It is the measure of this memory of past cycles that allows us to make a forecast.

We predict the next solar cycle will be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last cycle.

For the first time, we can predict the strength of the 11-year solar cycle.

We understood these flows in a general way, but the details were unclear, so we could not use them to make predictions before.

The model has demonstrated the necessary skill to be used as a forecasting tool.

I feel that there is much to be said for the Celtic belief that the souls of those whom we have lost are held captive in some inferior being, in an animal, in a plant, in some inanimate object, and thus effectively lost to us until the day (which to many never comes) when we happen to pass by the tree or to obtain possession of the object which forms their prison. Then they start and tremble, they call us by our name, and as soon as we have recognised them the spell is broken. Delivered by us, they have overcome death and return to share our life.

And so it is with our own past. It is a labour in vain to attempt to recapture it: all the efforts of our intellect must prove futile. The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object (in the sensation which that material object will give us) of which we have no inkling. And it depends on chance whether or not we come upon this object before we ourselves must die.