From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



But this ignorance which holds man back from 

 knowledge of his past, his present, and his future, does 

 not involve pessimism; it is part of necessary and 

 inevitable, but fruitful evils. 



Moreover, according to our philosophy, ignorance 

 is essentially transitory and belongs only to the lower 

 phases of evolution. It is lessened or in fitting measure 

 broken through, even now in the course of that evolution, 

 and it will one day give place to completed and perfected 

 knowledge. 



If it is true as everything goes to prove that 

 bodily life implies a restriction and limitation of the 

 conscious individuality in a definite direction, it seems 

 obvious that release from the organism should extend 

 the limitations of that individuality. When that release 

 takes place, the Self can then grasp those realities which 

 the limitations of the brain now hide from him, in the 

 degree that his evolutionary level and his acquired con- 

 sciousness permit of. That release from limitations 

 already takes place by metapsychical decentralisation; 

 and it should, a fortiori, also take place by death. Accord- 

 ing to all probabilities the sequence of events is as 

 follows : 



For animals, and men of very low grade, the phase 

 of existence which follows on death is short and dark. 

 Bereft of the support of the physical organs, conscious- 

 ness, still ephemeral, is weakened and obscured. The 

 call of matter asserts itself with irresistible power, and 

 the mystery of re-birth is soon brought about. 



But for the more highly evolved man, death bursts 

 the narrow circle within which material life has 

 imprisoned a consciousness which strained against the 

 bounds imposed by a profession, family, and country. 

 He finds himself carried far beyond the old habits of 

 thought and memory, the old loves and hatreds, passions 

 and mental habits. 



To the degree that his evolutionary level permits, 



310 



