Lyall Watson - The Romeo Error

Ah don't worry too much about it. I'm just curious because I've wondered the degree to which multiple personalities are entities in their own right, as per the Survival vs Super Psi thread.

Yes I have wondered the same. The personality boundaries start to blur the more I think about it. Also, how much of this personality carries over into the next incarnation?

At some point we have to stop thinking of ourselves as unique and individual selves. The personalities may be identifiable but are they what defines a self? I don't think so.

I know that some of those books I talked about (including the Seth books) have a kind of compound structure for the soul. Terms used are "entity", "soul", "self" and "personality" in that descending order (if I remember correctly). So a self can have multiple personalities and on up to the entity which would be a gestalt comprising of many souls over many incarnations. I get a little lost trying to organise my thoughts around these concepts.

Yes I have wondered the same. The personality boundaries start to blur the more I think about it. Also, how much of this personality carries over into the next incarnation?

At some point we have to stop thinking of ourselves as unique and individual selves. The personalities may be identifiable but are they what defines a self? I don't think so.

I know that some of those books I talked about (including the Seth books) have a kind of compound structure for the soul. Terms used are "entity", "soul", "self" and "personality" in that descending order (if I remember correctly). So a self can have multiple personalities and on up to the entity which would be a gestalt comprising of many souls over many incarnations. I get a little lost trying to organise my thoughts around these concepts.

Sometimes there are NDEs where a person becomes aware of several different previous lives. I sometimes think that all of them play a part in making up the whole. But I'm also thinking they fade somewhat, just as the current body and life is seemingly left behind in an NDE, so that none of them are the real us. Just from experience, I felt a past-life self coming to the fore, almost becoming dominant for a while when I was younger, but it doesn't seem that way now. The current life, inconsequential as it is, is the important one simply because it is yet unwritten, it is the point where the attention is active.

But what remains when this life, this present body is gone? Something else. Being human isn't the permanent part, I don't think, but something, the experiencer remains, not the experience. I lost an old and good friend this week, and was looking at photos of that person as a handsome young man with his wife, and as a white-bearded old man. Both are that same person, but neither is.

The current life, inconsequential as it is, is the important one simply because it is yet unwritten, it is the point where the attention is active.

I don't think this life is inconsequential, even set against eternity? At the very least the life review and reincarnation suggest it matters to some extent.

And there's always the matter of the [possible] Hells...

I don't think this life is inconsequential, even set against eternity? At the very least the life review and reincarnation suggest it matters to some extent.

And there's always the matter of the [possible] Hells...

Yeah, it was an attempt at self-deprecation, rather than a generalisation.

Sometimes there are NDEs where a person becomes aware of several different previous lives. I sometimes think that all of them play a part in making up the whole. But I'm also thinking they fade somewhat, just as the current body and life is seemingly left behind in an NDE, so that none of them are the real us. Just from experience, I felt a past-life self coming to the fore, almost becoming dominant for a while when I was younger, but it doesn't seem that way now. The current life, inconsequential as it is, is the important one simply because it is yet unwritten, it is the point where the attention is active.

But what remains when this life, this present body is gone? Something else. Being human isn't the permanent part, I don't think, but something, the experiencer remains, not the experience. I lost an old and good friend this week, and was looking at photos of that person as a handsome young man with his wife, and as a white-bearded old man. Both are that same person, but neither is.

But there are the veridical NDE cases where the experiencer goes to a spiritual realm where he is greeted by figures that he recognizes as long deceased loved ones; sometimes there is someone who is dead but this was unknown to the expeiencer. Are these sort of experiences evidence that the personality self survives, or are they (as some channelings indicate) just exmples of where the higher self of the deceased human person decides to impersonate the former personality in order to lovingly reassure the NDEer? It was what he needed at the time. 

And there are the numerous psychic medium "communications" apparently with the former human personalities of the deceased. 

It doesn't seem that these are all examples of altruistic impersonation. The empirical data on this would seem to be worth at least something.

But there are the veridical NDE cases where the experiencer goes to a spiritual realm where he is greeted by figures that he recognizes as long deceased deceased loved ones; sometimes there is someone who is dead but this was unknown to the expeiencer. Are these sort of experiences evidence that the personality self survives, or are they (as some channelings indicate) just exmples of where the higher self of the deceased human person decides to impersonate the former pesonality in order to lovingly reassure the NDEer? It was what he needed at the time. 

And there are the numerous psychic medium "communications" apparently with the former human personalities of the deceased. 

It doesn't seem that these are all examples of altruistic impersonation. The empirical data on this would seem to be worth at least something.

Interesting comments and good questions.

I don't have answers, only opinions. I think it is very reasonable to consider that those deceased who greet the person in the NDE are really what they appear to be and that that self, including personality, continues. I certainly don't think I'd describe it as an 'impersonation' as that suggests putting on an appearance to which they have no right, something underhand. In any event, in my opinion, we can recognise our loved ones by some sort of characteristics which are more fundamental than just the appearance.

However, sometimes in channelling (which I find interesting but of variable reliability) the being will have incarnated many times, but we may be interested in a person who lived as a human a very long time ago, so they are somehow presenting that facet of themselves, some historical figure perhaps, rather than their most recent human life or indeed whatever the being now considers themselves to be. I don't have answers, just curiosity about how this might work.

On the other hand, there are sometimes NDEs where some (apparently) more advanced being rather than a friend or relative, is the one who greets and guides. Sometimes this being will offer to appear in whatever way the NDEer prefers, including perhaps (in appearance) a semi-fictionalised idea of a historical figure. I'm not wishing to court controversy here, merely recalling some case or cases I've come across. It seems (to me at least) it is the being behind that surface appearance which matters in these instances.

 I think it is very reasonable to consider that those deceased who greet the person in the NDE are really what they appear to be and that that self, including personality, continues.

I agree with this view and I also think that the evidence from mental mediumship (e.g. Maroczy case, some drop-in cases etc.) and reincarnation cases with memories from the intermission period support it.


For example, Jenny Cockell wrote about a core personality that is carried from life to life:

Above all, I am very aware of having been the same person throughout these lives

Jenny Cockell: Journeys Through Time, page 257

I agree with this view and I also think that the evidence from mental mediumship (e.g. Maroczy case, some drop-in cases etc.) and reincarnation cases with memories from the intermission period support it.


For example, Jenny Cockell wrote about a core personality that is carried from life to life:

Jenny Cockell: Journeys Through Time, page 257

I can't pretend that I know of any hard and fast rules for the nature of the personalities we meet as we transition nor for the longevity of the deceased in any particular environment that we might find ourselves. All I can say is that I gleaned from my reading that at least sometimes the welcoming spirit may appear to be someone we feel comfortable with for that very purpose. This is particularly the case, it seems, with religious or heroic figures. There's even talk of fictitious characters appearing to the delight of the new arrival.

On to the question of enduring identification and memory of past personalities, the more I think about this present life the more I realise that I am not the person I was 50 years ago. There are commonalities and there is an undeniable continuity but I have a feeling that I am something that stands outside, yet enveloping all the personality stages of my life so far. There is a constant self and there is this sort of ego-driven personality that is almost fleeting. Again, the more I think about it, the more that the assertion that we live in the NOW makes sense.

I can't pretend that I know of any hard and fast rules for the nature of the personalities we meet as we transition nor for the longevity of the deceased in any particular environment that we might find ourselves. All I can say is that I gleaned from my reading that at least sometimes the welcoming spirit may appear to be someone we feel comfortable with for that very purpose. This is particularly the case, it seems, with religious or heroic figures. There's even talk of fictitious characters appearing to the delight of the new arrival.

I agree that the religious figures seen in NDEs are not real religious beings. For example, many NDErs report seeing Jesus, but he looked exactly like the pictures of him (blue eyes etc.) and not like a real Middle Eastern man of his time would have looked like. Nevertheless, there are many NDEs and reincarnation cases with memories of the intermission period in which those people met some kind of guides. To me it seems that those beings appeared as themselves instead of having a false appearance. I also don't think that those beings were merely products of wishful thinking on part of the subjects of these cases. Therefore I think that at least some of these discarnate spirits are real and some of them are more advanced than others. Sometimes they have helped subjects of the reincarnation cases in choosing their parents etc. To me all this suggests that the dead relatives and other normal people met during these experiences are really themselves.

I agree that the religious figures seen in NDEs are not real religious beings. For example, many NDErs report seeing Jesus, but he looked exactly like the pictures of him (blue eyes etc.) and not like a real Middle Eastern man of his time would have looked like. Nevertheless, there are many NDEs and reincarnation cases with memories of the intermission period in which those people met some kind of guides. To me it seems that those beings appeared as themselves instead of having a false appearance. I also don't think that those beings were merely products of wishful thinking on part of the subjects of these cases. Therefore I think that at least some of these discarnate spirits are real and some of them are more advanced than others. Sometimes they have helped subjects of the reincarnation cases in choosing their parents etc. To me all this suggests that the dead relatives and other normal people met during these experiences are really themselves.

Plus the mediumship chases, like the "Kakie" case where the little girl specifically tells her parents she's with her grandmother and they should not spen[d] their lives in grief or worry about her.

Also goes against the "spirits in mediumship are really demons who hunger for attention" narrative, though that seems to only be popular in isolated circles anyway.