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-Others, 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
        newborn, 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 needs to 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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