Cosmic Consciousness
The article: Cosmic Consciousness
Chapter 4
The faculty of memory behind the ability to sense and perceive
At the same time as this "involution" into physical materials makes the being heavy and earthbound, the beginning or the first stages of the process we call evolution takes place.
Through the above-mentioned reactions of the individual's contact with external physical Nature, memories of these reactions enter the consciousness of the individual.
We call these memories experiences.
Experiences upon experiences are gradually accumulated in an organ for this purpose, that is, in the consciousness of the individual.
It is this organ that is called the body of memory in "Livets Bog".
This body, together with the accumulated wealth of experience, becomes like an entire file or index for the individual.
Without this index, it would be quite impossible for any being to sense.
If you at this moment completely or totally lost your memory, it would be impossible for you to sense.
You would indubitably see, hear, feel or perceive the reactions of your organism's contact with external Nature, but it would be totally impossible for you to identify these reactions; in other words, it would be impossible for you to know what it was you were seeing, hearing, feeling or perceiving.
You would not know where you were at the moment.
Let us suppose that you heard a human being talking; you would not be able to understand anything of this talk.
If you have the faculty to understand something, it is solely because of the experiences that you previously have gathered in these fields.
The more experiences you have in these fields, the better faculty you will have for understanding them, and then ultimately, when your material of experience is sufficient, you will be able to have complete control of the fields and the reactions, whereas the opposite is the case when you have not had the experiences.
But though you may not be able to understand the subjects, it does not debar you from hearing talks about them, and does not mean that your hearing is not just as good as the hearing of those who understand the talks.
As you see, hearing alone is not sufficient.
It is the same with everything that you see.
If you do not have in your memory recollections about experiences like those you are seeing, then you will not in any way be able to understand or comprehend what it is you are seeing.
It is on this phenomenon that all erroneous belief is based.
When a primitive human being from the dark jungles of Africa is faced with one of modern civilisation's technical wonders, be it a car, an aeroplane or any other form of machinery, he will look upon such phenomena as "sorcery" or something "supernatural".
It is simply because he has never before experienced anything corresponding that his collected experiences or memory is totally lacking in experiences of this kind.
He cannot understand how the machine can work, and he imagines that it is animated by invisible, supernatural powers.