Chapter 6

REINCARNATION & PAST LIVES

Reincarnation is an anglicized word of Latin derivation, meaning “re-enfleshment”: the coming again into a human body of an excarnate soul — the repetitive re-embodiment of the reincarnating human ego in vehicles of human flesh. This is a special case of the general doctrine of Re-embodiment, which applies not solely to man but to all centers of consciousness whatsoever — all monads, wheresoever they may be on the evolutionary ladder of life, and whatever their particular developmental grade upon it. There are eight words used in theosophical philosophy in connection with re-embodiment, which are not all synonymous, although some have almost the same specific meaning: Pre-existence, Rebirth, Re-embodiment, Palingenesis, Metensomatosis, Transmigration, Metempsychosis, and Reincarnation. Of these, only four may be said to contain the four basic ideas of the general doctrine of re-embodiment: Pre-existence, Re-embodiment, Metempsychosis, and Transmigration.

I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty-six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next.Henry Ford, San Francisco Examiner, August 26, 1928

We are all intrigued by our past lives, wondering what and who we were. For the evolution of our soul, however, it is really not important “who” we were in the sense of a person (were we someone famous?), but “who” we were as an essence. The true questions to ask are: What have I accomplished in a past life? Where lies my connection, in this life, to my past lives? What lessons do I still have to learn, based on my past lives?

In this sense, reincarnation therapy is a valuable tool to help you on your spiritual path. Some might claim that, especially in the New Age, we should live in the “here and now” and not concern ourselves with our past lives. In my opinion, time is but an illusion, and therefore your “past” lives are also part of your “here and now.” I also believe, however, that nothing should be forced when it comes to past lives, and that the preferable method for delving into them is to stay conscious throughout the whole process. What you need for this is a good past-life therapist who will help you reach a meditative alpha state — meaning that the right, intuitive hemisphere of your brain is more active than the left, logical one.

www.crystalinks.com/reincarn.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20050204232925/http://crystalinks.com:80/reincarn.html)

Your therapist will ask you about the picture you see (sometimes you may want to think of a specific difficulty in your present life and concentrate on an image that comes up to help you resolve it). Unlike with hypnosis, you are awake during the whole process and truly experience and remember everything. In my experience, a person’s ability to see pictures clearly during their first past-life session has nothing to do with their spiritual background. Sometimes people who meditate regularly (and meditation induces the alpha state) do not see anything, while others who practice no exercises at all, and are not spiritually oriented, see a whole past life unfold in their first session. It may, however, take up to three sessions before you see any clear picture. If you do not see or feel anything after three sessions, you are doing yourself a favor by leaving it alone. There are many other ways to walk your spiritual path; regression into past lives is only one of them. And again — you should try this method only with an experienced past-life therapist, who will also help you keep your focus during the session. As this method does not use hypnosis and you are totally conscious, nothing you cannot handle at this point in your life will come to the surface. Very often, healing sessions induce spontaneous regressions into past lives. These can happen quite spontaneously — not necessarily while you are meditating, but even while you are grocery shopping, driving home, or doing something similar. In that case, just watch the story unfolding in your mind’s eye. Most of the time there will be one image that strikes you as relevant to your present life, and often you will have an immediate understanding of how it connects to your past life.

These spontaneous regressions come up as a result of a healing process that has been initiated in your system, and they are important in removing blockages and helping you on your way. Since these images “came to you,” rather than “you came looking for them,” they will never show up before you are ready, and they will do you no harm.

Now let us imagine you are still skeptical about past lives, and are trying to validate whether what you are seeing are really past lives. If you have these concerns, you may be constantly blocking yourself throughout the process, making it more difficult. So just take a moment to ask yourself: Why do I see these images? What do they want to tell me? You do not necessarily have to believe that they are “past lives” — as mentioned before, time is an illusion. Just accept these images as part of yourself, accept that they are there, and let them assist you on your spiritual path.

It has been said that reincarnation is making a comeback. Be that as it may, the idea is not nearly as incredible as the average Westernized mind might think. Certainly, there are those who would have you believe that “you only go around once in life, so you have to grab all the gusto you can.” For recipients of such sage advice who find gusto-grabbing to be one of the lesser rewards of heaven, there is an alternative. Perhaps, instead of a single tenure of one life to live on this earth, each of us has (or will have) many lives — and, as a result, a whole slew of opportunities to reach for, grab, or otherwise acquire the gusto. Strictly speaking, reincarnation is the belief that a single soul is incarnated in more than one body: the doctrine of the soul reappearing after death in other, different bodily forms. This rebirth of the soul can occur numerous times; in fact, some believe it can involve hundreds, if not thousands, of different lives.

www.ourultimatereality.com, by Adrian Cooper.

To the Western mind, reincarnation is often thought of as a product of certain Eastern religions, such as Hinduism or Buddhism. While reincarnation may be an essential aspect of these religions, it is not necessary to accept any of their other tenets in order to believe in it. Reincarnation, for example, also has a long and honorable history in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. While the current fashion in some religions does not involve reincarnation, suffice it to say that accepting the idea as a realistic or factual possibility carries no obligation to accept any established religion, cult, or spiritual standard.

Reincarnation is a theory that may be considered separately, as an independent and alternative way of thinking about life and death (or about death and rebirth). It can, perhaps, be more easily linked with an inherent, universal justice than can the idea of a single chance at life (and gusto-grabbing). It is fundamentally evident that not everyone on the planet is born into equal circumstances or with equal opportunities. If there are multiple lives, however, then there are ample opportunities for everyone to have their shot at being king of the hill. Reincarnation is thus potentially more fair, or just.

There is also less drama associated with reincarnation. The first time one rides a roller coaster, it can be quite scary; but after a dozen or so back-to-back rides, it becomes pretty matter-of-fact. The same might be true of death. Once you get the hang of it, death can become pretty routine. In fact, for anyone who has had a near-death experience, even close proximity to dying inevitably results in that person no longer fearing death. Kali no longer has any terror associated with her dance.

Reincarnation Is Making a Comeback is a non-fiction book on all things “New Age” — essentially a synthesis of all that “stuff,” and a discussion of how it all ultimately fits into the grander scheme of things. First published in 1990 by Whitford Press, and since revised and updated (in 1990 and 2003), it remains a worthwhile compilation of a host of ideas and concepts. The book is organized into four sections: Basics, Experiences, Possibilities, and Implications. The basics include discussions of reincarnation, karma, soul-mates, and other topics intrinsically tied to the subject. The second part deals with birth, near-death, and out-of-body experiences, as well as regressions to the state between lives and the possibility of “earthbound spirits.” The experiences section provides detailed information about the specifics of reincarnation theory, derived from a diverse group of unique and significant experiences, which may be considered supporting evidence for the theory.

www.halexandria.org/dward425.htm — www.halexandria.org/dward426.htm