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Limited choice?

Eevee

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There have been threads about having a choice where we reincarnate. Today I got a book from the library: Mary T. reflects on the other side, by Mary T. Browne. I found an interesting statement in that. She says that when we pass over, we arrive at the level where we belong, according to our spiritual evolvement. We cannot go to a higher level, but we can choose to go to a lower lever, to help other souls.
Now she says it is the same when we reincarnate on earth. We will reincarnate in an environment that is suited to grow spiritually. We cannot reincarnate in an environment that is above our level. But we can reincarnate at a less developed place, to help other souls.
Should I understand this as e.g. a person who lived in an environment where he has to spend most of his time on ‘surviving’ instead of reflecting on spiritual matters, cannot reincarnate the next time in a technically high developed environment, where there is no struggle for life, and he can spend a lot of time on his spiritual life? Also in his lives on earth a person has to pass all the stages of environmental evolvement? There seems to be some logic in it, when we look at the world. Most people in the western (most developed ) world have no problems of travelling to countries under development, but people in those countries often don’t have the means (financially, visa problems, etc) to come to western countries. And of course some, maybe even a lot of souls have chosen to be born in a country under development, to help others, and it can even be that they also cannot ‘return’ to the developed countries, before their task is finished.
In this statement I see no judging of people as being ‘less’ or ‘more’ depending on where they live, because no one can know which soul lives at a certain place by choice (made before the reincarnation) or by limitation.
I would very much like to read some reflections on this.

Love,

Eevee
 
I have to disagree with the author of the book, I think it is just her opinion. I like to read about children's accounts of their previous lives. In them, I see no evidence that we have to stay at the same sort of level of lifestyle that we had the last time, or even the last three or four times.

The only thing, I think, that limits us is our spiritual awareness of the choices we really have. The decision comes after we have died and right before we are reborn. It appears that this is the critical time to make these choices, although our plans in this life apparently can help influence our next life. I always remember the case Dr. Ian Stevenson chronicled wherein a Burmese girl recalled the life of a Japanese pilot who had been shot down over Burma during WW II. After that life ended, the pilot's spirit wandered without purpose around the site of the death, and was reborn as a child in Burma. The child grew up feeling oddly out of place with the culture in which she found herself. She never got over not being a male Japanese citizen.

Another case investigated by Dr. Stevenson was quite the opposite of the one above. An engineer in India died and was reborn in the West, the United States, I believe, having apparently had a desire in the life before that one to do more traveling in his next life. He got to do more traveling as a result of being born in the West. He was a male again and was an engineer this time also.

:)
 
About Mary T. Browne

Hi Evee,

I read her book The Power of Karma. I was disappointed to say the least. The book reflected mostly - her ego. And I agree with Treehugger - it is only her opinion. I was sorry I bought it and even more disturbed by the great title of the book - that lead to - a lot of ego/opinion that was both limiting and holier than thou.
 
Choice in reincarnation

I think reincarnation cannot be adequately understood without the concept of karma. My favorite way of representing the law of karma is in the form of an equation which I call the karmic equation. Between the lives, this equation takes the form:

Intent + Karma = Outcome.

I think it is reasonable to assume that the action terms drops out for this period. This equation tells me that we clearly have a choice. However, karma cannot be overlooked. It may or may not accomodate our choice. This does not mean that our choice is irrelevant; karma only circumscribes a window for our choice. Besides, let us not forget that karma itself is nothing but residual potential of our past actions. In the final analysis, what limits our choice are the choices we made in the past.
 
However the choices are made, I don't think there is a time window for the decision. The last time I saw my brother, a few days before he died, at a time when there really was no turning back, he said, "I have not yet heard the starting gun for my death." That statement already held all the seed for the reason I dreamed, at the time that he died, that he gave birth to himself as a little girl. A few years later he reincarnated as his own granddaughter, because he was not ready to leave his family yet!

There must be a huge web of decisions and actions made to bring people together again and again, as so many of us have felt or witnessed. It's rarely just a matter of "I think I should move here, because I want to meet up with someone from my past." Someone in the soul chain usually comes up with the need in a company for someone to fill a job which makes John Doe move all the way across country so his sister can come visit and meet the man who in a past life was the father of her ten children.
And that's STILL a very simplified chain of events! The real process is unfathomable and never ceases to amaze me. But I tend to appreciate the results!

Sandra
 
I agree with most of what has been said in response to the book. I believe she has written a book reflecting her opinion and presented it as fact - not a rare thing among authors.

Although the truth about reincarnation is not known, I have already begun to make plans for my next life and am working daily to make the next life a continuation of this one. The idea for this came from one of Carole's books in which she described an indian tribe where preplanning is common. And it just seemed like a great idea!

If I'm wrong? Well, darn :) , but no harm done - my intentions are very pure and the personal growth achieved in this life will serve us all regardless of where I surface next.

Al:D
 
Windows and web

There must be a huge web of decisions and actions made to bring people together again and again, as so many of us have felt or witnessed.
You're absolutely right. It is indeed a web. I love it when age old metaphors e.g. of web being spun, as in the Upanishads and Gita (yena sarvam idam tatam - by him is all this spun) pop up again and again after all these years. I had this web in mind in the thread Nature and the rest to address just this point. Luckily, those old texts also assure us that we need not merely wonder at these mysteries, but that they can be understood.
However the choices are made, I don't think there is a time window for the decision.
The window I referred to is not just a window in time; it is rather a window of possibilities at any given time.
 
not sure about levels

In the lives I remember, sometimes I go back and forth between country levels. In my ancient lives, I tended to have it easier birth order related or at higher social status levels, I've always had a strong personality. I notice a pattern that I always seem to die young, I have no memories of being above my 30s. I always seem to die before my time in an unfortunate accident, or of an illness when I am getting sucess I want. Early on in this life I was driven towards success that I had the talents for but circumstances always made the success slightly out of reach. This life I've figured out that I just have to let things happen naturally and develop more emotionally. I've also had many memories of my deaths or pre death, and the emotions felt, and in those memories I seem to be accepting my approaching death and there's nothing I can do to change it but WILL continue where I left off next time in my previous life, I realized around a year ago that this was what was causing my karma, since I started to accept the situation and just let life happen and stopped 'needing' recognition that I didn't have, people around me started to take me more seriously and I developed better relationships with my family, I also find it easier to trust people and to keep a distance from people who encourage dependency or have anxiety problems, I have memories of the anxiety and overprotectiveness of the same relatives in this life who have anxiety problems with overprotectiveness today overprotecting me to the point where I could not escape from dangerous situations and ended up dying as a result, today these people are left alone by the family because they are posessive to the point where anyone cannot live their lives if they are involved, then they obsess and cannot figure out why they are alone. In this life, I've always felt like life is too short to worry about death and I just have to accept life the way it is. (I've never had ANY health problems in this life) This life I'm through running from something because I can't control it, but I can control my attitude. Since I developed this attitude I've made some drastic changes in my life and made a lot of positive progress.
 
The way I see it is like a "ladder" (for lack of a better word, as my brain function isn't good being 8 months pregnant!) in the spiritual world. Say perhaps the bottom step is the dark "world" where the bad spirits go - the ones that did poorly in life and are not spiritually advanced. Here, there is no "light" because there is no happiness. People are deformed, possibly as they may have been in life, or because of what "sins" they committed while alive. The top step of the ladder is where the most spiritually enlightened ones reside. Those on the higher steps CAN move down to assist those who are not as spiritually advanced. With help, those in need are able to "see the light" and find a reincarnate that will allow them to grow spiritually - giving them a chance to come back to a higher level of spiritual enlightenment.

As far as looking at our life as a ladder - underdeveloped countries being the bottom step, and the most advanced being the top - I dont see it like that at all. LOCATION on earth, I believe, doesn't solely establish what is more/less challenging for an individual's soul. I think it is life's situations that make the challenge.

Just my 2 cents :)
 
This is quite interesting.

I actually have some memories of what I have been up to between lifetimes. I have been "floating about". I have been observing. I remember witnessing both the surrender at Yorktown and the battle of Waterloo, from the safety of - well - not being present in the flesh. I also remember floating about right before my present lifetime, searching for my mother! Gees.

I also have an idea of where I'm off to for my next lifetime.

And I don't believe in different levels for developed and undeveloped spirits, with possibilities for the developed to climb down, or whatever. I can't get my head around that. Nope.

So there's my 2 Euro-cents.
 
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