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Originally Posted by davem
As I said, I'd be more inclined towards your idea if we didn't have the examples of Lost Road & Notion Club Papers. I think Flieger's approach probably is correct - certainly in those 'time travel' stories we have something like a 'higher' consciousness moving across 'time', & experiencing different lives. But this is not about remembering 'past' lives - in some sense all those lives, all those different 'times' are happening concurrently from the observer 2 perspective.
The question is 'who (or what) is this 'observer 2' that can pop up in one conciousness at one moment & another the next? Its not really reincarnation or 'racial'ancestral memory' but a different, & very interesting way of looking at the nature of time & consciousness. If I enter the 'consciousness' of a sixteenth century man, or an ancient Egyptian, & experience an event from their life 'as it happens', then in a sense it is happening concurrently with my life here in the 21st century - my consciousness has simply tuned into another 'place', to an event which is happening in some kind of eternal 'Now'.
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To me, if we're talking about 'observers,' in the sense that I take the word, then it is *not* happening concurrently. It's like you watching a movie of yourself from last week. You can experience that time time and time again, yet not change the outcome of the event in any way (I always wish this weren't true when viewing old volleyball tournament tapes
). Merry, reliving the battle, was not able to change events in any way, and so he was a mere observer.
Maybe I'm not getting what you are writing about.
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Merry's consciousness had simply 'tuned in' to a different 'place' in what we expreience as serial time. We're not talking about an 'echo' or 'recording' of a 'past' event, something over & done with, but an event which is actually happening simultaneously with his own experience in the Barrow. The location & the clothing & 'jools' he is wearing creating a 'link' across 'space-time'. Just as Frodo's consciousness in his dream in the House of Bombadil is 'actually' his consciousness as it 'is' when he looks out from the Last Ship & sees the Undying Lands - because both 'events' are, from a 'higher' perspective, happening simultaneously - Frodo is in Bombadil's house & on board ship (& at the Sammath Naur, & in Lorien, & at Bilbo's Birthday Party & .....) all at the 'same time'.
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The only issue I have with eternal nows and experiencing the past, present and future is that seems to make the future pre-determined. If I were that 16th century guy and had a 21st century experience, that would mean that what we do today has already been done and recorded.
In Tolkien's world there may be precedent as Arda is an echo of the original music. The future has already been played, even if all but Eru don't know it. Beings at times may be able to tap into this music, and then experience some of the notes produced by certain individuals.