future self

Future Self (future self) Clue Archive

1. What are Seth's specific claims about this concept? How many times was it mentioned, in which books, and did the wording change over time?

Seth's direct statements on the concept of the "future self" appear in the early sessions, with the core claim: "Your ego contains parts you would call your 'future selves'" [early-sessions-3 §142].

Specifically, Seth pointed out that in a fundamental sense, your present ego contains your selves from the past, from previous lives, the "countless present selves" unknown to ego consciousness, and also future selves [early-sessions-3 §142]. The ego is not a fixed thing at any given moment, but a series of simultaneous events, constantly changing, with "what it is" coexisting alongside "what it was" [early-sessions-3 §142].

Regarding the probabilistic operation of the future, Seth held that the future, like the past, can change, and that such changes arise from choices made in the past and present [early-sessions-5 §234]. Prophecy is merely a prediction of which future probability path will ultimately be selected; the choice remains in the individual's hands and thus does not conflict with free will [early-sessions-5 §234]. At the same time, the probability field genuinely exists, and your future self resides within this field, which is also the material source from which all pasts, presents, and futures are constituted [early-sessions-5 §234]. The present you are experiencing is woven from thought patterns selected from this probability field [early-sessions-5 §234].

2. What mechanism does he provide?

The material does not address this.

3. Are there observable inferences or explicit predictions (including time, quantity, conditions)?

• An individual may react in the past to a future event that may never occur [early-sessions-5 §224].

• The inner self can indeed perceive events that will occur after physical death [early-sessions-5 §224].

• The inner self can also see future events in which it will not participate [early-sessions-5 §224].

• Possible future events can be foreseen as clearly as events more likely to actually occur [early-sessions-5 §224].

• No event is destined to happen; it can be altered, not only before and during its occurrence, but also after it has occurred [early-sessions-5 §224].

• The event of a murderer can be changed after the murder has occurred, but the murdered person will not return to the same action system in the same complete physical manner as before the murder [early-sessions-5 §224].

• Possible selves transmit data to the dreaming ego, which weaves it into dream dramas, informing the subconscious of the probable success or danger of a given event being considered for physical reality [early-sessions-5 §233].

• The subconscious knows of and reacts to the existence of possible selves in inverted time systems [early-sessions-5 §233].

• Without the information transmitted from possible selves to the subconscious through the dreaming ego, it would be extremely difficult for the ego to make any decisions in the physical universe [early-sessions-5 §233].

• Possible selves have operated in every reincarnation and in every concrete embodiment of every personality, holding millions of possible situations and conditions available for value judgment [early-sessions-5 §233].

• The subconscious makes its own value judgments and transmits these to the ego, but the ego must make its own decisions [early-sessions-5 §233].

• After the ego makes a decision, the subconscious sometimes changes it because the decision is clearly unwise [early-sessions-5 §233].

• This possible self can be reached through hypnosis, but only with excellent subjects and excellent hypnotists [early-sessions-5 §233].

• There are peak periods, when the self coincides with the soul or the entity, communication is at its best, and these all occur through the window of the "now" [personal-reality §668].

• The vitality of your existence radiates outward from the earth in rhythmic patterns, and at other points in the space-time continuum, you meet other portions of yourself at intervals of time, each "now" being charged with potential at the meeting [personal-reality §668].

• The highest point formed within each "self" is opened as an attraction, through which the amplified potential of the entity flows, which may appear as elusive energy like sunspots [personal-reality §668].

• Socially, such a time is not far off, possibly reflected in seemingly restless periods in which new creativity looms on the horizon, with immense global changes [personal-reality §668].

• Any point of your present is a point of "creative change" with potential greatness, but because of the rhythm, change will more easily occur in certain cycles [personal-reality §668].

• In Framework 2, an individual can project to a future event in which they will participate, and through an action in the projection, alter the course this future will take [early-sessions-6 §262].

• This projection action into the future will therefore appear twice—once in the present and once in the future—and in the future, it is your "already-traveled self" that comes from the past, and you are the one whose course is altered [early-sessions-6 §262].

• For example, a person projects in sleep to 1972, sees the future self considering various courses of action, gives a definite decision, and that future self heeds the words [early-sessions-6 §262].

• In a projection, you may find yourself within a battle planned in some general's mind, although that battle never materialized in physical reality [early-sessions-6 §262].

• Unless you are drawn to spontaneously project into a soldier's body, you will not be harmed in such a battle, but if you do project into a soldier's body, you may experience pain until your own fear pulls you back [early-sessions-6 §262].

• Your future self may have forgotten certain things; the future self may request information, and this request can prompt the present self to make a genuine and legitimate projection into the future [early-sessions-6 §262].

• The supraself, under certain conditions, is sometimes known to you in dreams, and to it, your ego's future can be easily seen [early-sessions-7 §301].

• The supraself represents what you will become in terms of time concepts, represents your highest potential, but it already exists because all potentials have been fulfilled [early-sessions-7 §301].

• The supraself includes the probable selves previously mentioned, and it can be given mathematical identity, can be mathematically discovered [early-sessions-7 §301].

4. Where did he say science of his time was wrong, and in what direction should it look?

Seth pointed out that science of his time erred in insisting on the mechanistic model of bodily wear and tear, and that this model was given greater power by "beliefs" [dreams-evolution-1 §898]; science views the genetic system in a mechanical, deterministic, and reductionist manner, neither addressing exchanges between consciousness and environmental and cultural events (such as politics and economics), nor acknowledging that the genetic system plans for future probabilities [dreams-evolution-2 §910]; scientists often become prisoners of their own instruments, "seeing" only the camouflage patterns they are familiar with, and instruments themselves transform data, preventing researchers from reaching true reality [dreams-evolution-1 §884]; science has never addressed nonphysical forms of consciousness that serve as "inner psychological particles" [dreams-evolution-1 §884].

Seth indicated that the correct direction lies in acknowledging that the world is formed from the inside out, moving from dream reality into physical reality, and that these processes occur at another level of consciousness [dreams-evolution-1 §898]; science needs to confront the interactions among consciousness, genetics, environment, and culture, and acknowledge that the genetic system contains planning for future probabilities [dreams-evolution-2 §910]; at the same time, it should study the basic units of consciousness itself (such as "psychological particles" or "units of consciousness"), rather than limiting itself to physical particles and instruments [dreams-evolution-1 §884].

5. What experiments or exercises did he suggest? What did Jane and Rob actually do and observe?

• Bedtime exercise: imagine your mind as an ocean you can walk upon, you stand on the water's surface, all emotions beneath the surface, you listen with inner ears and see with inner eyes; you should hear sounds and see figures on the horizon; do not run, relax and let the figure approach, let the figure speak first; this figure is an old friend you know who will help you, and when it speaks you will understand [early-sessions-9 §454].

• Seth emphasized that this exercise is symbolic, but there is truth in symbolism; perform it each night before sleep, no need for length, and upon rising you should record what you saw and heard; if for a time you only see dark figures and the horizon, do not force it [early-sessions-9 §454].

• Seth advised attempting this "water-surface exercise" at least 30 to 35 times before doing other projection exercises; this exercise was never recommended to others [early-sessions-9 §454].

• Seth held that this exercise of "the self standing upon the water" can give you sufficient control so that you need not worry about whether the psychic visitors you contact are appropriate [early-sessions-9 §454].

• Jane once heard a male voice whisper "twelve-oh-five" in a hazy morning state; the voice seemed right at her ear, and she heard nothing else; using a pendulum to verify, she got the answer that she had received random telepathy [early-sessions-4 §153].

• Jane once experienced standing within gray-white smoke in a hazy state; she knew she was not dreaming, smelled smoke, was an observer, but felt a rapid panic, and when the panic appeared the experience ended [early-sessions-4 §153].

• Jane and Rob both made efforts to resume regular experiments with the pendulum, because Seth had suggested they do so [early-sessions-4 §153].

• Seth stated that Jane and Rob were gaining proficiency in communication between the ego and the subconscious, which increased the efficiency of their overall behavior [early-sessions-4 §153].

• Seth had cautioned Jane in Session 54 to go gently in her "ecstasy" experiments, because Seth had not expected Jane to achieve such a focus of inner energy so early in her learning of psychological time, and said such energy, if inadvertently directed at others, could produce unpleasant effects; Jane stopped attempting to reach that state after that session and had not experienced it again by Session 100 [early-sessions-3 §100].

• Rob once conducted a half-hearted experiment during a trip: on the return from York Beach, he suggested to his subconscious, based on "expectancy value," that the car would consume less oil than on the outbound trip; upon arriving home he was convinced the car had used at least two quarts less oil, and at two stops along the way the attendants said no oil was needed or only a little was needed; he only told Jane about it after returning home [early-sessions-2 §80].

6. Supplements or contradictions from other concepts in the corpus related to this concept?

1. Essence and definition level

• The "future self" is not an independent or pre-existing entity, but a component of the whole self; at the basic level, the self you are now includes your selves from past moments in this life, a series of selves from past existences, various present selves unknown to the ego, and those you would call "future selves" [early-sessions-3 §142].
• The parts within the whole self communicate with one another, and future and past selves intermingle [early-sessions-7 §312]. In the dream state, the experiences that appear to you as future lives are already familiar to the inner senses; because for all inner senses, all these existences are simultaneous [early-sessions-7 §312].

2. Relationship to the "supraself" or "whole self"

• There exists a "supraself," the overall identity of the various portions of yourself operating in different systems; to the supraself, your ego's future is easily seen, all portions existing simultaneously [early-sessions-7 §301].
• In your time terms, the supraself represents your highest potential; but basically the supraself already exists, because all potentials have been fulfilled [early-sessions-7 §301].

3. Supplements related to the "entity" and "multi-self simultaneity"

• The future self is related to the entity concept: at a certain point, you (Joseph, Ruburt) and I myself belong to the same entity; at that point, Dunne-like serialization collapses and a new synthesis occurs [early-sessions-5 §218].
• Seth stated of himself: "In one way, and in only one way, I am a future self of Ruburt—this is extremely simplified—comparable to what Dunne called self number twelve" [early-sessions-5 §218]. This communication is possible precisely because of the special connections between selves [early-sessions-5 §218].
• The material clearly states that a nonlinear multi-self structure exists: the way the self moves through different times is not the infinite serialization Dunne imagined; at a certain (mathematically existing) point, these times and selves become one (i.e., the entity) [early-sessions-5 §218].

4. From the perspective of cosmic energy and life vitality

• The vitality of your existence intrudes into three-dimensional reality, forming a particle, namely your present "this person"; but this particle also radiates outward from the earth in rhythmic patterns, and this also occurs for other portions of yourself at other points in the space-time continuum; at intervals, these portions meet [personal-reality §668]. At the meeting, each of your "nows" is charged and filled with potential [personal-reality §668].

7. Questions not yet asked

1. Seth states that the subconscious can transmit 'value judgments' about future events to the ego; could a cross-temporal decision experiment be designed: presenting subliminal stimuli related to future outcomes and then measuring choice tendencies, to test whether they deviate from a no-priming condition?
2. The material mentions that 'possible selves' transmit information to the self in dreams; could a longitudinal diary method record dream content before major decisions, with independent raters blindly judging the correlation between dreams and subsequent decisions, to statistically test their predictive validity?
3. Seth asserts that the 'future self' can give definite decisions in projection; could lucid dreamers be recruited to set an intention in dreams to 'consult the future self,' and afterward compare decisions made in lucid dreams with decisions made in waking states?
4. Regarding the claim that 'events can be changed after they occur,' could the experimental paradigm from regret research be used, having subjects engage in mental time travel over already-occurred adverse outcomes, measuring their subsequent behavioral changes, to test expectations about 'post-hoc plasticity'?
5. Seth states that the supraself 'can be mathematically discovered'; could mathematical modeling methods from self-continuity research (such as state-space models) be borrowed, representing the 'probable future self' as a latent variable, and fitting its existence with behavioral data?

Appendix: Claim List (for Phase C)

id	claim	type	source
future-self-1	The present self contains past, previous-life, and future selves; the self is a series of simultaneous events.	ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §142
future-self-2	The future, like the past, is changeable; prophecy is only a prediction of probability paths and does not violate free will.	ontological assertion	early-sessions-5 §234
future-self-3	The probability field genuinely exists, the future self resides within it, and the present is woven from thought patterns selected from the probability field.	ontological assertion	early-sessions-5 §234
future-self-4	No event is destined to happen; it can be changed, even after it occurs; a murder event can be changed, but the murdered person will not return in the same physical manner.	testable prediction	early-sessions-5 §224
future-self-5	Possible selves transmit data to the subconscious through the dreaming ego, informing it of the success or danger of potential events; the subconscious makes judgments and influences ego decisions.	mechanism description	early-sessions-5 §233
future-self-6	There are peak periods when the self coincides with the soul, communication is best, and the vitality of existence meets at various points in space-time in rhythmic patterns and is charged.	ontological assertion	personal-reality §668
future-self-7	In Framework 2, an individual can project to a future event and alter the future course through actions in the projection.	mechanism description	early-sessions-6 §262
future-self-8	The supraself represents highest potential, already exists, can see the self's future, and can be mathematically discovered.	ontological assertion	early-sessions-7 §301
future-self-9	The self's movement through time is not Dunne-style infinite serialization; at a mathematical point, time and self become one (the entity).	ontological assertion	early-sessions-5 §218
future-self-10	Water-surface exercise: before sleep, imagine the mind as an ocean, stand upon it, let the figure approach and speak, record; do no other projection for at least 30-35 times.	methodological suggestion	early-sessions-9 §454
future-self-11	Jane once heard a "twelve-oh-five" voice, verified as random telepathy.	experimental record	early-sessions-4 §153
future-self-12	Rob suggested to his car, based on expectancy value, that it would use less oil, and it indeed used less.	case evidence	early-sessions-2 §80