HAVE WE LIVED BEFORE

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1930, Page 8

HAVE WE LIVED BEFORE

(By Sir Oliver Lodge in “Daily Mail.” Among those who accept as a iact the persistence of the human spirit after bodily death there is sometimes a debate between two alternatives; for the question arises whether the existanee is continuous, in some state or condition apart from matter, or whether it is subject to occasional discontinuities, ' such as would be invovled in reassociation with matter by another and get another material body. I am acquainted with plenty of evidence in favour o'f persistent existence, and even temporary utilisation

of other organisms, but I am not acquainted with any real evidence in favour of what may be called fullblown reincarnation; though I know that in some form a belief in the truth of this, and even a felt consciousness of it, is prevalent among the group of people known as Tlieosophists, who possibly have acquired some evidence unknown to me derived from Indian experience or meditation. The position of myself and of many of the psychic investigators in this country is at present that incarnation, or association with matter, has for its object the development of individual character or personality by a materialising process applied to some entity which, though in a vague way existing previously, did not exist in that specific form.

Encasement in matter, which is essentially more discontinuous than space, has the effect of isolating a portion—a gradually increasing portion—of a general psvliic reality, so as to screen that portion from surrounding influences, except those to which it can

JiimiL’iHTS, UA.cuj.Jb unustJ iu null’ll it gain access through its specially adapted and limited sense organs. During its incarnation, therefore, the mind primarily apprehends only matter —matter subject to and displaying the various forms of energy—and can thus J concentrate on a comparatively undistracted mundane existence for a short period. I The episode of earth life thus leads I to an accumulation of experience, the memory of which persists: and it is j difficult to see what gain there would ' be in interrupting the continuity of this memory bv once more plunging the personality into a subsequent incarnation. It would seem to lead only to confusion. The brain is an inhibiting' or screening organ, in which habits’ may be stored but not true memory. 1 Memory has shown itself to be a mental process, a deposit in the mind, which demonstrably survives the brain ; and upon the mind, presumably, our individual reactions or behaviour depends, as something separate from mere racial habits and instinct. Mem-j ory and character thus developed con-1 stitute the individual. | Assuming (as we well may) that earthly existence in association with matter is of value in the age-long pro-j cess of evolution, it may be surmised that| in the case of frustrated incarnation, like that of still-born children

for instance, a second chance may lie permitted. I do not know. But for any fully developed individual no second chance seems necessary or desirable. It has been suggested, however, by Myers and others that we are none of, us fully and completely incarnate here and now; that in fact our present | manifestation is a portion of a larger subliminal self, a self beneath the threshold of consciousness, which only -surges up occasionally in genius and j other exceptional' manifestations, but 1 which is a considerable storehouse of knowledge. | And it has been thought that some other portions of this larger self may, hereafter become incarnate; so that a complete self shall ultimately emerge and survive as a group or composite of many experiences and memories, each fraction contributing an element of value to the whole. A frustrated or truncated incarnation would then only affect a small portion of the whole composite self, so that if full terrestrial experience were denied to this small portion Clie deprivation would not be of such great importance. The whole larger self would presumably be the really persistent and growing or evolving entity ; though the in dividuality labouriously grown in each separate portion would certainly be retained, and would contribute its quota

of person! experience and memory to the whole. Moreover, it might often feel a strange, inexplicable sympathy with other portions of the larger self to which it belonged. This doctrine 1 venture to think may be some approximation to the truth. But it is not a subject on which anyone has a right to dogmatise. The business of those who study psychic .subjects is gradually to accumulate more evidence, in the hope of ultimately being able to formulate a reasonable working hypothesis, and so lead gradually to a theory consistent with all the facts.