From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



evolution is not the realisation of consciousness, or, if it 

 is, it necessarily implies the remembrance and the 

 knowledge of all past states of consciousness. 



It matters little from the philosophic point of view 

 that this remembrance and knowledge should be acquired 

 late and at the ideal summit of evolution ; the essential 

 thing is that they be not destroyed. Time does not 

 affect the question. Philosophy may maintain no 

 more than this that the consciousness of individuality 

 may be lost temporarily by the destruction of the organism 

 but that it cannot be annihilated; that it becomes latent, 

 and remains latent, till the height of consciousness 

 attained revives it by awakening it from its 

 sleep. 



This concept differs from the one which has been 

 set forth in the preceding chapters only under the mode 

 of time, which is of no philosophical importance. 

 Essentially, both concepts are the same. 



These are the metaphysical proofs for the permanence 

 of the individual consciousness. They have obviously 

 no more weight than attaches to metaphysical proofs 

 generally; however undeniable their cogency, they 

 cannot stand in lieu of scientific demonstration. 



The whole of this book in its entirety is that scientific 

 demonstration. By referring to the preceding chapters 

 the reader will see the steps by which we have been able 

 to deduce clearly and positively, at least as a rigorous 

 estimate of probabilities, that the individual conscious- 

 ness is indestructible and permanent, even when it 

 becomes latent in subconsciousness. 



Every new life necessarily implies a temporary 

 restriction of the individuality. Every embodiment, or 

 representation on the material plane implies a limitation 

 of all psychic activities by the field of cerebral action 

 and its organic memory. 



But below that cerebral memory, the profound 

 memory remains indelible and permanent, retaining all its 



305 



