Our souls cannot possibly learn all they need to learn in a single lifetime. We continue to wear and discard bodies for as long as it takes to ultimately perfect the soul. Our souls migrate in a spiral path through life after life; learning, growing, and seeking their own state of union with Divine. Becoming aware of our progress through the wheel of lifetimes assists us in fulfilling the goals that we set for ourselves. Examining our lives in this context can help us answer the ultimate human question: Why am I here?
I have always been aware of the fact that I had lived former lives. I had my first spontaneous past life recall experience when I was only three years old. It was an extremely vivid and dramatic event, and I experienced it as though I was reliving it. I deeply and instinctively knew that what I had experienced was a genuine memory of a different life, when I wore a different body. As a three year old, it never even occurred to me to think it was a dream.
This first experience established my unwavering belief in the reality of the soul’s survival after the physical death of the body. Different concepts of the Afterlife introduced to me later took no hold on my beliefs. A soul spending eternity in heaven or hell struck me as nonsense and an absurd waste of time. The soul yearns to grow, to deepen, to expand, to experience. This spiritual yearning stretches beyond a single lifetime. This yearning of the soul is the flow that sweeps us through the lifetimes.
Many people spend a lot of time, money, and effort in recovering memories of who they used to be. But are possessing memories of past lives significant? Now, more than thirty years later, I have two distinct memories of two different lifetimes, although I know I’ve probably had plenty others. Neither memory is terribly significant. It’s merely a snippet of a life I used to live. The value of these memories lies in the fact that they confirm my belief in reincarnation, and strengthen my commitment to my spiritual progress. Otherwise, I feel that these memories are mostly irrelevant, since they don’t directly affect my current life in any way. I get very suspicious of tarot readings and psychics who claim to be able to tell you who and/or what you were in a former life. Even a reliable psychic will be only partially accurate on current lifetime memories, and that’s when you have your own current memories to confirm, refute, and help the psychic. But our former lifetime memories are far more deeply shrouded. At best, a psychic only has his/her own refined intuitive hunches about who or what you might have experienced in former lives. At worst, the reader will tell you what you want to hear. (This is especially true when doing a tarot reading for yourself. The opportunities for self-deception are endless!) When you rely on sources outside yourself for past life memories, you wind up with far too many former kings, and not enough former peasants.
Why don’t we remember our past lives? We are born without specific memories of our past lives for a reason, even if I don’t know what that reason might be. Perhaps our new central nervous systems couldn’t handle the overload of so many sophisticated memories at birth. Perhaps we are supposed to enter the game with a “clean slate”, unbiased toward or away from any specific lessons. I don’t think it’s important for me to nail the reason down. It’s sufficient to me that we are generally born without such memories.
I don’t devote a lot of time trying to recapture memories of past lives. They will come when you need them, or not at all. A lifetime spent in meditation might yield some clues, but even then, there won’t be full recall. Sometimes, under extraordinary circumstances, one might recover a fragment of a memory of a past life. That fragment, when studied, generally has some bearing on what is happening in the current life, and has come for a reason. I think past life recall is on a “need-to-know” basis. We might recall something, but only if it aids us in the spiral journey of the soul.
After the body fails, the spirit is cut free from the physical plane. The stories of what happens immediately after death seem consistent. I have no reason to doubt all the people who have had a “Near Death Experience”. These people frequently describe a white light, a tunnel, and former relatives or spiritual masters to greet you. That appears pretty universal, and the experience crosses all religious groups. For those who have entered the Light, and returned to tell about it, the experience they describe is remarkably consistent. Most people describe a plane of almost indescribable beauty, peace, and comfort.
I call this place “The Summerlands”. It’s a beautiful way to describe a spiritual plane that can’t be completely described in a physical way. The Summerlands are often envisioned to be a place of beautiful gardens, soft sounds, and soul-nourishing tranquility. It’s a place where the Spirit pauses to reflect on its progress toward perfection, and renews itself at the Source of all Life. This is our natural home, where our spirits are wholly aware and complete.
After death, the soul needs to evaluate the lifetime just lived, and figure out what it needs to continue to grow. Time is an irrelevant concept in the “spirit plane”, therefore this evaluation process can take a nanosecond or a millennium. After entering the Summerlands, the spirit may decide to remain without a physical body for awhile, if there are things to be learned and accomplished without one. This explains “spirit guides” and “Guardian Angels” and other helpful, companion spirit beings. Sometimes a spirit can get confused and “lost” when it leaves the body, and become trapped between the world of form and the world of spirit. This explains many hauntings. These spirits might appreciate assistance in their journey to the Summerlands, so that they can process their previous life and move on.
After death, people can create their own heaven and hell. Some people who have returned from near death experiences have reported the typical “hell” scenario. Not surprisingly, these are people who were raised to believe in the heaven/hell system of the afterlife, whether or not they currently profess to be members of that religion. I think it’s likely that the Spirit creates an image of the spirit plane according to what the recently deceased expects. We lure ourselves down the tunnel by projecting an image of what we expect to see there. In other words, if you fully expect to go to heaven, you’re likely to see feathered wings and harps upon death. If you believe that you are sinful and will burn in hell, you’ll probably feel a bit scorched before your spirit remembers that it doesn’t have a body anymore.
By then, the journey is complete, and the soul is once again in a state of complete awareness of its larger self, and its ultimate purpose. Physical concerns are cast off with the physical body, including most emotions, which are mostly biochemical responses anyway. The emotion of Love remains. Love transcends the physical, for it is the very essence of the Spirit. In the Summerland, the Spirit becomes the embodiment of love, its own true divine nature. And from that source of deep bliss, a yearning begins. The yearning to expand and deepen this awareness and connection with Divine love. The yearning to experience and grow.
The spiral turns on, and the spirit chooses a new lifetime. We choose the circumstances needed for growth. We give ourselves weaknesses that we should grow from and strengths to help us progress. We choose our beginnings, knowing that we will forget our goals for growth. Once born, our amnesia may lead us to make choices that are not in alignment with our higher purpose. We then spend the rest of our lives trying to discover what our original goal was.
Why am I here? What am I supposed to learn? You still know the answer to these questions, deep inside you. Your very essence resonates with this sense of purpose. Listen within. Have the choices you have made in your life brought you a sense of contentment and satisfaction, or do you feel empty and unfulfilled? Your spirit knows what it is looking for. Seek the experiences that carry the inner sense of “rightness”. This aligns your actions with the purpose of the soul, and brings the bliss of the Summerlands back to your Spirit.
Enjoy the journey.
~Flame RavenHawk
September 7, 2002