Theoryland Chronicles

Members :Goldeneyes : Lews Therin Soul Debate

Introduction

In the theory sections within the plethora of websites relating to Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, there is generally only superficial examination of the Rand/LTT problem. Some say that Lews Therin truly exists within the body of Rand al'Thor. Others say that Rand is simply succumbing to taint-induced madness. There are, however, other stances. One of these is the idea that it is actually Lews Therin's soul that shares the Dragon Reborn's body with the soul of Rand al'Thor. Despite my feeling on this "2-souls" theory, I think it must be displayed since there have been a fair number of intelligent people supporting it. Nor is this the only theory that has not been displayed on the web concerning this matter. Therefore, I was driven to compile all the arguments I could find relating to the voice in Rand's head.

1. The 2 soul argument:
   1. There is something different about the Dragon Reborn. Something that makes him stand out. What is this aspect of him that is different from all other people? Rand al'Thor and Lews Therin Telamon are two distinct souls living in one body. If Rand was simply one soul losing his mind, then being crazy leaves Rand with nothing special about him. In response to this, 1-soulers argue that his innate abilities as the Dragon Reborn are what make him special (ta'veren, memories from AoL, his destiny).
   2. One of the biggest points this theory makes is that Lews Therin can grab at saidin while in Rand's body. The mind cannot do two contradictory things at once. Rand and LTT obviously cannot both hold saidin at once, any more than you could turn your face to both sides at once. Therefore, it makes sense that there must be another soul in Rand's body that can channel saidin.
   3. Another point is the knowledge that Rand has of specific events from the Age of Legends, yet should not. Others remember some things as a result of the Old Blood, but not like Rand does (except for Mat Cauthon). All these memories he "remembers" are attributed to Lews Therin, considering all that LTT has spoken of. The question that the 2-souler asks unbelievers is how Rand could have access to this information if Lews Therin's mind and soul were not present (1-soulers argue that the memories are the Dragon Reborn's birthright; the supposed existence of Lews Therin is secondary).
   4. Another important argument has to do with possible misconceptions. One of these is the alleged misconception that Rand is LTT beyond a doubt. EVERYONE knows LTT was the Dragon. Everyone understands that Rand is the Dragon Reborn. Yet, the 1-souler suggests that everyone mistakenly takes it for granted that Rand is LTT reborn. This point cannot really be refuted, considering that we cannot know if Robert Jordan created the Dragon Reborn to be different from other people that are reborn (and playing by different rebirthing rules).
2. The 1 soul argument:
   There are actually (at least) two schools of thought within the 1-soul camp. On the one hand, it has been argued that some vector (such as the taint) has broken down the barrier between the past and current lives of a soul. I shall call followers of this theory the "real 1-soulers," since they hold that Lews Therin is real. On the other hand, it has been argued that there is no Lews Therin at all; that Rand is simply losing his mind as a result of stress, the taint, and the existence of memories that he shouldn't have. I shall call followers of this theory the "insane 1-soulers." These separate schools shall be discussed at length. Prior to that, however, the common thoughts and evidence of the entire 1-soul camp shall be listed:
   1. At the simplest level, it is intuitively impossible for Rand's body to contain more than one soul. The infamous question is "how can you be 'reborn' if you weren't born that way in the first place?" After all, a soul other than that of Rand cannot be the Dragon reborn; the word reborn itself means it is the same soul not two different ones.
   2. When Sammael meets with Graendal:

      "Thoughts he had forced himself to dismiss came oozing back. Al'Thor was not Lews Therin, but al'Thor was Lews Therin's soul reborn, as Lews Therin himself had been the rebirth of that soul. Sammael was neither philosopher nor theologian, yet Ishamael had been both, and he claimed to have devined secrets hidden in that fact."
      -Sammael's thoughts [Lord of Chaos, ch. 6]

      At first look, this appears to prove that the Dragon Reborn and The Dragon (plus all the others before them) are the same soul. But there is always that troubling part about what Ishamael claims to know about it. What does he see in that fact that we do not?
   3. When Lanfear corners Rand before the trollocs invade the Stone of Tear:

      "Moghedien or Sammael can destroy your body. The Great Lord of the Dark can destroy your soul. And end utter and complete. You will never be reborn again no matter how long the Wheel of Time turns!"
      -Lanfear [The Shadow Rising, ch. 9]

      This implies that Rand is a soul reborn, not two souls in one body. Rand has self-preservation instincts like the rest of us. So why would a threat to destroy the soul reborn to fight the Shadow, his soul, carry extra weight? Because there is only one soul.
   4. In this meeting of the Chosen:

      "He may be Lews Therin reborn, but he is not Lews Therin himself."
      -Lanfear [The Fires of Heaven, Prologue]

      2-soulers use this quote to back the argument that Rand al'Thor is Lews Therin reborn. It sounds simple enough, but many 2-soulers continue not to believe this, passing off this quote as something that could easily not be true due to its source. This whole argument comes down to what it means to be reborn in another life. There is only person who we are CERTAIN of being reborn over and over, that the characters of the series have interacted with at length: Birgitte. We could use any of the heroes of the Horn as an example, but it is Birgitte we know best. Deornoth of Theoryland asks "Did she have a separate soul every time she started a new life. I don't boast to know exactly what a soul is, but by any definition I can think of, Birgitte has always had the same soul. Separate memories, maybe a different spirit, sure (whatever that means); but always the same soul. Why would the Dragon be any different?" In response, some 2-soulers say that the Dragon is different because of just that: he is the Dragon.
   5. In "The Grave Is No Bar to My Call" from The Great Hunt, Rand (not LTT) recognizes the heroes of the horn by not only their current name, but a name they had in a previous life as well. This just doesn't seem likely if he were not just one soul.
3. 1-soul (Lews Therin is real):
   According to this theory, the presence of the Dark One's taint on saidin gradually causes the barrier between present and past lives to be broken down. Rand Al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, has been hearing the voice of Lews Therin only since he has begun channeling. It may in fact have been a gradual process, considering that there have been some questionable sections in the series even before Rand took the Stone of Tear and declared himself the Dragon Reborn.
   
   For example:

   "Well, a voice in his head taunted, you did it, didn't you. I had to, he told it. I will be dangerous just to be around. Blood and ashes, I'm going to go mad, and. . . . No! No, I won't! I will not use the Power, and then I won't go mad, and. . . . But I can't risk it. I can't, don't you see? But the voiced only laughed at him."
   -Rand al'Thor arguing with a voice in his head [The Great Hunt, Ch. 3]

   The real 1-souler calls our attention to the term "Reincarnation." As Frenzy of Theoryland says, this is not a new concept, for a soul to be reborn into a new body. But, more importantly, each time a soul is reborn, it starts out new; Tabula Rasa. An analogy is to think of the soul as a jewel, with each facet being a different life. Each facet is unique from it's brothers, yet there is a chance that past lives can interfere with the current life. (The Old Blood phenomena.) The degree of this interference depends on the individual.
   
   Examples of soul displacement in the series include Aran'gar and Osan'gar. The Dark One put the souls into new bodies. So, if having more than one soul in a body was not a problem, why go throught the effort of removing the previous souls before installing Aginor and Balthamel into their new bodies? Shaidar Haran said, "The body bends to the soul, but the mind bends to the body." in LoC pg. 60, hardcover. Aginor's and Balthamel's souls were put into new bodies, but with the 'facet' of their last lives, their minds, in control. They aren't reborn, but they are alone in their bodies.
   
   Now, to apply this idea to the Dragon reborn. Rand begins to get in touch with his previous self, namely Lews Therin the Dragon, thanks to the taint. This corresponds with Cadsuane's comment that there have been some channeling men that began to hear voices.

   "some men who can channel begin to hear voices...It is part of the madness. Voices conversing with them, telling them what to do."
   -Cadsuane [A Crown of Swords, Ch 18]

   While she seems to be of the belief that this is a symptom of the madness, it is a definite possibility that these channelers are actually hearing voices from their last lives.
4. 1-soul (Rand is mad):
   It seems, to me, that most readers of the Wheel of Time believe that Lews Therin must truly exist in the body of Rand al'Thor. I suppose that, as readers, we must believe that LTT is more than just a voice. For if we were to accept the possibility that Lews Therin is not in Rand's head, then we would have to see Rand as an extremely troubled human being. While it would be a bit disturbing to have the fate of a world rest on the shoulders of a man that is already insane, it is entirely possible. The voice that Rand "hears" talking to him may, in fact, be nothing more than a symptom of his growing insanity.
   
   The causes of Rand's insanity are obvious: the taint on saidin, tremendous pressure of being the only one that can fight the Dark One, everyone trying to kill him, etc.
   
   Working on the assumption that this theory is true, for the shear pleasure of the argument, some posters at Theoryland have put forth ideas of the mechanism by which an insane Rand would hear voices. Some have argued that Robert Jordan has based Rand's condition on Multiple Personality Disorder (now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder). Others contend that is more akin to Schizophrenia. These arguments will be discussed elsewhere, considering that they are lengthy and not really relevant to the main discussion. We can only speculate on how much Robert Jordan knows of the field of Psychology. So he cannot know whether he based things on stereotypes of MPD, on Schizophrenia, or that he based it on neither. Now, to return to the main discussion.
   
   What hard evidence is there to support the theory that Rand is simply mad?
   1. The statement by Cadsuane:

      "some men who can channel begin to hear voices...It is part of the madness. Voices conversing with them, telling them what to do."
      -Cadsuane [A Crown of Swords, Ch 18]

      If this statement is true, it can be taken as meaning that Lews Therin a voice caused by the taint.
   2. Insane 1-soulers use the following section of The Great Hunt against those that support the insanity idea: Upon being called by the horn, Artur Hawkwing and Birgitte both call Rand "Lews Therin" and are surprised to hear him call himself something else. They looked at a new body and still called him Lews Therin. If the voice of Lews Therin, which had not fully shown itself yet (aside from some questionable quotes), was a symptom of Rand's encroaching madness, then why would ancient heroes refer to the Dragon Reborn by the ancient name? The insanity 1-soulers respond to this by saying that the heroes of the horn could not know the Dragon soul's current name, since they were stuck in t'a'r until they were called. They knew the most recent name, so they used it.
5. The infamous 1.5 souls theory:
   This is a rather different theory than those most commonly offered regarding the Lews Therin issue. It states that there are two souls in Rand's body. However, it holds that two souls can't fit into a body at the same time. Left at that, this would seem to support the 1-soul camp. However, the main proponent of this theory (Camaris of Theoryland), takes things in an entirely different direction.
   
   Camaris states that Lews Therin is dormant in the early part of Rand's life. Note that, unlike many of us, he is saying that Lews Therin was always there. In other words, Rand was never truly alone. The explanation of how Lews Therin was switched from dormant mode to active is the same as that given by those 1-soulers who say that the taint broke down barriers between lives. The only difference is that for the 1.5-soul theory, there were no barriers broken; the dormant Lews Therin was awakened.
   
   So Lews Therin is awakened, and we start to see Rand gaining access to ancient memories. Camaris asks how this could be possible if Lews Therin was simply an alternate personality created by an increasingly mad Rand Al'Thor. The reason Rand starts to gain access to Lews Therin memories is because Lews Therin wants to be inside the body. We know that he wants to be inside the body since we have seen Lews Therin try to take control by grabbing at saidin.
   
   The biggest point this theory makes is to say that when Lews Therin attempts to grab and hold saidin, he is pushing his soul into to Rand's body. As a result of this, the souls of Rand and Lews Therin merge somewhat because the body can only hold one soul.
   
   Though it gets points for being originality, the 1.5-soul theory has its problems, aside from just being pretty far out there. One thing is that it does not address the possibility that Rand may have memories from the Age of Legends simply as a birthright of the Dragon Reborn. If the Wheel has given Rand these memories as a helper, then it is at least possible that Lews Therin does not exist in Rand Al'Thor as another being.

Conclusion

Reasons why this mystery just won't be solved until we get more information from RJ:

1. In this Forsaken gathering:

   "How do you know? It may well be that, as many people believe, all are born and reborn as the Wheel turns, but nothing like this has ever happened that I have read. A specific man reborn according to prophecy. Who knows what he is?"
   -Graendal [The Fires of Heaven, Prologue]

   We clearly cannot determine which of the above theories are correct. The Forsaken aren't really sure. The only character who thinks she knows is Cadsuane, and we really don't know enough about her, and where she's been in the past years, to consider her quote as credible.