On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, David Silberstein wrote: >On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Casey Rousseau wrote: > >> >>There's an old, old story (from Plato?) that souls waiting to be >>incarnated know everything there is to know in heaven and on earth, >>but that just before they are born, an angel presses a hot coal to >>their lips, sealing in the knowledge and preventing them from sharing >>it. >> [snipped] > The Platonic theory that study is only recollection, because the > soul knew everything before entering the world, It looks like that's all there is to it: http://www.san.beck.org/Phaedo.html#21 "Then, Simmias, souls existed previously, before they were born in human form, without bodies, and they had wisdom." Nothing about angels or hot coals. "It's all in Plato, all in Plato! Dear me, what do they teach them in the schools nowadays?"