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Rebirth-A Philosophical Study
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the objection on the basis of the loss of memory cannot be seriously maintained 28
It is possible to say that the loss of memory at the end of every life may imply to some extent a loss and breach of continuity In losing meinory, It is said, we lose that in which we have found great balance
But we only lose comparatively worthless forins which the lapse of years would chaoge to a positive evil And as we conic to unde-stand life better we shall shrink from such a loss less and less The value of immortality would not be lessened much, if at all, by pre-existence
(16) And then it is not always possible to say that the memory is fully destroyed at death and a person will not remeruber anything of his past life in the next birth There is an ancient tradition in Indian thought which states that one can remember one's past lives by means of (a) constant study of scriptures, (b) by purification by austerity and (c) by the love of all creation 20 In the Meno Socrates is reported to have cliclied a geometrical theorem from a Negro boy although he had not studied geoinetry at all. Modern Psychical Research has been working on this problem The investigations have shown that the phenomenon of mediumship leads us to suppose that everything is not destroyed after death The spirit that has lost boduly existence can present itself and its experiences through a piedium
CD Brond's analysis of mediumship shows the stream of inter-connected events which constitute the mental history of a certain person is continued after the death of his body and communicates through a medium "There is no doubt at all that the best phenomena of trance mediumship involve paranormal cognition of high order The only question is whether this, conbined with alternations of personality and cura-ordinary but not paranormal powers of dramatization will not suffice to account for the phenomena which prima facte suggests so strongly that some persons suryk ve the deaths 30 CD Broad has developed a compound theory of mind The mind emerges into existence when the body and the psychic factor suitably combine, just as water is formed by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen He maintains that on the death of the body the psychic factor continues to exist and scems capable of being united with other suitably developed organisms It carries modifications due to experiences that happened to the person who is dead In mediumship phenomena the psychic factor of a dead person is temporary uoited with the body of the entran.
28 29 30
Radhakralınan (S) Au Idealist View of Life (Unwin, 1961), p. 238 Manusmrti 1v 148 Broad (
C D) Religion, Philosophy and Psychical Research (Routledgo & Kegia Paul, 1953), p. 25
