Today I had a sense of déjà vu.
I was sitting at work, talking to my coworker- someone I just met- when it hit me.
Wow. I’ve done this before.
I remembered that desk and that chair. And what my coworker was saying. And the way she was saying it. I remembered it all.
It got me thinking about the soul and an idea planted in my head many years ago in Philosophy 110 at the University of Delaware.My professor was talking about Socrates and the theory of recollection. According to Socrates, we are born knowing everything. Life is just a process of recollecting it all.
This theory blew my mind. Could it be true? Could we really know it all at birth?
At the time I cast Socrates’ philosophies to the back of my mind. But as time went on I found myself thinking about it again.
I always hated Socrates because he always had so many questions and no direct answers. I’m an answers kind of gal. I like solutions. I like to think I’ve got it figured out. But as I get older, I wonder if anyone really knows.
And I am drawn back to this idea of recollection.
What if as we get older, we didn’t just get wiser, but we also got closer to our true spiritual self?
What is a spiritual self? You may ask.
A spiritual self is your ideal being- the person you were always meant to be. The life path you were meant to lead.
What if Socrates was onto something.
What if we were born knowing all of it; the trauma of birth wiped out our memory (Men in Black style) and then we spend our whole lives trying to remember it?
What if the only moment you know it all- the moment you recollect it all over again- is the moment you die and pass over?
What if we already know all this?
This is the stuff that boggles my mind.
And I guess we will never know.
Photo credits: http://www.conniebowen.com, Stockphoto
Good discussion. The totality of all that has existed, does exist, or will exist, is contained within each of us. We get the occasional glimpse of this process, but these glimpses are fleeting at best. Our inner structure, called Soul, contains and flows within the entire Cosmos. We are blinded to the sensations of our inner structure by the egoistic influences that dominate our day to day life. We need to develop a moment to moment awareness of the influences we choose. If we can do so, we begin to align with the dimensions of Truth. We acquire the sensations of a completely different level of existence.
Thank you Rob. You put it so beautifully. I agree entirely. Through meditation and stillness, we can calm the ego and get in touch with the soul within.
This is kind of blowing my mind right now. I had a de ja vu this afternoon and have been having them with more frequency lately after a very long lull (coincidentally the experiences happened as a child and adolescent but ceased during my alcoholic days). Unlike my feelings of weirdness and fear from my previous experiences while younger, I now have a calmer more absolute acceptance when it happens. Never learned about Socrates so I am very taken by this post. Thank you for this.
Marcia, it really does make you wonder doesn’t it? When my professor talked about it all those years ago, I remember it striking me. But thinking of it now, in the context of déjà vu, I am really taken aback by it. The fact that you have had these spells is truly a gift you should embrace. It may just mean you are that one step closer to really knowing…something you knew all along.