A Record of Meetings held by P.D. Ouspensky - HolyBooks.com

principles, important things from less important things. To be able tocontrol thinking, start with rules and you will find the way.MISS A . When a man who has acquired knowledge dies, does theknowledge return to the amount generally available?MR. O. That I cannot answer. There are many other things in that. Itdepends on many things which would be too complicated to mentionin connection with that.MISS A. Do you think there can be such things as ghosts? If so, whatare they?MR. O. I don't know what you call ghosts, and really I cannot answerthat. In many cases they are simply hallucinations—dream figures inwaking state. But there may be other things. I had two or three strangeexperiences in my life which I cannot explain—only it doesn't meanthat dead people walk by night, or something like that.MISS A . Do you think lines on the palm of one's hand are any indicationat all of one's character or future? I ask this because you hinted thatskin, being turned outermost, is important.MR. O. Yes, but I meant that in quite another sense. But at the sametime, not in connection with this idea of skin, these lines in the handshow something, if you know what they can show. I will give you justa few hints, because really I don't know much about it. It is interestingto see whether the two hands are equal. If they are equal, or almostequal, it shows there is no conflict between essence and personality. Ifthey are different, it means essence and personality look at things fromvery different points, and there is a constant conflict. And there arecertain lines, which I never met with in any book, which show acertain capacity for work of this kind; but absence of these lines doesnot show that one cannot work, but that one is just starting this work.MR. C. Is there any inequality in the development of centres at birth?MR. O. I don't quite understand the question. How can you verify? Onwhich facts can you base it? Can you explain?MR. C. If one could draw an analogy between that and the physicalorgans—a strong arm or a weak arm?MR. O. I think, particularly in little children, it would be very difficult toestablish the relative value of centres; so that is why I do not understandfrom what you came—from an idea, or from an observation of facts?MR. C. From observation.MR. O. I think we had better leave it for a time.