Your past lives

People want to know if they were a certain person in a past life. There are two ways to find out, that I know of.

The first way you can’t make happen — but if it happens all by itself, then it furnishes absolute proof. This way is when you “take on” your spiritual body from a previous incarnation; you take it on from one moment to the next, in full consciousness. This way can only be provoked by a strong trigger, and it’s outside your control.

The second way you can make happen — it’s the simple “hand levitation” exercise, using a written list of names. I describe this exercise in Part 3. You can argue that this way doesn’t furnish absolute proof. Myself, I think the proof is good enough. But that point is debatable.

True dreams

These are psychic dreams. Joan Grant had many of them. They reveal an event, or events, from a past life. Maybe you’ve had some of these.

My psychic ability, limited though it is, has enabled me to have the occasional true dream. You really do see an event, and yourself actively involved in that event, your own event, from a past life. A true dream requires a trigger. Me, I find the trigger to be a person. If a person, someone whom I knew in a past life, comes into my environment, their arrival might trigger me to have a true dream. Do I know which person it is? Sometimes I do.

I won’t recount my several true dreams here. I’ll mention just one. I had it when I was a teenager. It showed me an event that happened, in which I was involved. I read about it later, when I was a older. My true dream was accurate, even pinpointing the exact location, a location I can visit today. I figure that if one of my true dreams is accurate, they all are.

True dreams mostly deal with past lives, but I had one that showed me my next life, from age 19 to about age 26, so seven years.

Early memories

From earliest childhood up to age 10, I could remember the places where I had lived before. By “places” I mean the facades of buildings, and by “before” I mean the time before this time.

As a child, it didn’t occur to me to mention these memories to Mum. I assumed that everyone had such memories. When I got older and realised that such memories weren’t universal, I did mention them to Mum, just once.

My theory: All infants and small children remember scenes from their most recent past life. But they grow out of these memories so early that they don’t later remember having them. In my case I didn’t grow out of the memories until age 10, so I never forgot that I had them. I can’t recall those facades today. I know only that they were European buildings, not Australian buildings.

Your next life

If there’s something you want to achieve in your next life, do the groundwork for it in this life.

As I say elsewhere, work on your delinquencies now, otherwise you might take them with you into your next life.

You are now — or will become — a huge reservoir of experience, gained over many lifetimes. You gain stature with every lifetime. An old soul has immeasurable stature.

Reflecting further

Humans are the highest entity in the physical world

The highest entity that can live in the physical world is the human soul. Higher entities can visit on a spiritual plane, but they don’t come physically into the world.

The world’s quietest moment

When did the first human soul come into the world? We know it happened, because we’re here. My theory is this: A divine spark, creating a human soul, was bestowed on two embryos, male and female. The two children were born. They belonged to a tribe of our earliest ancestors.

The two children grew up in the tribe. Together, they produced more children. Their children were human souls, who in turn produced human souls. And from those two earliest humans we all descended. You can call them Adam and Eve if you want to, but I call them Og and Ug, because we didn’t have language back then.

What a day it was in our world when the divine spark was bestowed. What a moment. But no reporter was present, no cameraman. It was the world’s quietest moment.

The higher spirit world doesn’t interfere

The higher spirit world doesn’t step in to stop bad stuff from happening. Our decisions are our own free will. A higher entity doesn’t appear before us and say, “Would you like to re-consider your decision?” As Dolores Cannon says on YouTube, “This is a free-will planet.” We alone bear responsibility.

There’s an exception to every rule. I’ve heard of an occasion when the higher spirit world did step in to stop something bad from happening: A Negro teenager and two adult Negro men were about to be lynched by an angry mob. A voice in the crowd spoke, “Leave the boy alone. He had nothing to do with it.” The voice, unidentified, spoke with such authority that the crowd obeyed. The teenager grew up to become a pastor.

The key to peace

The key to peace is assimilation. Gandhi said, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way”, but Gandhi got it wrong. There is a way to peace. It’s assimilation.

The three commandments

We have the Ten Commandments, and we have the Noble Eightfold Path. And then we have my three — you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not harm. The rest takes care of itself.

The seat of knowledge

The solar plexus chakra is our seat of knowledge. Sometimes a piece of knowledge comes up from there, into our conscious minds. That’s the gut feeling that people speak of. You can strengthen this ability. Take a minute to travel in your mind down to your solar plexus. Be there, and be aware that you’re there. I find this simple exercise strengthens my ability to get gut feelings.

Dilys Gater describes the solar plexus chakra very well in one paragraph in her book, Celtic Wise Woman.

The grounding cord

When meditating, or just simply contemplating, it’s very important to stay grounded. If you don’t stay grounded you can open yourself up to spiritual harm. Use your grounding cord, like this: Imagine a very strong, thick root that’s wrapped around your waist. It goes down, down into the ground, very deep. It keeps you well and truly grounded. You can practise this exercise anywhere, even when standing in a queue.

The colour spectrum of the chakras

The seven main chakras each have a colour, and the colours follow the order of the colour spectrum. Since colour arises from light being refracted, this shows that our chakras are receiving spiritual light and refracting it. Why do our chakras receive spiritual light? Is it so that colour can be created, thus creating beauty? Or is there some greater purpose? I suppose that spiritual light, refracted or otherwise, is one of the essential qualities of the spirit world.

Seeing visual purple

Rhodopsin, so I read, gives rise to the visual purple we sometimes see when our eyes are closed. But what triggers this to happen? For me, it works like this: When I have contemplative thoughts, “edifying” thoughts, if I can use such an elegant word, it produces visual purple in front of my closed eyelids. The purple is like a beacon light, revolving. But when I stop thinking “edifyingly”, the purple disappears immediately.

Psychic moments

Sometimes we have a psychic moment when waking up — the brain has theta brainwaves upon waking up, for a few seconds — this is a well-known phenomenon.

People who are on the move become more psychic. Simply travelling in a vehicle increases my own psychic ability. I also became more psychic as I grew older.

The difference between men and women?

What makes us different is testosterone, not the various appendages.

The way I see it: A man has two masters, testosterone and ego. He has to get them under control. A woman has no testosterone and an angelic ego.

For a man, it’s a case of Do or Die, but a woman doesn’t entertain such nonsense. Women don’t like things happening outside their control. A man can handle that, and sometimes even goes looking for it. A man can ride on the back of a whale, attached to it by a piece of string. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. A woman can’t do that. A woman doesn’t like danger and abhors injury.

Why do girls not like getting hurt? We have to protect ourselves. We’re going to bear new life inside us, one day. We mustn’t get any injury, especially an internal injury.

The soul has to progress, and the only successful progression is a well-balanced one. In some lifetimes we have to use male power, push boundaries. In other lifetimes we need to have a different range of experiences, to live effectively, but in a subtly different way.

Goethe was once asked what the world’s most important work was, and he said it was the work of a mother. (I can’t verify that this is true. I read it decades ago in a leaflet.)

Melody of Ode to Joy

It’s clear that Beethoven didn’t compose this melody, and apparently Mozart didn’t either. When I came to live in Vienna in 1978, I read in German that it was a Volksweise, a folk tune. This was stated in one sentence, without further detail. The original composer wasn’t named (I assumed his name was no longer known). I think I read this sentence on the sleeve of a recording of the Ninth Symphony. I’m pretty sure it was a recording, and I didn’t buy the record because I didn’t have a record player. I know of no way today to find that single sentence again. People have long ago stopped quoting it, and it’s gone out of our knowledge.

Back to the melody — Mozart popped it into KV 222. Beethoven made a grand affair of it. I think Beethoven copied from Mozart, and Mozart copied from the Volksweise. Or they both copied from the Volksweise. Well I’m glad they did that, or otherwise we would have lost the melody.

Every time we mention the Ode to Joy, we should mention Schiller.

The Gospel of Judas

Years ago I saw parts of a documentary on TV about this. An ancient manuscript has been discovered. It records some things that Christ is said to have told Judas alone, in private. One of the things was, “You will exceed all the others” (meaning all the other apostles) — because Judas’ action enabled Christ’s destiny to be fulfilled. It’s not clear in what way Judas will exceed the others. A great many lines from the manuscript have been lost. But even if we had every line still intact, we might find that Christ didn’t clarify this matter further.

When will Judas “exceed the others”? It won’t happen while he’s a human soul. No human soul is raised above the level of another human soul.

My theory: Judas was asked, in the spirit world before he was born, if he would take on this role. (As we all are asked to take on roles, big and small.) Judas said “yes”. (As we all say “yes”.) After he was born, he had no conscious memory of this. Christ was well aware of it. It was, for some reason, not appropriate for Christ to share this information with anyone. In the gospels Christ is quoted as saying some pretty harsh things about Judas (“It would be better for that man if he had never been born”) — but did He really say these things? Perhaps those words were put into His mouth.

Why did Judas commit suicide? Because he had no conscious memory that he had agreed, in the spirit world, to perform this deed. But why did he agree? Why didn’t he say no? He can say no, can’t he? Yes, he can. But he knew that if he says no, someone else will have to do it.

Be clear about one thing, people: I’m not doing a whitewash job on Judas. He was a misguided man, who totally misread the situation. But a misguided man was needed. None of the others could be asked to do this deed; they weren’t misguided.

Whatever we decide about the Gospel of Judas, we have to remember one thing — Christ chose Judas.

Daily stuff

How to think properly

Rudolf Steiner said that, in order to think properly, you should remove yourself from the subject and then think about it. This is very good advice. Follow this advice and you’ll become neutral and fair. Your opinion will no longer play a role. Follow this advice and you’ll never be bettered in an argument.

The power of formulas

Formulas are very powerful things. Some of these are my original ideas, others have been told to me.

• Don’t contrive — The first formula I ever devised. It allowed me to comport myself properly in an awkward situation, several times.
• You don’t need to look for courage if you put fear aside.
• Action is better than inaction — This simple sentence gets you up and moving.
• When in doubt, say “yes” — We don’t know what to do. The pros and cons weigh exactly the same. Say “yes”, not “no”.
• This is the perfect moment to do this thing.
• Be of good cheer, but if you can’t be of good cheer, be of good energy — Restores your positive mood.
• What would superman do? — Very helpful in an insecure moment.
• I also read this: If someone frightens you, imagine them dressed in long underwear. My own idea: If you dislike someone, imagine them being very old, very old and frail. Do this repeatedly — it brings your mind into proper balance as regards that dislikable person.
• And finally, a very important formula: If you see someone who doesn’t like you, you might be unsure how to handle yourself in that moment. Tell yourself this: “That person doesn’t like me. That’s alright. That person doesn’t have to like me.” It defuses the situation immediately.

The power of visualizing

You have to learn a physical skill? In your mind, do this physical thing again and again. This is “visualizing”, and it will improve your skill greatly. I learnt a physical skill to a very high level doing this.

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Anger?

Anger is a regular human emotion. As I learned in the Art of Living (AOL) course, you may get angry but don’t be angry.

Revenge?

You don’t always win. Don’t take revenge.

Hatred?

We’re supposed to hate what people do but not the people themselves. This means we hate what Hitler did, but we don’t hate him. Manage that, if you can.

Forgiveness?

Is forgiveness only possible after atonement has been done, even hundreds of years later? Perhaps. And atonement can be done as a service to any person — it doesn’t have to be done to the original victim.

You forgave someone — you succeeded in forgiving them, and yet you couldn’t make it stick. I think you just have to acknowledge it. I come back to the thought that forgiveness will be possible after atonement is done.

Your decisions

Don’t blame other people for your decisions. You knew what you were doing.

My two epiphanies

When I was in my 20s, I had two epiphanies. An epiphany is not simply getting a new idea. We do that all the time. An epiphany is more powerful: You wake up to something; you never forget it, and it guides you for the rest of your life.

Realist vs idealist

I was 24 years old. I was at work at IIASA, standing by my IBM typesetter. I suddenly had a revelation: I can be either an idealist or a realist, but I can’t be both. It’s time to decide, and my decision will set my path for the future. Up until that moment I had been an idealist, and I defended idealism. I decided to become a realist. I changed in that moment.

Thinking for myself

I was in my late 20s. I was hiking. I crossed a farmer’s field and saw something incongruous in the field. I didn’t know why it would be there. I looked around. Was there someone I could ask? Was the farmer out there somewhere, within calling distance? Nope. As I stood there, it dawned on me that people aren’t going to come to me and drop answers into my lap. If I want answers, I’ll have to figure them out for myself. From that moment on, I started thinking for myself.

(I can’t remember what the incongruous thing was.)

Der Beitrag More reflections erschien zuerst auf spiritual-encounters.

It’s like the Scots say, “Ye’re a long time dead.”

I have some theories ….

My favourite theory is that we get to see everything — we can go back in time, stay in the present, or go forward. We can go to every place. Where were the streets that Mohammed used to walk down? We can go back there and see for ourselves. Where exactly was that bodhi tree that Buddha sat under? We can go there and see for ourselves. Where was Christ’s body interred when he was brought down from the Cross? At that rocky outcrop outside the city wall? Or in the Garden Tomb? Nothing easier than going back there and seeing for ourselves.

We can go back to every one of our past lifetimes and return to any age in that lifetime. We can be young again. Joan Grant made a reference to this. Others have spoken of this, too.

Do we meet higher entities? Our spirit guides? I’m sure we do.

Another favourite theory of mine is that we can enter into an animal’s body. I like to think this is optional.

And yet another theory is that we have a house, a dwelling, just as we have in the physical world. Our house becomes more beautiful with each passing lifetime. One day I was driving along, blank-minded as usual, when suddenly I “saw” a mansion, not of this world but of another world. (I’m not calling this a spiritual moment, although it might have been one.) This mansion was my house. If this is my house in the spirit world today, what kind of house did I have when I was a young soul? Probably a lean-to made of sticks.

It’s all theories, people.

Then at some point, we get prepared for our next physical incarnation. If we are to live with a spiritual blessing in our next life, I don’t know how or from whom we receive it.

I think we must be very sad to leave the spirit world, but we agree to do it because we know that our souls must progress, and we progress only here in the physical world. This has also been said elsewhere, by others.

I see a conflict in the issue of time. Time doesn’t exist in the spirit world. But at the right time we get reincarnated. How can there be a right time? Perhaps it all hangs on events: When certain events happen in the physical world, then we get reincarnated. So we don’t speak of right time; we speak of events happening.

Again, after we die …

It’s critical for us to go properly into the spirit world after we die. We shouldn’t stay overly long here, close to the physical world. If we stay overly long, we lose our human logic. We develop what I call dog logic. You know what I mean: Someone else lives in my house now?! But I’m still living there! Get out! But they don’t get out, and you defend your home against them like the family dog. You know the sign, “Beware of the dog”. We need a sign, “Beware of the former owner, who thinks he still lives here.”

Also, if we stay here, we delay our next incarnation. I think some people have been staying here for centuries. This is stagnation to a supreme degree.

Another thing is ego. If we choose to stay here, close to the physical plane, we will keep our ego. Not healthy, not the way it’s meant to be. But if we move properly into the spirit world, we give up our ego. That’s the way it’s meant to be.

Suicide?

A tragic mistake. We have to deal with tough situations, if not in this life, then in another. I’ll paraphrase Angie Fenimore: She committed (unsuccessful) suicide. She had a near-death experience. She found herself on a spiritual plane, darkness everywhere. There were other human souls there. They were walking around in circles, muttering to themselves. They didn’t seem to be aware of anyone else. No way out. When does it end? My own theory is they’re stuck there for the term of their natural life.

The victims of murder

When people get murdered and they know who murdered them, why can’t they communicate this to someone in the physical world? It’s very strange. I can only come up with this theory: The murder victim isn’t authorized to share this occult knowledge. In the spirit world, people aren’t authorized to share occult knowledge with people in the physical world. Otherwise, mediums could be employed to contact the victims and get all the information. All murders could be cleared up. But it doesn’t work like that, as we know.

You can’t go properly into the spirit world?

Why do some people stay here after they’ve died? I can think of several reasons:

• They don’t know they’ve died
• They know they’ve died, but they don’t know what to do about it
• They’re too frightened to go further, for fear of what might await them.

You can argue that these souls should be left alone. I argue that they shouldn’t be. They need help. Even if they’re happy to stay here, they shouldn’t be staying here — it’s in conflict with the purpose of the higher spirit world. So someone — probably a human soul who’s died themselves — might be tasked to go to these souls and to communicate with them, and to help them to leave properly. I’m not just thinking of “good” people who need help; even “bad” people need help — going back to my seven-year-old way of thinking.

A final thought: Some people who do visit, in spirit, their old haunts aren’t necessarily “stuck” here on a spiritual plane after death. These people are likely living a new physical life now, and when they’re asleep, they go back to the old place, to which they still feel some attachment ….

When does it all end?

At the end of our series of lifetimes as a human soul, we graduate. We become something higher, and we don’t come into the world in physical form anymore.

So what did Mary say to Bernadette?

The apparition of Mary told Bernadette something, a certain thing, and told her not to divulge it. I think I know what it was. Mary told Bernadette that her body would be incorrupt after death. How could it be incorrupt? Because Bernadette ate pieces of a green plant, at Mary’s instruction. The green plant passed through Bernadette’s digestive system. Those green pieces had been blessed by the higher spirit world.

And why should Bernadette not divulge this fact? So that people — morticians and church officials — wouldn’t be influenced by this and wouldn’t try to help matters along by embalming her. She does have a clear wax covering, so I believe, and she does have make-up on her face now, so I’ve read, because her skin was going dark — but these things are cosmetic and aren’t embalming.

What makes a saint?

I’ve heard you have to perform two miracles. Me, I have one simple requirement: You have to be incorrupt after death.

Sorry, people, but all those little finger bones in gold caskets in cathedrals — those weren’t saints — they’re not incorrupt. They were good people who did good things.

You’re incorrupt if everyone else in the cemetery is skeletonized but you’re still fully intact. As for me — I’m going to be reduced to a skeleton in three weeks, so don’t go down that road, people.

And what about the apostles? Well, Christ chose ordinary people, didn’t He? I don’t think He chose saints.

Later note: Since writing this I have remembered that I read in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles also performed miracles, very much in the same way Christ did. That is the criterion for being a saint, so people believe. Oh, all right then, they were all saints. Have it your way.

Hell fire

The apparition of Mary showed those three shepherd children a very graphic picture of hell: Human souls, like waifs, were being snagged on pitchforks and thrust down into the flames below. The souls would rise up on the hot air and get snagged again and thrust down again.

My theory says — if you end up in hell, it isn’t the higher spirit world, not divine love that sent you there. It isn’t God’s almighty sword of justice. No, you did it yourself.

So IF, after you die — so long as you have the courage to go fully into the spirit world and don’t hang around here — IF you get carted off by entities who have a lurking evil and unquestionable authority, don’t call it divine punishment. It was you who arranged it.

What happened to Hitler after he died?

The nuns, so I’ve been told, pray for the salvation of souls, but the nuns say there are some souls they can’t help. Those are too far gone, too far beyond the reach of prayer.

Where are those unreachable souls? Are they in hell?

When Hitler went fully into the spirit world, what kind of reception did he have? Did he get collected by those entities? A thousand years in hell fire will be required for him to bring the scales into balance, where the good stuff (or the sympathetic suffering, as I call it) becomes so weighty that it matches the bad stuff.

I say “a thousand years”, so I’m measuring time in the spirit world. But as we know, or we think we know, there is no passage of time in the spirit world. So it’s a measure of something else, then — the amount of sympathetic suffering.

This isn’t God’s punishment. Divine love isn’t punishing. By his own hand, Hitler delivered himself up.

But even Hitler won’t be in hell forever. At some point, he’ll be within reach of prayers again.

Afterword

You have to do terrible harm to end up in hell. Most human souls won’t ever go there. But for those who are there, I theorize that they don’t just suffer the pain of burning, they see every moment of the suffering they caused. I imagine they see it projected in front of their eyes. In the case of atrocities, the sheer volume of suffering is unimaginable.

Der Beitrag After we die erschien zuerst auf spiritual-encounters.

The key to good work?

Focus and an enquiring mind.

Another thing, young people: You’ve got to check your own work and correct your errors, before your work leaves you. Don’t assume you haven’t made any errors.

When replying to an email, re-read the incoming email before you hit the Send button.

Trying to solve a problem?

Try three times. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.” The third try is very important. You will almost always solve your problem on the third try.

Cold feet?

When you’ve taken on a new challenge, you can get cold feet. Solution: Warm up your feet mentally. In your mind, vigorously rub your feet, first one, then the other. Now they’re beautifully warm. Now you can go forward.

Lending money to a colleague?

Don’t lend it. Give it as a gift. Your colleague needs it more than you do. If you ask for it back, then later on … when you’re older and wiser … you’ll be sorry that you did that.

Don’t focus on yourself

Do you rub people up the wrong way, and you don’t know how you do it? I knew someone like that once. In his case, his mistake was to focus on himself. His focus was turned inward, his eyes cocked on himself. This quality made him unattractive to other people. Turn your focus outward.

The value of revising and reviewing

At school, revise, read things twice. Then you’ll retain them. But that means you have to do the school work twice. Is that even possible, timewise? No, so do it this way: Make a summary and review only the summary.

At work, review, review your work. You’ll improve it greatly and your understanding of it.

A piece of advice remembered from a Columbo episode: “Get as much education as you possibly can, and then when you finally do start working, do the best job that you can possibly do.”

Public speaking

The benefits of amateur dramatics (“amdram”):

I did an Acting for Beginners course in London. It was great fun, worth every penny of the million pounds it cost, and it gave me the ability to speak in public, at meetings, the ability to be myself — as a child can be, and we envy children for this.

If you can’t do an acting course, then do this: Get a few close colleagues together, stand in front of them and give them a talk. They have to interact with you as an audience. Do this a second time. Make it a little more formal the second time.

Do this and you’ll gain confidence. You’ll be able to make a presentation in a real meeting. It doesn’t just take away your nervousness at public speaking, it gives you a general confidence.

Der Beitrag Affairs of the workplace erschien zuerst auf spiritual-encounters.

The heart chemical

When you’re in love, you produce a specific chemical in the region of the heart. This, I have found, is always mutual — the other person who’s in love with you produces the same chemical. I don’t know if it’s an organic chemical in your physical heart, or if it’s a spiritual chemical in your spiritual heart. It’s probably both.

If you’re not aware of this chemical, then you’re simply not aware of it, but you’re still producing it.

When you love a person but are not in love with them, you don’t produce that chemical.

Handfasting instead of marriage?

Look at the confounding divorce rate. People get married before they know each other properly. But when you’re in love, you need to commit. Waiting is not an option. Well, instead of getting married, why not try handfasting? Handfasting is a commitment. You commit to each other, ideally in a ceremony in front of witnesses, and you stipulate a length of time. It’s the same as being engaged, only stronger. It’s marriage without involving the law. At the end of your stipulated length of time your handfasting is over, and your next step will become … clear.

Love at first sight

I had a colleague who thought this doesn’t happen. But it does happen. I had this experience. It was mutual. Years earlier, a man walked into the room. We were both smitten. But it was clear to me from that first moment that we had already met — it must have been on the astral plane. I couldn’t remember that astral meeting, and I suppose he couldn’t either. But we had met. We knew one another already. So this first meeting — in that room on the physical plane — wasn’t the first time we had met. “Love at first sight” isn’t the right phrase. “Love at second sight” would say it better.

Celibacy?

You’re a sexual being in this life, and you’re going to be a sexual being in your next life. So be careful about making this “no” decision. Anything normal and healthy that you renounce in this life (no matter how noble your reason) can create a delinquency for your next life.

In some confessions, priests can marry. Imams and rabbis can marry. They can lead normal lives.

Some people choose to become a member of an order. They’ve chosen a life of prayer, service and celibacy. There would be nothing wrong with that if they had only one life.

In the future, would it be feasible for a monk or a nun to live in cloisters for a specific length of time? Perhaps for five years? After that, they are encouraged, indeed expected to leave and to return to normal life. Would this be feasible?

Der Beitrag Affairs of the heart erschien zuerst auf spiritual-encounters.

You’re a human soul in a physical incarnation.

The meaning of life?

The meaning of life is to enable the soul to progress. We progress only here in the physical world, not in the spiritual world.

Rudolf Steiner says it better: “Once I came into this world … to acquire qualities unattainable in any other world. And I must remain bound to this world until I have developed within myself everything that can here be gained. I shall someday become a useful collaborator in another world only by acquiring all the requisite faculties in this physical world.” [Rudolf Steiner Archive (rsarchive.org)].

Everyone has delinquencies

I inherited this fault from my parents. They were like this. I can’t help it.

Well, maybe the way you are determined to which parents you were born. Work on your delinquencies in this lifetime, otherwise you might take them with you into your next lifetime.

Me, I worked on my maths delinquency in this lifetime. I’m never going to be a maths dummy again.

We PREVIEW our entire lives

When I came to Vienna to live, I could remember having seen this very event before I was born, while still in the spirit world. I figured that since I had seen this one event, I had seen every event. So I saw my entire life before I was born. Some years later I read exactly this in one of Rudolf Steiner’s texts. He says we preview our lives before we’re born.

Although we see everything, it doesn’t change our decisions. We still make our decisions, right or wrong, uninfluenced by the preview.

We REVIEW our entire lives

And similarly, when our lives are over and we’re back in the spirit world, we review everything, according to Steiner, and we see things more fully, for example, the full effect of our actions on other people. We get the full picture. If you made someone happy, you will feel their happiness as they felt it. If you made someone sad, you will feel their sadness as they felt it.

This next one is a terrible thought, isn’t it? — After they die, what happens to people who have done great harm? All the suffering they caused, to their victims and their victims’ families — every moment of this suffering they will experience themselves.

We too — when we were young souls we must have done terrible things, because what would have stopped us? Our conscience wouldn’t have stopped us — we hadn’t developed a conscience.

Angie Fenimore, who had a near-death experience, also spoke of viewing the disastrous effect that her failed suicide would have had on her son, had it been successful. [Beyond the Darkness, Bantam Press, 1995.]

You CAN take it with you

Every physical thing has a spiritual form. If you die clutching a briefcase full of dollar bills, you’ll still have the briefcase and the dollar bills in the spirit world. They just won’t be worth anything.

How do I know this? On those two occasions when I “took on” my spiritual body from two past lifetimes, I was aware of the clothes I was wearing. My spiritual body was wearing the same clothes that I had worn in those lifetimes. Since my physical clothes have a spiritual form, I figure that every physical thing has a spiritual form.

Predestined for a famous life?

You don’t get asked if you want to be famous. You get asked to do a job of work, and you say “Yes”. But then you have to accept the whole package. You can’t pick out the bits you like and leave the rest.

But why did you get asked and not your neighbour? Are you a better person than your neighbour? This brings me to one of my favourite theories, the divine lottery.

The divine lottery

A lot was cast. It was a divinely random act … the lot could have fallen on anyone. It fell on someone. Being divinely fair, of divinely equal chance, no-one can complain that their neighbour got the lot and they didn’t.

And when this lot falls on someone … they get asked if they agree to take on the task, or the destiny, and they say “yes”. The task, or the destiny, is not foisted on them. Rudolf Steiner said exactly this — that we get asked and are at liberty to say yes or no. We always say “yes”, but we know very well that we could say “no”. We get asked in the spirit world, not here in the physical world. When we commence our physical life, we don’t remember any of this. But we don’t change our mind or the path.

When was the lot cast? It might have been a hundred years ago, a thousand, five thousand — or it might have been when the solar system was a swirling cloud of gas and dust.

You might argue that people receive privileges because they’ve earned them in past lifetimes. I would argue the exact opposite: We can’t possibly earn the privileges bestowed on us, not in one lifetime, not in all our lifetimes.

I find a reference to my divine lottery in the New American Bible [Benziger, 1970]. It’s in a footnote to Luke 2/14 that says, “Those on whom His favor rests: [this is] an allusion to the mystery of divine election that bestows the gift of faith upon people of divine choice …”. This comes very close to my divine lottery, only I would avoid the word choice and use instead chance.

Matter and antimatter

“All matter turns into antimatter, and all antimatter turns into matter. In this way the universe, and all universes, recreate themselves in a never-ending cycle.” When I was a child, an adult told me this. I like the theory and can’t think of a better one. It answers every question.

Science and God

We have the physical world and the spiritual world, and perhaps many of those. There’s no conflict as far as I can see, but where is the person who can explain it? Where is that expert who can explain God’s position to us? Even to use the word “position” shows the limit of the human mind.

Der Beitrag The answers to everything erschien zuerst auf spiritual-encounters.