Chapter Nine

REINCARNATION

Many of the current religions, except Christianity, have hundreds of books written describing reincarnation. The writings vary a great deal on the presentation of this subject, most of them being about or from Eastern religions. There have been a few times during the Christian era when individuals in the European countries attempted to introduce the doctrine of reincarnation, but were trampled on and vigorously thwarted by the Roman Catholic Church, especially during those extremely turbulent, painful years of the Inquisition. Fundamental Protestants also rejected the doctrine, and there are diverse statements as to whether Judaism ever taught or accepted it.

In the late 1800s reincarnation came prominently to the attention of the Western nations through Englishmen who were advocates of Theosophy, a philosophical school of thought being channeled and written by Madame Helen P. Blavatsky. Two of her better known books are Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. 

In the 1960s there were two events that made the Western world, especially the United States, consider the doctrine more closely and that was the book The Search For Bridey Murphy by Dr. Morey Bernstein, which told of recall by one of the doctor’s patients of more than one former lifetime, but of one especially had in Ireland in the 1800s.

There Is A River by Thomas Sugrue on the life of Edgar Cayce became a must read in the New Age communities, which were springing up all over the United States, including in my little isolated area in the Pacific Northwest.

The protest of the sixties exacerbated by the Vietnam War flared over into all social, political, and religious arenas, breaking down old systems that were stagnant and dying. Young men who had to fight a war for old men protested and joined communities of Love Children, Hippies and New Age cults. These latter groups dramatized their anxieties and dreams in colorful and perhaps outlandish dress styles, escaping from the realities of their lives by numbing their outer senses in various drugs and all-encompassing, dramatic love and sexual explorations. They allowed their inner turmoil to reflect in their outer environment.

I personally thought the world had gone mad! At the time I failed to recognize that I was a part of this same revolution. I was participating in a small group who gathered together attempting to ascertain whether the doctrine of reincarnation could be factual. We were able to obtain good information and small phases of our other lifetimes through use of hypnosis. Eventually we individually experienced either déjà vu or had small flashes of recall in the form of quick scenes, but never anything continuous enough to be of much value.

In the eighties I moved to the Seattle area where metaphysical groups of many different focuses met. An instructor, when asked how we could find our past life experiences, said that it would happen when we were ready. She said that we had to be prepared emotionally to accept what we found and that such information lay in our Akashic records.

These records are described as being located at the base of the brain just above the spinal cord, referred to in Eastern religions as the "cave of Brahma." I suggest that it is actually in our Minds. New channeled information says that our DNA carries the Akashic Records and contemporary experiences trigger a experiences from another lifetime through our DNA to our subconscious.  This is why the subconscious has been a mysterious factor of our Mind.  

In the early eighties I attended a three-day seminar held by Dick Sutphen, in which he led us into light self-hypnotic states, also known as "altered states of consciousness." At that seminar I purchased one of his cassette tapes for past life regression.

Through recall, when viewing another lifetime it is like watching a movie, although for me it is like photographic negatives flashing by. Generally an entire lifetime is not recalled, only those features that overshadow the present, the knowledge of which enables us to walk through our experiences with more wisdom. I now can sit in meditation, instruct my Mind what it is that I seek, relax, and the scenes commence rolling.

There are also individuals who choose to call themselves "past life therapists," who help a person do this, and there are clairvoyants who are able to find other lifetimes and describe the pertinent aspects. Discretion should be used in relying on any information obtained in this manner for the clairvoyant needs an open heart to be as accurate as possible. It is not the accuracy of the events that helps as much as the correctness of the influences and emotions that overshadow our present lives.

I am not aware of anyone being able to do this just for the thrill or fun of it. I suggest that in such instance what they see is more their own imagination than a life experience.

I have used this regression tape with teenagers (with the permission of their parents) and their responses are beautiful as their ability to follow directions and image, together with their curiosity and need to explore, allow them to zoom right in on an influencing lifetime, see it and recognize the lesson.

In our metaphysical women’s group, most of them were able to find something.

Our ability to flow into another lifetime appears to vary in relation to our degree of fear. The safety feature of a regression tape such as this is that we are always conscious so we can quit at any time we choose.

In my experience, they are only specific times, or events or individuals who most poignantly affect my present life in this time.

There are many complicated and multifarious explanations for reincarnation, but simply, it is a system whereby a Soul before birth selects certain life experiences to be shared with other selected, cooperative Souls, enters a door on Earth through a birth channel, and lives out those experiences. The foundation of the doctrine is that Earth is a schoolroom of all available experiences to perfect ourselves if we so choose.

Under this doctrine, when we leave through a channel called death, we spend the time in-between in a resting place, review our past lifetime, and receive more education and instruction. Then we incarnate in a fetus and are reborn on Earth.

Wisdom comes through experience that gives us knowledge, and through knowledge we are able to make choices that will bring us greater happiness, more contentment and fulfillment until gradually we accelerate into faster vibrations. Eventually a time will come in our long string of lifetimes (in Earth’s resonance) when we permanently can be free of these frequencies and climb to the next plateau. 

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? So what is the big deal? The big deal is that although the explanation is simple, the living out of our experiences is a 360 degree turn. Karma rises an important factor in this, which is more thoroughly covered in a later chapter. Reincarnation is only the system like a car is a vehicle for taking us somewhere. Karma is the driver that determines where we go, how we go, whether it is a rough or smooth road, the scenes along the way and our destination.

Even when our physical bodies can no longer support our Minds and we pass through death, the vibrations close to Earth still confine and hold us within the systems of karma and reincarnation. However, there are facets of our Minds that soar into faster frequencies during this in-between time, if we are ready and so desire as they go hand-in-hand.

Our lives are not lived in a past, present and future sequence, but are a blending of times. Often mistakes in judgment made in one life due to inexperience, or lack of maturity and wisdom cannot be rectified under karmic conditions until many lifetimes later due to the fact that the Mind is not ready. To prematurely select karmic opportunities to overcome such a mistake would not be valuable in our overall evolution.

When we are on the other side of the door to death and in our higher consciousness, our Minds can perceive the broader spectrum of issues that overlap into our various lifetimes and also the lifetimes of others, the culmination of which are more efficiently analyzed there. But the actual living of our karmic experiences and the lessons play out on the physical Earth plane. As we evolve more, and our hearts expand and open sufficiently, we powerfully attract situations that will help us understand Unconditional Love and wisdom in utilizing it. 

Physical life on Earth is like an intricately woven fabric composed of unique combinations of experiences limited to ourselves in which free will and experience are the only requisites. There is no right or wrong. There is only experience that allows spontaneity to burst out to express our own individuality, sometimes anew and sometimes a repeat if we have not assimilated sufficiently to stimulate growth.

Our guidance to our choices while on Earth is a deep knowing within our hearts, and the courage to try. When in doubt, we have tools of prayer, meditation, contemplation and concentration to give us confidence in our choices. There is never a wrong choice, but some choices, which at the time may seem quicker and easier, can turn out to be much harder and longer. A good rule-of-thumb to follow is: If the best choice is made, doors will open easily. If it is not the best choice, we struggle to accomplish our goal.

What is making the difference? The higher consciousness of our Minds is communicating with and is our direct connection to Love.

When we become aware of spiritual evolution and access faster vibrations, usually we seek experiences for maximum spiritual growth. Yet often we are too eager and select more intense, catalytic experiences than we can endure, which may actually restrict our progress in a lifetime. Still, it is through such a life that we wisely realize that an intense yearning to take a giant leap to the stars may cause us to stumble and fall. But then, there are no mistakes, only experience.

Because we are multivibrational, we are co-existing on Earth and elsewhere. Although I am categorizing these aspects as if they are separate -- reincarnation, karma, duality, simultaneous lifetimes and our multivibrational essences are all occurring concurrently.  Our Minds know this. For those of us who are partially blocked by our brains, there is a deep knowing within us that this is true. It is because of that deep knowing within that we are able to accept these ideas even if, for the most part, there is no evidence other than personal testimony.  But then aren't all of our great religions and philosophies based on personal testimony?

The purpose and intent of the stories in the Bible and many other spiritual writings were allegories picturing the constant struggle between good versus evil, metaphorically conditioning us to concepts of reincarnation, as determined by a human brain. The limitation as presented in those writing was an instruction to judge others and/or their actions as good or evil.

This is a formula of separation and a barrier in our seeking Love. When we can accept the concept of Oneness, we realize that we have all been both, and we still certainly have facets of both within us. Even the most dedicated and advanced of us do not know with any certainty how we might react to certain cruel actions by another, especially in defense of our own lives or those of loved ones.

Men who have been awarded medals of valor during wartime said that they actually felt they were cowards and yet, under stress in order to save others, they simply reacted--no intention, no forethought, just pure instinct. Perhaps it wasn’t instinct as much as it was cellular memories wherein they had been courageous warriors and they feared not death.

I suggest that we always remember that each of us have dark shadows that can be triggered under the right pressure. Does that make us less? Perhaps it simply makes us more aware so that we are not so quick to criticize others.

When Jesus said not to judge others, I suggest this is because He knew that no one knows the truth of another’s pathway, and what may seem on the outside to be a life of decadency, wastefulness, destruction, or courage, service and sacrifice may actually have been selected because of the experiences that the Mind chose.

Our past judgments may have deterred us from developing our full potential on Earth as such narrowness of perspective crystallizes our Thoughts and our abilities.

In simple words, this chapter depicts the purpose and process that, when blocked from our memories, forces us to experiment, struggle and labor to rise above our challenges. In the doing or not doing, we learn and remember. It is called "on-the-job-training."