not easy to comprehend.
Of course, some analogies are apt, and some analogies may be a bit strained. It is also fine for you to imagine your own ideas based on your own understanding. Therefore, when you can truly and completely grasp the Seth material, and you can express it in your own words, or use your own analogies to explain time clearly to others, then your understanding of time will rise to another level. You can try first using Seth's examples to explain it to others. If you cannot explain it clearly, then look again to see whether there is room for improvement. If that still does not work, you can try explaining time in a way that both the other person and you are familiar with.
Then Seth said in Session 683 of Volume One:
Reincarnation merely represents probable selves in a time context, the portions of the self actualized within a historical context.
This is another way of expressing it. So-called reincarnation is a kind of probability within the context of time -- that is, the part of time that increases in value, the part of time that increases in value inwardly. You could also say it is what he discussed in this session, so I will not repeat it.
Note 2
In the 82nd session of the early sessions on August 27, 1964, he went on to say:
When man realizes that he literally creates his own personal and universal environment, then he can begin to create a personal and universal environment that is far superior to a chaotic and undeveloped concept of the universe.
He said that the traditional human view of the universe is to believe that the universe began with a big bang, then was a chaotic mess, and then order emerged from within it, including biological evolution and human civilization -- this is your undeveloped view of the universe. He said that when man understands how this universe is formed -- that it is a universe created through his own beliefs, through his own consciousness, through his own ideas -- he said this view of the universe may sound even stranger and more far-fetched, but this view of the universe is far superior, by an immeasurable degree, to your big bang theory of the universe.
Then he talked about the next step in man's cognition of the world:
The concept of reincarnation will then achieve its natural validity. This is a major piece of information for human cognition, the next step in the conceptual development of your human race.
Seth's meaning here is very clear: what I am telling you is the most important piece of information for this world, and your sciences, all the various disciplines, will in the future detect the traces of this information. He said that humanity has not yet reached this stage, but it is your next stage -- this information will make itself perceived in all the disciplines. Those of you who have read this material, or even if you have not read it, you will still encounter these things in scientific exploration -- because this is the next step in your human development, and you will certainly sense it in all the various disciplines. As long as you know this Seth material, when you encounter it, you will understand what it is, and what the greater reality behind it is. If you have not studied it, you can still sense that it is different from your traditional understanding.
He said that in psychology, it is just as much as in other disciplines. The material in all the various disciplines, whether in physics, biology, chemistry, or in illness, health, and all aspects, is a guide, a pointer toward humanity's next concept or next idea. Your scientists will sooner or later discover:
When man now realizes that he creates the image of his own reality, he will not find it so startling to believe that at other times he created other images.
When man understands that he creates his own image, that he creates his own reality, he will not find it startling that at other times, in other times and spaces, he created other images of himself. Because his present world and his present image are both created by himself. Only on the basis of such a cognition will the concept of reincarnation achieve its natural validity. And only when man understands that certain levels of the subconscious are a connection between the present and past personalities will the theory of reincarnation be accepted as fact.
Only when people come into contact with and recognize that the subconscious is a connection between your present personality and your past personalities can you believe in the true existence of reincarnation. Otherwise you cannot accept it, because no one can show you in the three-dimensional world what your reincarnation looks like. But through the study of the subconscious you can discover -- it turns out that the memories of past reincarnations are in there -- and only then can you believe that reincarnation truly exists.
This part is from the 82nd session of the early sessions, and at that time it was meant to help you understand reincarnation. But in this session, the knowledge structure has already far surpassed reincarnation -- it has overturned reincarnation again, overturned our ordinary concept of reincarnation. But at that time, in the 82nd session of the early sessions in 1964, he still needed people to establish a concept of reincarnation. What he said above was to help you establish that concept.
I have wanted to give you this information for some time, but could find no suitable opportunity.
So I have long wanted to give you this, to tell you what true reincarnation is, but I could never find a suitable opportunity. So step by step, you see, until today -- from 1964 to 1975, eleven years later -- Seth finally found the opportunity to give you a clearer understanding of what true reincarnation is.
The excerpt I just read from the 82nd session is actually an early version of reincarnation, a previous level of cognition presented in sequence. But this session, Session 728, is an upgraded version of the viewpoint on reincarnation -- it even overturns your previous cognition, yet there is no contradiction or conflict between them. That is what is so remarkable about it.
注释与核实
-
According to Mike's original words, "Mountains generally take millions of years or even longer to change"; upon verification, it should be "Mountain ranges usually form gradually over millions of years and erode slowly, but the surface is always changing, not only changing every few million years." (Source: Eleni Wood, "How old is a mountain range?", https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/geology/how-old-mountain-range) ↩