Memory Purge, “End-of-Life” Memory Purge

The “Unburdening,” “Bath of Forgiveness,” “Redirection,” and “Memory Upload.” The End-of-Life Memory Purge is the reason why an immortal soul can lose its memory and identity. Technically speaking it is not the “soul” that undergoes the Memory Purge but the Second Self—the “curtailed version” of the First Self injected into the physical world. During the memory purge—triggered at the demise of the body—the Self uploads the memories of its experience, hence its current Sense of Self, or identity, to the First World for safekeeping. A dying person experiences the uploading process as a series of flashbacks, sometimes described as having one’s life flash before one’s eyes—a phenomenon known as “life-review” today. It seems certain memorable events are meant to pass through the person’s mind’s eye before they become irretrievably lost physically. Included in the record of a person’s experiences, which are “lifted up” to the First Self, are both the accomplishments and successes as well as regrettable events and deeds, failures, and wrongs—in short, the lamentable and shameful acts that weighed on the person’s conscience throughout the life just lived. For this reason, the process of “unburdening one’s soul” before death has become a fixture in many cultures and religions. The idea is to redress a person’s wrongs by means of a confessional or other comparable form of obtaining forgiveness, such as the Last Rites.

“But why carry on a Memory Purge in the first place?” demands Kayin of the Numen, since he opposes the process and blames the Ouranians for it. He is told that the Self needs to be freed of all regrets and ongoing obligations before it can move on to the next substantiation or mission. Any self-hate and self-condemnation accumulated throughout life must be purged in one form or another, and cannot be allowed to be carried over into the next assignment. The Numen insists, “A clean slate is required to allow the Self a fresh start.” Only when the Self gives up its current Sense of Self can it be outfitted with a new identity, a new Sense of Self in a different life. And since the Second Self’s missions to this world are chronologically independent of the Arrow of Time—meaning, the Self can be inserted at any juncture temporally speaking, not only “forwards”—it would cause great confusion in the mind of the Second Self if it retained the knowledge of its “previous” identities, including its obligations and failures. Thus depriving the substantiating Self of what it would naturally but erroneously regard as its physical “past” frees it to orient itself according to the situation at hand, and so as not to attempt to resurrect “past glory” or avoid “former failures.” Instead it must build a new Sense of Self tailored to its next mission.

None of this should be confused with what is conventionally known as “transmigration of the soul,” “reincarnation,” “past lives,” “metempsychosis,” and the like. There is no soul involved or required, no karma, no Wheel of Life, or any other sort of reward or punishment. These latter are religious concepts and the OC does not seek to create a new theology. Far from it. The OC deals only in missions and assignments. The Self is tasked to carry out an assignment in this world. That is all.

Background: Given the physical restrictions and laws of this world, the First Self in its totality cannot “enter” much less “operate” in an environment such as “ours.” The First Self is “made” of extra-universal “stuff.” Yet for reasons of their own (revealed in Book Four, Palace of Regret) the First Selves “desire” to explore our world. The only way to do this is to “dispatch” a tailor-made and thus extremely reduced version of themselves. A “shadow” or “shade,” so to speak. Thus it is the First Self who determines a specific time and place in this world for substantiating a limited version of itself, hence, what the OC calls the “Second Self.” It is this Second Self that must develop a unique Sense of Self, a new identity, valid only in the Second World. It has no meaning in the First World. The development of a local Sense of Self occurs naturally as the next body matures, since this process allows the accumulation of new memories, resulting in a new identity. 

To note, Chronologers are exempt from the memory-purge per se, which explains why Kayin retains his Sense of Self, in other words his identity as Kayin, over many substantiations. Chronologers undergo special training that allows them to retain everything they experience while avoiding all regrettable acts. This is why Kayin abstains from all killing, not even to save himself. 

Kayin can be resupplied with any memories by the Numen—past and future—depending on the situation he faces, given that all his remembrances are already uploaded to the First World.