5. Are there scientific
reason for the Spirit,
when reincarnating,
forget his past?
Text
Our instinctive
tendencies are a
reminiscence of the past
1. The forgetfulness of
the past, which is
considered the most
serious objection
opposed to the Law of
reincarnation, gives
opportunity to its
opposition to bring up
such questions:
-
If the man lived
before, why doesn’t
he remember his past
incarnations?
-
If he can’t remember
his past
incarnations, how
can he make the most
of the experiences
acquired then?
-
If he can’t remember
what he did or
learned in the past,
each existence
wouldn’t be for him
as if it were the
first one? This way,
wouldn’t he be
always starting
again?
2. Allan Kardec gives us
in “The Spirits’ Book”,
in a clear explanation,
a convincing answer to
such questions.
3. If we have not an
exact remembrance,
during our corporeal
life, of what we have
been, and of the good or
evil we have done, in
our preceding
existences, we have the
intuition of our past,
of which we have a
reminiscence in the
instinctive tendencies
that our conscience,
which is the desire we
have conceived to avoid
committing our past
faults in the future,
warns us to resist.
4. The aptitude for this
or that profession, the
ability for this or that
subject, e moral flaws –
those are elements with
no explanation but
reincarnation. With
effect, if the soul was
really created along
with the kid’s body,
people should reveal
similar talent and
taste, but this is not
what we see. Those who
have children know how
different they are, even
if they are raised in
the same environment.
The forgetfulness of the
past attests the wisdom
of God
5. Is there not, in the
forgetfulness of our
past existences, and
especially when they
have been painful, a
striking proof of the
wisdom and beneficence
of providential
arrangements? It is only
in worlds of higher
advancement, and when
the remembrance of our
painful existences in
the past is nothing more
to us than the shadowy
remembrance of an
unpleasant dream, that
those existences are
allowed to present
themselves to our
memory. Would not the
painfulness of present
suffering, in worlds of
low degree, be greatly
aggravated by the
remembrance of all the
miseries we may have had
to undergo in the past?
6. A Spirit is
frequently reborn into
the same ambient where
it has previously lived,
establishing once again
the same relationships,
in order to repay the
evil done. Recognition
of these same persons,
who perhaps had been
hated, would only serve
to rekindle that
emotion. In any case,
humiliation would be
felt on confronting
those who had been
offended. So in order
that we may improve
ourselves God has
bestowed upon us
precisely what we need,
that which is sufficient
and nothing more, this
being none other than
the voice of conscience
and our instinctive
tendencies. He has only
deprived us of what
would be prejudicial.
7. Moreover, this
forgetfulness only
occurs during bodily
existence. On returning
to the spiritual world
the remembrance of the
past is regained. So it
is only temporary, a
slight interruption
similar to that which
occurs during sleep, but
which does not prevent
the remembrance on the
subsequent day of what
was done on the previous
one.
8. God gives us for our
amelioration just what
is necessary and
sufficient to that end,
viz., the voice of our
conscience and our
instinctive tendencies.
He keeps from us what
would be for us a source
of injury. Moreover, if
we retained the
remembrance of our own
former personalities and
doings, we should also
remember those of other
people a kind of
knowledge that would
necessarily exercise a
disastrous influence
upon our social
relations. Not always
having reason to be
proud of our past, it is
evidently better for us
that a veil should be
thrown over it.
9. And these
considerations are in
perfect accordance with
the statements of
spirits in Regard to the
existence of higher
worlds than ours.
There are scientific
reasons to explain the
forgetfulness of the
past
10. Leon Denis and
Gabriel Delanne explain
to us why the Spirit
doesn’t remember his
past incarnations.
11. According to Denis,
in consequence of the
diminishment of his
vibratory state, the
Spirit, every time he
takes over a new body,
of a blank brain, is
unable to express what
he lived in past
existences.
12. Delanne says that
the perispirit takes, as
it reincarnates, a weak
vibratory movement so
that the least of his
previous experiences can
be brought up.
13. We can, then, sum
up:
·
The forgetfulness of the
past and, consequently,
the mistakes made
doesn’t lessen the
results.
·
The knowledge of them
would be, though, an
unbearable burden and a
cause of discouragement
for many people.
·
If the remembrance of
the past was general,
this would incentivize
keeping hatred and
anger.
·
The terrestrial
existence is, sometimes,
hard to take, and it
would be even harder if,
to the cortege of our
current faults, we add
to our memory the
previous ones.
Answer
Key
1. If the man lived
before, why doesn’t he
remember his past
incarnations?
A.: A Spirit is
frequently reborn into
the same ambient where
it has previously lived,
establishing once again
the same relationships,
in order to repay the
evil done. Recognition
of these same persons,
who perhaps had been
hated, would only serve
to rekindle that
emotion. In any case,
humiliation would be
felt on confronting
those who had been
offended. So in order
that we may improve
ourselves God has
bestowed upon us
precisely what we need,
that which is sufficient
and nothing more, this
being none other than
the voice of conscience
and our instinctive
tendencies. He has only
deprived us of what
would be prejudicial.
2. If he can’t remember
his past incarnations,
how can he make the most
of the experiences
acquired then?
R.: If we have not an
exact remembrance,
during our corporeal
life, of what we have
been, and of the good or
evil we have done, in
our preceding
existences, we have the
intuition of our past,
of which we have a
reminiscence in the
instinctive tendencies
that our conscience. The
aptitude for this or
that profession, the
ability for this or that
subject, e moral flaws –
those are elements with
no explanation but
reincarnation.
3. If he can’t remember
what he did or learned
in the past, each
existence wouldn’t be
for him as if it were
the first one? This way,
wouldn’t he be always
starting again?
A.: Apparently so, but
the acquired knowledge,
the lived experiences,
the lessons taken in the
past give us basis for
our talents and
aptitudes. Those who
have children know how
different they are, even
if they are raised in
the same environment.
While some advance in
the study and sometimes
surpass their own
teachers, there are
those who have
difficulties in
learning, which shows
they bring their own
baggage, in the
intellectual field as
well as the moral one.
4. Would the
reminiscence of past
existences disturb or
improve social
relations?
A.: Moreover, if we
retained the remembrance
of our own former
personalities and
doings, we should also
remember those of other
people a kind of
knowledge that would
necessarily exercise a
disastrous influence
upon our social
relations. Not always
having reason to be
proud of our past, it is
evidently better for us
that a veil should be
thrown over it.
5. Are there scientific
reason for the Spirit,
when reincarnating,
forget his past?
A.: Yes. Leon Denis and
Gabriel Delanne talk
about this in their
books. According to
Denis, in consequence of
the diminishment of his
vibratory state, the
Spirit, every time he
takes over a new body,
of a blank brain, is
unable to express what
he lived in past
existences. Delanne says
that the perispirit
takes, as it
reincarnates, a weak
vibratory movement so
that the least of his
previous experiences can
be brought up.
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