GENIUS IS EXPERIENCE.
SOME SEEM TO THINK THAT IT IS A GIFT OR TALENT,
BUT IT IS THE FRUIT OF LONG EXPERIENCE IN MANY LIVES.
SOME ARE OLDER SOULS THAN OTHERS, AND SO THEY KNOW MORE.
Henry Ford, Sr.
(as quoted in the San Francisco Examiner, August 26, 1928)
Reincarnation, a philosophy I’d found easy to accept as possible, became far more understandable once I embarked upon a serious study of the subject.
It was as if I had been viewing many things through translucent water when the water suddenly became crystal clear.
The quote from Henry Ford Sr. that opens this chapter was taken from Reincarnation, an East-West Anthology, compiled and edited by Joseph Head and S. L. Cranston. The book came as a gift from Gundella, my cherished friend, who wrote on an opening blank page:
"To Gloria, who is my very dear friend in this life and whom I hope to know in many more."
References to reincarnation go back all the way through recorded history. Perhaps not the word, itself, which is relatively new in the historical sense. But the theory was with us, and was once referred to as the "pre-existence of souls", or "metempsychosis".
The key to the mysteries of life, within the philosophy of reincarnation, can be found in the word, Karma.
Karma is the law of cause and effect. Karma is the "as ye sow, so shall ye reap". It is the boomerang that comes back to us, if not in this life, then surely in the next.
It is Karma that puts both heaven and hell right here with us — now. We weave in and out of joy and sorrow throughout our lives, reaping the benefits of our kindness and decency — and paying for our sins — from our past lives as well as our present ones.
In this sense there surely is a heaven and a hell, but we experience both now, during our present lives.
The person who, in this life, has a brilliant mind but uses it to denigrate, rule, or subjugate those who are less intelligent, beware. In your next life you may be born a dullard and suffer the discrimination of others.
The person who, in this life, causes the crippling of another, either in body or mind, should beware. In your next life you may be born with a twisted body or mind.
All those who cause physical, mental, or emotional pain in their fellow human beings should beware.
No one truly "gets away with murder."
All those who, in this life, constantly strive to be of benefit to others and who perhaps in fleeting moments of uncertainty might be overcome with the thought that others are taking advantage of their kindness, unselfishness, concern, sacrifices and care — be patient.
There are no perfect people in this world. I doubt if there are many people who are totally content with their present lives, either.
It isn’t possible for a soul to achieve perfection or to learn all necessary lessons in the brief span of one lifetime.
We must come back, time and time again, and confront our destructive Karma. By these confrontations we are given the opportunity to advance. Our reactions to and means of dealing with the trials of life are important, for these, and these alone determine the extent of our learning and advancement.
Between lives our souls have the ability to look back on the former lives we have lived and evaluate the lessons learned, as well as those not yet accomplished.
We can, between lives, perceive these things and know what must be encountered in order to balance our Karma and ultimately advance to perfection.
We all asked for the lives we are living now.
We chose our present lives for the predestined circumstances they contain.
This is a case of predestination coupled with freewill.
Whenever we come face to face with a problem, tragedy, or any other type of hurdle or complication in our lives, it was destined to happen.
The way in which we use our freewill to cope with and overcome problems is important. If the challenge isn’t met and handled correctly, it will confront us again — perhaps in our next life.
Those who commit suicide to escape what they feel are problems impossible to solve, aren’t gaining a thing,
When the soul reincarnates (always into human form, coming back as another, "lower" animal is called transmigration) into the chosen life all memory of past lives recede into the collective unconscious. All knowledge of the predestined events of this life is stored in the subconscious.
There are a few exceptions.
There are people who feel an overwhelming conviction that they have lived in another place and time. These are the people who feel an inexplicable affinity for a part of the world they may have never visited.
There came a time when the Detroit Free Press sent a reporter and photographer to my home, after Gundella told that publication about my experiments with plants.
Since I had, by that time, made up my mind that most people surely considered me, to put it mildly, odd. I was a bit nervous.
I had no cause to be, however. The reporter and especially the photographer (one who had won many honors) seemed not to be at all critical of my strange conversations.
It was at the conclusion of the interview and picture session that the photographer told me of a time when he went to Germany.
"I had never been there before in my life," he said. "Yet, when we came to this one town, I was certain I had been there. There was one point where, driving in this small village, I was able to describe to my friend exactly what was around the next corner. And I was right!"
I was left with the thought that, just maybe, there are those who have had experiences similar to my own, but who are just as reticent as I to relate them to others for fear they will be considered odd.
There are also those people who have a talent not shared by any other member of their family — a talent that may show itself in the very early years of this life.
These exceptional people are experiencing, or drawing from, far-life memories. This appears to me a plausible explanation for the child prodigies, seemingly born with extraordinary gifts and capabilities.
There are many documented cases of severely retarded people who have a spark of true genius.
These are physically as well as mentally handicapped people who are capable of amazing talents in music, art, and calendar calculations, et al.
Psychiatry labels those who posses this phenomena as "idiot savants", or born with amentia:
("Amentia is often characterized by an irregular as well as a defective mental development — so marked as to result in special aptitudes which are quite phenomenal, not merely in comparison with aments, but often with the acquirements of ordinary persons — ".) From, A TEXTBOOK OF MENTAL
DEFICIENCY
This may very well be so, but shouldn’t we also consider the possibility of far-life memories that have been retained despite debilitating handicaps?
We do live many lives. We must in order to attain a state of perfection. Once this is achieved it is no longer necessary for the soul to reincarnate.
I call your attention to:
Revelations 3:12 — "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out — "
Jeremiah, 1:5 — "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
King Herrod had already beheaded John the Baptist when this passage appears in St. Matthew, 16:13-14:
"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Phillippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?
"And they said, Some say that thou are John the Baptist; some Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets."
How could the disciples even consider the possibility that Jesus could be John the Baptist unless reincarnation was also considered?
St. John: 1-2:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"
What caused the disciples to ask the question? — Unless they believed the man had lived a previous life. Otherwise, if they thought it possible that the man had been born blind because he had sinned — when would he have had the opportunity?
In the Old Testament Moses addresses the Lord concerning the death of human beings:
Psalms 80: 3-4:
"Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."
In Haidism and Karaism, the following quotation comes from The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, under the heading of "Souls, Transmigration of (gilgul hanefesh)"
"The sin of Adam brought higher and lower souls into confusion; as a result, every soul has to pass through a series of reincarnations — The soul itself has no sex, which is determined by the body and may vary from incarnation to incarnation."
From others famous in our secular world:
Rudyard Kipling. "They will come back, come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls. He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls?"
Voltaire. "The doctrine of metempsychosis is, above all, neither absurd nor useless. It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection."
Do you recall the song, "We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when?"
