We do not understand the of properties the soul or body, yet the body was given to us so that we could learn from it. The properties of the physical and the earth are meant to lead us into the nature of the soul. We create physical reality, yet without knowing how we do , so that the wondrous structure of the earth itself is meant to lead us to question our own source. Nature as we understand it is meant to be our teacher. We are not its master.
I am not telling you that each if us do not have a soul to call our own. We are a part of our soul. It belongs to you, and you to it.
Memories exist as patterns. In this life, each of us come together and part, come together and part again, forming a counterpart relationship when it suits our purposes, as streams of consciousness mix and merge, and then separate.
These counterparts are psychic, relationships, formations that in the deepest terms flow into historic time and out of it. Some, in our terms, last a lifetime. Others represent psychic encounters that happens between two individuals at several points, say, but are not continuous. They may be no less intense, however.
In their own ways children are quite aware of their counterparts, and of, other portions of their individual realities. They relate to their counterparts in dreams. They sometimes see them as “invisible” companions. We dream of our own counterparts frequently, but we are so afraid of maintaining what we think of as the rational adult self that we ignore such communications.
In certain circles, soul mates is the latest vogue. The idea is an old one; it is based upon the reality of counterparts, and presents another version of the theory. But, it is treated with an almost pompous seriousness. Many of those who use the term do it to hide rather than to release their own joyful abilities. They spend time searching for their soul mates–but the search involves them in a pilgrimage for a kind of impossible communication with another, in which all division is lost, with the two then trying to join in a cementing oneness, suffocating all sense of play or creativity. We are not one part, or one half, of another soul, searching through the annals of time for our partner, undone until we are complete by our soul mate.
When we become too intent to maintain our reality we lose it, for we deny the creativity upon which it rests.
I am not denying the importance of true reason. Certainly I am not telling us to ignore the intellect. But we do often ignore the playfulness of the intellect, and force it to become something less than it is.
They expect that its products will be unreal or not valid in the physical world. Yet there is a great correlation between what we think of as creativity, altered states of consciousness, play, and “spiritual” development.
When we create a poem or a song or a painting we are in a state of play, of enjoyment, of freedom. We intend to make something different, to produce a new version of reality. We create out of love, for the sake of the experience. At one time or another almost everyone has that kind of experience, but children have it often. They compose songs and music and paintings in their heads. They alter the focus of their consciousness frequently. They do not stop to ask whether or not the play is real or pertinent. Physically, play develops their body mechanisms. It also flexes the great capabilities of their minds.
When we think: “Life is earnest,” and decide to put away childish things, then often we lose sight of our own creativity and become a goal that must be attained. The goal is to be achieved through hard work, and as long as we believe this we do not understand what the spirit is.
A natural analogy–plants do not work at developing their potential. They are not beautiful because they believe it is their responsibility to please our eye. They are beautiful because they love themselves and beauty. When we are so serious we almost always distort the nature of our own spirit as far as our understanding of it is concerned. We cannot let our guard down long enough to discover what it is. We keep looking for new rules or regulations, or methods of discipline.
This is somewhat like the ancestral line, and there are also reflections in the genes and chromosomes undetected by our scientists. The ancestral and reincarnational lines merge to some extent to form what we think of as our genetic patterns ahead of time, so to speak. Before this life we chose what we wished from those two main areas.
Reincarnational experience is also transmitted, then, and can be re-translated from a biological code-imprint into emotional awareness. However, as we are not our parents or our ancestors we are not our “reincarnational selves.”
We cannot say that our ancestors, like some strange plants, were growing toward what we are, or that we are the sum of their experiences. They were, they are, themselves. We cannot say that we are the sum of our past reincarnational lives either, and for the same reasons. We cut off the knowledge of oneself, and so divisions seem to occur. We are somewhat like a plant that recognizes only one of its leaves at a time. A leaf feels its deeper reality as a part of the plant, and adds to its own sense of continuity, and even to its own sense of individuality. But we often pretend that we are some odd dangling leaf, with no roots, growing without a plant to support us.
All of the leaves now growing on this plant could be thought of as counterparts of each other, each alive and individual in one time, each contributing yet facing in different directions. As one leaf falls another takes its place, until next year the whole plant, still living, will have a completely new set of leaves -– future reincarnational selves of this batch.
We are not plants, but the analogy is a simple one.
There is a constant interaction in the plant, between its parts, that we do not perceive. The leaves now present are biologically valid, interrelating in our terms. Yet in time terms each leaf is also aware of the past history of the plant, and biologically they spring up from that “past.”
Each leaf seeks to express its leaf-hood as fully as possible. Leaves take in sun, which helps the plant itself grow (through photosynthesis). The development of the leaves, then, is very important to the plant’s own existence. The cells of the plant are kept in contact with the environment through the leaves’ experiences, and future probabilities are always taken into consideration. The smallest calculations involving light and dark are known. The life of the plant and its leaves cannot be separated.
The plant has its own “idea” of itself, in which each of its leaves has its part. Yet each leaf has the latent capacities of the whole plant. Root one, for instance, and a new plant will grow.
Selves have far greater freedom than leaves, but they can also root themselves if they choose–and they do. Reincarnational selves are like leaves that have left the plant, choosing a new medium of existence. In this analogy, the dropped leaves of the physical plant have fulfilled their own purpose to themselves as leaves, and to the plant. These selves, however, dropping from one branch of time, root themselves in another time and become new selves from which others will sprout.
The larger self, then seeds itself in time. In this process no identity is lost and no identity is the same, yet all are interrelated. So we can theoretically expand our consciousness to include the knowledge of our past lives, though those lives were ours and not ours. They have a common root, as next year’s leaves have a common root with the leaves now of the plant.
Such knowledge, however, would automatically affect those past lives. Ideas of cause and effect can hold us back here, because it seems to us that the leaves of next year come as an effect caused by this year’s’ leaves. To the plant and its innate creative pattern, however, all of its manifestations are one–and expression of itself, each portion, exists now. The same applies to the psyche. In that greater realm of reality there is creative interplay, and interrelationships between all aspects of selfhood.
Neutral data are not transferred through “living” vehicles. Whether physically materialized or not, knowledge is possessed by consciousness. It is always “individualized”, though not necessarily in our terms.
The information carried by the chromosomes is not general, but highly specific. It is codified data (itself alive) that contains within it the essence of ancestral experience–of specific ancestral experience. Biologically we do indeed carry within us, then, the memories of our particular ancestors. These form a partial basis for our subjective and physical existence, and provide the needed support for it.
Since one portion of our heritage is physical, in those terms, those memories can be translated again, back into emotional and psychological events, though usually they are not in our societies.
To that extent the so-called past experience of our ancestors and of our species is concurrent with our own, biologically speaking. That is but one line, however, covered by the chromosomes. We have “another line” of existence that also serves as a support for the one that we presently recognize. It includes other interweaving physical relationships that bind us with all others upon our planet at the same adjacent level of time. That is, to some extent or another we are related to all of those alive upon the planet. We are time contemporaries. We will have a far closer relationship with some than with others. Some will be our counterparts.
These may or may not be closer to us than family relationships, but psychically speaking they will share a certain kind of history with us. We will also be connected through the physical framework of the earth in the large give-and-take of its space-time scheme.
To a certain extent we do carry the knowledge of our forefathers within our cells and chromosomes, which present a pattern that is not rigid but flexible–one that in codified fashion endows us with the subjective living experience of those who, in our terms, have gone before. Some very old cultures have been aware of this. While being independent, individual members also identified with their ancestors to some extent, accepting them as portions of their selfhoods. This does not mean that the individual self was less, but was more aware of its own reality. A completely different kind of focus was presented, in which the ancestors were understood to contribute to the “new” experience of the living; one in which the physically focused consciousness clearly saw itself as perceiving the world for itself, but also for all of those who had gone before– while realizing that in those terms he or she would contribute as well as the generation past.
The animals were also accepted in the natural philosophy of selfhood as the individual plainly saw the living quality of consciousness. The characteristics of the animals were understood to continue “life,” adding their qualities to the experience of the self in a new way.
The human body would be used in earth’s great husbandry as, from it, dying and decaying new forms would arise. This was a give-and-take in which for instance, a jungle neighborhood was truly home, and all was a portion of the self psychically, spiritually, and physically.
Let those who will, laugh at tales of spirits turning into the trees–a simplistic theory, certainly, yet a symbolic statement in such societies: The dead were buried at home in the same close territory, to form in later times the very composition of the ground upon which religions grew. Again, our limited concepts of selfhood make what I am saying difficult for us to perceive.
I am not saying, that the living consciousness of each individual returned to the earth literally, but that the physical material permeated and tamped with that consciousness did, and does. Even the cells retain knowledge of all of their affiliations. In physical terms the consciousness that we understand is based upon this.
Selfhood is poorer when it does not at least intuitively understand this heritage.
Walking down the street, we expect the trees to stay in their places, and not transform themselves into buildings. All of these assumptions are taken for granted in our physical journeys. We may find different customs and languages, yet even these will be accepted in the vast, overall, basic assumptions within whose boundaries physical life occurs. We are most certainly traveling through the private and mass psyche when we so much as walk down the street. The physical world seems objective and outside of oneself, however. The idea of such outsideness is one of the assumptions upon which we build that existence. Interior traveling is no more subjective, than a journey from New York to San Francisco. We are used to projecting all destinations outside of oneself. The idea of varied inward destinations, involving motion through time and space, therefore appears strange.
Generally speaking, we have explored the physical planet enough so that we have a good idea of what to expect as we travel from country to country.
Before a trip, we can produce travel maps that outline the attractions and characteristics of a certain locale. The mode of transport has taken different folds. We used to travel by flight in economy or even rent private jet. Now, we see travelers in motor bikes and also on foot! However, much of what we explore are part of what is already discovered. We are not traveling blind folded, therefore, and while any given journey may be new to us, we are not really a pioneer: The land has been mapped and there are few basic surprises.
The inner lands have not been as well explored. To say the least, they lie in virgin territory as far as our conscious mind is concerned. Others have journeyed to some of these interior locales, but since they were indeed explorers they had to learn as they went along. Some, returning, provided guidebooks or travel folders, telling us what could be expected. We make our own reality. If we were from a foreign land and asked one person to give us a description for reality. The person might say “Las Vegas is a frightful place in which crime is rampant, gangs roam the streets, murders and rapes are the norm, and people are not only impolite but ready to attack us at a moment’s notice. There are no trees. The air is polluted, and we can expect only violence. ” If we asked someone else, this individual might say instead: “Las Vegas has the finest of casinos despite their decline since the rise of online casinos like paybyphonebillcasino.uk. Additionally, Las Vegas has open-air concerts in some of the parks, fine sculpture, theater, and probably the greatest collection of music outside the Nashville. It has a good overall climate, a great mixture of cultures. In it, millions of people go their way daily in freedom. ” Both people would be speaking of their private beliefs, and would be colored by the individual focus from which each of them viewed that City.
One person might be able to give us the city’s precise location in terms of latitude and longitude. The other might have no such knowledge, and say instead: “I take a plane at such-and-such a place, at such-and-such a time, giving Las Vegas as my destination, and if I take the proper plane I always arrive there.
Explorers traveling into inner reality, do not have the same kind of landmarks to begin with. Many have been so excited with their discoveries that they wrote guidebooks long before they even began to explore the inner landscape They did not understand that they found what they wanted to find, or that the seemingly objective phenomena originated in the reflections of the psyche.
We may, for example, have read books numbering the “inner realms,” and telling us what we can expect to encounter in each. Many of these speak of lords or gods of the realm, or of demons. In a strange way these books do provide a service, for at certain levels we will find our own ideas materialized: and if we believe in demons then in those terms we will encounter them. The authors, however, suppose that the devils have a reality outside of our belief in them, and such is not the case. The demons simply represent a state of our own mind that is seemingly out there, objectified. Therefore, whatever methods the authors used to triumph over these demons is often given as proof not only of the demons’ reality but of each method’s effectiveness.
Now if we read such books we may often program our activity along those lines, in the same way that a visitor to Las Vegas might program experience of the city in terms of what he of she had been told existed there.
That kind of structuring also does a disservice, however, for it prevents us from coming in contact with our own original concepts. There is no reason, for example, to encounter any demons or devils in any trance or out-of-body condition. In such cases our own hallucinations blind us to the environment within which they are projected. All of its dimensions are faithfully and instantly produced as experience when we learn to take our “normally alert” conscious mind with us; and when we are free of such limiting ideas, then at those levels we can glimpse the inner powers of our own psyche, and watch the interplay of beliefs and symbols as they are manifested before our eyes. Until we learn to do this we will most certainly have difficulty, for we will not be able to tell the difference between our projections and what is happening in the inner environment.
Any exploration of inner reality must necessarily involve a journey through the psyche, and these effects can be thought of as atmospheric conditions, natural, at a certain stage, through which we pass as we continue.
Our world, is the result of a certain focus of consciousness, without which that world cannot be perceived. The range of consciousness involved is obviously physically oriented, yet within it there are great varieties of consciousness, each experiencing that seemingly objective world from a private perspective. The physical environment is real in different terms to an animal, a fish, a man, or a rock, for example, and different portions of those forms. This is highly important.
If an inhabitant from another reality outside of our own physical system entirely were to visit it, and if “his” or “her” intelligence was roughly of the same degree as our own, he or she would still have to learn to focus his or her consciousness into the same way that we do, more or less, in order to perceive our world. He or she would have to alter his or her native focus and turn it in a direction that was foreign to him or her. In this way he or she could “pick up our station.” There would be distortions, because even though he or she managed such manipulations he or she might not have the same kind of native physical structure as our own, or course, through which to receive and interpret those data his altered consciousness perceived.
Our visitor would then be forced to translate that information as best he or she could through his or her own native structure, if it were to make any sense to his or her consciousness in its usual orientation. All realities are the result of certain unique focuses taken by consciousness. In those terms, there is no outside. The effect of objectivity are caused as the psyche projects its experience into inner dimensions that it has itself created.
Within, those frameworks are ever expanding, so that in our terms at least it seems that greater and greater distances are involved. Travel to any other land of physical reality must then involve alterations of consciousness.
While all of our thoughts and feelings are “somewhat” materialized, only some of them become physical in our terms. They are then accepted as physical reality. They provide the basis for the physical events, objects, and phenomena upon which we all agree. Therefore our world has a stability that works well enough for daily concerns. At that point we are tuned in precisely on our “home station.” We ignore the ghost symbols or voices, the probable actions that also occur, but that are muffled in the clear tones of our accepted reality. When we begin to travel away from that home station, we become more aware of the other frequencies that are buried within it. We move through other frequencies, but to do this we must alter our own consciousness. The probable realities connected with our own system are like the suburbs, say, surrounding a main city. If for simplicity’s sake we think of other realities as different cities, then after we leave our own we would pass through the suburbs, then into the country, then after a time into other suburbs until we reached another metro-city. Each metropolis would represent a conglomeration of consciousnesses operating within an overall general frequency of clearest focus, a high point of psychic communication and exquisite focus in the given kind of reality unless we are tuned into those particular frequencies, however, we could not pick up that reality. We might instead perceive the equivalent of jumbled sound or meaningless static, or jigsaw images. We might simply realize that some kind of activity was there, but without being able to pinpoint it.
For centuries it was taken for granted that God was on the side of the strongest, richest nation. Surely, it seemed, if a country was poor or downtrodden, it was because God had made it so.
Such ideas literally held people in chains, fostering slavery and other inhumane practices. The same unfortunately applies to the Eastern concept of nirvana, and to the Christian idea of heaven. Both have been used by those in power to hold down the masses of people, to justify shoddy and inadequate living conditions by promising future bliss in the world after death.
There are many differences between the ideas of nirvana and heaven, but each has been used not only to justify suffering, but also to teach people to seek pain. The idea has been that the more persecuted and maligned a person is, the greater will be the reward in a future existence.
I want to avoid concentration upon esoteric practices in my blogs, but they do sometimes impinge upon the subject matter at hand.
The ideas of penance, fasting to excess, the personal abuse of the body, such as self-flagellation — all of those practices are conducted in the belief that suffering is something to be sought in itself. In such a way pain becomes a sought-after goal, and pleasure becomes subverted into pain.
Quite ordinary people often believe, then, that suffering itself is a way toward personal development and spiritual knowledge. In matters of health, such beliefs can have most unfortunate results. They are often responsible for needless sacrifices of physical organs in imprudent operations.
Some individuals become anxious and worried if they think they are too happy — for to them it means that they are not paying sufficiently for their sins. They may be threatened by some undeniable danger, until finally in one way or another they seek out their own punishment once again — wondering all the time why they are so frequently besieged by poor health or disease.
This kind of syndrome can affect individuals, families, and to some extent entire nations. They mitigate directly against man’s and woman’s health, survival, and exuberance.
Constant fears about nuclear destruction, or other such catastrophes can also fall under this classification.
Large masses of people became so convinced of God’s eventual vengeance and retribution that they began to plan for it.
Their lives became a way of avoiding pain instead of seeking out pleasure or satisfaction. This is true of individuals, but it also applies to many so-called survival groups, who congregate in one or another portion of the country, collecting supplies to carry them over the holocaust and to defend their families from those who might steal their provisions.
Most such people expect a period of chaotic time, in which all laws are broken down. Another version stresses the economic area, foreseeing the collapse of the economy, anarchy, and other conditions that pit one individual against the other.
These people believe, of course, that any given situation will worsen, and be carried to its most disastrous end. That attitude colors all of their other beliefs and actions. Some use religious dogma, and others rely upon scientific dogma to prove their cases, but in any case, they are presented with a world of deception and vengeance.
Good mental or physical health can hardly flourish under such conditions. There are instead most beneficial groups in this country and abroad, who actually, actively, yet peacefully join together to work for worldwide nuclear disarmament, and also to tackle such questions as nuclear waste. Their efforts are directed in other ways also, as they try to convince all areas of the world to share their wealth and foodstuffs equally.
These may be “highflying” goals, however they are positive in nature, aimed toward accomplishment and achievement, and they collect the energies of the people together in a way that stresses cooperation and understanding.
Again, the end does not justify the means — so no amount of war is ever going to produce a meaningful peace.
Such ideas affect every level of life, from the most microscopic onward. It is not that plants understand our ideas in usual terms — but they do indeed pick up our intent, and in the arena of world survival, they have a stake.
I do not want to romanticize non-human life either, or to overestimate its resources, but nature also has its own ways — and in those ways it constantly works toward survival of life in general. Nature may not bail us out, but it will always be there, adding its own vitality and strength to the overall good and health of the planet.
Remember what I said in earlier blogs about the connections between disease and non-disease states. Communication flashes between viruses and microbes, and they can change in the wink of an eye. Once again, then, ideas of the most optimistic nature are the biologically pertinent ones.
This is a good place to bring up again some extreme food practices, such as over-fasting, and an obsession with so-called natural foods.
I am not talking about a natural and healthy interest in the purity of foodstuffs, but of a worrisome over-concern. This is often carried so far that no food seems perfectly satisfying, and the concentration becomes focused upon the fear of food, rather than upon its benefits.
Behind many such attitudes if the idea that the body itself is unworthy, and that starving it somehow cuts down on the appetites of the flesh. We usually end up with a flurry of different kinds of diets.
Some concentrate almost exclusively on protein, some on carbohydrates — particularly rice — but in any case the large natural range of available foods and nutrients are cut out.
This keeps the body in a state of constant turmoil. Some people are so convinced, in fact, that eating is wrong that they diet until they become ravenously hungry, then overeat and force themselves to vomit up the residue.
Other people, in a well-meaning attempt to watch their weight, skip their breakfast entirely — a very poor procedure. It is far better to eat moderate amounts of food in all of the food ranges, and to consume smaller portions more often. I realize that our social mores also dictate our eating habits — but four light meals a day will overall serve us very well, and give the body a more steady, regulated nourishment.
These food ideas are important, since they are passed on from parents to children, and parents often use food as a way of rewarding a child’s good behavior, thus starting the youngster out toward conditions of overweight.
The main issue involved, once again, is the trust of the body.
In any case, there are new lives growing and maturing within each individual, whatever his or her age or circumstances.
The idea of survival reaches far beyond this life experience, and each person has new physical and spiritual existences ever ready — for there is no such thing as extinction. Alive or dead in usual terms, we are always conscious and aware and ourselves, and we are always a part of universal ventures in which we have always been involved, whatever our states of consciousness.
We are supported, never abandoned, and always couched lovingly in the great yet intimate presence of All That Is, whose love forms our breath, our life, our death, as in which the unknown divinity is always blessed and ever known.
It is known and unknown, forming all stages of creativity, and we are held within it, graced to be a part of the divine framework of All That Is.
My blogs, like life itself, have been and are a gift, rising from the immense, never-ending creativity of existence.
Alone, I live within one life that expresses multitudinous voices, and shed its own mercy, gladness, and joy, out into the world at large, enriching it, renewing the springtime, and never truly ending.
To one extent or another, I then speak in these blogs for all peoples, for the united psyches that overflow with thoughts and feelings that are registered by the wind, giving voice to the private, intimate, yet connected lives of men and women throughout the centuries — so that many people, listening to or reading my blogs, hear their own inner voices also, and feel the contours of their own natures, and universal nature as well.
“BEYOND THE HIGHEST CLOUDS”
Behind the highest clouds
man and woman have ever seen
there are mountains and
hidden coves from which all
true proclamations come.
Their sentences are silent
yet they contain a word that
releases and fills secret contracts
between the gods and man and woman,
uttered long ago
uttered without a word or a whisper,
and speaking for me alone
with a magic note
and a secret message
and a sweet response
known to me alone.
Thus far in my blogs we have been dealing with conflicting beliefs, however — and most of those can be tackled in the context of this life alone.
These beliefs may have physical or mental repercussions, though in most cases the two do not occur at once. We have dealt with some of the numerous physical dilemmas than can result. In other instances the individual encounters the difficulties on mental or emotional levels. One portion of the personality might be wholeheartedly in favor of good expression of personal power, and be stimulated to express and use his or her energy and strength. Another portion of the personality may be just as terrified of power or its uses as the other segment exults in it.
Instead of developing physical complications, in usual terms, sometimes one portion of the personality actually does act with assurance, power, and energy, while another equally valid portion refuses to use energy or power in any way whatsoever. The ideas are so opposing, and such equal adversaries, that the conscious personality can hardly bear to be aware of both at once.
In such cases, while one portion of the personality is expressing itself, and in command of the usual conscious abilities, the other portion lies acquiescent, latent, and unexpressed.
The individual may act purposefully, with power, energy, and strength, for varying lengths of time. Then sometimes without warning the frightened, inactive portions of the personality will take over the normal abilities of consciousness — acting depressed, taciturn, and communicating very poorly with others.
One portion of the personality will carry on conscious behavior — go to work, shop, or whatever, while the other portion of the personality will not remember performing those acts at all.
Take a hypothetical case. Call Marlo A the assertive part of the personality, and Marlo B the passive partner. Marlo A may go out dancing, go to a bar, then turn the entire proceedings over to Marlo B, who finds herself in noisy surroundings, surrounded by people she does not remember, and with no idea how she reached the present destination.
Her trend of memory will go back to the last time that she was in charge of consciousness, and she will have — or may not have — any idea of the existence of Marlo A at all. Marlo A may enjoy action, sports, dancing and bodily activities, while Marlo B may prefer reading, walking, or painting.
Such personalities may even have separate sets of friends — Marlo A and B each having their own companions. Though these personalities may seem so divergent, they are connected with each other, however, and they may on occasion set up their own rather bizarre kind of communication. They may write mysterious notes to each other, leaving them where they are bound to be found — yet notes using a special code or symbols of drugs, because too clear a communication would disrupt the entire relationship.
People may actually carry on such existences for years, until some event or another shows that something is amiss: one of Marlo A’s friends might meet a friend of Marlo B, for example, or the gaps in memory might finally become so frequent that it is obvious something is wrong.
Marlo A and B represent fairly simple examples of schizophrenic behavior, and indeed I have kept the story simple to keep the issues clear. Marlo A may actually grow into a more and more assertive or belligerent personality, even displaying violent tendencies at times, while on the other hand Marlo B might become even more timid, depressed, and solitary.
On other levels, however, each one is well aware of the other’s presence, and on those levels they do react to each other’s activities. This means, of course, that the entire amnesia process, regardless of how perfect it seems, is a surface one. I have used the different beliefs about power as an example, but any belief may be involved if it and its opposite are held in nearly equal weight.
One portion may believe that sex is natural and good, while the other portion believes vehemently that sex is evil and depraved. Here we will use a man for a hypothetical case. David A may be an excellent husband, breadwinner, and father, a church-goer who believes in the beauty and goodness of sex. David B may hold the opposite viewpoint most intently — that sex is at least evil, perhaps sent by the devil, and below or beneath the dignity of a good man.
On topside David A may go to church frequently, be kind and considerate to his family, and, say, come home from work every night for supper. He may carry on a fruitful accomplished existence for varying lengths of time.
Then, however, perhaps without warning, he may suddenly refuse to make love with his wife, becoming hostile with his children, stop off for a few drinks after work, before supper, or even begin seeing a prostitute, or begin an affair — often with a woman he considers beneath his own station.
David A may be quite startled to discover bottles of whiskey lying around in his dresser drawers, when he hardly drinks liquor himself at all. David B may suddenly “come to” in a strange bedroom, in a compromising position with a woman it certainly seems to him he has never seen before in his life.
On the other hand, David B may find himself in the middle of a family picnic, or other gathering — events that bore and displease him — or worse, he may not even remember his family at all. The more complicated such dilemmas becomes, the harder they are to keep secret, however, because their very complications multiply the chances of discovery. And there are, of course, variations.
David B, while drinking, might suddenly be sent back to his David A self. The kinds of communication can be very unique and bewildering, ranging from number codes to nonsense verses, or to the hearing of imaginary voices, which serve to remind one portion of the self that there is also another seemingly alien personality involved in his or her existence.
In many instances very strong feelings of persecution and paranoia can be involved, but these will be discussed in the following blogs.
In the kind of schizophrenic behavior we have just been discussing, hypnosis is frequently used as therapy, often in an attempt not only to introduce the two levels of the personality to each other, but also to uncover the time they originally split off in such a fashion. However, one must ensure that they visit a hypnotist who has completed a significant amount of hypnotherapy training course in order to ensure that the results are positive.
While hypnosis can be of considerable value in the hands of an excellent professional hypnotist, it still has serious drawbacks as a treatment under these conditions. Because of its very nature, hypnosis can end up segmenting the personality still further.
Under such therapy it sometimes seems that news, lesser personality fragments are uncovered, but it is very possible that these instead are created by the therapy itself. The hypnotist obviously wants to cure his patient, and all forms of schizophrenia are intellectually intriguing. The segments of the personality that are involved are being given great attention, and they may seize upon that attention, seeking ways to further dazzle the hypnotist while at the same time sabotaging recovery.
It is far better to address whatever personality is in prominence during the session, to convince it of the therapist’s concern and interest, while letting it know that at other levels it is quite aware of the existence of its other segments.
People with schizophrenic difficulties often enjoy word games and puzzles, so they may well use these to confuse any therapist. The very fact that such a person considers any kind of therapy does mean that he or she is ready to tackle a considerable challenge. It can be put to each segment of the personality, then, that it will be quite a challenge for each to become aware of the other. We might compare the situation to someone who has been separated from a sister or brother for years — explaining, however, that the separation is psychological and not physical.
In a fashion, all of these activities are variations of others. Instead of forming such segmented selves, another person, as mentioned earlier, might enjoy the use of power, yet be so frightened of it that he or she experiences an epileptic episode instead of a schizophrenic one.
Each life influences each other life, and some portions of the personality retains memory not only of past lives, but of future lives also.
When reincarnational studies are embarked upon, on occasion people remember some instance of past-life experience, but conventional ideas of time are so strong that so-called future memory is blacked out.
The inner self is aware of all of our existences, in other words. It sees where and how our many lives fit together. It is only because we are so oriented outward from birth that this inner self can sometimes seem alien or distant and unrelated to the self that we know. It would be impossible to be consciously aware of all of the infinitesimal details that exist in even one life; our consciousness would be so full and cluttered up that we would be unable to make choices, or to use free will.
It would be even more difficult to try to handle the information of many lives at one time. In our terms, “it” takes time to think, and we would be so caught up in thinking itself, that action would be impossible. The inner knowledge of all of our lives, from our point of view, is in the same category as those automatic processes that underlie our existence.
That is, we know about our other lives, basically, in the same way that we know how to breathe or digest our food. A different kind of knowing is involved.
This does not mean that all conscious knowledge about our own reincarnational existences forever beyond us — for through various exercises we can indeed learn to recall some of that information. It does mean, however, that we are innately aware of all of our existences, and that the knowledge gained in one life is automatically transferred to another, whether that life be present, past, or future.
We may therefore be trying out many different kind of experiences, sometimes endowing ourselves with super attributes and strength, relying upon the body’s powers above all other considerations, while at the same time in another life we use and develop unusual mental abilities, enjoying the triumphs of creative thought, while largely ignoring the body’s agility and strength.
I do not mean to imply that we necessarily deal with opposite kinds of behaviors, for there are endless variances — each unique — as consciousness expresses itself through physical sensation, and attempts to explore all of the possible realms of emotional, spiritual, biological, and mental existence.
I want to stress that within each life full free will operates once the conditions of that life are set.
That is, if we have been born in poor or depressed circumstances, then free will not alter the conditions of that birth.
It can help us become wealthy in adult life through the choices that we make. It should be helpful, and certainly somewhat comforting, to realize that even unfortunate birth conditions were not forced upon us by some outside agency, but chosen at inner levels of our own reality.
The same applies to almost any situation. Religion holds some ideas that are in complete opposition to each other in regard to the nature of suffering in general. Some believe that suffering is a punishment sent by God for past or present sins, or even omissions, while other religious schools insist that suffering is sent by God as evidence of his particular love for the individual involved: “Good must love you very much, because he sent so much suffering.”
That remark, and similar ones, are often made to ill persons. The idea is supposed to be that suffering is good for the soul, is a way of atoning for one’s sins, and in some fashion the implication is made that such suffering in this life will be more than compensated for in heaven.
Such concepts encourage individuals to feel like victims, with no control at all over the conditions of their lives.
Instead, it should be realized that as uncomfortable as suffering is, it does somehow have a meaning in the context of our entire existence — again, that it was not thrust upon us by some unjust or uncaring exterior force or nature.
To some degree, that kind of understanding can help alleviate suffering itself to some extent. I am not advocating a fatalistic approach either, that says more or less: “I have chosen such and such an unfortunate condition at some level I do not understand, and therefore the entire affair is outside of my own hands. There is nothing I can do about it.”
For one thing, again, almost all situations, including the most drastic, can be changed for the better to some extent, and the very attempt to do so can increase a person’s sense of control over his or her own circumstances. This does not mean that those adverse situations can be changed overnight in usual terms (though ideally that is also possible), but that the sense of control over one’s life encourages all of the mental and physical healing properties.
In terms of “starting over” at such a point, the main thing to remember is not to expect too much too fast, while recognizing that instantaneous cures are indeed probabilities.
Again, mind games, the insertion of humor and diversion, are extremely valuable, so that we are not trying too hard. Some people try too hard to be spontaneous, while others are frightened of spontaneity itself. The knowledge of reincarnational lives is spontaneously held, and we can receive profound insights from that knowledge. This occurs when we are not looking for it, but when we are familiar enough with the entire concept, so that we realize such knowledge is available.
The reincarnational heritage is rich, however, and it can have a tendency to assert itself under certain conditions.
I am not speaking of usual, but fairly unusual events, when, in one fashion or another, reincarnational memory seems to bleed through to the present life. Again, this is not usual experience. It happens infrequently. On some occasions — sometimes in periods of poor health or seemingly senility — such instances may occur. They are more apt to happen in adolescence, though I do want to stress that we are speaking of extraordinary cases.
Old people often begin to exercise their own consciousness in ways that they had not done earlier. There may be less diversions to take up their thoughts. They may be lonely, and then quite surprisingly find themselves casting about for different kinds of experience — experience seemingly most difficult to achieve in the physical world under their present circumstances.
Since they are often frightened and unsure of the future, they are more apt to cast their thoughts backwards into their early childhoods, reaching for their earliest memories, and mentally try to gain comfort from the remembered sounds of beloved voices, only to mentally glimpse other images than they expected, to hear other voices than those for which they yearned.
In fact, fragments of many episodes from many other lives may rush into their consciousness, and in most cases they are, of course, quite unprepared for the experience. On the other hand, usually such episodes are highly reassuring, for along with them rides the inner assurance that life has been lived before , many times.
The individuals involved may then return to normal consciousness, but if they talked or muttered while the affair was happening, any observers might take it for granted that delirium was involved. Drugs should not be prescribed under those conditions, unless the patient becomes highly restless and confused, and requests them. In most cases, however, the experiences do not leave detrimental side effects.
The same kind of event may happen in periods of poor health, or in over-drugged states. They are less easily handled, however, under drugged conditions, since the consciousness does not have the full agility to depend upon in periods of stress — unusual stress. The same can occur in adolescence, and easily be misinterpreted as a schizophrenic episode.
This happens perhaps more frequently than other cases mentioned, but usually such events are not repeated. They remain only as memories, having opened up the person’s mind to larger visions of life than he or she may have entertained before.
