What sort of consciousness do geniuses carry into the next life?

Beloved Osho, when someone like nietzsche or gertrude stein dies -- a genius who would probably have become enlightened if they had met a master -- what sort of consciousness do they carry into the next life, and what was it that in their previous lives allowed them to experience such a huge potential, such a great flowering, and such a great knack? Was it the idea of wanting to go their own way without a master?

It happened... I was going to Manali, the mountainous part, and it had rained, and the driver of my limousine was a Sikh. He started becoming afraid. The road was very small, the limousine was very big. The road was slippery; there were water pools collected on the road. At a certain point it looked very dangerous. A great river was flowing by, thousands of feet down -- and just a small road. He stopped the car, went out, and sat there. And he said, "I cannot move anymore, it is simply going into death." I said, "Don't be worried, you just sit; I will drive." He said, "That is even more dangerous! I cannot give you the key." I said, "This is very strange, because we have been traveling the whole night, twelve hours; now we are in the middle." I tried to explain to him, "Even going back,…

Beloved Osho, I'm constantly amazed at how you use your mind like a computer -- such pure and simple genius, in fact, super-genius. Lao tzu said he was a muddlehead, yet the clarity of genius is there also. Beloved Osho, when a person becomes enlightened, is the mind so free of ego that only genius is left? Or are some people actually enlightened muddleheads?

Enlightenment has nothing to do with mind. In meditation, you bypass the mind. Meditation reaches with you to the highest peak -- with all its silence, with all its flowers, with all its beauty. As you become enlightened, your mind drops all the rubbish it has carried for hundreds of lives; it is an autonomous happening. As you become enlightened, the mind immediately drops all rubbish, that rubbish you were clinging to because you had no idea who you are. That rubbish had become your identity, and now you know your real identity; you don't need that false burden on you. It simply falls naturally, on its own accord. Your mind becomes a simple, immensely powerful mechanism. But it remains now as a servant. Up to now it was the master; after enlightenment, it is a beautiful servant. And certainly, as you say, it is a computer. The people who…

Osho, it seems that all the pioneers in art and science have reached the unknown spaces through some kind of obsessions. What kind of obsessions has the new religious man?

"'If they can go astray even hearing you, then what do you think -- that without hearing you they will not go astray? Take it for granted: those ninety-nine are determined to go astray whether you speak or not. But what about that one percent? We appeal to you for that one percent who may not be able to find the path without your speaking.'" And Buddha said, "I am speaking for that one percent." Strangely, I am still speaking for that one percent. The world has not moved a single inch. Twenty-five centuries and man is as blind, as asleep, and unconscious as he ever was. Charles Darwin was absolutely wrong, because looking at man there seems to be no evolution: as far back as we can see, he is the same. If for ten thousand years there has not been any evolution in man, do you think one…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, I WAS BORN IN THE MOUNTAINS, AND THROUGHOUT MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH I WAS PULLED TO EXPLORE, CLIMB, OR JUST SIT ON THE PEAKS, ON THE STEEP WALLS, OR BY THE SIDE OF A GLACIER STREAM. I LIVED IN THE MOUNTAINS, AND THEY FED ME, LIKE A MOTHER, WITH SOMETHING VERY PRECIOUS. SOMEWHERE I READ THAT THE MOUNTAINS, THE HIGH, SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS ARE THE VERY ESSENCE OF BUDDHA. OSHO, THE BEAUTY THAT SURROUNDS YOU, THE COOL BREEZE THAT HOVERS AROUND YOU, IS LIKE THE ONE COMING FROM THE HIGHEST, THE WILDEST PEAK IN THE WORLD. I'VE BEEN WITH YOU FOR SEVEN YEARS, AND IN THIS LAST PERIOD OF TIME I FELT THAT I WAS PASSING THROUGH THE SAME PASTURES, THE SAME PLAINS I REMEMBER LEAVING FOR THE HEIGHTS SEVEN YEARS AGO.

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…