The Principle of Reincarnation
The article: Unnatural Fatigue
Chapter 7
Mental conflicts and autosuggestion
While the primitive human being of the past acted mainly on instinct and did not reflect on or have scruples about justice, since it was actually an unwritten law, as was the case among the animals, that justice was on the side of those that could wipe out or murder the opponent, the modern human being is not as robust as this.
It is true that its instinct prompts it to wish misfortune upon its opponent, but an incipient humanistic feeling influences the being's expanded ability to think, creating thoughts that go in the direction of defending the opponent.
So the being's instinct and feeling come into conflict with one another here.
But this conflict quickly sets in motion this human being's expanded ability to think or reflect.
And the being now begins to reflect, often for a very long time.
If the being's instinct is dominating or has the upper hand over feeling, it will dictate the being's intelligence and thereby its deliberation in favour of instinct.
Since instinct is the seat of the habits and tendencies of the past, which means this unwritten law where justice is on the side that can wipe out or subjugate the opponent, it makes the being, by using its intelligence, create the most ingenious mental images through which it sees itself as totally innocent or as a one hundred-percent martyr.
Through the same reflective thinking guided by instinct it sees, in the worst cases, its opponent as the most infamous villain, who ought to be opposed and irritated by every available means.
Whether or not the evidence or the justification for this persecution is based on facts is of no significance for the persecutor.
He has long since hypnotised himself into believing that his own mental images, created by his instinct and intelligence, are irrefutable reality.
In the worst cases he wishes death and ruin upon his opponent.
And here we have met the Viking, the Neanderthal man or the primitive child of Nature in the modern human being of the twentieth century.