A Valiant Choice – Part II ( Dramatized )

Credit: soundofheart.org

                                                                                                                                           

                                      A    VA LIANT     CHOICE

                                         (A   One -Act -Play )

 DRAMATIS   PERSONAE

Gayatri :  A soul preparing to incarnate

Prashant:  A Guide soul

Gambheer:  A Teacher soul

Yogini, Nirvana, Advait:    Souls assisting the incarnating soul

Voice of Siddharth: Voice of a Master, The Buddha from a higher realm

THE   SETTING

A small group of soul forces are engaged in discussion and preparation for the reincarnation of one of them.

The stage is laid out in a simple setting with a rockery in the middle on which five figures are seated at different levels as people would on a picnic. One of them, Gaitri is seated on the floor in the space which the rockery encircles on three sides, except the side facing the audience. She is seated in the lotus position, eyes closed in Yogic meditation. Most of the spirits are dressed in similar white silken robes and sandals, irrespective of sex. The incarnating spirit Gaitri seated on the floor is dressed in a cotton saffron robe of the same type. The guide spirit Prashant is dressed in cream silk and the Teacher spirit Gambheer is in blue silk.

The scene opens in virtual darkness with very dim pools of light to the accompaniment of strains of a Sitar playing Raga Parameshwari as the curtain swings open. The music then dies out  before the dialogue begins.

THE    PLAY

Yogini:    Even after so much preparation, it is difficult when it finally comes to take the plunge as if into an abyss, a bottomless pit. Not all one’s knowledge of physical reality and experience of eternity prepares one for the jolt of matter, the bombardment of the senses, the metamorphosis. 

Nirvana:    It is remarkable that we do so despite the fact that there never is any compulsion in the choice of whether to enter Earth life or to remain in equilibrium. The choice of incarnation has therefore always been a valiant one.

( Gaitri stirs from her meditation, looks around and slowly rises to her feet turning to where Prashant is seated at the lowest extremity of the rockery. She goes and stands beside him, casually placing her hand on his shoulder and addressing him)

Gaitri:    I always quake with fear before making entry, every single time, unfailingly, but have always opted in favour of going again and never because I enjoyed the experience.

Prashant;    On the other hand, I have never felt your kind of compulsion. Perhaps I am not courageous enough.

Gambheer:    ( seated at the highest point in the rockery) Or because you are not in need of  the experience for such growth which you manage to attain on the basis of other strengths.

Yogini:    Once you commence, there is no end to the need for repeated reincarnations revealing some more subtle aspect of matter which one quickly realizes has in it the inherent dynamics for ascent to higher levels.

Nirvana;    I have always felt that it is an act of great courage to want to experience embodiment, the imprisonment of being, the subjection to physical senses, the lessons of pain, the shocking displays of the law of opposites. Discounting of course the  experience of sex ( Chuckles).

Prashant:    Nirvana, you surely need to reincarnate precisely because you have yet to overcome your lingering memories of carnal relationships.

Gaitri:    In my view the sublimation felt in sexual ecstasy is hardly something to be frowned upon. Providence has created it not merely for ensuring procreation but to give the earthly persona a foretaste of the higher ecstasy that we experience when ultimately merging with the supreme spirit at the highest levels.  Sexual love derives from Spiritual love which is the prototype for sex.

Gambheer:    I did not mean to denigrate sexuality. After all it is a great motivating force that can help overcome the ego and to sublimate its baser attributes, particularly when it gives rise to a kind of profound love. I believe it was conceived for that very purpose rather than merely for procreation which earlier was possible through simple regeneration. That kind of world would have created horribly inflated egos where each entity was entirely self sufficient creating a clone of itself and in opposition to other clones which differed. What I meant was that hankering after it as a motive for reincarnation was completely misplaced.

Nirvana:    Hey, I was only joking, but I’m glad we have analysed its value on the physical plane.

Gaitri:    Returning to choices of reincarnation – we have available, unlimited number of choices of gender, circumstances of birth, strengths, weaknesses, life-span, race, social status, familial relationships – the spectrum is indeed very broad. What is important is to arrive at the right combination for the kind of experience one wishes to have for a certain kind of growth.

Gambheer;    It is not easy subjecting oneself even to one’s own choices.

Prashant:    Even linking up as a guiding force has been an overwhelming experience. How much more must be witnessing and enacting one’s reincarnation?

Yogini;    You choose for instance, whether you wish to work out with the domination of being a male or experience the  ‘passivity’ of womanhood – differing parameters and compulsions making for different settings.

Nirvana:    Conceptually, the plan always appears a good one for the purpose for which it is created with positive sustaining features and negative ones representing trials and obstacles. But the results are quite often unpredictable and traumatic. I still carry the ache for someone I dearly loved whom i left behind.

Prashant:    It is precisely in such situations that the Guides play a crucial role. For instance in averting suicides, depressions, addictions and morbidity, though it is hard work creating the right volition at the material level to avert an untenable situation. You certainly need dear Nirvana, to rise above your lingering cravings. Both sex and attachments need to be overcome and sublimated. Attachments are a form of love which have to serve a purpose, not become a purpose in themselves. Love for a son/daughter should not become an obsession even after that love has secured them in life.  In all earthly scriptures such obsessive attachments have a name – in the Hindu scriptures it is called ‘Moh’ – infatuations which arise from ego and are evil, hampering the progress of the Soul. Other scriptures also define such infatuation as being negative.

( Gaitri turns away from Prashant and faces the audience)

Gaitri:    It is really hard infiltrating the material world even to get to your own incarnation. It is as if  you are dealing with insensitive beings who neither heed, hear or obey. The physical gravity, electromagnetism, time-frames and compulsions of organic life produce the extremely stubborn phenomenon of ego.

Yogini;    Nothing is as startling there as to witness the possession of one’s incarnation by its ego, the force of the ego-personality. It is a force that pegs it down and gives it a novel motivation, dimension and twist. The sheer weight of ego and its compulsions are at time overwhelming.

Gaitri;    Yes, it is at the heart of the challenge – the challenge of the primary experience of matter and also the ultimate one – the fetter of fetters which makes you appreciate so starkly the return to the freedom of equilibrium.

Yogini;    Can you imagine the trauma of possession, of being possessed or wanting to possess. The continual violation of subliminal will by the force of ego and procreative desire which is only another manifestation of ego. The appalling dependence, the reliance, the submission to another’s will (pausing) in exchange for making the imposer submit to yours later. ( laughter all around). Bilateral control dramas that go on endlessly.  At the time of release, as the material desire slips away with the possessions, what an overwhelming sense of relief returns! How strange that love and compassion should find such a gross manifestation in matter.

Prashant;    Yes, how quickly desires and attachments arouse murderous rage. You could kill for the hand of your love or for ensuring that your progeny gets ahead of others – love for family, one’s ethnic group or community of believers could lead people and nations to war in the name of love or even faith! The mortal world confronted by the uninhibited flux of opposites runs riot prior to our equilibrium.

Yogini;    Yet as our incarnations experience the grinding weight of ego, the workout strangely, inexplicably, enhances our luminescence and the equilibrium becomes more meaningful.

Gambheer:    Indeed, it would appear paradoxically that the interface with matter is always alleviating. We Teachers have always been supportive of those willing to experience matter, having ourselves incarnated infinitely, we feel satisfied and able to play our role in helping others with choices and settings.

Advait:    Never having considered materialization, I must ask what is the distinction between a planned negativity and one that is spontaneous?

Gambheer;    On the material plane, negativities arise with every challenge because of the nature of ego. Anger unchecked reaches murderous proportions. depression leads to suicide. Jealousy to injury, greed to cheating, lust to betrayal and so on. On the other hand where these interactions have been planned to produce a challenging situation, as when two soul forces incarnate as enemies by agreement to work on the hate syndrome, then there is no problem. but when an extremity arises involuntarily, as in the case of murder, suicide, genocide – then we have reached a dangerous crossroads, often out of control and these end with fall in luminescence for the incarnating spirit involved, its Guides and Teachers.

Advait;    Of course, there are other ways of enhancement than reincarnation, such as, a study of the great Masters and their mysterious purposes – what on the material plane is taken as pure devotion and spiritual communication.

Gambheer:    True there are those safe alternatives for the timid and reluctant souls but without the roller coaster ride I’m afraid their evolution remains stunted even for the best intentioned.

Gaitri: (addressing Gambheer) It is only by your love that I mustered courage to incarnate again and again Sir, secure in the knowledge that your strength,  guidance  and wisdom would see me through when the rhythms become most disturbing.

Gambheer:    At such points of material crisis when the incarnation is no longer able to sustain the shocks and threatens to abort, we reluctantly enter the Auric field around the embodied spirit with a strong beam of healing light but interfere only when such a point arises because the trials and problems, their experience and resolution are part of the master plan of the incarnating spirit, chosen for a purpose. But choice does not mean that situations will be predictable and the risk is always there of a situation running out of control, leading ultimately to a severe dimming of luminescence as after a suicide or murder or the accumulation of enormous negativities which are not in the plan.With such dimming of luminescence there is only one choice left for the poor volunteer soul-force – to devise an immediate return to another incarnation to dissipate the accumulated negativities. However that option is frowned upon and is really an admission of failure.  At that point the poor incarnating soul has already descended to a lower realm of resonance – the obverse of what it intended.

Prashant:    (addressing Gaitri)  I shall always volunteer as your Guide, dear Gaitri, were you to wish re-entry – the experience earned in being a Guide or Guardian has been quite as fulfilling for me as the experience of incarnating itself, though less courageous.

Gaitri: ( moving to centre stage facing audience with arms out stretched) I need to choose womanhood to fight subjection and experience patience. I need to learn about equitable treatment of siblings, of powerful relations of sacrifice , of overcoming deep hatred, jealousies and animosities and in the face of these trials to overcome addictions of one kind or another that inevitably develop. What are the cardinal points that I must choose for this, what relationships, what addictions, climaxes in life and what circumstances of birth and death?

Nirvana:    ( suddenly animated with an inspirational thought ) I volunteer to join Gaitri, incarnating as her domineering and violent husband.  Let Advait and Yogini be the siblings between whom you are to exercise equity. Let the circumstances be the changing norms in which liberalization of women is the issue. Let the times be the end of the 20th century on Earth in the Solar System. Let your earthly goal be dissemination of greater understanding of the spiritual world through an appreciation of the growing metaphysical orientation in science and technology. Let the climax of your life be the separation from the domineering spouse. Let the ultimate isolation be betrayal of your love by friends and relatives. Let the resultant cynicism and anguish lead you to drug addiction and finally suicide from which you are saved. Then would begin your rehabilitation and total transformation with the growing spirit of social and humanitarian service. May you then grow in prestige and power and become instrumental in  initiating the fundamental transformation of the material world through the propagation of  a paradigm shift away from gross materialism towards a holistic appreciation of reality and the first steps in social transformation away from violence towards a peaceful planet with an equilibrium almost matching our own. Let such transformations occurring here and there be finally crowned by the appearance of a Master to lead the world into a new age of expanding consciousness, signalling the end of the childhood of man. ( sighs after the long speech comically raising his eyes upwards )

( As Nirvana completes his  speech the group of souls break out in spontaneous applause )

Prashant:   Bravo Nirvana, very creative suggestions. That is indeed a beautiful theme – a fundamental revolution and transformation of material consciousness,  the very transformation of man’s destiny. ( sighs deeply) but such a  metamorphosis would surely need more than a single incarnation.?

Gambheer: Granted that it would be most enobling an assignment and most enlightening. But , yes, would it not be too ambitious a task to expect Gaitri’s incarnation to move the entire material world?  After  all she is no prophet or Avatar.

Yogini;    Yes but we can reach out to other groups with what Nirvana  has proposedoposed – it could have a chain reaction of universal responses from several levels of the spirit world.

Gaitri:    Indeed I can sense  a rising crescendo of responses coming  in our direction even as we speak from every ethereal level – great and glorious luminescences pooling in their assent.

( flickers of light flash on the backdrop in all the colours of the rainbow from all directions  to denote responses from different levels, to the accompaniment of thunder and the positive and assenting strains of Raga Desh  in orchestra in rising volume – then the lightening flashes cease and the melody is reduced to a background accompaniment. )  

Prashant:    How energizing the spontaneous responses are. Let us then together invoke the blessed Lord Siddharth to help us in our venture from his highest realms.

( Gambheer leads the invocation and chanting with the Mantra ”Om Mani Padme Hum” – We follow his lotus jewel footsteps – as the others join him in harmony in a circle as the pools of separate light upon them converge into one brilliant spot at the centre )

All:    Om Mani Padme Hum – O Lord of the spheres, grace us with your presence. ( A point of bright blue light on the backdrop enlarges like a blue-white sun while the light upon the gathered souls dims in obeisance. )

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Voice of Siddhartha:    ( sonorous ) You envisage a historic coming in an age of transition from the Information Age to a Consciousness Age to mark the evolution of man to super-manhood on earth. This is indeed more than a simple incarnation of a soul experiencing material existence for enhancing its level of luminescence. Your proposal would involve the incarnation of  a galaxy of souls in such a fundamental transformation of the very essence of matter and material existence – a most worthy if ambitious project.

Prashant:    Master, your august presence in our midst does us great honour and we are already overwhelmed with luminosity and motivation to do your bidding. The interaction of numerous soul forces has already created an ambiance in which such a historical event as your incarnation would become the nucleus for a fundamental transformation of the human material, leading to other far reaching transformations. On Earth there has always been a legend of the coming of a new messiah for more than a millennium.

Yogini;    Great seer, as your glorious light infuses me, I wish to devote myself only to serving you in your descent to the world of matter.

Nirvana:    O  omnipresence, I delight in your compassionate visitation. Our naive  invocation was indeed presumptuous in  suggesting  that you  incarnate.  you are beyond such a need. I do hope we have not disturbed your supreme equilibrium.

Gaitri:    Glorious master, your sudden appearance in answer to our simplistic exchanges has already filled me with so much light that I no longer wish to experience reincarnation, let alone dare to suggest that you too descend to transform the realm of matter.

Gambheer:    O  compassionate one, we cannot presume that you have illuminated our quarter merely heeding our limited exchanges. Rather I sense that you have superior purpose and would like us to conform to your great and glorious design. Indeed all the realms of spirit bow to your holy purpose. what better can we do than incarnate and prepare for the descent of your glorious Avatar.

( All fold hands and bow to the glorious presence signified by the glowing light on the backdrop)

Bodhisatva Maitrya – the messiah to come Credit: Norton Simon Museum – triadvisor.com

Voice of Siddharth:    The time is nigh when a part of me shall make its descent into the material world in the mountainous region of pious Tibet, even as a new millennium dawns on planet Earth in the Solar System of the Milky Way galaxy.  Soul forces will move to incarnate high and low in these regions as we begin the process of ending the childhood of man and creating a new material equilibrium. Numerous soul forces will endeavour  to structure and restructure the material plane as an ideal gymnasium for their enhanced evolution, till the environment is right again for matter to rise to its fullest potential.

( With these prophetic words, the blue-white light fades and disappears. The pool of light on the gathered spirits brightens again. They now congregate around Gaitri  as she prepares  for her own reincarnation. She is seated concentrating her being in deep thought in the lotus yogic posture. They surround her, hold and support her, a spirit in ‘labour’. Prashant stands behind her in his role as the guide spirit with both hands on her shoulders. linking with her thoughts. The others hold her with compassion from all sides. An Earthly yellow light glows around Gaitri and Prashant. )

Gaitri:    ( with eyes closed ) I can see her in labour and i can feel my descent into the heavy medium. I am now within the fetus as it stirs to be born. I shall now maintain silent contemplation and immobility to the exclusion of all other thoughts, watching over my incarnation’s passage till its completion. Prashant will be with me always through the experience, free to use all his resources.  Together we shall guide my incarnation. I shall inspire my material form and personality with intuition, which it may choose to act upon or ignore. while Prashant shall assist in the unfolding of the basic plan through the use of coincidences and guidance of other companion incarnations who are to interact with mine. Gambheer shall oversee our joint sojourn and use his power to avert irretrievable malfunction of the plan, assisting finally in aligning the progress of this life within the larger context of the descent of the Master, even as several other Teachers do likewise in the infinite reaches  with other wards, in other groups.

( As Gaitri falls into deep meditation and Prashant and Gambheer now stand on either side of her with a hand on each shoulder , the others contemplate her, concentrating their thoughts on her incarnation in compassionate communion, as all lights begin to fade except the broad yellow beam on the figure of Gaitri in meditation, before this too begins to fade and go out even as the sound of wailing of a new born child grows louder and louder. )

Credit: soulbirth.co.za

 

 

 

 

 

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A Valiant Choice

CREDIT: whitewolfjourneys.com

The journey of this blog, has taken us through varied interpretations of the Soul from the Hindu Eastern ‘Atma’ to the Western and Middle Eastern Judaic versions and again to the modern fusion achieved in ‘New Age’ insights. Personally what sticks with me is the Hindu concept of Soul and Reincarnation, garnished with the New Age concept of  ‘Choice in Reincarnation’. The idea of Choice appealed greatly to me and I allowed it to help me reinterpret my Hindu beliefs. The theory of Karma and its consequences in reincarnations were logical and ancient and initially satisfying – yet it appeared to have one drawback – on the one hand it was too mechanical ( in the Gita Krishna underlines that the Lord – i.e. God – does not produce fruitful results of action – Nature does this through the law of Karma ) the law therefore appears to be unfeeling and automatic like gravity, just too mechanical (like blind justice). It also imposes judgement in observing suffering around us – a beggar, invalid, deformed, bereaved or otherwise suffering individual we encounter must have ‘earned’ his sorry state from previous misdeeds – this produces a judgmental reaction in the observer even when laced with compassion and condemns the unfortunate sufferer as suffering the consequence of his actions  – ‘as you sow so shall you reap’  /  ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ – and so on. The introduction of the concept of CHOICE OF REINCARNATION   by New Age thinkers has changed this entirely giving Karma a totally new interpretation. All these old and new elements have gone into the present post in personally, restructuring the concepts of Reincarnation and Karma experienced by the Soul. The first post explains my new understanding and the second which follows, presents it as a one-act play which I composed to help comprehend and dramatically visualize the points made.  The first is therefore an Exposition of the One-Act-Play that follows it . This reinterpretation is quite radical and may not appeal to many who may be appalled by the thought that their present plight ( if unfortunate) arises from their own choice. Some people would prefer to accept the idea that ones unfortunate condition may be the result of a Karmik fate rather than one resulting from ones own  conscious choice. In both cases what it boils down to is that we are responsible for our present situation.

 

                                                                                                                                 A    VALIANT    CHOICE    ( A Play )

PART  I  –  EXPOSITION

(An imaginary Soul preparing to reincarnate)

It was very difficult to make the right choice. Nothing could be gained from pleasurable plentiful easy options alone. The handicaps, obstacles, trials were the more important choices, the fundamental experiences to improve the quality of ones being.  There was complete freedom to make the right combination of choices or to make no choices at all. There never was any compulsion here, no peer pressure, no fear, no punishment.

There was no hunger as existence was not reliant on consumption but was self-sufficient. the only hunger was for experience on the physical plane.

There was no fear of mortality. the only concern was for one’s further evolution.

There was no procreative sexuality as survival of one’s kind did not depend on reproduction – though there were attractions and appreciation of others and great affairs of love extending over eons were quite common place.

Fear did not exist. Motivation arose from creativity and a sense of duty and dedication.

Anger in grosser states was here a kind of unbending determination.

It would be meaningless to lie when the truth was known to all and no thoughts could be secret and there was no room for deception.

There was nothing to steal as possessions were beyond your reality.

Nobody could be hurt so the question of inflicting injury never arose.

There was no judgement because you were your own harsh judge, jury and executioner.

Your primal essence glowed with clarity in an ambiance of bliss and perfection. Of course, there were higher  levels and there were peers but you were left to evolve at your own pace.

There was complete harmony, equilibrium and freedom. No disturbance of any kind, nothing painful, nothing enforced in that timeless essence.

Then  from the heart of this equilibrium arose a whim,  inventing opposites as a means of comprehending equilibrium, the postulate of two notes making a  harmony, the promise of a finite time to measure infinity, the concept of mortality to define immortality better, the idea of material diversity arising from essential unity. The hallmark of  material creation  was  mortality, a  finite, diverse world under the sway of the law of opposites – . good, bad, light and shadow, water and fire, pleasure and pain, male and female.

To comprehend one’s own reality, it was desirable to materialize and experience mortality, to be in the full glare of the law of opposites. So the choice was yours – first whether you wished to materialize and then the nature of your materialization.  To materialize meant to become embodied.

The choices were unlimited and came to you in your contemplation and discussions with companions and peers. Pain and suffering were the constant accompaniment to mortality, where the experience you wished to undergo was entirely of your own choosing. Was it to be one in which towering ego had to be overcome; obsessive attachments shown to be illusory; an acquisitive nature’s ultimate realization that possessions were meaningless; restraint and control to be learnt in a life driven by lust; addictions to be remedied; language of exchange and service to be perfected; the lessons of want to be learnt in poverty; compassion to be perfected in a life of suffering through disease; frugality, temperance and charity to be learnt through a life of billionaire abundance; the appreciation of perfection learnt in a lifetime of deformity or hardship; anger to be sublimated in a lifetime of raging insanity; innumerable relationships and interaction between two personalities worked out in different situations and combinations.

It was not as if soul forces were riven with imperfections needing remedy. Soul forces were the essence of perfection and equilibrium but the need to evolve necessitated the experience of mortality, the trials and tribulations of a material existence. The choice of category of experience and level and quality of existence was its own, like one’s choice of a book from a library.

The planning for a re-entry into Earth-World  was intricate and thorough. The combinations which would sustain a  life span without allowing the incarnation to founder from excessive trials while facilitating the desired experience, had to be carefully worked out. The negative elements needed to be balanced with positive ones. Strengths were available to all in many forms ( as weapons of defence to be selected carefully) in such a way as to ensure that the desired experiment was not nullified. Much like weapons of defence available to a Roman Gladiator. Weapons such as beauty, riches, nobility, generosity, special skills and talents, genius and creativity, spouse’s love, parental love, love from progeny, people’s love or acclaim and admiration, animal loyalty, successful career, great achievements, winning nature, power and prestige, to name a few. Handicaps and obstacles were also aplenty, to be judiciously combined like heavy weights with a sound diet. The choice of most trying circumstances could include abject poverty and hunger, shame humiliation and infamy, disease deformity and physical ugliness; orphanage and loneliness; persecution and victimization; guilt and ignominy of heinous crimes; insanity derangement and depression; insatiable greed, lust and addictions; ignorance and illiteracy; dogmatism and fanaticism; consuming hate and a life time of revenge; faithlessness and cynicism; over bearing ego and compulsive need for domination; cruelty, wastefulness and destructiveness etc.

The heaviest crosses could well be borne by the worthiest souls, having chosen to carry them – not unlike the choice of the most difficult course for graduation. Better or easier circumstances therefore did not translate into presumption of superiority of the embodying soul.

Sometimes companions would incarnate together, while other companions would assist in the difficult planning and materialization process, overseeing the incarnation as Guides and Guardian souls. Peers and even Masters were available for consultation. Some companion Guides would then attach themselves as boatmen to steer the adventurer soul on its courageous journey across the ocean of matter, to ensure that the journey of life played itself out and did not come to an abrupt and ignoble end nor  was the incarnated personality so discouraged as to quit midway. The Guides provided succor, assistance and relief from extremely untenable and unpredictable situations, while the general tenor of a chosen life story unfolded along its determined course to provide material experience and help  in evolution and understanding the material aspect of the spirit. Guides had a difficult job being present as it were between two worlds simultaneously. Masters came with great transforming messages and experienced the suffering inherent in mortal existence.

Preparation for departing souls was always full of compassionate congregation and support before its descent into the grossest elements and there was constant concern to see that its courage was rewarded by a successful and complete sojourn of the chosen life-span. Souls also undertook to incarnate together as relatives, spouses, friends, enemies and numerous other relationships to help in working out an issue of common interest on the material plane – the themes were varied – love, betrayal, exploitation, sacrifice, revenge, addictions, superiority or inferiority complex, majority or minority community, differences of race, colour, caste, sex, creed etc. Often familial relationships and circle of friends and acquaintances were the same group of participants in succeeding reincarnations being switched or shuffled about. The soul assuming the role of father  might seek to experience a switch with the soul playing the role of son in the next incarnation. Friends might opt to play the enemy in the next. Masters became servants, wives husbands or an intimate relationship in one might become nothing more than an acquaintance in the next.

It is for this reason that it was ‘unethical’ during an earth life to be judgemental. Compassion became important for the same reason. This of course did not mean that the development of negativities in a life being played out was unreal or to be condoned or that sufferings were not real enough or that punishments imposed during earth life were undeserved or that crimes were not real. Each life’s circumstances contained certain compulsions and the results were not always predictable.

The physical incarnation necessarily was made oblivious of its spiritual lineage and purpose and identified totally with its physical persona acting and reacting to its environment with the totality of its physical aptitudes and shortcomings. The thick earth medium of senses and their objects quickly grasped the incarnate spirit in the flux of temporal life, thrusting forward from one challenge to another without respite, much like a the breath-taking ride on a roller-coaster. The spirit generally emerged at the end strengthened and more luminescent.

The incarnating soul force in the company of interested companions was at all times also able to observe its incarnate self-acting and reacting to the given circumstances much like one would a video of oneself and capable of beaming in some influences or corrections to improve the experiment, but the incarnation was no puppetry and could produce unpredictable results both appalling and exhilarating .  The spirit was often amazed by the behaviour of its incarnation. There was always the risk that a dismal outcome of an incarnation gone wrong might affect the resonance of the incarnating soul, diminishing the level of its clarity. Equally a successful engagement with physical trials would enhance that clarity with accompanying evolution to a higher order of Spirit. Eventually all souls felt encouraged to take the risk of material reincarnation for evolution to a higher level of being, rather than stagnating blissfully at their own level.

 

Credit: blog.richhealing.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Spirit World: Through a Near Death Experience

Credit: jeffreyolsen.com

We began our exploration of the spirit world with a conception about the soul and its reincarnation, through Hindu scriptures, mainly the Gita. Later we compared the concept as appearing in Christian and Judaic theology, with the emerging thought on the subject by New Age scholars and writers, particularly James Redfield and GaryZukav. New Age concepts of the soul were remarkably similar to  Hindu concepts, allowing both reincarnation and effects of the law of Karma, yet different when viewing it as less than  divine and quite fallible, though ethereal.

I also sought to link the investigations and discoveries of quantum physics and biology with metaphysical thought, showing that science and spiritualism reflected similar thinking on the theme of the basic unity of the universe and our own existence, through the writings of scientists like Fritjof Kapra, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake and scholars like Renee Weber, Lynne McTaggart, Peter Russel and James Redfield. We also viewed the practice of meditation and visualization, particularly of pioneers like Jose De Silva to link the resulting para normal abilities they impart to practitioners, with an interlinked purposeful and benign universe.

The next step would be to probe the spiritual world itself to the extent that it allows us to unravel its closely kept secrets. Scriptural pronouncements and the theology of different religions over millenia have indeed sought to provide theories and presumptions about the nature of God and the spiritual realms and for believers and the faithful this presumably is satisfactory and sustaining. But lately over the past century ‘Near Death Experiences’, Hypnotic Regression and mediums appear more intensively to have unravelled the spiritual world’s closely guarded secrets, one can only imagine with its deliberate sanction, for a purpose. The revelations appear to be remarkably corroborative of each other and match many New Age presumptions and speculations on the subject. While there is a whole range of literature on the subject, I will only review some of  the books that have had a profound influence on me in shaping my thoughts to present a gist of their revelations of the spiritual world.

Betty J. Eadie

I would like to begin with a New York Times bestseller, ‘Embraced by the Light’ by Betty J. Eadie (Bantam Books 1992). Betty wrote of her extraordinary Near Death Experience during a major surgery. First hovering near the ceiling she saw her body below. Three stately glowing spirits who had ‘known her for an eternity’ materialized to comfort and reassure her with love before she felt as if being drawn into a great tornado which swallowed her. Then through this dark tunnel she rushed towards a glowing figure of celestial brilliance and was embraced by it in love and reassurance. She felt that the figure could be none other than Jesus.

So many questions were instantly answered. All religions upon earth were necessary because people needed what they taught. Each church fulfilled spiritual needs that possibly others could not for a particular people. All were important and precious. Very special people with important missions had been placed in all countries. Spirits in the spirit world took part in the continuous process of creation on earth. Prototypes of planets and solar systems were first created on a spiritual plane like blue prints, later being translated to reality on the physical plane. Souls incarnated on earth for a time so as to assist their spiritual growth through the earthly experience. As spirits we had a mission on earth chosen by us. Spirits of family members also bonded with us to help us complete our mission and their’s. All were valiant spirits even the least developed ones. We remained free to act in any way we pleased without any intervention by providence. We learnt important lessons both from joy and sorrow. The battle between the spirit and the body helped in developing both. Love, compassion and service of others helped the spirit grow enormously. Both positive and negative  experiences of life were chosen by us as spirits for our development. Even the cause (often painful and traumatic) and timing of our death was by choice. Difficult lessons were learned at the close of life. Our greatest challenges became our greatest teachers.

Betty’s spirit travelled to different realms of the spirit world. She encountered a library of thought for acquiring knowledge. There were areas where spirits gathered to exchange thought.

After death the spirit went to the level of development best suited for it where it would be comfortable. She met one enthusiastic spirit, brilliant and dynamic readying to incarnate as a mentally handicapped person as that would help both it and the parents spirits to grow in dealing with the trials and tribulations of dealing with the handicap. Finally she returned to earth, as her death was considered premature and she had to complete the mission she had set herself. At the moment of descent she was surrounded by cheering angels who applauded her courageous decision to return.

Betty does not claim to be a scholar, mystic or philosopher. A householder with several children and grandchildren she is now a successful businesswoman. The daughter of a Sioux-Indian mother, she was reared in Nebraska, South Dakota. After her experience she became a counselor and hypnotherapist. She has appeared on television in the USA and Japan and participated in programmes in universities on Near Death Studies. In a word she is a quite ordinary person, like you or me, who happened to have such an extraordinary experience.

Her Christian upbringing doubtless moulded her phraseology and her experiences are interpreted within a Christian frame of thought and terminology. Thus in her slim book which sold several million copies, she refers to the soul simply as spirit. Given her brief journey into the spirit world from which she was sent back to ‘complete her unfinished mission’, there is reference to incarnation but no reference to reincarnation or rebirth. Furthermore, she identified the being of effulgent light that embraced her as Jesus himself. She also speaks of the dark forces of Satan and other negative entities who create hindrances in the path of spiritual development. It is possible that the references arise from her earthly mind-set framed in traditional Christian beliefs. But if we filter these aside through rational thinking we would still be left with the essence of her experiences.

For instance the moving out of the body to view it at death, the allowance to visit her family who were unaware of her death in the transition, the tunnel through which one passes on, the light at the end of the tunnel, the glorious radiant beings full of love and reassurance receiving her, the feeling of utter peace and tranquility rather than fear, the knowledge gained in a short span of time before her return of the need for all religions on earth, the spirit’s freedom of choice of birth on the physical plane in certain particular circumstances with abilities and disabilities that would help in its evolution, the glimpse of spirits or souls at different levels of evolution in the spiritual realms, the areas of the spiritual world dedicated to creation and inspiration, angelic beings that applaud the valiant spirits that descend to incarnate for their own evolution, the immense power of prayer and its response from the spirit world, the understanding that suffering is a necessary pre-requisite for growth and development, the acknowledgement that an apparently disabled person, a destitute and poverty striken person may indeed be an advanced soul on a path of evolution, therefore the need to eschew being judgemental, the fact that we  at all times are  being helped by a compassionate providence which may appear harsh for creating necessary trials and adverse circumstances for our development, indeed that we ourselves have selected the course of our roller coaster ride on the physical plane.

This case is important because it is related first hand, not through hypnotherapy or mediums. It is a first hand report of an experience, without the trammels of sophisticated analysis, philosophical interpretations or through the lens of theology and religious dogma. It therefore has its own unique value.

Later I propose in succeeding posts to present case studies of similar experiences in the clinics of eminent psychologists, parapsychologists, hypnotists and mediums, to throw more light on the world of spirit.

I will be concluding the series with the most extraordinary presentation of case studies of ‘life between lives’ by the eminent Master Hypnotherapist and psychologist Michael Newton PhD. Newton went beyond merely inducing past life experiences of his clients and focussed on the world of the spirit. His books are seminal in providing us a glimpse of what the spirit world is like, why souls incarnate, how  they evolve, and what are the ascending order of spirit leading to God. His facts are not based on hypothesis or speculation. He relies for his facts on the recounting by clients  under hypnosis of their soul’s home world. After being regressed beyond birth the clients subconscious reveals its hidden memories of life in the spirit world. ( More on Michael Newton’s book ‘Journey of Souls’ in a subsequent post )

This last book made the greatest impact on my thinking revealing in a rationally convincing manner what I had been unable to find even in scriptures, philosophical treatises or speculations by mystics of what the spirit world could be like. I am convinced that this has only become possible because mankind is now ready and mature enough to receive the information which hitherto has been held from it. the spirit world apparently now wishes within limits to reveal some of its secrets.

Credit: thespiritscience.net