20. How Does the Soul Find Its True Essence?

Another thing, I would like to say, is something that can lead us into a sad chapter of human soul life. Many of you have certainly heard how, in extreme cases, the human soul can be disturbed by the fact that the recollection of one's own experiences is somehow interrupted. In very special cases, it happens that a person suddenly feels torn away from their activity; they no longer know what they are doing; they have forgotten part or all of their previous soul life; and lives as if in a different state of consciousness. They can travel, can undertake all kinds of activities, but only later does the undisturbed, continuous memory of their experiences reappear. Then they suddenly become aware of who they are, whereas before they had forgotten their ego. Although this represents a radical case of human illness, the disturbance of memory occurs in the human soul in a more or less mild form, and these things could occur much less frequently in life if one were to note that this continuity of consciousness, this overview of one's own experiences – so that one is always truly present with oneself – depends on developing the activity of attention as much as possible. And we do children a great service for their later life when we encourage them to concentrate their interest on individual processes and entities. We strengthen their willpower, insofar as it arises from the connected experiences of life, and also their power of judgment through attention. But when we look into ordinary soul life, we must say: Attention takes place between the lines of life.