some time in the past gone through the identical experience which he is
living now?

[Sidenote: _The "Flash of Inspiration"_]

On such occasions the sense of familiarity is sometimes so persistent as
to fill one with a strange feeling of the supernatural and to incline
our minds to the belief in a reincarnation.

The "flash of inspiration" which, for the lawyer, solves a novel legal
issue arising in the trial of a case, or, for the surgeon, sees him
successfully through the emergencies of a delicate operation, has its
origin in the forgotten learning of past experience and study.

[Sidenote: _The Totality of Retention_]

Succeeding books in this _Course_ will bring to light numerous other
facts less commonly observed, drawn indeed from the study of abnormal
mental states, indicating that we retain a great volume of
sense-impressions of whose very recording we are at the time unaware.
In other words, all the evidences point to the absolute totality of our
retention of all sensory experiences. They indicate that every
sense-impression you ever received, whether you actually perceived and
were conscious of it or not, has been retained and preserved in your
memory, and can be "brought to mind" when you understand the proper
method of calling it into service.

A vast wealth of facts is stored in the treasure vaults of your mind,
but there are certain inner compartments to which you have lost the
combination.