deeds and misdeeds of their previous lives they are allowed to choose
their own lot, according to their experience and bent of
character. Some, being disgusted with mankind, prefer to be born as
animals, such as lions and eagles or some other animals. Others
delight in trying their luck as human beings." From this mythological
description we gather what Plato meant by transmigration.
This Platonic idea of transmigration or of successive lives of those
who inhabit this earth has been criticized by various thinkers of
modern times; and referring to this idea the late Doctor Myers, of the
Psychical Research Society of London, writes in his second volume of
"Human Personality": "The simple fact that such was probably the
opinion of both Plato and Virgil shows that there is nothing here
which is alien to the best reason or to the highest instincts of
men. Nor, indeed, is it easy to realize any theory of the _direct
creation_ of spirits at such different stages of advancement as
those which enter upon the earth in the guise of mortal man. There
_must_, one feels, be some kind of continuity--some form of
spiritual past." (P. 134.) Why does He not create all souls equal?
Why will one soul be highly advanced spiritually while another is
entirely ignorant and idiotic? This question cannot be answered, this
problem cannot be solved by the special creation theory, and therefore
Doctor Myers says that there is no doubt that there was some previous
continuity or spiritual past of each individual soul, and therefore he
tacitly admits the theory of Transmigration. Although from a
scientific viewpoint he could not give any direct proof regarding this
idea of a pre-existence of the soul, still he could not deny it
entirely when he said: "The shaping forces which have made our bodies
and our minds what they are may always have been psychical
forces--from the first living slime-speck to the complex intelligences
of to-day." "The old transmigrationist's view would thus possess a
share of truth and the actual man would be the resultant not only of
intermingling heredities on father's and mother's sides, but of
intermingling heredities, one of planetary and one of cosmic scope."
("Human Personality," Vol. II, p. 267.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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