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-Other, 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 new born, 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 need 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.

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