From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



he remembers his past and foresees his future. He 

 knows the road by which he has travelled, he can judge 

 of his conduct and his efforts. Many things which, in 

 life, appeared to him very important, now seen from a 

 higher point of view, seem small and petty. 



Great joys and great sorrows, mental storms out of 

 all proportion to their causes, the passions which devastate 

 a life, and the ambitions which consume it all these are 

 reduced to their true values, and hold but a very small 

 place in the chain of conscious remembrance. 



Some of the links with the past are easily broken; 

 they pass away like the mists of dawn. Some are strong; 

 they are part of the unbreakable chain of destiny and 

 can be unwound only little by little. This time out of 

 the body is not only a phase of recollection, of synthesis, 

 and of self-judgment; it is also a time of active psycho- 

 logical assimilation. In calm consideration the fusion 

 of old with new experiences takes place and the Self 

 identifies itself with the states of consciousness which 

 memory has stored up during life. 



Such assimilation is indispensable to unification of 

 individuality and to harmony of soul. As we have 

 already shown, it seems to be the fact that some curious 

 and mysterious disorders of personality are due only 

 to defective psychological assimilation anterior to the 

 present life, and to a decentralising and divergent 

 tendency among mental elements ill-assimilated by the 

 Self. 



In fine, the successive phases of organic and extra- 

 organic life seem to play distinct and complementary 

 parts in evolution. 



Organic life shows analytical activity, limited to a 

 given direction, and permitting the maximum of effort 

 in that direction; with a temporary beclouding of all 

 in the living being which is outside the immediate 

 purpose and the framework of present life. 



To extra-organic life pertains synthetic activity, 



