Does any subtle memory remain after a person dies?

Osho, regarding the mind—as you say it continues from lifetime to lifetime and remains the same—does any subtle memory remain after a person dies?

Yes, the mind remains the same, and after a person dies all the memory remains with them. But layers settle over it. Imagine we don’t clean this room for seven years: today dust will come, and it will keep coming every day for seven years. After seven years, when we return, the top layer will be today’s, and below it the earlier layers will be pressed down. The seven-year-old layer will still be there, but buried very deep. It’s possible the top layer won’t even know that seven years of dust lie underneath. So the mind is traveling, and the journey is progressive. Every day you add something to it. Yesterday gets buried under today; then today will be buried under tomorrow. The previous birth gets buried under this birth, and the one before that under two births, and so on—down into what psychologists call the unconscious. Sometimes it happens…

Osho, apart from mysticism, is there any intellectual proof for the soul and for rebirth? That is, can we establish philosophically—without entering into spiritual practice—that the soul exists and that reincarnation happens? One who dies in awareness—does he remember his former life? These spirits who seem to know their previous births—were they all people who died consciously?

The mystic says, “I know; you can know too; but I cannot make you know.” He says, “It is like my headache; I know I have it. When you have a headache you too will know. But you cannot know my headache. However much I grimace, beat my chest and cry, you can still say, ‘Who knows whether you are acting or really in pain!’”—this can always be said. In the last fifty years a few people in Europe—Oliver Lodge, Broad, Rhine—have begun to explore certain directions. These are scientific-minded people with no prior creed. The work they initiated is gradually becoming more credible. Its findings are deep; and their weight grows in the direction that rebirth happens, and grows weaker in the direction that it does not. For example, contact with spirits has been established—through careful methods, with many arrangements, and with all sorts of scientific precautions to ensure…

Beloved Osho, I heard you say that if a person can remember his birth and being in the womb, then the memory of his last death may come.I have tried to remember, but only imagination is there. I also heard you say that it is not possible to remember beyond three to four years old because the baby has no mind. Is there a remembrance that is not of the mind?

But Hindus have a totally different approach. It is to be remembered that this is the only point on which all the three religions that were born in India agree: about everything else they have their own philosophy, but about reincarnation they all agree. And that is not just an accident, because all three religions were working on the same lines -- looking into the unconscious of man -- and they all found the same results. To call the cow mother... the whole world laughs at it, but I don't think anybody understands why Hindus call the cow mother. If they are right -- the cow has the qualities of a mother, and it is far better to be connected with the cows than with the monkeys. So don't try to remember. It is not a question of remembering. You cannot cross the barrier with the conscious mind; you can…

Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?

But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…

Beloved Osho, does the being, or self, in the person die with the death of the person; or does it live beyond death in another body?

Parents teach children that there is a God -- and they know nothing of God. They tell their children that there is heaven and there is hell -- and they know nothing of heaven and hell. I have heard: it happened one day in New York, in New York's biggest church, that as the cardinal came in he found a young man, and he was puzzled whether he was a hippie or Jesus Christ. He looked like Jesus Christ, but you don't find Jesus Christ like this! He must be a hippie. The cardinal was afraid because Jesus was not his own experience -- he could not recognize him. He went close to him and asked, "Who are you?" And the young man said, "You can't recognize me? And daily you pray to me, `My Lord, Jesus Christ,' and now I have come and you have some nerve to ask…