reincarnation chapter 9 ever-flowing streams: tapping into healing energy

7/29/2019 Reincarnation Chapter 9 Ever-Flowing Streams: Tapping into Healing Energy

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Chapter9

Reincarnation

I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have

changed several times since then.--Alice

Born Again?

Great minds and mystics have grappled with the theory of reincarnation for eons. The

modern Christian church dismisses the concept. The party line is that we are born once; we have

the option of accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior for our ticket to heaven; if we dont,

we are condemned to hell. This interpretation of scripture promotes church membership quite

effectively.

But looking historically and globally, I found that reincarnation has been embraced by

cultures far and wide. Even the Bible retains passages that allude to it. Besides the reference

above from Matthew naming John the Baptist and Elijah as the same soul, Jesus seemed to

convey the concept in several references:

John 8:58--Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

Luke 9:18-20--Who do the people say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist;

but others say Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen.

John 9:2As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,

Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

If you take the above passages at face value, it appears there was a cultural acceptance of the

idea that souls return to the earthly plane. Clearly, the people of the time exhibited a belief in

reincarnation if they conjectured Jesus might be the returning spirits of Elijah or an Old

Testament prophet.

Also implied in the last quotation is an understanding of karma, the cosmic law of cause and

effect. Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? The question indicates a

belief that a child born blind could be the result of previous misdeeds.


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Other scriptures point to a karmic philosophy:

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap-Galatians 6:7

Do unto others what you would have them do to youMatthew 7:12

All who draw the sword will die by the swordMatthew 26:52

Theologians have argued these passages for two thousand years. One of the earliest and

most respected was Origen of Alexandria who lived from 185-254 A.D. According to the

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he believed in the pre-existence and fall of souls; multiple

ages and transmigration of souls; and the eventual restoration of all souls to a state of dynamic

perfection in proximity to the godhead. Quite the metaphysician, Origen. He devoted his life to

teaching and writing his Christian beliefs until the Roman Emperor of the day ordered a purging

of the followers of Christ. Origen was martyred in Tyre.

The debate continued for another two hundred years until the church grew into a political

institution. According to Life Between Lifeby Joel L. Whitton, Ph. D, The new Church-State

alliance, aiming for the cultivated dependence of the masses, felt threatened by those who

believed in rebirth because such Christians tended to be self-reliant, free-thinking individuals

whose subservience could not be guaranteed.

In 553 A.D., the Fifth Ecumenical Council condemned Origens theories as heresy (the root

definition meaning able to choose). Emperor Justinian formally denounced the concept of

rebirth in no uncertain terms:

If anyone assert the fabulous pre-existence of souls and shall assert the monstrous

restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema

Wow--let him be anathema--as in a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or

destruction. 1

Zealous church leaders followed up that dictate by slaughtering a half million reincarnation-

believing Cathars in Southern France during the 1200s. Not satisfied with that carnage, the

Inquisition was born.

Carol Bowman sums up the legacy of such repression inChildrens Past Lives thus:

1Dictionary.com


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The murderous efficiency of the Inquisition proved effective. The persecution by

the institutional Church has scarred our collective psyche, and it has surrounded us

with an invisible fence dividing what is safe from what is dangerous to believe. Since

then, people who harbor forbidden ideas have learned to keep their thoughts to

themselves. Our cultural memory still carries the fear of reprisal for publicly

associating with any occult practices, the use of psychic powers or a belief in

reincarnation.

Consequently, believers in reincarnation were effectively wiped out or muzzled. In time, the

masses of the West generally forgot about it. The day-to-day struggle to survive and the poor

education of the eras erased reincarnation concept from cultural memory.

History marched onthe Renaissance, the split of church by the Reformation, and the

Industrial Revolution transformed the West, but reincarnation did not figure into the world-view

paradigm. And maybe that was a good thing.

Cruel Karma

It is well-known that Eastern religions incorporate the concept of reincarnation. For me,

personally, seeing some of the societies that have resulted from the reincarnation-based religions

is a major reason notto embrace reincarnation.

I remember reading a story in the National Geographic. A reporter sat in a rickety boat with

a group of East Indians, bobbing down a river. A small boy fell in the river and was drowning.

The reporter moved to save the boys life, but the people in the boat stopped him. They claimed

hed be interfering with karma. The boy died and no one lifted a finger to help. I remember

thinking, if thats what believing in reincarnation is about,forget it.

Karma has spawned complacency in the East, an acceptance of the status quo to the point of

inertia. Caste systems still exist that forbid the lower castes to rise from poverty. Only the

filthiest of jobs and servitude are available to them. The diseased and disabled go untreated

because their condition is considered their deserved karma. As a Western person, that mindset is

unacceptable. Yet, Ive had a fascination with the philosophy for decades. Maybe Eastern culture

wasnt the only way to view reincarnation.


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Way back in my college days, I experienced an epiphany. I remember being alone in my

dorm room. Id been reading some sort of philosophical material, pondering the mystery of

reincarnation. Lying down on an unpadded carpet, my knees were raised and I inhaled deep

breaths, allowing my mind to quiet. In the timeless moments of meditation, I received an insight

that has stayed with me for over thirty years:

The basic idea of reincarnation is valid. Souls do incarnate on the earthly plane multiple

times. The older societies of the East understood this, but they perverted the basic truths of

reincarnation. They created a caste system to keep a few people at the top of society and the

majority of others at the bottom, using karma as an excuse to punish and exploit. Karmic justice

has been twisted into every conceivable adulterated version to keep people from bettering their

lots in life. It also makes people complacent, thinking that even if they dont accomplish much in

this life, they can always try again in another life.

Reincarnation was hidden from the West because humans hadnt handled it well. If you

believe you only have one life to live before meeting eternal judgment, you are motivated to put

your best foot forward. You strive for perfection.Believing in reincarnation isnt necessary for a

positive human existence. Many people live more productively without the knowledge.

That revelation stuck in my mindreincarnation is valid, but many people live more

productive lives without understanding it. Had the Almighty purposely veiled the truth from the

Western world after seeing the negative consequences of its knowledge in the East?

Mystics and Therapists

A new concept of reincarnation began emerging in the last century through the work of

therapists and modern mystics. As far back as the 1890s a Frenchman named Colonel Albert de

Rochas used hypnosis to regress patients to previous lives.

In 1954 an amateur hypnotist, Morey Bernstein, regressed Colorado housewife Virginia

Tighe back to nineteenth century Ireland and revealed her memories as Bridey Murphy. World-

wide attention spawned Come As You Were Parties and controversy about the case rages on

today via the Internet.

My introduction to reincarnation came in the 1970s through the books of Jess Stearn on the

twentieth century seer, Edgar Cayce.


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Billed the sleeping prophet, Cayce gave over two thousand well-documented readings

during the span of more than two decades. Once Cayce entered a trance sleep state, his wife

would tell him the name and location of a patient. He would locate the individual, diagnose

ailments and proceed to suggest treatments. Though most of Cayces work dealt with health

issues, references to reincarnation popped up in the readings.

Interestingly, Cayce himself did not initially believe in reincarnation. Raised in the rural

South of the early twentieth century, Cayce was steeped in the old time religion. A devout

Christian, he taught a Sunday school class for over forty years. The first references to

reincarnation in his sessions disturbed the young Edgar Cayce and drove him to his Bible for

answers. Over the course of time, he incorporated reincarnation with his Christian faith, but he

didnt belabor it. In fact, he discouraged wasting time or energy on mere curiosity of past lives.

And to find that ye only lived, died and were buried under the cherry tree in Grandmothers

garden does not make thee one whit better neighbor, citizen, mother or father!2

Reincarnation made sense to many Western innovators and thinkers of the last two hundred

years: Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Frederick the Great, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry

Ford, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and General George Patton.

Past-Life Therapy

For the last fifty years, highly degreed professionals have been exploring reincarnation

through clinical studies. In the 1960s Dr. Helen Wambach began a ten-year study of past-life

recalls using hypnosis in 1,088 patients. Initially hoping to debunk reincarnation, instead she

became a firm believer.

Dr. Ian Stevenson devoted forty years to the study of spontaneous memories of children

between the ages of three to seven in an effort to prove reincarnation. Funded by the inventor

of the Xerox machine, Dr. Stevenson traveled the world on the trail of children recalling

verifiable recent past lives.

By 1987 hed published 65 detailed cases, largely from reincarnation -friendly nations. The

children remembered intimate details of former families and homes. Upon traveling to the places

of their former existence, they could pick out landmarks and identify family and friends. They

2From The Essential Edgar Cayce by Mark Thurston, Ph.D.


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often detailed the events of their deaths.3 As a meticulous academic, Dr. Stevenson wrote

copious books and journals on the subject. Though Dr. Stevensons work was voluminous, it was

also tedious and thus, failed to gain popular notoriety.

Paradigm-busting isnt for sissies and the scoffers remained firmly in their positions. Make a

stand for reincarnation and be ready to be labeled a kook. Shirley MacLaine was the butt of jokes

for decades.

It tooka Western psychiatrist to give reincarnation a hint of credibility. In 1988, Dr. Brian

Weiss released his now-classic Many Lives, Many Masters. With impeccable credentials from

Columbia University and Yale Medical School, Dr. Weiss brought respectability to the

reincarnation mindset.

His book chronicles the first patient, Catherine, who led him from standard psychotherapy to

hypnotic pre-birth regression. When orthodox therapy failed to reveal the root causes of

Catherines problems, he was forced to delve into past-life relationships and traumas. The story

illustrates the negative baggage many of us evidently carry from previous lives. It puts a whole

new slant on our troubled relationships or mysterious phobias.

What Dr. Weiss and other past life therapists have discovered is that sometimes simply

illuminating the root experience may cause a phobia to disappear.

The investigation of reincarnation turned from trying to prove a philosophy to becoming a

tool for healing. In 1980 a group of trail-blazing therapists banded together to form the

International Association for Regression Research and Therapies.

And as the years ticked by, the queen of popular culture, Oprah Winfrey, legitimized

reincarnation further by featuring therapists like Dr. Weiss, Carol Bowman

(www.childpastlives.org) and Gary Zukav (The Seat of the Soul) on her daily show offering their

spins on the ancient concept.

3Children Who Remember Previous Lives by Ian Stevenson, M.D.
http://www.childpastlives.org/http://www.childpastlives.org/http://www.childpastlives.org/http://www.childpastlives.org/


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Between Lives

The search for knowledge continues with the work of Dr. Michael Newton (Journey of

Souls) and Dr. Linda Backman (Bringing Your Soul to Light) using hypnotherapy to explore not

only past lives, but between lives.

Data from thousands of clients comes together to reveal multidimensional realities we might

recognize as heaven or the other side. We all evidently have the ability to access information

forever recorded in Akashic Records or the Book of Life, as some believe the Bible refers to life

histories. I picture some great server in the skya God-created Internet.

Newton and Backman present the idea that each of us possesses a distinct personality and

ego that peels away in the transformation of death. Its similar to the human experience. Were

constantly transforming from one stage of life to another.

Im no longer a ten-year-old child, yet the essence of that child remains in my memory and

identity. Beyond this life experience, Ill cast off the mortal coil as they used t o say, yet the

essence of me will continue in other dimensions. Because I am so aware of unseen energy

bodies, this is only a very small mental leap for me. Our various lives are like a strand of pearls,

each separate, yet united by a common threadour soul.

Those therapists books present a picture of an enduring soul that incarnates again and again

within a very orderly system. Common threads are soul families, teachers and guides, soul mates,

and chosen challenges (i.e. disability, poverty, difficult relationships). We evidently are given apre-life set of choices and areas to work on for our soul growth. Free will is very much in

evidence as we make decisions and deal with the consequences of those actions.

The work of the hypnotherapists has provided a new model of reincarnation for the twenty-

first century. Its no longer an import from the East. You dont have to be linked to Hinduism,

Buddhism, Taoism or any religion to incorporate an acceptance of re-birth as part of life. It is not

necessary to adopt the Eastern philosophy of harsh karmic justice--born low-caste, destined to

stay low-caste.

Admittedly, as a Christian I have a lot of unanswered questions about Christ and prayer and

basic beliefs that are never addressed in the scientifically presented case histories. But, given the

challenges of my confrontation with a past-life connection, the books gave me a new world view.


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Karmic Christianity

My basic understanding of life is that we exist before birth in another dimension and

incarnate on the earthly plane for personal and corporate growth. By corporate growth I meanour part in the whole human experience.

Yes, we come as individuals, but we are also part of a family, a community, a country, a

planet. The decisions we make have ripple effects on countless others, for good or evil. Its

important to strive for improvement and grasp the life lessons coming our way. Complacency

about simply catching the next life is a big mistake.

The concept of karma is fundamental to the theory of reincarnation. It is a cosmic law of

cause and effect. We reap what we sowwhat goes around comes arounddo unto others what

you would have them do unto you.

A simplistic view is that good works will render positive karma and bad works will bring

forth negative karma. Of course, human nature being what it is, most of us are stacking up a lot

of negative karma without much hope of redemption from our own good works. This is where

becoming a Christian can get us off the endless wheel of karmic retribution.

I see no problem with being a Christian and retaining a belief in the process of

reincarnation. If anything, it makes the concept of Christ washing away our sins an even

greater gift of Gods grace.

What if the Christ spirit releases us from multiple life times of sin or bad karma? How

much greater is the meaning of cast all your cares on me. Christ becomes the intermediary

bridging the gap of numerous incarnations. And how wonderful to believe as a follower of the

Way of Love, I can stop incurring karmic debt by following the righteous life Christ embodied

and taught.

Christ taught the Kingdom is within. We are each part of the whole, eternal One.

Christians are often overcome with emotion when they realize they are loved by their Lord,

despite shameful deeds theyve perpetrated on others in this life.

How much greater is the forgiveness and healing when we understand divine grace dispels

karmic debt from lifetime after lifetime!

I just may change my Facebook religious status to Christian Reincarnationist. Think it will

start a trend?


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End of Excerpt

Ever-Flowing Streams: Tapping into Healing Energy

Available at:

Ebook Amazon.com

PaperbackLulu.com

2010 by Dana Taylor All rights reservedSupernal Friends Publishing

Website: SupernalLiving.com

E-Mail: [email protected]
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