Hemingway on the past-life review

Thursday, August 26, 2010

9:30 AM. I didn’t record here, yesterday Viki and I were talking about something and I realized, Hemingway’s accidents were him punishing himself. That is, one aspect of his person-group punishing him, or perhaps punishing other members of the group. I felt his pain for a long moment. And, oddly, I felt that this was the first time he knew what had happened or why.

{EH] That’s right. If we don’t happen to focus on something – especially if we have made a habit of not focusing on something! – it can be hard to see it over here unless something lights it up, as happened yesterday.

But what about the life-review we supposedly all go through?

You’ll have to judge that for yourself. The whole idea of weighing a soul against a feather assumes a soul; a unit, not a group functioning together. There’s a sense in which it’s true, and a sense in which it isn’t. Like everything else.

Can you describe it a little?

There is this. When your mind isn’t constrained by the combination of physical brain (processing power, and processing speed) and sequential time-slices, then, sure, it’s going to see things whole, plain, interconnected. But think about it. When did the mind outside of the physical not see it plain, whole, unencumbered? There isn’t anything for your non-physical mind to learn! If you die and go back and retain some sense of what you experienced, then sure, you’re going to be changed. But you’re also going to be cramming a gallon’s worth of experience into a half pint sized container. Or, more like a 55-gallon drum’s worth, or an oil tanker’s cargo, into that half-pint. How accurate and balanced and measured do you suppose the result is going to be? And if you die and don’t return, again the non-physical mind has nothing to learn from the death or from the conscious mind’s experience of death. The “judgment” has been going on right along: There’s no need for a special court session because you’ve dropped the body.

Well, that’s very interesting. But if the mind in the non-physical has been observing and participating all along, as I can easily see it doing, how can it not know, for instance, that part of you was punishing yourself right along?

Never said it didn’t know, but it was a surprise to hear it anyway.

Why? I can’t make the two halves of that come together. You said your habit was not to see that fact, but you say your mind did know it, and you say when you went over, what your mind knew you knew (now that the interference of the brain and time had been removed, I take it).

Think of your soul as habit-system, and that will give you the key.

A little more?

It may seem odd at first blush, but you’ll get used to the idea. Your habits are your habits, and they persist on this side, only minus the modulating influence of time and brain mechanism. Good habits and bad habits are a matter of opinion anyway. Don’t assume you will still be diligent and won’t be wasteful, or will still be even-tempered and won’t be slothful, or any other combination of “good” and “bad” you can put together. The big difference is, you aren’t in sequential time any longer. Other than that (which I grant you is a pretty big “other than”) you’re still you. I still like to fish and maybe I don’t particularly like seeing some of my past actions and attitudes – any more than you will.

Hmm. Thanks. I’ll send this out. And sometime we ought to explore who was lashing out for what and in behalf of what.

Whenever you’re ready. If I’m out fishing, call me on my cell phone.

I’m laughing too. Okay.

One thought on “Hemingway on the past-life review

  1. Wow! That was a very interesting exchange. I’m still getting used to the idea of being a habit system rather than a soul, but that’s what the guys have been telling us for years in Frank’s work. I’m not the unit I think I am. I am a habit system that jelled from other habit systems (strands), which is the reason for 3-D.
    I’ll be interested to see the rest of the discussion with EH. He has a way of coming quickly to the point and not wasting a lot of words.

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