Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-08-06
{ ANCESTRAL MEMORY.
A THEORY TO EXPLAIN SOME
FREAKS OF THE MIND.
These Flashes Of "Reminiscences Are
the Sudden Awakening. the Calling
Into Action Of Something We Have
In Our Blood.

Into Action Of Something We Have
In Our Blood.
There are few people who have uct
a. tines been startled by some vivid
remlnis1 eace which has suddenly IL
lun.ined their minds when visiting
some entirely new locality or while
viewing some scene which they kno v
they have never seen before. A key
hrs been, somehow, turned; a bolt
back somewhere within the inner
temple of their Consciousness: Sc
cret flashed in upon them, a thrill OF
insight has possessed them, and they
feel for the moment a new light has
broken over them. Words of amazed
recognition rush to their lips, as full
current OF new thought is switched on
and they feel they want to say SO
much all at once that the effort gen.
orally ends il their saying little that
is coherent. For an all too brief space,
the recollection is there-a concept
in the minds eye, clear and strong,
then it fades away, while they des-
perately hang on to the skirts of the
vision. When it is entirely gone they
struggle to recall it as one would re-
cast dream No use-it is gone; and
the more serious ones realize that
there are thoughts without words, as
well as songs without words; slum-
bering ideas; dormant pictures; gen.
ius held in bondage, which require but
the magic word to call them into &C
tive operation.
At other times the vision fingers
sufficiently to enable us to get aold
of something fairly definite; we are
on firm ground to say, 81 have see2
all this before I recognize that hill
and those ruins; beyond that hill there
is a village; the end of that lane will
bring us to the main road" and we
pass ON to give further details of what
the picture brings back TO us.
Have you ever felt on seeing place
for the first time that you have been
there before? This is a favorfte ques-
ton of mine. and il quite 80 per cent
of the answers I get something which
bears directly on the theory of a ra-
cial memory A few, from fear of
ridioule or misunderstanding, prefer
to pass the question, and it is not al
ways easy to break through the Eng
4ish reserve, but 1 could give some
very interesting answers.
And this strange thing-this haunt
ing as of a re-existence-iS not ex-
ceptional; 1t is not new; it is not
those whose minds are srupersensitive
From the very dawn of history it has
haunted the minds of men, given food
for thought and shaped itself in all
kinds of speculation.
In common with other forms of mys-
ticism it has it's cradle in the East,
where it had It's philosophers and
poets. In the subtle metaphysics Of
the Brahmins and in the noble moral
ity which has it's home under the Shad-
ow of Buddha, IT stands out precise
and clear as an ultimate fact which
requires theory, and 1T would appear
a religion, for its due expression. 1t
was grated into the theology of
Egypt; it laid hold of the mind of
Plato, who discusses it under the
term s-reminiscence of
former existence or of things once
known and seen. Among the Jews the
Pharisees had explained it by doc
trine that the virtuous have power to
revive and live again (Josephus,
Antiq., XVII). In the New Testament
John the Baptist is regarded By some
as the reincarnation of Elijah, and the
disciples of the Christ on one occasion
asked whether a certain man born
blind was suffering for the sin of his
parents or for some sin of his own.
Under the forms of 'transmigration.
metempsy Ghosts, relncarlation, such
phenomena were discussed among the
early Church Fathers, some of whom
decidedly believed that pre-existence
was the explanation of such phenom-
ena as l have mentioned. Schopen-
hauer, Leasing, Hegel, Leibnitz, Herd
er and Fichte have dealt with it.
| ask, is there not such thing as
ancestral memory? That a child
should present certain features of his
father and mother, and reproduce GER
tain we'll known gestures and manner
isms of his grandfather, is looked up
on as something very ordinary. Is it
not possible that the child may inherit
something of his ancestors memory?
That these flashes of Renaissance are
the sudden awakening, the calling In
to action of something we have in
our blood; the disks, the records O.
an ancestors past life, which require
only the essential adjustment and con-
ditions to give up their secrets? If so,
then we have in ancestral memory a
natural answer to many of hfe's puz-
zles, without seeking the aid OF East
ern theology.
Have we not got here, too, a theory
which explains large class of appari-
tons, the evidence for which it is cas-
Ter to ignore than to explain, and so
we prefer 30 shrug our shoulders and
pass them by? Take the common
form of ghost story. A sees the ghost
of one z, whom he subsequently iden
titles, say from rhe family gallery of
portraits, to be an ancestor. Some
member of his house, l should say
back in the centuries, did actually
witness such a scene, did see B come
in as A saw, Only the original witness
saw B in the flesh at such a moment,
under such conditions that a great i'm
preston was made upon him, ara this
impression was handed on to a later
scion Of his house, TO be preserved in
this acial consciousness.
The theory of an ancestral memory,
/ maintain, is a reasonable proposition.
and as a working hypothesis will be
found useful in the solution of many
puzzles that confront us daily. If the
memory cells of our ancestors were
the collected photographed impress
sions OF their experiences, and these
cells in the process Of photographing
were Subjected to some subtle chan ge