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The Doctrine of Reincarnation, one members view.

Merlin

New Member
There are many here who have expressed in their posts their particular beliefs of how they feel the Universe works. This is my own particular belief (in a nutshell version) after many years of study as a student and teacher of metaphysics:

In my opinion the Doctrine of Reincarnation begins with God.
Without God as a starting point, you've got nothing. Life is an accident and when you're dead, you're dead. End of story.

You are a Soul. You were created in the beginning by God. Being Spirit, you are a part of God, who created you. You have the freedom of the universe. You are a co-creator with God.
This has little to do with any particular religion, it's just the way it is. Religions grew from this.

You roamed throughout creation, and eventually came upon the Earth. You craved to experience the earth and all that it offered.

Over aeons, you projected yourself into matter and became the physical beings that today inhabit the earth. But you became trapped within the bodies that you had created from matter, and the only way out of what you had created was to die. Thus began your Karma.

The way of the flesh is compulsive, and you began to reincarnate into bodies of your own making.
These were the creatures of mythology, the mixtures, and their Karma is of their own making.

God does not get involved in the affairs of man. He allows man to progress according to his own free will. It is spirit which will guide man back to his creator, regardless of mans machinations in the meantime.

A soul is simultaneously an oversoul, a subconcious mind, and a concious mind, and has the ability, depending on spiritual advancement, to project itself into several bodies at once. 3 being the most recorded, although this is very rare.

A soul group may consist of several souls to more than a thousand. Within each group, relatives, friends, and associates will be set in place at various birth times to not only further their own journeys, but to assist the incoming entity with its individual purpose in taking life. From life to life, an entity may be male or female, a parent, a relative or friend to various others within their own group. It is a continuing interaction for the benefit of all.

Before taking on life in the physical plane, a soul will be counseled by a guide or guides on what purposes and tasks to undertake, what sex to be, which parents to choose, which environment will best serve, what Karma to try to resolve, etc.

An entity undergoing the birth process may occupy the fetus from the moment of conception, which is rare, or move into and out of the fetus at various stages of the pregnancy to try to get the 'feel' of the new body. The more usual event is that the soul enters the child either shortly before or shortly after the birth, although this may be delayed for several days according to the wishes of the incoming entity. Spirit keeps the life force active in the meantime. If conditions change to such a degree that the entity feels they no longer offer the right opportunities, the entity may withdraw altogether, and is then faced with the prospect of going through the whole process again, taking the varied conditions into account.

From birth up until about the age of 8 years, the child may remember and speak of past lives, and be quite capable of describing relatives, friends, locations, etc. They may also exhibit latent past talents, such as musical ability or any other talent they were good at in past experiences. They exhibit as urges or passions for a particular pursuit.

It is also a service that an entity may give to another higher evolved entity to take on the role of being born, growing to adulthood, and then vacating the body to allow the higher entity to come in and carry on from there. This is to save the second entity the time and trouble of childhood, so they may immediately begin the work they came to do. These are called walk-in's.

Life proceeds, and depending on the exercise of your free will and the choices you make, you create your own destiny. Past karma may be resolved (or repeated), new karma (good or bad) may be incurred, and eventually death occurs and you return to spirit where you review your progress or regression in company with your guide/s, so you can work out what you will do next time.
Intervals between births may vary from immediate return, to thousands of years.

If you have spiritually progressed sufficiently to avoid returning to materiality, you may then proceed to a higher plane or hang around as a spirit/guide to assist your fellow man still on earth.
Many choose to do this, as it also assists them in their own journey. Some choose to return anyway, in order to help more directly.

Jesus underwent about 30 lifetimes, in the last of which he was able to revivify his physical body to such an extent that his spirit was as free in it as it was out of it. When you can do the same, you can get off this rock. That's what he meant when he said “I am the way”. You've got to do what he did. You dont 'go' to heaven, you 'grow' to heaven, through the process of reincarnation.


More later.
Regards
Merlin
 
Merlin:


You have covered everything I believe in and what I have learned over the years, but unlike you, I am, but just an amateur student of Metaphysics (and Parapsychology), beginning out of a insatiable curiosity when I was a teenager.


Some of the tenets you wrote, I was reluctant as a child to voice my opinions because of many reasons: growing up in the "Bible Belt" of the USA, strong family beliefs in Christianity, ridicule and scorn of others, and so on.


So I kept quiet as a child until I could stand it no longer, and started checking out books upon books on Metaphysics (and Parapsychology) to satisfy my curiosity on life (and death) and other questions that I had, that needed answering.


Just before my Grand-Mother died (of a Stroke and also Cancer) an event occurred when my Mother found a library book that I had been reading on the subject of Reincarnation, and she just shook her head, raised her eyes and smiled, and told me, "Don't let your Grand-Mother see that, she'll have a Stroke!"


Needless to say I maintained a low profile, and so to speak "Flew Beneath the Radar" for years, not revealing my beliefs much to anyone.


Sorry again for the long post, just your posting struck a strong chord with me.
 
HI Merlin,


I have a question; why do you refer to reincarnation as The Doctrine of Reincarnation? How could it ever be a Doctrine??


To me, Reincarnation is more than a phenomenon and much more than anything found in any religions dogma. It is a mysterious truth that the early Christian Gnostics, the Ancient Egyptians, Tibetans, Buddhist and American Indian traditions taught. They taught that the act of reincarnation is a part of life. To reincarnate is to act, it is an action made manifest.


Embracing the fact that we reincarnate requires serious personal reflection, as well as a fair amount of formal research. Ultimately, it is a quest to find ‘self,’ and is unique to each individual. But I hardly see it as anything set in stone, or on paper. : angel


You also said ---

In my opinion the Doctrine of Reincarnation begins with God. Without God as a starting point, you've got nothing. Life is an accident and when you're dead, you're dead. End of story.
I am wondering why and how God is the starting point for you? Different people see God in different ways. How do you see "God?" and why is he/she the starting point?


I guess I have a lot of questions due to the fact that you have presented here your thoughts as facts. I could be wrong, and that's OK too. So I am asking questions to better understand.


I am also wondering why this is stated as a fact:

Before taking on life in the physical plane, a soul will be counseled by a guide or guides on what purposes and tasks to undertake, what sex to be, which parents to choose, which environment will best serve, what Karma to try to resolve, etc.
You might enjoy reading the thread Choice, Planning and Guided sessions and specifically my questions in post # 1. Where do you gather your information? Ian Stevenson and Carol Bowman suggest not all plan.


Thank you for your thoughtful posts and your time and patience with us here on the forum.
 
Deborah,


I have just spent the best part of 2 hours replying to your post, then hit the wrong button and lost the lot. Aaarrrrgh!!!:grr:


I'll be back!


Regards


Merlin.
 
Hello Deborah,


I refer to the 'Doctrine of Reincarnation' as such simply because that is how I have found it referred to in other tomes. And while I realise the word 'Doctrine' may have a stigma attached to it, I have no particular feelings about it one way or the other. To me, it merely describes a body of knowledge.


Doctrine (Latin: doctrina) is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system.

Deborah said:
They taught that the act of reincarnation is a part of life.
You're right, embracing the fact of reincarnation does require a lot of formal research, At the age of 66 I consider I have done the hard yards in research and have arrived at a personal space where I am at peace with myself and my God. It may not be set in stone, but it is certainly set in the minds of two thirds of the people on this planet, and the other third is rapidly catching up, despite about 1600 years of Dark Ages and anathema imposed on the Western world by various church fathers.


I use God as a starting point to reincarnation because the alternative offers nothing. Some of the skeptics on this site say “ I want proof that God exists”, or “I want proof that reincarnation is real”, and then relate their personal experiences of previous incarnations. I find that rather strange. If they can't accept the proof of personal experience, what proof could you offer them? I see God as a supreme conciousness, partly because that is how He is presented in the body of literature, which I accept, and the rest is my own mind's notion of how the Universe works after several regressed lifetimes and this current lifetime. As to God being a He or a She, all of my researches have led me to believe that God and all souls are sexless. The active principle is said to be positive and male. The receptive principle is said to be negative and female. A soul carries both principles within itself, but on taking on materiality the active and receptive aspects split and become, respectively, male or female. When these two meet as incarnates, is it surprising to find they see each other as “soul mates”? But that's a whole different discussion. I do tend to present my comments as fact, for that is what I believe them to be. I have been teaching this stuff to groups for some time now and it is a hard habit to break. I really AM trying to comply with the rules of the board.

Merlin said:
Before taking on life in the physical plane, a soul will be counseled by a guide or guides on what purposes and tasks to undertake, what sex to be, which parents to choose, which environment will best serve, what Karma to try to resolve, etc.
Preplanning, as a premise for reincarnation, is just a part of the available literature. (1)The authors are many, most of them frequently referred to in this forum. Take your pick. (2)Just about any of the sacred books of the East would be a good place to start. The Bhagavad Gita comes to mind, but I couldn't quote any specific reference. (3) & (a-b)Free will is choice, and vice versa. Cayce's story of the 'Origin and Destiny of Man' eloquently explains it something like this: God having given man free will to choose, does not interfere in his choices, preferring to allow man to rejoin Him by his own efforts. And until the choice is made, even God doesn't know the outcome thereof. (4)I have no specific memories of having chosen this lifes circumstances, but it has been interesting to say the least. I really don't know what I must have been thinking at the time before incarnating.


From what I have read, particularly in Cayce as well as Stevenson and Bowman and others, this is the norm and souls do get to choose, although circumstances may arise where a soul is urged by its guide/s to undergo conditions that are not entirely agreeable to it. For instance, a soul with a series of past lives as a male biased against homosexuals may be cajoled into incarnating as one to experience just how much damage to ones own development may be incurred, as well as the damage it does to the soul on the receiving end. Man only learns what he has experienced. Your guides will see to it that you are given every opportunity to redeem yourself and progress spiritually. There are other systems of resolving your karma which do not involve incarnating upon the earth, but free will is not a part of it. ( c ) The choices you make determine your karma, and therefore how your destiny unfolds. Your destiny is simply to rejoin your maker as a God yourself. As Jesus put it: “Know ye not that ye are Gods?” I see no conflicts here.

Deborah said:
Ian Stevenson says his findings suggest the masses are NOT creating consciously - they are in a passive process...and drawn to their next life.
I disagree with his reasoning. Life is not a passive process. If it was, we wouldn't be here. The idea of 'pre-planning' is just another part of the body of literature which makes up the 'doctrine'. I see it as just another piece of the puzzle which 'fits' because it has that 'thread of truth' to it.


This is getting a bit overlong. I'd better stop.


Regards,


Merlin
 
Let us say, for the sake of discussion, that each life has purpose; and that most of us along each of our respective paths acquire knowledge and wisdom and learn to fulfill our purpose in life. We accomplish goals, learn to be independent, help other people, etc. Then we die leaving it all behind.


It is assumed that some part of that acquired knowledge and wisdom is carried into the next life; and that the progression of one soul through many lifetimes brings us to enlightenment. Such a paradigm seems to offer us the sense that, what is gained cannot be lost, and guarantees us some sense of immortality and continuous consciousness. Skeptics often point this out as being one of the reasons why people are drawn to their belief in reincarnation.


However, when one looks deeper into this process, it becomes clear that going through infancy and childhood is not something to look forward to, after all. In fact, the thought of re-entering the world as a completely dependent infant in diapers, unable to communicate or form rational thoughts would be the worst kind of hell that anyone can imagine. Of course, one can explain that, if our purpose is to challenge our wisdom with new and unforeseen circumstances, then we must be made to forget our specific past life experiences. To do otherwise would be like cheating on a school exam.


If such is the case, a certain degree of forgetfulness can be explained. However, my question is; why must we all be reduced uniformly into the seemingly mindless abyss of infancy and helplessness? It seems that even those who remember their past lives must also spend a similar period of apparent solitary. In a paradigm that seems to have been designed with purpose, why must we all spend a period of time without purpose?
 
forgetfulness


Hi Nightrain1,

It is assumed that some part of that acquired knowledge and wisdom is carried into the next life; and that the progression of one soul through many lifetimes brings us to enlightenment. Such a paradigm seems to offer us the sense that, what is gained cannot be lost, and guarantees us some sense of immortality and continuous consciousness.
I agree with your comments entirely. Nothing is ever lost to the oversoul. The dross may be disregarded, but the total knowledge of all you have been, thought, said and done remains, and is reviewable when you return to spirit.


As to carrying it into the next life, that's not strictly the idea. If we reincarnated with the knowledge of our previous existences, then we would also carry over with us the biases and predjudices we had before. Our outlook would change little. If we were a jew before, we would probably still be wary of arabs, but to be born as an arab with that particular jewish outlook, you would have to finish up being wary of yourself and your brother arabs. It just doesn't fit, does it. Mythology describes being “dipped in the river Leithe” or the “river of forgetfulness”, but it just means you are not supposed to remember your past lives to that extent, and this is a necessary process. You start each life with a 'clean sheet' so to speak, leaving all preconceived notions behind, (past life memories of children/adults notwithstanding). You then have the opportunity to formulate new beliefs and tolerances towards your fellow man. If you persist in your bias, then you may have to do it again until the lesson is learned. If you reincarnate as the object of your bias, then you will be able to see both sides of the situation.


Childhood and infancy are a real pain in my opinion. I am not looking forward to once again spending years of infancy and years more of schooling and learning, before one is capable or knowledgeable enough to get back on with one's life purposes.


It may be of some comfort to consider that part of everyones purpose in their various lives is to learn patience. The period of childhood and learning is just such an opportunity. As may be found in the literature, “ In patience possess ye your soul “ It may take many lifetimes, but with patience we will all get there. Alternately, you can look upon it as just part of the human condition.


Stay well


Regards


Merlin *
 
Hi Merlin,


The moment I read your first post I thought you were a cayce fan and probably Seth too.


I agree with everything you said with the exception of "walk-ins" I'm not very sure about that. I don't believe Cayce ever spoke of "walk-ins" but I do believe that Seth did. Also souls being in more than one body at the same time is another Seth contribution.


Coming back as a baby is valuable in so far as you are connected to your Oversoul the first 7 years


You probably subconsciously carry certain beliefs and talents into this life during that period IF they are to be used in the present. I believe you could have a musical talent from the past that may show up several lives into the future. I also believe that you always carry the good traits that you acquired through numerous testing.


i am presently reading a very interesting book by


Hans TenDam.....called "Exploring Reincarnation"


It is all of the facts and figures that have been gathered by many other Hypnotherapists. He himself trains psychotherapists in past life therapy.


He claims that many souls come back too soon and when they do...they are not very successful due to the fact that they did not get any guidance in between lives. The lives are also often shorter


I'm in the process of moving ...surrounded with packing boxes....waiting for the closing date....so I have not finished reading the book. It's almost like a text book....chuck full of info...
 
I forgot to say.....He also spoke of the many people doing research who reported that many many of us would seem to hang around....or haunt...


That surprised me......


Here is another thing....All of my life when I dream I walk in the dream with my feet on the ground. In a waking state....if I close my eyes and picture myself walking....I cannot....I float a foot or so off the ground. When I was regressed just once....the second scene I saw was my mother and father approaching me in a black carraige, drawn by a black horse and wearing black clothing.


I was at the side of the road in a ditch and floated up into the back seat. I believe I was going to my funeral. When I thought about it later I wondered if it connected to my feeling of floating NOW. Maybe I was a ghost for a time....Who knows....I don't remember...Thank goodness....grin....


The whole subject is quite fascinating isn't it...
 
Cayce fan


Hi Florence,


Glad you dropped in.


I am most definitely a Cayce fan, but I am not familiar with Seth material. What do you recommend?


Ruth Montgomery has an excellent work on walk-ins in her book 'Strangers among us'. I recommend it to anyone exporing this avenue of research.


I am aware of the life changes which occur every 7 years, and am also aware of the past life influences on this present life. I have experienced about 9 past lives, but only 3 pertain to my present life. The stories of such would be too long to post here.


You are very perceptive to pick up that I am interested in music. All my life I have wanted to be able to play beautiful music. It is food for the soul. My only talent in this direction has so far only extended to actually owning a guitar, which I once even managed to pick out a single classical piece on, but then sadly left sitting in the corner until I now know nothing of what I once knew, and I am the sadder for it. Now I only know how to play a radio. Perhaps in a subsequent lifetime, I will continue my studies. A man can dream.


I have never heard of Hans Tendam. I have tried self hypnosis and hypnosis by professionals, but am not really satisfied with the results.


As to 'coming back too soon', I have the distinct feeling that I won't be back for a while yet, as I really want to 'have a rest' from materiality. My karma however, may dictate otherwise. Ah well. No rest for the wicked as they say, and I have been wicked.


Packing and moving is a real pain. I sympathise.


Hanging around and haunting is the province of earth bound spirits who can't let go of materiality. They will eventually fade, awaken on the other side, and be guided by spirit back onto the path.


I don't get anything about your dreams. Astral travelling perhaps. The mind sometimes just amuses itself in sleep.


Love your byline BTW.


Wrinkles. Something other people have, similar to my character lines


Take care


Regards


Merlin
 
Hans TenDam was born in the Hauge, Netherlands and graduated from the University of Amsterdam. He is not the sort of person you would expect wrote this and many other books. He was a Management Consultant involved in management and organization planning and development. He worked for Gov. agencies, in the Netherlands, Turkey, New Zealand and Brazil. He believes in hard work and common sense. He also believes in Reincarnation


This book has been translated into many languages and has been published by Penguin In Australia, New Zealand, England, USA and Canada


Jane Roberts channeled "Seth" a personality, and the information was written in many books. I think at least 9. "Seth Speaks" is a wonderful one to bu if your interested. I have about 6 books by Jane who passed away in the 80's.


I read the life story of Ruth Montgomery many years ago. I believe she did automatic writing and later switched over to a typewriter. If remember correctly...she was a good pal of Authur Ford who was a well known psychic. He passed away and she contacted him after he died. He describes his situation in the afterlife...It was very interesting


The book by Hans TenDam is about 10 years old now. I had it buried away and forgot I had it.


You can Google Hans or any information about Seth you care to....
 
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