lol - seeing as to how I have devoted twenty years to writing a history of the Cherinians, with the existence of souls a central part of it, I find it amusing to be thought of as a 'materialist'.
Sorry, my friend, I was just playing with the ideas that came to me, plus I wanted to make clear that I do not wish to allow my subconscious much power over me.
Oh, I didn't mean you, Arthur - I figured you were in my camp siding against the 'unromantic' psychiatrists...but you're right - I do let my subconscious have free rein. I was just discussing this the other night with someone who made a comment about my poem and I remarked that I don't think so much as feel...ha ha, the rejoinder was that I don't think at all, at least not in the logical sequential way most do - I guess I think-feel - there must be some sense in there if only akin to the buzz of a bee in a jar, LOL!!
If I may pursue my thoughts on instincts/subconsciousness and souls.
To illustrate my thought, in my book, they discover a 12 yeear old boy, hiding in a cardboard box, in an alley, who is experiencing nightmare visions of himself killing an angel; tearing it to pieces. On closer examination of what he is seeing, they realise it cannot just be a dream, for as he tears the angel apart, the inner parts are clearly seen and they are organs and so on, which a street kid with no schooling could not imagine.
They take him home and with time, as he grows to love them, they offer to take him back in time. In the void, where we are souls without the 'blocking' caused by our bodies, they discover a past life as an alien of another solar system. That person has wings like an angel. The 'angel' is told of the problems he is causing his future self and he tells the boy not to worry about him, he died young because he was not a good person.
Now the question occurs, which I doubt I thought of when I was writing the original of the above: if he was such a bad person that he deserved to die young, why would he be 'nice' and care about his future self?
I see our souls as holding all the personalities it has been (not just the memories, as many think). Each life is a distinct layer, yet the layers occupy the same 'space' within the entity that makes up our soul (which is us only for now, while we live). The 'angel' has prompted the idea...could it be that there is a certain 'bleeding' across layers, so that they learn from each other, without losing themselves and becoming an amalgamation of all their experiences?
As for our subconsciousness and instincts - are they perhaps created out of that total mess of past lives? Could it be that the most recent, or, the most strongly felt, 'influence' our subconscious and our instincts to the greatest extent?
What if in a previous life I was a sadistic killer and torturer. Should I trust my subconscious when it tries to lead me in the direction it thinks I should grow?
I hope the above provides some material/ideas for new stories, as it has done for me.
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In case you did not know (it makes life easier):
That's intriguing, Arthur, in more ways than one. (I'll explain at the end - it's a case of synchronicity as Jung would say)
A colleague of mine confessed to me once that she was an 'old soul'. I immediately grasped her meaning and I've pondered her words ever since. She was into Yoga and eastern thought so she believed in past lives which I don't. I do, however, believe there is some evidence of generational memory being passed down through a family - I explored that idea in a poem I posted recently called "Spring 1917 …Impossibly In Memory"
But I fully grasp the implications of what you're saying and why you don't trust your subconscious impulses. You have a fully developed philosophy and it's fairly consistent although not without ambiguities, but so too is life and I can live with some paradoxes.
Anyway, while I was writing today's poem, I kept searching for a suitable photo and kept being drawn back to a Paul Cezanne painting called The Kiss of the Muse. It could have been used for tonight's poem but it seemed to have another significance. I passed on the photo because it reminded me too much of another poem I posted a few weeks ago called, Wrestling in the Dark with God about Jacob wrestling with an angel, but the image haunted me and kept recurring, especially today.
When I saw your reply tonight it made me realize I was somehow 'wrestling' with many of the same ideas you were, albeit from a different perspective. You may find this inconsequential, but I don't - this is the way things work for me, in art as in life. Don't know if this helps or muddies the waters, but I had to tell you, Arthur.
This is the first time I have bookmarked a comment.
I had not seen the painting, so thanks.
As for my theory of souls, I just realised that no philosophy I know has spoken of souls having lived on other planets in their previous lives.
I wondered why and I think I have a sort of explanation.
Let me preface my explanation by mentioning another (acceptable) oddity. If souls evolve, why has no retrogression taken anyone to a life before they evolved (as a soul) to inhabiting the bodies of sentient beings?
I think the answer is the same as it is for alien previous lives - they are too different for them to 'merge' with terrestrial/sentient lives.
Maybe I lived three lives as a Martian and had to evolve away from that because there were no more births there, so I came to be born on Earth, and had to live my first lives as a pre-sentient (or partly) man. Therefore the layers in my soul are grouped separately, the three martian ones seeping and identifying with each other, my pre-sentient lives doing the same, though in a less self-aware manner - and the rest are the ones I can more easily contact.
What if a soul is only 'whole' and advanced to the point where it nolonger needs to be reborn, once it can identify with all its previous personalities? But then, maybe there are advances in the physical plane we must also experience before we can 'consider' ourselves complete?
Perhaps my Cherinian mutants are such?
I think certain religions such as Mormonism posit the idea of living an afterlife on other planets but your philosophy is certainly unique. Buddhism teaches that a soul can advance to the point where it no longer needs to be reborn and can thus escape the endless cycle of death and rebirth. But having said all that I personally don't believe in the idea of reincarnation or karma and the related teachings. But in trying to develop a plausible story line for fiction you'd have to try to speculate and work out any major inconsistencies. Some things I hold lightly and am open to but the whole Buddhistic system of reincarnation I absolutely reject. Mind you, I am a born-again Christian but that entire system of eastern thought has never resonated with me.
I grew up as a Christian, so, though I stopped believing, I now call myself a Cultural Christian - and on a political site called Gab, I attacked atheists. I point out to them that the 'atheirm' of the corporate marxism (or the new socialism) is not as they think of it, it is based on Satanism. They are trying to destroy Christianity (with the help of many socialist priests, unfortunately - but then the priests have always been the both the strength and the weakness of every religion).
I tell them that having lived for fifty years among moslems, I know what the future of our children and grandchildren will be like, for they have no respect for any other religion or culture. It is why the globalists are importing them by the millions into Europe and all other Christian countries. If they believe so much in diversity, why are they no importing Christians into moslem countries? Why is itt evil for the white man to come to Africa to make it his home, but it is good for the black man to take over Europe?
I am not a racist, but the globalists are forcing those of us who believe in true equality into sounding like racists. As Trump said in his speech yesterday, at the UN, he believes in religious freedom, the family and in freedom of thought and the right of people to rule themselves as a nation, if that is what they want ... which is inspiring, as he is the first politician saying so in the West, for many decades (apart from the Hungarian and Polish leaders).
This is not intended to be a political discussion, but it crept in because of my wanting to explain why it is that I fight for Christianity, without my necessarily being a believer - which brings me back to the original discussion. I have had experiences which are considered 'impossible' which prove to me that they are possible (psychic), but I understand that they are nothing more than another set of anecdotal experiences for everyone else. I have watched experiences of others, for instance, a Syrian 3 year old boy crying that he wants his family and when finally asked, who are they, he gives their names and that they live in a village nearby. They are found. He speaks of being murdered and tells where his body was buried and where the murder weapon is. He gives the name of his murderer and when his body and the weapon are found, the murderer is confronted and he confesses. Another similar case of a boy in India who kept telling his mother that he misses his wife and son and he still loves them. A visiting tradesman hears the details and when he goes to the village on the other side of India, he finds the wife and son and tells them where the husband hid a tin with their money. They dig it up....
When I was 12 years old, my father had put me in a boarding school in Greece, as there were no good schools in East Africa. He came to visit, took my brother and I from the school on Friday for the weekend and Saturday morning he told us he had a bad dream, that he crashed his car and the bumper was badly dented and that n his dream he knew that it was the head of our sister, so he is immediately flying back to Nairobi. He was taken to Nakuru Hospital where my mother, sister and youngest brother were in a coma, expected to die. My sisters' head is still dented from her head hitting a metal bar when a bus crashed into them.
What I am trying to say is, this world is so much more interesting when we try to keep an open mind and learn.
Now, get back to writing some more for us, instead of listening to me gab on ... even if they have ghosts in them :)
PS: When my father left because of his dream, he left my us with this man...(standing between my brother and I - seeing this photo may make it more real?).
Also, my father strongly believed in trusting his intuition, which is how he built himself up from zero to a multi-millionaire. He then suffered from Alzheimers and made some bad mistakes which left us rather broke - but that does not matter, what does matter is that because of him I had experiences and learnt of the beauty life holds, if we keep our eyes open.
I think somewhere inside you, you still believe - as for spiritual experiences, I'm not surprised because we are spirits who possess a soul and live in a body. I'd be careful quoting Trump because the man is seriously flawed and deluded and a racist in my opinion. I personally try to become more sane and more tolerant each day - we all grow up with biases and prejudices and must learn to evolve as we live each day. The more I go on I am learning to respect all life and to try to deal with my own flaws and infirmities and prejudices, some of which I'm not even aware. BTW, I'm assuming that the man in the overcoat is a ghost - at least, that's what I think you are implying. If that is indeed the case, that photo is quite remarkable. Thanks for your candid response, Arthur.