Understanding Reincarnation
Before we return to the how of this subject, a brief look at the background setting for our incarnations may lighten its seeming seriousness a little.
Our particular universe is a rather special pocket within Creation. If we regard Creation as such as God's infinite playground, then our playground has different rules to the rest. In actual fact we only have one rule and a very unique one at that; the rule is:"Everything goes", meaning it is a free-will universe.
In a way it is a place where the thrill-seekers from all the galaxies go to experience the most dangerous adventure of all, for only here is the Son of God given the opportunity to forget himself, that is deny his Source and see how far he can slip before disaster strikes. And this is precisely what all of us have done, which makes us all thrill-seekers of sorts.
Using a rather liberal comparison, we can say that the potential danger inherent in the process of reincarnation is similar to that of a bungy jumper who forgot to connect with the bungy, for the danger rests in the fact that a soul lost in Darkness has to find its own way back to Light, a process which requires most souls billions of years in our counting.
The journey of Spirit entering into dense matter is the most severe test any soul can undergo. Once through the test, once a Son of God has found his way back into the Light of his Source, his knowledge is priceless. He has entered the deepest mystery of Creation and has learned now not to lose himself. This puts him in the position of a grand, grand teacher and helper. In fact, his learning is so great that he may be put in charge of entire planetary evolutions, if this be his choice. So much in brief for the background, now we shall look at the how of reincarnating.
During man's sojourn through a physical lifetime, all his experiences, be they ups and downs, are accompanied by emotions. These emotions are recorded in his soul and represent the only "luggage", or "capital", he or she may take into the Beyond. The soul of any man or woman has an actual location in the physical body. It is located in the vicinity of the Solar Plexus. The soul does not record actual events, only the emotional essence of these.
Remember the "holding of thought"? This is what is meant by it. It is the sum total of all these accumulated emotions that furnish the profile for each individual character. At any one time you are the best you that you have ever been. For your character represents the result of the lessons extracted from all your previous experiences.
Character must not be confused with personality. The personality of an individual is a conscious choice for a given lifetime serving as a tool, a scaffolding, affording him the learning of a particular set of lessons he set out to learn in that lifetime.
If our learning of a particular lesson in this life concerns artistic expression through the physical body, then we may have chosen to act out the role of a dancer, perhaps ballet. For this purpose we most likely selected a strong, but not heavy body. Certain personality traits would, of necessity, go parallel with this role.
Whereas one whose learning concerns a long delayed lesson, for example compassion, may choose a crippled body as his vehicle. This way he shall instruct his soul with the feeling of what it is like to be outcast from the mainstream of life. The next time around, in another life-stream, when encountering a crippled form of another soul, he will know what it is like. He will feel compassion. Compassion reaches out to the heart of the other and recognizes him as a brother. Thus he steps in the direction of unification, away from separation. His personality, while experiencing the cripple stage, will be in accordance with this particular drama he has created for himself.
Both personalities, the dancer and the cripple, may be diametrically opposed to each other, but their appearance and conduct are nonetheless equally valid as tools for expression and learning. Once this is understood - truly understood with the heart and not merely the intellect - then judging the criminal, the power-broker, the enslaver, the child molester, the thief and the rest of "the undesirable elements" is an impossibility.
When these are seen as beautiful Gods, as innocent souls playing out certain roles on the stage of their particular life-stream for the purpose of enriching their souls with emotion, for learning purposes, then we do not judge - we educate.
We might as well pause here for a moment and consider the astrological sign a person is born under, for it serves the same purpose as the personality. In fact, both are intricately interwoven. The time of birth is consciously chosen to supply the soul with the make-up, the characteristics, to make the learning of a particular lesson, or set of lessons, possible. By no means does this state a person's bondage to his or her star sign.
The learning may go very well in a specific lifetime, so the Zodiac sign may be outgrown and the "scaffolding" expanded to benefit from the properties of other suitable signs to aid in the learning of further lessons. This may reveal the fallacy of the opinion held by many that one's star sign has control over one's life. The opposite is true. We choose it in the first place and may re-choose if necessary.
Together with the physical shell, the personality is shed at the time of physical death. At this point we may be justified in questioning the idea of the soul recording only feelings and not actual events. For how is a regression into a past lifetime possible, which apparently reveals every single detailed event, with the regressing person reliving, re-experiencing those events and the whole gamut of emotions which go with it, if events are not recorded?
To answer this in an understandable fashion, we will have to seek the help of another analogy. Only in the realm of polarities does linear time and space occur. Why this is so, we shall see later. In reality, time as such does not exist, but rather an eternal now. Without time, future and past cannot exist.
Now, where does this leave us in regard to past or future lifetimes?We may be tempted to conclude: nowhere. Not quite, for the answer is: everywhere, or better everywhen. Meaning, lifetimes exist in a parallel, rather than a linear pattern. They exist always, the 'future" and "past" lifetimes alike.
At this point we may experience some mental hiccups. The mind tends to refuse this, for this does not fit its "programming", which is based on linear thinking, based on the principle of polarities. But we can be at ease here - the following illustration shall clarify the picture:
We imagine a public library with thousands and thousands of books. Each contains a story. Therefore each story exists already from beginning to end. We may view each book as representing a lifetime. The books have parallel existence in the library. Yet, to experience the story of a particular book, we have to retrace the story in a linear fashion from beginning to end, although beginning and end are already existent. We may now understand a little better how the clairvoyant sees the "future". The library paradigm will, most likely, shed some light into the minds of those who are somewhat familiar with the term "Akashic Records".
We imagine for a moment that we enjoy a good movie in a cinema theatre. Now, the story we are following exists, or is recorded in its entirety, on a reel of film. The entire story is there from the beginning to the end. However, to experience this story we have to wind off the film and look at each frame singularly in sequence, that is, in a linear fashion. Although the whole story exists as such already, to experience it we must retrace each step in a linear manner. Thus, time is born.
However, let us not fall into the mental trap of assuming that lives are predestined. To sit back in a fatalistic attitude, and see our fate as being "all in the stars" anyway, only shows that he who feels this way has written this fatalistic attitude in his book of life in the first place. Now he is retracing it. Thus he shall learn from it how not to be. That was the reason for writing this part into the script.
As we can only receive the radio station we are tuned into, in the same manner the clairvoyant adjusts to the specific frequency of an already existent "future" or "past" lifetime or "future" event of a present life. The fact that only the clairvoyant can do this, and we cannot, is due to his particular gift to do so. Similar to one person having a talent for music and another having a talent for mathematics. However, now having a talent for music still cannot prevent me from being taught to play the piano.
As we can only watch one TV channel at one one given time, so we only experience one lifetime at a time. It does not mean the other TV channels are non-existent. These beam their programs into the ether all the same, meaning the other programs, or films, are rolling off in the same Now as our Now.
Returning to the cinema analogy, we recognize that the canvas the film is projected upon stands for our physical world, the world of matter. The story of any given lifetime is projected onto and into matter. Now, while watching the movie in the cinema, be the movie funny or sad, we feel with the actors, we rejoice or weep, fear or become angry, to the extent of an increased heart beat and perspiration on our forehead - in short, we become involved. Mind you, it is not real, it is only a movie, remember?And at the end, when we leave the theatre, no matter if we wept our heart out, we are likely to remark on what a good movie this was.
Exactly the same happens after our departure from the cinema Earth. The only difference here is that we are author, scriptwriter, director, actor and audience in one. Once we begin to see our particular lifetime as one in a succession of thousands of such lifetimes, its hold on us through its terrible seriousness and drama begins to loosen. We then dare to smile, if not laugh out loud and the serious and sad "movie" takes on a more light-hearted hue:We begin to actually enjoy it.
When we understand the idea behind the roles we have assigned to our lives and the concept of victimization is therefore seen for what it is: an upside-down perception of life.
If the roles we act out in any given life - be it king or beggar, thief or judge, nun or prostitute, murderer or victim - are conscious choices we made before embarking on the journey of that particular lifetime, then the idea of a victim becomes totally unjustified.
The inflictor affords the inflicted an experience, a learning opportunity, the entire event being a co-creation. The cripple on the roadside then is no more seen as unjustly treated by life, but rather that his body is the necessary form this fellow soul requires for the learning of his lesson. Whereas before, our heart may have ached with compassion at the sight of him, the compassion now becomes "dispassionate" compassion. We still feel whole-heartedly for him, yet know his condition to be for a purpose. The general feeling then is one of compassionate understanding.
If coldness is the echo at his sight, or a feeling of superiority, then we shall be assured we will have to come as a cripple ourselves sometime in the "future", if we do not learn to see aright. For we can only judge what we do not understand. Having been a cripple means that I have been there, I understand. Having been a beggar means I own the feeling in my soul. The lady of good social standing encountering the prostitute at the corner of the street will understand, if she "has been there", she will not judge. For she knows.
And so the journey goes, from lifetime to lifetime, advancing in our learning a little at a time. But there comes a time when the soul is saturated with the accumulation of experiences. This accumulation may result in the soul's complete boredom with the perceived, for it has been there, has experienced it all; or the result may be the accumulation of sorrow creating a build-up of enormous pressure seeking to be released.
And for the first time in eons, the heart may cry: "there must be another way". Thoughts then tend to redirect from the focus on matters at hand to matters concerning life in general and the meaning of it all. It is then that learning is accomplished in gigantic strides. What previously may have taken a hundred lifetimes to learn, may now be absorbed intelligently in one singular life. The focus then is directed toward the inner rather than the outer. The kingdom of heaven is within. If this learning culminates in individual's awakening, then further incarnations are superfluous. The soul has disembarked from the wheel of rebirths.
"God I AM: From Tragic to Magic"
by Peter Erbe