Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1exp 11/4/83; site hlexa.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!mhuxm!mhuxr!mhuxt!mhuxh!hlhop!hlexa!hsf From: hsf@hlexa.UUCP (Henry Friedman) Newsgroups: net.books,net.philosophy Subject: Time and Immortality (part 13) Message-ID: <923@hlexa.UUCP> Date: Fri, 6-Jan-84 18:48:06 EST Article-I.D.: hlexa.923 Posted: Fri Jan 6 18:48:06 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jan-84 05:50:53 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ Lines: 132 (c) Copyright 1983 by Henry Friedman (Copying for personal use by users of net is authorized.) -- There You Are Again! (continued) Of course, if instances of valid "reincarnation experiences" were common instead of rare, there might not be a problem with the concept of time twins. In that case, I could be fairly certain that after my death someone else would be born who would know my whole life, and think he was me (reborn), and feel and act just like me. And so, it would appear reasonable that one would then feel that he or she would indeed experience a type of "resurrection" in the future. But given the fact that such instances of apparent remember- ing are rare (even assuming for argument that some of these experiences are substantiated paranormal events), where are we left? For the person who believes in the conventional doctrine of reincarnation, such apparent rarity of recall is no problem. To that person, *eventual* remembering seems a certainty, as he or she believes that memory resides in a soul, not in electrochemical waveforms stored among neural synapses. And in any event, he believes he survives, absence of memory notwithstanding, because his essence has survived and entered a different body in the future. But to us non-soulists, our supposed successor in the future cannot possibly know us by actual memory, and our resurrection in the future would appear to depend upon a highly improbable psychic event. To begin to address some of the above objections to the con- cept of time twins, let me first state that it operates largely in the mythic dimension (discussed in the previous chapter), not in the reality system of everyday life. And the mythic dimension is experienced largely by the uncons- cious, not the conscious, mind -- as evidenced by the fact that the archetypal images associated with synchronistic experiences arise from the unconscious mind. This is not to say that survival via time twins is merely a fabrication of the unconscious mind, but rather that the reality would largely be *experienced* at the unconscious level. Of course, if large numbers of people ever became interested in time twins, there would probably be a resurgence of interest in hypnotic regression. If this were the case, the proba- bility of our more complete "resurrection" in the future would be improved, as our future time twins endeavored to learn of their psychic heritage from the past. Given our knowledge about the unconscious, we might fairly readily accept the possibility of such intense psychological identification with another person, if the psi phenomenon of communication through spacetime could be corroborated. For we know that fairly intense unconscious (and conscious) identification occur quite commonly, even when the objects of such identification are very dissimilar to the persons who identify with them. If such were not the case, movies, novels and tv drama would not be nearly as profitable and popular as they are. Admittedly, the concept of time twins cannot be considered valid if it *makes no apparent difference* in our lives. But if some of our conscious decisions are influenced not just by a combination of "nature and nurture," but also by unconscious psychic messages from the past (and future), from our time twins, then the concept *would* be meaningful. Examples of such possible instances of psychic influence might include 1) the ability of child prodigies to learn at a pace so rapid that the learning seems to outpace by far the teaching they receive, and 2) the intense sense of direction or purpose that seems to drive some people, even as children. Of course, this is not to deny that the basic genetic talents and predispositions must also be present. But just what is meant by the statement, above, that sur- vival via time twins operates mainly in the mythic dimension of reality? A brief clarification of this point will also serve to show the relationship of the concept of time twins to the material introduced earlier in this series. In the reality system of everyday life, death means the extinction of the person and the personality. However, in our discussion of another reality system, the spacetime con- tinuum, we saw that in that system of reality, the past "still" exists, the future "already" exists, and nothing that has ever existed ever ceases to exist. Without the reality of the spacetime continuum, the concept of time twins would have no foundation; for there could then be no, as it were, coexisting sets of persons across the ages of time to exert psychic influences upon one another. That is, if I don't continue to survive in the past, I cannot be "resurrected" through my successor in the future. It is at this point that the third reality system, the mythic dimension, is relevant, in several different ways. First, the concept of time twins requires that persons very much like ourselves appear throughout time at reasonable (and possibly predictable) intervals. This would, in turn, appear to require the existence of the mechanism of cyclical synchronicity that was covered in the previous chapter. Second, the existence of a psychic mechanism that would per- mit a type of mental communication through time also appears to depend largely upon synchronicity. (The question of valid psi phenomena will be discussed briefly below.) And finally, consider the very idea that someone who no longer exists (in the present) can nevertheless still exist (in the present) because of some type of mental association: such an idea could only be valid if there were a reality where sym- bol and object of symbol were one. That reality is, again, the mythic dimension. The unconscious mind, operating in the mythic reality, can resolve the apparent paradox of time twins: the same person, yet different persons. For a major characteristic of the unconscious mind is the free formation of many types of psychological and archetypal symbols. And the unconscious mind would not quibble about totally identifying with some- one who is, at the conscious level, a different person. In so identifying with persons in the future and the past, the unconscious mind can form a symbol of resurrection and immortality. And in the mythic dimension, things that are associated are no longer separate (even though separated in space and time), and symbols are reality. In the reality of everyday life, change is inexorable. In the reality of the spacetime continuum, change is an illu- sion. And in the reality of the mythic dimension, space and time are illusions. (Chapter and series to be concluded in part 14.)