Why We Forget
Question: Do we lose our memory and become childlike so the necessary lessons can be learned in a productive way and move us forward in our physical and spiritual progression?
JJ: The technical reason we lose our memory is because of our identification with our physical bodies and the material world. Fortunately, when the body dies the record of our lives remains in the permanent atom that we take with us.
Past lives can be recalled but to do so one has to have the knowledge revealed through the soul, or disconnect from the physical through meditation or relaxation techniques so the memory can be accessed.
To understand how much our memories are connected to our bodies it is helpful to study your dreams. If you think back to your many dreams you may recall that in many of them you remembered few accurate memories of your preset life. Sometimes you will have a different identity completely. Other times you will have a different spouse, friends, home, occupation, car, etc. The reason for this is you are partially disconnected from your body during sleep, so your memories are not accurate. Your dreams are composite of a hodge-podge of memories from this life, previous lives and impressions picked up from other entities.
When we awaken and focus on the physical then our memories in the physical are fairly accurate. But that focus overshadows all other memories from the past and makes them difficult to access.
So why does the Divine Plan allow for us to forget past lives as we enter into a new one?
The answer is quite simple. A new start with a blank slate in each life forces us to choose and focus on something new to learn.
Take a look at some of the aging rock musicians for example. Some of them have not had a hit for 20-30 years, but they still keep on playing the old hits over and over and any new music they write sounds stale. They’ve lost their edge, but still keep on doing the same thing instead of learning something new.
For many people like that the only thing that will direct them on a new path of learning will be death, forgetting and rebirth.
A few years ago, Michael Jordan quit basketball and decided to do something new for a star player. He tackled a sport that required new learning — baseball. This was a sport that he was not that good at yet. I thought — good for him. That’s a sign of an evolved soul to force himself to do something new when it is the path less traveled on.
I was cheering him on, but then after a season or two he decided it was too difficult and he missed the accolades of being the best at his chosen sport and he moved back into basketball.
This just illustrates how tough it is to move away from something we are good at to learn something new when the new learning is not only difficult, but sometimes humiliating.
Now in his next life, if Michael Jordan is a little shorter and has a dad that teaches him baseball, he is likely to persevere in it and succeed. It will be helpful to him that he will not be distracted by memories of the cheering crowds for him being the greatest basketball player of all time.
Jesus said, “you must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God.” Such a kingdom consists of entities who are learning new things and moving forward. We are born again so we can participate in that.
This is also a key to overcoming death. We die when we finish effective learning for a particular life. If one can internally be born again and be flexible enough to take an entirely new course of learning as prescribed by his soul then he can extend his life a significant amount.
(Note from 2025: A recent study shows that people with past life memories often have emotional problems caused by disturbing memories. 71% reported childhood phobias, far above typical rates, with most persisting into adulthood. Here is a LINK to the article)
Question: Where do you see the soul residing in relationship to the body?
JJ Good answers from the group on this and thanks Larry for your comments on my books. I’ll add my two cents.
Part of the confusion comes from the fact that, in our society, the word “soul” is used very loosely with many different applications. Often times the astral body or even the etheric double is called the soul, but these are only vehicles and not soul.
Technically soul energy is that which is created through the interplay of spirit and matter, or the formless worlds and the worlds of form.
The term “the soul’ can refer to the Solar Angel but can have wider applications. It can refer to our consciousness ascending to soul contact, meaning that the consciousness centers on soul energy which opens the door to all worlds. When this door is open then the consciousness can be outside the body as you describe – or it can be within the body.
Every living being has a consciousness that it owes to soul energy and has a certain frequency. Through soul contact any individual can tune into the frequency of any other being. Sometimes we do this without realizing it.
Many times when people think they are contacting the dead when they are merely tuning into the person’s frequency. When an entity’s frequency is contacted then one can receive from such frequency – very similar information to that which he would receive from the real person.
For instance, a psychic could tune into Napoleon’s frequency and channel him even if he is reborn in the physical and in his new identity and frequency is communicating nothing to the medium. Even so his old frequency and identity remains embedded in soul essence.
There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again, now. – Eugene O’Neill
April 11, 2010
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