Jack London. Before Adam -
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prey, struck at by deadly snakes. He chattered with his kind in
council, and he received rough usage at the hands of the Fire
People in the day that he fled before them.
But, I hear you objecting, why is it that these racial
memories are not ours as well, seeing that we have a vague
other-personality that falls through space while we sleep?
And I may answer with another question. Why is a
two-headed calf? And my own answer to this is that it is a
freak. And so I answer your question. I have this
other-personality and these complete racial memories because I
am a freak.
But let me be more explicit.
The commonest race memory we have is the
falling-through-space dream. This other-personality is very
vague. About the only memory it has is that of falling. But
many of us have sharper, more distinct other-personalities.
Many of us have the flying dream, the pursuing-monster dream,
color dreams, suffocation dreams, and the reptile and vermin
dreams. In short, while this other-personality is vestigial in
all of us, in some of us it is almost obliterated, while in
others of us it is more pronounced. Some of us have stronger
and completer race memories than others.
It is all a question of varying degree of possession of
the other-personality. In myself, the degree of possession is
enormous. My other-personality is almost equal in power with my
own personality. And in this matter I am, as I said, a freak--a
freak of heredity.
I do believe that it is the possession of this
other-personality--but not so strong a one as mine--that has in
some few others given rise to belief in personal reincarnation
experiences. It is very plausible to such people, a most
