This is a very controversial subject. Some people simply deny that there is such a thing as reincarnation. Some are not sure one way or the other. Some firmly believe in it. And some actually have memories of past lives, so for them it is not a matter of belief, rather knowledge. I am one of the latter group.
First of all we need to understand why there would be such a thing as reincarnation in the first place. In order to understand that, we have to understand why we have physical bodies and lives at all, why bother? If we can think of Earth as one gigantic classroom, we can begin to understand. Physical life is for learning. A young soul just starting out on its human experience is really fairly ignorant. I am not being insulting here, just stating a fact. During its lifetime, it has certain lessons to learn. These initial lessons are really fairly easy ones to learn, but it is vital that they be learned as they will be the foundation upon which other lessons will be built. Now don’t get the idea that only young souls have lessons to learn. Every single human being, whether it is on its first physical life as a human or on its last or anywhere in between has lessons to learn. That is after all why we have human lifetimes.
There are a great many lessons that each soul has to learn and there is no way that they can all be learned in one lifetime, or even in ten or twenty lifetimes. I have had people tell me that they had lived 3 times before or 5 times. I don’t think that I have ever met anyone who had lived so few lifetimes. They usually have gotten that bit of misinformation from a phoney psychic, and paid good money for it at that.
An older soul may have a pretty good idea what it needs to learn next, but younger souls do not. So they will be assisted by an older, more evolved soul in planning out what life lessons that they need to work on in their next incarnation. Then they will have to decide what circumstances that they need to be born into in order to learn those lessons. For instance, will they be born into an incredibly wealthy family or one that is dirt poor? Will they have the chance to earn a doctorate degree or will they be born into a situation where they never learn to read? With most, it will be something in between.
Now why would a soul choose to be born into unfavorable circumstances? Let's look at a couple of situations. Say that a soul has the body of a star athlete, strong, fast, superbly healthy. Well there is nothing wrong with that. But what if while in that “superman” body, it had scoffed at others that were not so gifted, and looked down on them. In such a case, it might very well choose to be born into a body that had some birth defect that resulted in its being crippled in the next lifetime. This is not a karmic debt type of thing although many might think so. Rather it is an attempt to learn what it is like to not have a perfect body. Or take that soul that had been born into the incredibly wealthy family. What if while in that lifetime it had looked down its nose at others and felt that it was superior because of its wealth. Then that soul might very well choose to be born into that dirt poor family next time around, again to learn. On the other hand, if while wealthy that soul had looked upon others as equals, and acted altruistically, then there would be no need for it to be born poor next time. Or had the star athlete used his body to set an example for others of what could be achieved and tried to help others to become their physical best, then he likely would not need to be born a cripple the next time around. Or take the individual who hates and persecutes some particular ethnic or racial group. There is a good chance that they will choose to be born into that group, or into a similar group. Again, this is not karma.
Generally, each soul has several lessons to learn each lifetime. If it is lucky, it will learn them all. But what if it does not learn all of the lessons that were assigned to it for a particular lifetime? Well, the unlearned lessons will simply be assigned again, usually in the next lifetime. Often lesson “A” must be learned before lesson “B” can be learned, and lesson “B” must be learned before lesson “C.” This is not because someone has decided that lessons must be learned in a certain order, rather because one lesson may be needed in order to understand the next. You had to learn to count before you could learn to add and subtract. And many things had to be learned before you could begin to understand calculus. It is the same with life lessons.
Reincarnation is also used to pay off karmic debts. Had you done something in one lifetime to incur some bad karma, you would very likely choose to place yourself in a life situation where that karma could be paid off. While you may look upon this as a punishment, it would be a punishment that you chose. And it would also be learning some of life’s lessons.
As souls live lifetime after lifetime and learn more and more of life’s lessons, they become more and more evolved. In time we start referring to them as “old souls.” Old souls normally have tasks to perform, or jobs assigned to them as well as their lessons. And often by performing their tasks or doing their job, they are learning more of life’s lessons.
Someone once concluded that old souls would probably be wealthy, or in positions of power. This is not necessarily true. Old souls are often found in very modest situations. Only if an old soul had a need of power in order to perform his or her job would he or she be likely to be in a position of power. A soul normally has great wealth because they crave wealth, or is in a position of power because they crave power. An old soul has learned through the many lessons that they have gone through that wealth and power are not necessary, they have outgrown that.
Eventually a time comes when a soul has learned all of life’s lessons. When that time comes, there is no longer any need for them to go through the birth, death and rebirth cycle any longer. Normally, a soul will prove that they have reached that point in their soul evolution by ascending.
Would you like to get some idea of who you were in past lifetimes? And perhaps how many lifetimes that you have lived? If so, you can try the following simple exercise. We will get into something much more specific later, but for now this is kinda fun.
For this you will need two candles. Place the candles, one to either side of you and slightly in front of you as you sit in front of a mirror. Light the candles and turn off all other lights. All of the light should be coming from the candles. Now relax and stare at your reflection in the mirror and start repeating, over and over, the question, “Who am I?” Soon, your reflected image will change, and you will see another face looking back at you. This will be a face that you wore in a past life. Continue asking the question and watch the parade of faces from past lives
Joyce Chandler
Comments