ZetaTalk: Rule of Forgetfulness
Note: written Oct 15, 1996.
Forgetfulness occurs naturally. When an entity incarnates into a human
body, the mind naturally has no knowledge of past lives. The mind develops
memories from what it experiences, observes through its senses, and
concludes due to the mental processes resulting from all this. Thus
forgetfulness is natural, and breakthroughs where the spirit has an
opportunity to relay bits and pieces of a past life rare. The Rule of
Forgetfulness is not an imposed rule, it is a rule of nature. However,
given that incarnations work this way, and incarnations have
proven to be the fastest way young spirits grow and mature, no one is
rushing forward to bring a newly incarnated body up to date on what has
happened before. In fact, such a process can delay maturity or skew the
eventual decision the entity makes on its first lesson, the orientation
lesson. Imagine instances in life given no knowledge of past decisions or
full knowledge of past decisions.
- A mother, cuddling her newborn infant, sees its helplessness and
dependence on her and imagines the feelings of abandonment and
desperation such an infant would feel if not held and loved and rescued
when distressed. The mother, being basically a caring person, and the
incarnating entity inclined toward the Service-to-Others, proceeds to
care for the infant with great affection and pride in herself for her
competence. If in past lives the entity incarnating had deserted a
newborn, to ease the pressure on herself, and all the memories of this
past incident were remembered, then the current situation would be
colored with guilt and shame and in particular, the strong memory of
what caused the abandonment in the first place. The mother might defend
her prior action by repeating it, as a way of saying to herself that she
had done nothing wrong. Or the mother might look around warily, looking
for evidence that she needs to be on guard again, rather than caring for
her newborn.
- A man, on the job with others whom he is competitive with while at the
same time these same others are his friends. A promotion opportunity
comes up, and there are several candidates. The man has seen one
particular co-worker working long hard hours and knows this co-worker to
be more competent than the others. Putting himself in the place of this
co-worker and imagining the hurt that would come from being bypassed,
especially when the best choice, the man decides to back his friend,
rather than compete with him. In the current incarnation, the entity
does not foresee distress at losing out, as win or lose the promotion
there will be enough to go around for all. If the human were aware of
what the entity experienced in past lives, where the entity may have
focused solely on what was to be gained over what the impact on others
might have been, his focus during the current situation might be pulled
in the direction of entertaining thoughts of what the additional money
could buy, or what power the new status might bring one.
Thus, forgetfulness allows the entity to move through circumstances that
were similar to past circumstances, trying them out with a different
approach and consequently experiencing a different outcome.
