The Art of Remembering Who You Really Are

Published in Living Now Magazine Nov 2011

In Greek mythology there are five rivers that flow through the realm of Hades, the God of the dead. Before reincarnation souls were made to drink from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, thus preventing them from remembering their past lives and their current life purpose.

Throughout history many spiritual teachers and philosophers have proposed that the key to finding meaning in life is to 'remember who we really are'. That there is in fact a part of ourselves that is somehow hidden from our conscious mind.

Martin Heidegger, the German ontological philosopher, used Lethe to symbolise the 'concealment of being' that he saw as the major problem in Philosophy. Heidegger believed that everything had essence but that essence was concealed from humans. Our task is to bring forth out of concealment and into truth.

Rudolph Steiner went further when he wrote,

"It is often asked why we do not know anything of our experiences before birth or after death. This is the wrong question. Rather, we should…