The manas has a memory function, but it cannot recall.

Many people have had this kind of experience: when going to certain places, they suddenly feel that they have been there before, yet they cannot recall when they ever came. Later, upon careful reflection, it seems they actually have never been there. But why does this feeling arise? Not only that—some people, upon seeing someone they have never met before, also feel that this person is very familiar, as if they had known them long ago. What is going on here?

These phenomena show that the manas has a memory function; it simply cannot recollect—recollection is the function of the mind consciousness. But the people and events of past lives were not experienced by the mind consciousness, so the mind consciousness does not know them, because the mind consciousness cannot go on to later lives; the mind consciousness of each life is new, with no continuity connecting it to previous lives. The manas, however, is imperishable life after life, and is forever connected with the previous lives of the five-aggregate body, and thus knows the people and events of the five-aggregate body's past lives. Therefore, when in this life one arrives at a certain place, the manas knows that it has experienced it, producing a special feeling, and so the mind consciousness feels it is familiar and special, but does not know why. The manas knows, yet cannot express it. The same principle applies when meeting certain people. This shows that the manas has memory, but since it cannot express it, it also cannot recollect.