REINCARNATION

By Charles Fillmore

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over and overThe teaching that man in his spiritual ego lives

again in many personalities, is as old as religion itself, because it

is found in every religion under the sun. It has been taught in India,

China, Egypt, Palestine— in fact, every nation ancient and modern has

its great teachers who accepted and expounded in some degree this uni-

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versally understood reality of man’s personal life.

Like all metaphysical subjects reincarnation has had its ebb and

flow In human philosophies and religions. The very pronounced revival

of interest in the subject here in America during the last half cen

tury may be credited largely to Theosophy, introduced In this country

by Mme. Blavatsky, the eminent Russian mystic and adept. She had re

ceived her illumination from the metaphysical adepts of Thibet.

Christianity has regarded all religious teaching that is not ac

ceptable to its modern interpreters as paganism. Reincarnation has

been stamped "heathenism’1, "superstition", and "devil worship".

But a careful study of the Hebrew Scriptures and the gospel of

Jesus Christ reveals that reincarnation was widely accepted as a part

of human experience, instead of the doctrine that we all go to either

heaven or hell at death.

Modern science, with its startling revelations of olie tremendous

forces existing in the omnipresent spaces supposed to be void, has

mightily strengthened this doctrine that the ethers are alive and

potent with possibilities of homes for beings very like those that

dwell on the earth. Thus science is proving what religion has taught,

that the kingdom of the heavens, so often referred to by Jesus, is

identical with what its savants have named the cosmic ether.

Science tells us that the ether penetrates all matter and all

space; that it is composed of energy and life far beyond anything we

have imagined; that it is the source of all things that appear in the/I t

-f' ■earth. As Jesus said, "Seek first kingdom of ftwd, and his right-

/s ' -eousness/ and all these things shall he added unto you."

Science says that if we could release the potential forces in

the electrons that compose the ether we could produce all that we need

to live magnificently. Jesus understood the ether— symbolized hy his

increase of the loaves and fishes.

Questions invariably asked in the discussion of reincarnation

are, Where are those who have passed out of the body? and Where are my

dead friends? and What does the soul do between incarnations?

These questions may he answered in three ways, all of which are

essential to carry conviction to the questioning mind.

First, the mind automatically gravitates to an environment for

which its dominant thoughts have prepared it. The evil-minded would

find evil companions and discordant surroundings, while the good would

rest in the peace and harmony -which such thoughts prepare for those

who harbor them.

Thoughts grow things in body and affairs, and we are bound or

loosed according to our thinking. A modern poet contrasts a good

thought and an evil thought thus:

"I harbored a thought, an evil thought,

And it grew, and it grew, and it grew,

'Till at last I was bound like a leashed hound

To do as my foe bade me do.

I harbored a thought, a Christlike thought,

And it grew, and it grew, and it grew,

'Till at last I was free, peace abided with me,

Love hallowed the world through and through."

7/e are aware only of that which our minds conceive or are con

scious of. All the joys and glories of that state called heaven

might be all about a savage and he would merely grunt and say, "Heap

big show." So the soul that has not developed the capacity to enjoy

those finer radiations of light, love and harmony peculiar to divine

structures, would be ignorant of their very presence though he might

be immersed in their splendor. Thus we are convinced that the glories

of heaven described by Dante and Milton will not be found by the ordinary

citizen of this world, who has been educated to appreciate mundane

things, and not heavenly.

It is true that our thoughts and acts do instantly and continu

ously mould the invisible ether into the conditions which our minds

conceive. As Shakespeare truly says, "The poet’s pen gives to airy

nothing a locality, habitation and a name."

The mind is always busy with its creative faculties, spinning

a web that anchors it to material things or spiritual things. With

every thought we project a current of energy that ultimates in a thing.

So what we treasure and give our most cherished affection to eventu

ally takes form in the mental or physical realms.

Jesus covered this point of soul or heart attachment when he

said, "Lav not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where mothfp

and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay('

up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . for where thy treasure

is, there will thy heart be also."

A very wealthy and aristocratic woman once related a dream she

had of going to heaven and being shown the future homes of ttai those

who yet lived in the earth. Among others her guide called her at

tention to the future home of her gardner, which was magnificent.

She asked to he shown her own future home, which was, much to her

disappointment and dismay, a mere hovel. She protested indignantly,

UI live in a magnificent estate on the earth, while my gardner occu

pies a little cottage, yet here you are providing a mansion for him

and a hovel for me?" The guide replied, "Madam, we are doing the best

we can with the material you are sending up."

Second, }/e have the evidences of the continuity of existence of

the soul of man In the phenomenal or psychic realms. This evidence

is presented from many sources. All persons have souls in varying

degrees of unfoldment, and their souls are functioning according to

the desires most active in the man. The desire for the pleasures of

feeling and sensation in the flesh forms a subconscious entity known

in metaphysics as the animal soul.

This entity seeks the company and environment in the body that satis

fies its animal proclivities. The coarse life emanations of the body

of sense corrode and corrupt the organism and finally destroy it.

The sense soul continues to live in its desires but without the

means of satisfying them. This is the condition of the rich man de

picted in the parable by Jesus, in the sixteenth chapter of Luke.

A rich man was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared/-

sumptuously every day, while Lazarus, a beggar, lay daily at his

gate, full of sores, and desiring only to be fed with the crumbs

that fell from the rich man's table. They both died; Lazarus was

taken to Abraham’s bosom and the rich man to hades (hell). The

rich man being in torment asked Abraham to send Lazarus "that he may

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reraeraher that thou in thy lifetime receivedst the good things, and

Lazarus evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in

anguish."

The word "hell” is not translated in our Bible with clearness

sufficient to represent the various meanings of the word in the original

languages. There are three words from which "hell" is derived: Sheol,

"the unseen state"; "hades”, the unseen world"; and Gehenna. H h ©

valley of Hinnon." These are used in their various relations, nearly

all of them allegorical.

In a sermon Archdeacon Farrar, the eminent British divine,

said, "There would be the proper teaching about hell if we calmly

and deliberately erased from our English Bibles the three words,

’damnation1, ’hell’, and ’everlasting’. I say--uhhesitatingly I

say, claiming the fullest right to speak with the authority of knowl

edge— that not one of those words ought to stand any longer In our

English Bible, for in our present acceptation of them they are simply

mistranslations.

In several of the Psalms, David writes of being in Sheol,

and that the Lord had delivered him. For example in Psalms 86:13,

"For great is thy lovingkindness toward me; And thou hast delivered

my soul from the lowest Sheol." In many places In the Bible Sheol

is translated "hell''.

This hades or unseen world is all about us and we contact

some of Its phases with every thought and emotion, modern science

has named it the cosmic ether. It was known to the ancients as tartarus,

sheol, gehenna, and many other names. It has been rediscovered in our

day "by the Spiritualists and is called the spirit world. We are in

formed by spiritualism that all persons who die go to the land of

spirits, which has, according to some of its mediians and teachers,

seven planes, the lowest lying next the earth. It is believed by

most spiritualists that the soul progresses in the spirit world for

ever. However, some of the leading spiritual cults, Allan Kardak,

for example, in Prance, teaches that the soul returns to earth and is

reincarnated.

We should be on our guard in accepting revelations from this

psychic realm, knowing,as we do, that death does not add to the knowledge

of any one. Those who have left their bodies have the same minds they

had when in the body. They think like thoughts, and have like desires

and attachments. Are they, then, safe sources of information about

God and the destiny of men? Their revelations through mediums are not

of a character*to convince us of superior wisdom.

The fact is that those who pass out of their bodies in death

have merely changed environment from the coarse matter of the earth

to the moonshine of the earthly ether. They have not gone to heaven

nor hell, so far as locality Is concerned, but are living in the

ether or invisible omnipresence. Those who were vitally interested

in life and its ambitions are striving to fulfill their desires, and

those who have grown weary with the struggle, and desire a rest, are

finding it in the sleep of the soul. Paul wrote to the Corinthians

that their failure to discern the spiritual body had caused many of

them to becorae weak and sickly and "not a few sleep."

It is possible for those in the body to communicate with those

We are told that King Saul, inout of the body, but not advisable.

his extremity, went to a medium, a woman who had a "familiar spirit,"

and called up Samuel, who had passed from the body. When Samuel ap-

peared he complained because he had been disturbed in his rest. "Why

hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?" "’And Saul answered, I am sore

distressed, for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed

from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams."

X-^And Samuel said, "Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing Je

hovah is departed from thee, and is become thine adversarv? Because

. . he will deliver thee into / 4 'fthou obeyedst not the voice of Jehovah .

the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons

he with me.'1

Samuel is considered one of the most righteous men that ever

lived and if any man was worthy of a place in heaven, it was Samuel.

But this Scripture plainly states that he was resting in the "unseen

world" (hades). He prophesied that Saul and his sons would he with him

the next day. The:/ were slain hy the Philistines and their souls, al

though they were far helow the righteousness of Samuel, v/ent to the

same world, hut evidently they were not in the same class with Samuel.

How account for the great diversity of character in the person

alities that form the human race? It has been estimated that since

the dawn of history--6000 years--the bones of those that have lived

and died would encrust the earth eighteen feet high. Kan has lived

500 million years. "The very hairs of your head are numbered."

In the ether are schools for children and adults, sanitariums

for the mentally unbalanced, houses of rest for the weary, churches

for the religious.

The germ-cells compose the primal nervous system of the body,

and these cells are made up of electrical units, radiant with life.

The secondary cells form the cells that build the body of flesh. The

muscles are the end organs of metor nerves.

A germ-cell is teeming with life-entities. One scientist com

pares it to an ocean liner filled with people of every kind, eager to

go somewhere and do something.

The Lord said to Daniel, "But go thou thy way till the end b

for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot, at the end of the days.

In Psalms 139:13, we read:

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l?For thou didst form my inward parts:

Thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb.

I will give thanks -onto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully

made:

Wonderful are thy works;

And that my soul knoweth right well.

My frame was not hidden from thee

When I was made in secret

And curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my unformed substance.

And in thy book they were all written.1*

!lAbraham prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech, and his

wife and his maid-servants." "I am Jehovah that healeth thee.”/ S ■

Jesus came healing all manner of sickness and all manner of di

seases . "He sent them iorth to preach che kingdom of God and to^

heal the sick.1'

"And these signs shall follow them that believe, In my name .

shall they cast out demons: they shall take up serpents, and if they

/ ^ / / 7(fdrink any deadly thing it shall in no wise hunt them; they shall lay

hands on the sick and they shall recover.1'

"And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working

with then, and confirming the word by the signs that followed.”

In the story of Peter and John and the lame man, we read:

”By what power, or In what name have ye done this?”

"In the name of Jesus Christ doth this man stand before you whole."

nThey marveled when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John,

perceiving that they were unlearned and Ignorant men."

"But go--thou thy way till the end be: for thou s ha It re strand

s h a l t -sta n d In th y end 'Bf "Iflim-agygT ?'

HiFor lie shall he great In the sight of the Lord, and he shall I , K

drink no wine, nor strong drink; and he shall he filled with the Holy / '

Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Is

rael shall he turn unto the Lord their God. And he shall go before

his face in the Spirit and power of Elijah.”

"For all the prophets and the law prophesied u n t i l irnwn And *piif ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to come. He

MWho do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said. Some

say John the Baptist; some Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the

prophets. He saith -unto them. But who say ye that I am? And Simon>7 ^

// KS/

Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living / “2 / i/ J7

God. And Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon

Bar Jonah; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my

Father T/ho is in heaven.”

“Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come? And he ~~T7

answered and said, Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore all things;'

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but I say unto you, that Elijah is come alread:/, and they know him

not. but did unto him whatsoever they would. Even so shall the Son of

man also suffer of them. Then understood the disciples that he spake

unto them of John the Baptist."