DO WE DREAM OF OUR FORMER LIVES.?

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 65, 16 March 1907, Page 14

DO WE DREAM OF OUR FORMER LIVES.?

AX INTERESTING SPECULATION.

Can a cause change in itself because conditions change? If a nerve breaks to a brain wtodo s_? ca_S— tne cords or — piano »™ looseo—■ uj. l M _ n mi fl m «" not o£ piano rfros or violta strips. -1.-_ Cannot appear in perfection under unfavourable conditions. At its best the _uman organism is imperfect. If some principle iv man lias pre-e_i_ted. some evidence mlglit reasonably be looked for We should remember some—line of our past lives'- "Hut How could .remembrance arise in us so as we Could SUrel.V know iis memory of pas lives? "We forget, as it is, half or .more of our present life; the present moment is so close upon us. And most of us may have done ltttle worth, really remembering. -be eoul. touching the probably having a mission of an impersonal and universal sort, may not be concerned much about what we deem important. Our higher mind may not care to remember particularly anything we did. But how could we remember actions of a past personality in another and present personality, without seeming to be demented? Il I bad lived before as a Zulu it would be very conru«ng if I suddenly saw myself dancing a war danco In an African forest, while I. at the sua; -moment, was selling red tape to a lawyer cr a professor of science, clad in tweeds, in a modern store. I would likely go and see a doctor about it, and get some' drugs. NOT IN NATTJBE. But supposing I lay peacefully asleep and dreamed of other lauds In oiner days, and saw myself on the world's stage in anoher characer past — why. the doctors would tell mc it was due to something 1 had read, heard, or seen lately. That ts so profound an explanation, and so easy, easy minds can easily grasp it. 'Why, however, uo I uot visualise in dreams everything I read, or hear, or see, nightly? Why is it I have dreamed of what I cannot remember I ever reaa or heard in this life? For instance. T once dreamed, so vividly as if I were awate. that T sat by a slow, deep rfver. naked My hair was long to my waist. I held a weapon made of tree roots, my skin was golden red, my frame of giant size. All the earth seemed of a red hue, red grass, red sapd, a pale red sky. Behind mc stood a monster, like a huge lizard, fifteen feet or so long, with" a red mane down his scaly spiked back. He was tame and my companion. There was a blank here, and I reappeared on a seashore clad in a green kirtle, and the huge brute r_Lfl, like myself, become smaller, and was now a reddish coloured dog. That might be a memory of the time, millenniums back, shortly after "'1 was a tadpole and you were a fish," or it might be due to something read or beard about evolution, only I never read anything about evolution like that. Also, 1 never read or heard or saw red grass or anything like the curious world in the dream.

Again, I dreamed I was a professional athlete in ancient Greece or Rome, or some place or country like these. 1 never sau ancient Greece except in this dream, but I was clearly conscious it was a country of that kind- I saw an enormous marble amphitheatre, -ouilt curving anO open at one end. Seats rose tier on tier. The roof was open to the deep bine sky and brilliant sun. The arena was full of wat«>r that flowed in from the sea in the distance. Palms and cypress tri'.es stood here aud there. I stood close to the water, stripped to the waist. Beside mc stood my opponent, a big black Ethiopian. "We raced in curious boats, using a paddle,, and Bitting Indian fashion. I won In - storm of mad excitement. Iv that dream I was a totally different personality in build and appearance to what I am today. I have never raced in a boat or used a paddle, and, up to then, I had never seen a black man. Neither have I ever seen, read, or heard anything like that dream. DONE TO DEATH. Another time I dreamed I was a knight In armour on horseback. The horse was a grey and I loved him as a dear friend. We journeyed in a forest in Europe somewhere, and the time was the early Middle Ages. A score of men rushed on mc and pulled mc suddenly from the saddle unawares. I was again a Clfferent make of man to what I am now — over sis feet In height, and broad, aud very powerful. We fought hard, nnd several men were badly hurt. I was tied fast in ropes at last. A stout pole was cut, and to that I was tied again, lengthwise. Two men then placed each an end of the pole on his shoulders. I was carried slung between .nem, to a stronghold, where I was tortured to death in a torture-room at the top of a turret, afer several days' imprisonment, and'by sanction of some priests. I had never th this life ridden horsebacS, or worn armour, and I had never been tortured to death. Neither havij I ever heard of a torture chamber nt tha too of a turret. I had a fixed idea that these chambers were always la duuzeons. Lastly, I dreamed I was a child of poverty stricken hinds on the borders of Scotland about 200 or 300 years ago, was adopted as a foster brother to the son of «. thief or nobleman, and was killed, after killing -Lis enemy, with a eword thrust

throucb the windpipe, in that I-Star brother's cause* at about twenty-two years lof age. I am now In Canada. If I should come back to the world _ few hundred years hence, and dream all these things again, I hope I'll be able-it» decide what these dreams mean (and : why I should dream I lived iv Canada about this time), without the explanations jof a doctor or other people. I have not given all details In these dreams, as they are probably of no interest to any but myself, although I thin_ them worth remembrance — if they are memories. Dreams of future events that came true are reliably recorded by many. They are inexplicable by any ordinary thesis. But they are less inexplicable if we have lived before, and have some iouch, with an immortal principle. Because the past in lives gone by would determine many .future events. The desire evinced by some to become extinct at death seems superlatively seifish and cowardly. Our 5 follow-man is worthy of love. It is heart-rending to See, him sometimes sinking from man's nobility to something below a beast through vice. Better if we resolved to continue to be, even through ages of sorrow and burden if we can, that we may be the more able to help to save the soul sinking to extinction or worse from any cause. The Christ renounced living bliss to help man. Let us have good courage.—S.