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CREATION.
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advanced souls than the ordinary type of mediums. The sum-total of past experiences is preserved in the mind in the shape of tendencies, emotions, passions, and the like, but not as isolated fragments or bits of knowledge, floating on the surface of consciousness. Hence, the memory of past incarnations depends on the capacity of the soul to re-transform its mental inclinations and tendencies into the original experiences which had given them birth. That mind is possessed of the power to revivify evaporated impressions of past thoughts and deeds, is evident from the faculty of recollection. Hence, any one who can perform the task of self-introspection in an advanced degree can recover the memory of his past lives, though, in the case of ordinary mediums, who are generally passive,' this power cannot be conceded, except where the abnormality of mind unconsciously leads to the training of the will. But even in such a case the errors of belief and impurities of mind and body are sure to impart their tinge to the phenomena perceived and to make things appear topsy-turvy.
One has only to read the biographies of the Holy Tirthamkaras in some of the Jaina Puranas to be convinced of the fact that a consciousness of pre-incarnations is not only not the outcome of suggestion in each and every case, but also possible of attainment for mankind at large.
The present generation would not have found it difficult to believe in the anthenticity of the spiritistic phenomena, had it not been for the innumerable frauds
* See Chapter IX.
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