The things you think of while doing the dishes.
So, as I was washing the dishes, my mind wandered into the realms of philosophy. That’s not really a common thing, as I usually think about what to write while I’m doing the dishes. But I guess these thoughts got me thinking about what to write for the blog.
This is quite simple, let’s say that you die. Everyone dies, of course. But what if your consciousness moves over to the nearest fetus that is at an appropriate level of development (whatever that is)? I guess you could call this reincarnation. I’m not meaning this in a religious way, I’m thinking fantasy. Not your soul, but your actual consciousness. And what if your memories go with you? So when you’re born, you have all of your memories of your previous life.
Wow, that would put you at a great advantage. You’d breeze through school, everyone would think you’re a genius. You’d have the experience and wisdom of a lifetime already, so you’d be a very mature child, probably graduate from university at 12 years old, and enjoy the rest of your childhood doing whatever you want. Wouldn’t that be incredible? Of course, there’s no choice in who you’ve become. You may change genders, you may grow up in a different country that you grew up in, so you’d have to learn the language as a child would. That would be fine. You can still remember your old language. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
But then, what about your family that’s still alive? Would you want to contact them? Would you let them know that you’re you? That might be difficult on them, or they may welcome you with open arms. It’s hard to say.
So, my question for you is this: If this were possible, would you come back with your memories intact, or would you want to come back with no knowledge of your previous life?
I Read Encyclopedias for Fun 
I would emphatically NOT want my memories to come with me- I can’t imagine living a childhood where you are already aware of the horrific things that go on in the world- I think it would be terrifying (although you might already have coping mechanisms, wouldn’t you?) Still, if you were growing up with the memories of a previous life while no one around you has the same experiences (I’m making this assumption from what you said about being ahead of everyone around you) would be extremely lonely and set you apart in a way that anyone would have difficulty dealing with.
Good point. But the question is, would you have the mentality of a child, or would your adult mind have followed?
I’m going to go a bit psychological here and say that it is far more likely that you would have the mentality of a child if you have the body of a child since mental processes are so heavily dependent on brain development. So even if you have the knowledge and are able to understand it, that doesn’t mean that you’ll have the emotional capability to deal with it all.
Yes, I would imagine so. That was going through my mind while I was thinking about it. However, I decided to add the comment about it being fantasy, where anything is possible.
I would not want to “remember” them as a child, but it sure would be handy if they could lay dormant until I reached a point in my life where I wanted to discover and uncover them… I like to have my cake and eat it too, can you tell?
That would be useful. But there are things in my life I’d like to have known when I was a kid. I was already a fairly mature kid, and I knew about a lot of the horrors of the world just through reading.