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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Reincarnation On Trial
| the psychology of wishing to return |
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the psychology driving those who wish to return
The following is from "The Religion Of The Spirit World" (1920) by Prof. G. Henslow.
...the animal body disappears at death ... [and the new astral body] is now solely adapted for the existence beyond the grave. There, the spirit is everything, the terrestrial existence has gone forever. The great lesson of earth-life is, therefore, to adapt ourselves ... i.e., to live in harmony with the requirements of the next world.
This is why we are told that many on the other side long to return. It is because they find themselves unprepared and ill-adapted for the new existence, and [to their great dismay] they realize that they have neglected to begin to prepare by spiritual cultivation of the soul for the next world while on earth...
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Editor’s note: The professor is exactly correct. When we cross over, we become aware of an entirely new environment, one that is regulated by our higher sensibilities. And if one is unprepared for the “software upgrade,” one might be thrown into panic and despair as what to do next.
In communication with me after his transition, my own dad asserted that he felt wholly out of place in the next world. His message essentially expressed, “this is nothing like I thought it would be,” moreover, “the Church made a fool out of me with their empty teachings.”
From Dr. Carl Wickland, “The Gateway Of Understanding”:
“Michael Faraday, distinguished English physicist and chemist of the Royal Institute, had refused, while in earth life, to recognize Psychic Research but upon entering the Spirit World realized his error and became interested in the interrelationship of the physical and spirit worlds. In a spirit communication from Faraday, detailed observations on obsession are given from the spirit viewpoint:
Not one in ten thousand enter the spirit realm with any true ideas of its realities. Thrown upon its shores like ship-wrecked mariners upon an unknown coast, without information or conception of its conditions, they drift in their thoughts and feelings to the only state of life in which they have ever perceived sensation and find themselves within the atmosphere of the earth to which they cling with nearly as much tenacity as though living in the physical body and seek no other pleasure than to still live there.
the desire to reincarnate is a silent frenzy, an unspoken admission that one really botched this trip to planet earth, and 'can't we just start again'
Amidst perceptions of “I’m not ready to deal with this”, laced with grey feelings of self-loathing and cognitive dissonance, many are tempted to craft an immediate ad hoc “ego-repair” strategy – reincarnation. Instead of squarely facing the music of what one has done to oneself, there can be the attempt, or the wish, to run and hide, to play the victim, to annihilate one’s “spoiled self” by casting oneself into the hopper of one more go-round of mortal existence: “Maybe I’ll come out better the next time, what do I have to lose”?
On the "cultism" page, we spoke of the near-universal, untoward tendency of the dysfunctional ego to recraft and redistill reality, as it seeks to bolster, and find meaning, for itself, but in dishonest ways:
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more than drinking the koolaid
The long reach of cultism encompasses much more than crackpot churches. The root idea of cult offers the sense of "cut." This core concept of "cut" leads us to images of refinement and refashioning and, by extension, development, control, pattern, order, and system.
Cultism as systemization finds a ready home in religion and philosophy which seek to regulate and redistill the patterning and ordering of ideas. However, in a larger sense, the spirit of cultism extends to every facet of society. We find it scheming and sedulously at work in politics, academia, family, corporations, entertainment, science, artistry – anywhere power might be gained by capturing credulous and fear-based minds.
See the “cultism” page for a full discussion.
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there is but one, only one, choice open to us
But reincarnation is not an option, no matter how much one wishes for its bizzaro-world meaning. Each soul is required, with open heart, to forthrightly and honestly judge oneself concerning one’s failings, and then to resolve to make amends by choosing – and this is the only choice open to oneself – choosing to live a life of service, of soul-perfection, of sacred introspection, of opening a channel to be taught, of moving forward toward one’s destiny as a mature son or daughter of God.
Special note: In one of the ancillary articles related to “the 500 tape-recorded messages from the other side”, we discussed Dr. Viktor Frankl’s psychology, “man’s search for meaning.” Human beings are driven to find meaning for their lives, and they will do this in a sane or otherwise manner. See the full discussion there.
Reincarnation is a pathological expression of this hope for meaning. It’s an attempt to manufacture meaning, but in a diseased manner. It’s an evasion of one’s personal responsibility to grow up, an attempt to flee from the soul’s mandate to open-heartedly deal with the consequences of what one has made of oneself.
reprinted from the "human potential" page
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religion and philosophy of our world, along with teachers on the other side, have long asked the question: can human nature be changed
Most often, when this question is posed, humankind’s unlimited potential is not in focus but, instead, the heart of darkness.
We look at the endless wars and oppression of history and we wonder if it could ever be different. In the next world, there is a faction of teachers who believe that, with good education and uplifting environment, the Earth might be transformed into a paradise. They’ve issued various prophecies to this effect during the last 150 years, that a new golden age is coming, but they’ve always been wrong. See a full discussion in the writing, “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”
Some believe that what we need is more experience, and that this will lead us to a transforming wisdom. The reincarnationists promote this view, but experience is just a form of education, and therefore cannot bring about fundamental change at deeper levels. See the “R” page for 100 articles discussing the error of this doctrine.
Is real change possible for humans? For this to happen, some say, we need to rid ourselves of the evil within, basic human drives and cravings which get us into trouble. However, to expunge these from our natures would be tantamount to becoming a kind of new creation. But this view is also errant. It couldn't work because to excise inherent human proclivities would also excise essential humanity. We’d no longer recognize ourselves.
The essential problem is this: Human drives, cravings, penchants are not dysfunctional per se but merely misused. This subject takes us to a discussion of the nature of evil, which is an illusion. What we call evil is just misdirected good or “turned inside out.” We discussed all this in a series of articles on the “evil” page.
When the ancient Spirit Guide, referenced above, said that change and progression are ever possible for those currently suffering in the Dark Realms, he was not intimating that these unfortunates would need to undergo a kind of “moral lobotomy” – no, not that kind of change. Instead, what is needed, for all of us, not just the denizens of dark places, is an elevation of consciousness, an accessing of the inner life.
When this happens, common human drives, cravings, penchants automatically become refocused toward positive, non-egocentric, socially-constructive outcomes.
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Editor's last word:
We note in Michael Faraday’s testimony that “not one in ten thousand” enters the next life with proper orientation.
One in 10,000 would be 700,000 in a world population of 7 billion. But it’s less than this. My guess – only 100,000.
We’re reminded of Krishnamurti’s comment that 95%, over a period of 60 years, of those who came to hear his lectures were not so interested in spiritual matters. But Faraday’s figure would be far less than one percent.
How many people do we know who are really so spiritually minded? Yes, everyone will eventually make their way to Summerland, but these figures suggest massive remediation services.
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