There are three articles below:
One is called, “Does a Course in Miracles Have a legitimate Source?
Another is called “Why We Go Through a Creative Process”
Another is called “Why We Incarnate in this World.”
Does A Course in Miracles Have a legitimate Source?
By Albert A. Haust III
I figure that most of the people who are into A Course in Miracles (ACIM/ the Course) believe that it has a benevolent source, because otherwise they wouldn’t choose to follow it. When I was into the course I didn’t know if it had a benevolent source, but pretty much gave it the benefit of the doubt, so I could see if I could gain some beneficial spiritual knowledge from it. It would’ve been wise for me to read it with close discernment, but the problem is that the course is quite long, I was anxious to read a lot of it quickly, so I didn’t take the time to thoroughly consider the accuracy and merit of what the course says.
At the time I was in conscious contact with my spirit guidance. When I read the Course and at other times, they would provide me with hints about what the Course is really about. They would send me messages such as take my time as I read it so I could thoroughly consider what it says. Rather than head my guidance’s hints I continued to plow my way through the Course. Eventually I found that it seemed to have a brainwashing effect on me. There were occasions when instead of having my own thoughts of what it is so, I would instead refer to what ACIM states. I reminded myself of a person who quotes the Bible.
So I decided to determine if I was allowing myself to be misled by ACIM. On a number of occasions I meditated and prayed and asked if ACIM comes from Christ. On each occasion in some symbolic way, I would receive the answer, “No.” For example, on one occasion I asked if it comes from Christ, and I suddenly found myself standing in front of a narrow closet (non-physically as I meditated). I saw three books on a shelf. One was the Bible, one was the Koran, and one was a book I couldn’t identify. This book floated from its space on the shelf, and rotated so I could see the name on the cover which read, “A COURSE IN MIRACLES.” Four pages came out of the book. Each page had numerous hand written notes that were written with red ink. Numerous words were crossed out, and numerous corrections were written. I intuited that this means that the Course has a lot of errors.
One night I had a dream, and I was at the Satsang hall of guru I used to see in the 1980s. I eventually found that this guru wasn’t the wise master he claimed to be, and his organization was a cult. I stood at the bottom of the stairwell that led into the above Satsang hall, and a man shook me vigorously and asked, “why did you do it, why did you do it, why did you allow yourself to become brainwashed again?” I could tell that he was referring to the impact ACIM had on me. I have analyzed thousands of my dreams, and it has become clear to me that this is one of the ways in which I receive messages from spirit beings that have my best interests in mind. Many people have found that the same is true with their dreams.
I know of other people who have been alerted by their spirit guidance that ACIM is misleading. I am not able to say that there haven’t been occasions when people were advised by a spirit being that they should read ACIM. If this is so, then why is it that some people are warned that the course is misleading, while other people have received a message to read it? I have received many messages from spirits, and I have found that there are both friendly and unfriendly spirits. When you receive a message, it is a mistake to assume that it came from a friendly spirit that has good intentions. It is also possible that a Spirit has good intentions, but is confused about the matter of which it communicates. Did Helen Schucman receive words from a trustworthy spirit? There is also the matter of what role did William Thetford, a CIA mind control specialist play, when he worked with Helen to get the course dictated. Rather than address this issue here, I will first explain why I believe the Course is misleading. If we take the time to thoroughly consider what the Course says, we will be in a better position to determine if its origin is trustworthy.
The Course claims that God created us, and we are referred to as “Sons” or “Sonship.” The Course claims that God created us so we are perfect with no lack. It also claims that we went about creating the universe we find ourselves in, because we believed that some lack or emptiness existed within us. I suppose I could choose to ignore this inconsistency and sweep it under the carpet so I could believe that the Course is valid, but I don’t want to be dishonest with myself in such a way. It is quite clear to me that it doesn’t make sense for the Course to claim that God created us so we would have no lack, but somehow we still chose to engage in the supposed error of creating the universe, because we felt a lack or emptiness existed within us.
Going by what I and other people have figured out, the first being to exist—God, Brahman, Source, the Absolute, the Creator, whatever term you prefer, didn’t know everything automatically right from the start. Some people might feel at odds with what I just said. Perhaps because they were brought up in a Christian household that believed it is irreverent to consider the possibility that our almighty God didn’t know everything right from the start. Perhaps out of love, we should give God a break, and not expect that he knew everything automatically. How would this be possible? And what about God’s freedom? Should he of not had the freedom to figure things out for himself rather than exist with already existent programming that came from who knows where?
Regarding what he figured out, initially he existed in a basic way with the awareness, mind and creative aspects of being. He used these aspects to figure out what his existence is about, and what is possible. At some point he realized that he was all by his lonesome, and he used the creative and mind aspects of his being to create all of us within the vastness of his being. He did so in a manner that enables each of us to have our own thought/will center.
I suppose God could’ve created us so we had his knowledge and perfection right from the start, but that would’ve precluded us from having freewill. I suppose that when he got around to creating us, he had enough love, wisdom and sense of fair play, to realize that it was essential that we be created in a way that allowed us to have some degree of freewill. It is up to each of us to find out in our own numerous ways what the most beautiful, wonderful and fulfilling way of existence requires, so our eternal existence will be a joyful and harmonious affair, rather than a reality that one wants to escape.
As we learn and evolve, everything we experience, both pleasant and not pleasant, comes from our own beingness. If we truly want to become wise, know what is possible, become masters of ourselves, we need to explore the possibilities.
Consider unconditional love. How could we fully understand what unconditional love is all about, if we didn’t also understand what conditional love is about? When we incarnate in a place such as this World, enough contrast exists so we can see how unconditional love compares to conditional love. The wisdom we gain can then inspire us to choose to live according to unconditional love, and we exist accordingly. Such love has to be chosen, because love and freewill go together. Unconditional love/ divine love, is too wondrous and holy to be an attribute that is forced upon a being.
The above way of thinking applies to other positive attributes such as humility (as opposed to arrogance), respect for others, honesty and gratitude. These are beautiful and meaningful attributes we can live according to, once we use our freewill to choose them.
Despite how bad things can seem in this World at times, and despite how ACIM claims that this World is nothing but a meaningless monstrosity that ego created, this World serves the purpose of being a very effective place for our Souls to learn and grow. It is important to remember that our World doesn’t represent the entirety of what the universe includes. If you consider what people such as Christian Sundberg and Robert Monroe (his book Far Journeys) have found—”if you see an Earth School graduate, you would want to become one.” What they found matches what I have been told with various spirit messages.
ACIM claims freedom from this World is obtained by seeing that it is nothing but an illusion, something that never actually existed, because only what God creates is real. If this World is nothing but an illusion, then this means that our body-based identities are an illusion—non-existent. How can something that is just an illusion, non-existent, negate anything at all, much less end its own existence? Say a man is walking down a path and he mistakes a rope for a snake. Can this illusion become non-existent by the snake thinking its way out of existence? Of course not, not even if it completed a 365-day affirmation course where it asserts its non-existence, because if it doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t exist to do anything at all.
What the Source of ACIM doesn’t “seem” to understand is that illusion doesn’t exist in the way it contends. The idea that something is either real or just an illusion, is a human concept that is based on the concept that we live in a material universe. According to this way of thinking that which is real, material, actually exists, while anything that is imagined (perhaps through a hallucination) is just an illusion. The fact of the matter is that the universe isn’t material. First consciousness, the awareness aspect of being exists, and it uses its mind aspect of being to create what it experiences. What a being creates might not last for all of eternity, but it does in fact exist while it is created. If it did not actually exist for some period of time, it could not be experienced.
We experience the World we experience, because the mind and creative aspects of being created it. The knowledge, wisdom, abilities and positive attributes we obtain and develop as we experience a realm such as this World stay with us for all of eternity, if we choose to retain them. ACIM claims that no learning whatsoever takes place when we experience a realm such as this World. Being here serves no purpose. It claims that we come from God’s perfection, yet we were so dumb that many of us decided to take part in an experience that in the end serves no purpose whatsoever. Does this claim make sense? How could a perfect God create imperfect beings?
ACIM claims that we created this World as an attack on God, in order to hide from our guilt. Why would perfect beings feel guilty? This question can’t be answered in a reasonable way, so I will instead say something else. God isn’t a ruthless dictator who becomes unaware of our existence, simply because we are curious of what our mind and creative aspects of being are capable of. Curiosity, the desire to learn and grow, is not a bad thing.
ACIM claims that God is not even aware of this World, yet he sent the holy spirit to help us. Why would he send the holy spirit to help us, if he isn’t even aware of this World?
If a person programs his mind according to what the Course says too much, he (or she) might create a psychological barrier that makes it difficult for him to perceive that God is very present in this World. Everything that exists, exists within God’s being. This being the case, how could there be a location where God’s being isn’t present.
ACIM takes an all or nothing approach to what it refers to as the atonement. Either you bring the illusion of this World to an end completely, or you don’t become aware of God’s presence. Going by what I and many other people have found, spiritual growth can take place in increments, and the more such growth takes place, the more one becomes aware of God’s presence.
Some people feel attracted to an all or nothing approach, because such an approach makes it seem as if they don’t have to put in the effort to deal with the thought patterns that interfere with their ability to become more conscious of their spirit essence and God’s presence. In the case of ACIM, they instead program their minds with a bunch of affirmations that don’t represent the manner in which reality exists.
It could be that some Souls, for a while, want to place a barrier between God’s presence and their sense of being separate from God. I am not certain about this—in the interest of free will, God has set things up so we don’t have to choose to become aware of his presence. When we get close to overcoming this barrier, when we are on the fence of deciding one way or the other, we might seek a way to place one final barrier that prevents us from becoming aware of God’s presence. We select a course of instruction that makes it seem as if God isn’t present while we are here in this World.
The free will/barrier thing I speak of doesn’t exist because it isn’t preferable for us to become conscious of the fact that we aren’t separate from God. Not at all. In fact, it is quite wonderful to become conscious of our divine origin and God’s presence. The barrier exists so we have the opportunity to develop ourselves in a way that includes freedom—the only way in which positive attributes such as unconditional love, respect for others, humility and honesty could be selected and developed.
When a Soul incarnates into a body, it might become attached to things such as its body-based identity, self-image, role in life, interests and the sense of being separate from others. A person might become uncomfortable with the fact that there are beings such as God who are completely aware of the details of our life—true privacy does not exist.
I would have used the term “ego” in the above paragraph, but this is a confusing term to use. It means different things to different people. To some people it means “sense of self.” To some people it means the self-centered part of a person. To some people it means the personality we develop when we incarnate in this World. To some people it means some combination of the above possibilities. According to ACIM, ego is an evil and insane entity. The Course speaks of ego in a way that is overly negative and inaccurate.
There is nothing wrong with having a sense-of-self. If each of us didn’t exist in a unique way, it wouldn’t be possible for us to share love with each other. We are one and many at the same time. Neither the concept that there is one Self all by its lonesome, nor the concept that there are many beings that are completely separate from each other is true. As I stated earlier, God used his mind and creative aspect of being in a way that caused many thought/will centers to exist within his being.
There is nothing wrong with having self-concern. If we can have concern for others, then certainly it is okay to have concern for ourselves. It would be quite problematic if we were indifferent and didn’t have concern for ourselves and others, because we wouldn’t do what we need to do in order to make certain that our eternal existence is as loving, harmonious, fulfilling and wonderful as possible.
When it comes to ego in a self-centered sense, as we learn to use our free will in a wise and loving way, we go through some growing pains. We experience some personality aspects that aren’t preferable. In a big picture sense this is okay, because our learning experiences help us discover which ways of existence are preferable.
If a person takes the approach ACIM suggests, one might end up creating an aspect of mind that resembles the ego-concepts ACIM shares. On the internet I have read posts where people spoke of ego in the way ACIM speaks of ego. They have detailed explanations of what ego is supposedly about. I don’t get the sense that such descriptions helped them.
Long time Course teacher Hugh Prather notes that Course students often become, “far more separate and egocentric”, with many ultimately, “[losing] the ability to carry on a simple conversation”. He admits that he and his wife Gayle, “had ended up less flexible, less forgiving, and less generous than we were when we first started our path!”
The Course speaks of forgiveness. It claims that forgiveness is obtained by seeing that any wrong doing that occurs is an illusion, and therefore there is nothing to forgive. True forgiveness cannot take place in such a way. Rather, one plays a game of denial. Say a person is raised by his parents to be a racist, and he acts accordingly. As an adult this person does an injustice to a person he discriminates against. The person who experienced an injustice, rather than pretend that nothing took place, comes to an understanding as to why the person who mistreated him became a racist. Eventually the person who became racist changes his ways and asks the mistreated person for forgiveness. Because the mistreated person understands why the person who mistreated him became the way he was, and now sees that this person is truly sorry, true forgiveness can take place.
In the above situation more than a mere illusion takes place. The person who became racist learns to overcome the challenges of being raised by parents who are racist. As a Soul, this improves his ability to discriminate between that which is false and bad, and that which is true and good. His Soul becomes wiser. The person who was mistreated learns to have empathy for a person who was misled by racist parents, and to forgive a Soul that went astray for a while. The mistreated person’s Soul develops attributes that are truly worthwhile and beautiful. Because God didn’t download a freewill preventing program into the mistreated person when his Soul was created, he had the option of learning about goodness in his own way. As I said earlier in other ways, goodness, in whatever way it manifests, can become a part of who we are, only if we choose it.
In the 1980s I was into guru-based nondual teachings. The main guru I saw (and some other gurus I knew about) claimed that you don’t need to be concerned about the problems that exist within this World, because this World is nothing but an illusion that doesn’t exist. As far as I could tell, this caused some group members to become indifferent to the suffering that takes place in this World, and they didn’t take the time to do things such as vote.
ACIM can also lead to indifference. This is one of the ways the Course tries to influence people. Consider Lesson 14. It tells the people who read it to repeat the words, “God did not create that war, and so it is not real. God did not create that airplane crash, and so it is not real. God did not create that disaster [specify], and so it is not real.”
Even if as ACIM erroneously claims God didn’t create this World, this doesn’t mean that people who experience difficulties don’t suffer. The last time I checked, just an instant ago, despite the fact that many people have read ACIM, the World I find myself in still exists. This being the case, I figure there are people within it who still suffer. One would think that if ACIM was a legitimate course of instruction, at least one of its readers would have carried out the supposed miracle of seeing this World out of existence, but that hasn’t happened at all.
Earlier I spoke of indifferent people not voting. I won’t speak of this subject from the perspective that there is no one who is worth voting for, because this isn’t the reason members of the Group I spoke of didn’t vote. Rather, because they believed that the World is nothing but an illusion, they concluded that they didn’t need to concern themselves about activities such as voting. They believed that only an ignorant person who believes the World is real, would bother with voting. (They did believe it was real enough to do outreach for their guru so he could supposedly with his grace enlighten them.)
In the below article Matthew Remski wrote that he found that some ACIM students became indifferent to an extent where they didn’t consider it necessary to vote.
Why A Course in Miracles Is Not Good For You, or Those You Love | by Matthew Remski | Medium
If a person wants to grow spiritually, he needs to make certain that he doesn’t program himself so he loses the ability to have empathy for others. I don’t mean to say that this World is what existence is all about. It is a place our Souls visit for a while as they learn and evolve. I believe that from a big picture perspective, everything works out wonderfully in the end and there is a reason we go through the challenges we go through. However, it is important to not count our chickens before they hatch. Wherever we are at, that is what we need to take care of now.
Earlier I stated that I would say some more about Helen Schucman (e.g.; what Father Benedict Groeschel experienced with her at the end of her life), but I decided it would be best to just go with what I wrote above. I hope you find what I said helpful.
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Why We Go Through a Creative Process
By Albert A. Haust III
Copyright © 2012
To begin, not all nondualists interpret nondual teachings the same way. This being the case, what I say below doesn’t apply to everybody’s interpretation. It applies to the interpretation that contends that there is no positive purpose for incarnating into this World and doing so was a mistake that needs to be negated.
I agree that it isn’t our goal to keep incarnating into bodies such as human bodies for all of eternity. However, I don’t agree with the premise that we are involved with nothing more than a big mistake. Initially there was just pure being that was simply aware (for the most part I’ll refer to this being as “Source Being”). Source Being was in this state not because it wasn’t capable of anything else, but because it hadn’t gotten around to making use of its capabilities beyond being aware. Fortunately, somehow, Source Being had the ability to use its beingness to create things it could be aware of. This is truly miraculous!
Source Being also had the ability to remember and learn from its experience. Therefore, Source Being was able to learn as it made use of the part of its being that made it possible for it to create something it could be aware of. Or in other words, Source Being combined its ability to create with its ability to learn. The more Source Being learned the more it was able to use its creative ability in ways that seemed worthwhile. Source Being was able to determine what is worthwhile by noticing that some modes of creation led to results that felt positive, while other modes led to results that felt negative. Source Being noticed that positive results are significantly more preferable than negative results.
At some point Source Being decided to make it so other self-conscious beings exist. Source Being used its own being to do so. Source Being did so partly because it became aware of the possibility that it would be preferable to have at least one other being to share its existence with. This awareness was partly based on the understanding that the love it discovered and created while experimenting with its creative aspect of being could be manifested to its full glory only if there were as least two self-conscious beings that could share this love.
After determining that creating many beings was a significantly better idea than creating just one being, Source Being decided that these beings should have some autonomy, otherwise they would be just mindless slaves. Therefore, rather than downloading each of the beings it created with a program that wouldn’t allow them to be free thinking beings that could determine their own fate, it chose the most wise and loving way possible and allowed them to determine their own fate. Each of us was created with basic attributes so we would have a starting point.
Depending upon the perspective from which you consider the matter, this choice didn’t lead to, at least ways not immediately, perfect results. Oh, the travails we all go through in order to find our way to perfection. Not only do we hurt ourselves, we also hurt other souls that are partaking in the very extensive learning process we go through. But what other choice is there? If free will is going to be an option, then room has to be allowed for growing pains to take place.
Fortunately, our ability to discern what does and what doesn’t feel good makes it so we eventually seek a way of being that is truly preferable. Even faulty approaches that seem preferable while we are engaged with them eventually lose their appeal—and then we move onto something that feels better.
Such a way of seeking can even be found on a short-term basis. For example, we might spend the night watching TV while thinking that we are feeling quite fine, and then after we stop doing so we’ll notice that we don’t feel as good as we thought. We’ll notice that we want something much deeper, very peaceful, and in line with our spirit selves. A non-spiritually minded person might seek such fulfillment by going to sleep. A spiritually minded person might meditate.
Related to the above are occasions when we have insomnia and can’t fall asleep no matter how hard we try. When this is the case, nothing seems as desirable as falling asleep, even when favorite pastimes such as watching TV, listening to music or reading are considered. We just want deep peace. People who meditate might also find divine love—a wonderful feeling that goes quite well with deep peace.
Because Source Being allowed us to find our way to fulfillment in our own way rather than downloading us with all of the information right from the start, we are able to develop in unique ways. This enables us to develop unique identities. Because we have such uniqueness, we are more than a faceless and unrecognizable presence of consciousness when we share love and oneness with each other.
When we share love we don’t do so on a mindless basis. We aren’t slaves to a cosmic love potion that doesn’t give a damn about free will. Rather, we share love after we have made the conscious decision to be a person (Soul) who lives according to love because he has found that love is the most preferable way to exist. This applies to each of love’s wondrous attributes.
For example, compassion. How wonderful it is that we are able to evolve to the point where we truly care for each other. One of the main reasons this World has so many problems is because people don’t know how to truly care for each other. Once a person knows the value of caring for others there is no way he “wouldn’t” choose such an approach on a regular basis (I say “regular basis” rather than “always” because people in this World don’t tend to be perfect). Being able to care in such a way is partly a matter of understanding how precious others are and how important it is for them to be happy. It is also a matter of understanding that nothing soothes the heart as much as being a person (Soul) who is able to care for others. If a greedy and selfish man could become aware of this fact to a sufficient extent, there is no way he would stick with his self-centered ways.
Living in a place such as this World allows us to learn about the value of compassion because there are many instances when compassion is required. I don’t believe we can be a fully developed being if we haven’t learned about an attribute as amazing and important as compassion.
The ability to appreciate is another ability we get to learn about while incarnated in a place such as this World. In order to completely share love with each other we have to completely appreciate each other. This requires us to open our hearts to love. The willingness to do so is partly based on the understanding of how highly preferable it is to be able to appreciate others. It is a give and receive affair. The more we open ourselves to such love, the more we understand its value, and the more we have the tendency to do so. It isn’t a matter of mindlessly being controlled by the magic of love. This is an ability that each soul develops in its own way. It’s an ability that is so meaningful, beautiful and useful that the beings who have such an ability are much more than meaningless illusions. When considering this factor it is important to not forget that the ability to learn in such a way comes from no other place than Source Being. What else is there? Nonduality is dualistic if it contends that there is something other than Source Being.
The ability to appreciate is able to fully manifest when we allow ourselves to live according to unconditional love. If we insist on being selective about who we love and reserve our supposed right to be judgmental, it will be hard to live according to unconditional love. I don’t mean that we have to be indifferent when people do things such as harm others. However, we don’t have to be judgmental in order to have discernment. We can have compassion for the person who is harmed, and the person who hasn’t learned about love sufficiently enough to realize that the only way he’ll find true fulfillment and be free from his inner turmoil is by opening himself to the necessary ingredient of treating others in a loving way.
Life in this World provides us with opportunities to learn about the value of unconditional love. The knowledge comes after we see how things work out when love is made conditional rather than unconditional. An ugly example of conditional love is when a person decides who he will love according to a person’s race. A less severe but still non-preferable example is when a man will love another person only if that other person acts in a manner that benefits the man personally. The more a person allows his love to be unconditional, the better he will feel inwardly. This factor along with the factor of wanting to love others for their own sake will inspire a person to live according to unconditional love as much as possible. People do so to varying extents because their Souls have gained sufficient wisdom to varying degrees.
Humility is another attribute we get to learn about while incarnated in places such as this World. In order to fully understand what humility is about, we also need to understand about arrogance. This is so because being humble isn’t an automatic ability that happens without the assistance of wisdom. Humility manifests when we understand that self-serving importance (arrogance) doesn’t lead to a truth-based sense of self-worth. Rather, true self-worth is increasingly obtained the more we live according to qualities that benefit not only ourselves, but also others.
Because it was essential for us to be provided with free will right from the start even though we initially lacked the wisdom to always use it in a way that considers the welfare of others, the creative process of the Oneness we are all a part of had no choice but to manifest in a way where some of us end up manifesting in a positive way while some of us do so in a negative way. Therefore, if we are humble about it, we’ll understand that it isn’t correct to have judgment towards those who are currently manifesting in a negative way. If fact, since manifesting in a negative way is an undesirable thing to do, it may be that those who manifest in negative way have taken on a role that couldn’t be avoided if the Oneness is going to be able to freely evolve to the positive state of being it is evolving to. Therefore, in a way, they should be applauded even though they do something that is quite negative.
If this point is hard to understand, just imagine how unpleasant it would be to be a person who has a state of mind that allows him to do things that are harmful to others. Not only does such a person separate himself from that which is beautiful, he’ll eventually have to go through the process, either here or in the hereafter, of acknowledging how much he has harmed others. When a Soul goes through such a process with honesty, a Soul finds this process very painful. Regret, remorse, shame and guilt are not positive feelings to experience.
It is because of an awareness of the above that some people and some spirit beings help those people and Souls that have gone astray. Such helpers understand that if a person (Soul) clearly understood the difference between a love-based approach to life as compared to a non-love-based approach, there is no way he would choose the latter. It is quite beautiful when a Soul, due to the wisdom it has acquired, switches from a negative approach to a love-based positive approach.
Humility is such a beautiful quality that when we live according to it, we can feel proud of ourselves while at the same time having gratitude for what life has provided us. For example, I’m proud of the spiritual growth I have experienced partly because I made a lot of effort to grow. On the other hand, I am grateful for the assistance I have received and the positive role I get to play as the Oneness evolves towards the state of being it is seeking.
Humility is mainly about loving and respecting others so much that it just doesn’t feel right to be overly assertive and overstress one’s importance. One understands that every other Soul is so divine and beautiful that it doesn’t make sense to feel special. Well…not unless one is coming from the perspective that we are all special.
Being respectful is another positive quality we learn about while incarnated in places like this World. Being respectful relates to love, humility and gratitude. Through experience we find how valuable it is to be treated in a respectful way and to treat others with respect. Once we understand the value of being respectful, it is hard to lose this knowledge. As with the other positive qualities discussed in this article, our Souls gain a quality, an attribute, that is very worth having and doesn’t diminish our ability to be fully aware beings.
The same can be said of qualities such as honesty, loyalty and integrity. Who in their right minds wouldn’t want to live according to such qualities? When one lives according to such qualities, one sees how marvelous existence can be. When such is the case, there is no need to negate our uniqueness. Honesty, loyalty, integrity, respectfulness, humility, love and awareness work quite fine with each other. Life shows that people often need a good deal of time before they are able to embrace such qualities and live according to them.
We also learn to use our creative aspect of being to create things we find enjoyable such as art and music. Sure, inner contentment is a good thing to have, but this doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the beautiful things our creative aspect of being is able to bring into existence. I’ve found that I can enjoy beautiful music or beautiful scenery more completely when I have a peaceful state of mind, rather than a grasping and/or perturbed state of mind. I believe this shows that manifested existence isn’t the enemy. Rather, it is a matter of using our minds and creative ability in a wise, loving and harmonious way.
Perhaps you can think of additional reasons for which it is useful for our Souls to go through their evolutionary process. If your experience is anything like mine, the more you try find reasons for why it is highly preferable to be more than just pure awareness, the more you’ll realize that the process of creation is much more than an illusion-based mistake. Enjoy your explorations!
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The below article speaks of the subject of the above article in a somewhat different way. It also speaks of how reincarnation takes place.
Why Do Souls Incarnate in This World
By Albert A. Haust III
12/10/21
Why do our Souls incarnate into places such as this World? Going by what I and other people have figured out, we choose to incarnate into this World for a very positive purpose. Out of Body explorer Robert Monroe wrote about this in his book “Far Journeys.” On page 248 he wrote (when speaking about why Souls incarnate in this World):
“By far the greatest motivation—surpassing the sum of all others—is the result. When you encounter and perceive a graduate, your goal is to be one yourself once you realize it is possible. And it is.
Thus we “go to physical” because of what it is—an intense learning process, a school of a very unusual sort. “
Christian Sundberg had a pre-birth experience where he remembered the process he went through before deciding to incarnate on the planet Earth. As a Soul he chose to do so after he saw what an Earth graduate looks like. He met a being who had evolved in a very positive way, because it dealt with suffering in this World in a way that led to positive results.
In her book “The Burning Within” NDEr Ranelle Wallace wrote:
“The younger spirits, the ones who hadn’t been to earth, were then called away. They seemed younger only because they hadn’t gained the experiences of earth life yet. We all looked the same age, somewhere in our twenties. After they were gone, the rest of us spoke on a higher level, sharing things we could not share with the others. Life on earth does something to us. It strips away a naivete, an innocence, and infuses our eternal selves with maturity and wisdom.”
One night I went to bed feeling distressed about the problems that exist in this World. Suddenly I found myself in an expanse of space. I heard a voice say, “it’s a school, a way of learning, so don’t stress out.” Some people wonder, “what is there to learn?” They might also say that some sources say that all knowledge is already there, while not admitting NDErs are amongst such sources.
It is true that NDErs who have a really expansive experience connect to all knowledge, but that knowledge wasn’t there automatically. Source and we as extensions of Self (extensions that exist within Source) didn’t know everything automatically. We needed to go through some sort of learning process. Lifetimes in places such as the World we find ourselves in is just one of the ways in which we learn.
Everything that exists, both pleasant and not pleasant, comes from Source and us as extensions of Source. There is no other place manifestation could come from. In order to know what our creative and mind aspects of being are all about—the possibilities—we needed to go through various ways of learning.
Consider unconditional love. How could we fully understand and choose to embrace unconditional love as a way of being, if we didn’t understand what conditional love is about? The contrast a place such as this World includes, enables us to see what unconditional love is like, as opposed to conditional love. In order for unconditional love to become a part of our being, we have to choose it. Love can never be forced. Love and freedom go together. The contrast we experience while incarnated in a place such as this World provides us with the wisdom we need in order to choose unconditional love with open eyes and an open heart.
Consider compassion. If we want to obtain a way of being where we truly care for each other, then we need to understand about compassion. While incarnated in a place such as this World we can see what it is like when we are doing well and when we are not. When we go through some sort of difficulty, we learn to have empathy for others. If we didn’t learn about having compassion, caring for each other, we would exist in a way where we are indifferent to how everyone is doing. The joy we experience in a love-based realm isn’t mindless joy, as if we are high on some drug. Rather, we feel joy partially because we obtained a state-of-being where we truly care for each other, and it is joyful to see that all of our fellow members of the Oneness are doing very well.
Consider respect for others. If we want to live according to a way of being where we fully and truly respect others, then we need to have a way where we can find out how important it is to respect others, and to be respected. By incarnating in this World and engaging in circumstances where we find out what it is like when respect prevails and when it doesn’t, we can clearly see that a respectful way is highly preferable and choose such a way of being.
Consider humility. If we want to fully understand and choose to embrace humility as a way of being, then we need to understand about arrogance. Humility doesn’t mean abiding in a weak passive state as others walk all over us. Humility is about respecting others to an extent, where we couldn’t possibly consider ourselves to be more important than others. A way of being that includes humility would be absolutely essential, if the goal is to someday live according to a way of being where we are truly at one with each other and have mind-to-mind communication.
Consider gratitude. Gratitude has some relation to humility. In order to have the ability to fully appreciate a wonderful way of being, we need to have some understanding of what it is like when we don’t experience a wonderful way of being. Our existence includes both the intellectual and emotional aspects of being. What we understand through thought, and what we feel. If we want to be able to fully appreciate a way of being that is quite preferable, then we need to have ability to understand that it is preferable. True fulfillment and wisdom go together.
Consider integrity and nobleness. These two attributes are related. They are wonderful qualities to live according to. They are embraced by a person, a being, after they are chosen. They are chosen after one has the wisdom to do so. Such qualities have a nature that is too positive to be forced upon a Soul. Life in this World provides us with opportunities to be noble and have integrity. We get involved with situations that show us how important, valuable and beautiful integrity and nobleness are. Sometimes we understand this through our own experiences, and sometimes by the examples that other people provide. On some occasions we observe when either ourselves or someone else “doesn’t” act in a way that reflects integrity and nobleness, and we learn how not be through such an example.
We can also learn that selflessness is preferable over selfishness. We can see that beautiful results come into being when people are selfless, and unpleasant results when people are selfish. Related to this are occasions when people act in ways that are greedy and power hungry.
Similar things can be said about other positive attributes such as honesty, loyalty, fairness, harmony and peace. By experiencing what it is like to not have these attributes, and then experience their plentitude, we can clearly see that it is best to live according to them. On some occasions Souls need to go through a number of ordeals before they get the point.
The possibility of manifesting in either a positive or negative way exists within our being. If we want to develop the ability to use our mind and creative aspects of being in a positive way, to become masters of ourselves, we need a way to develop such ability. It is important to remember that we are just pretending to be body-based beings. Compared to the eternal nature of our Souls, this game of pretend happens for only a short period of time. After we complete such a way of learning, we are able to exist according to goodness, rather than negative attributes. We will be able to do so with certainty, consistency and permanence, because we clearly understand the importance, value and beauty of doing so. Otherwise, we would never take control of the negative possibilities.
Another thing we learn while incarnated in places such as this World, is how to use our mind aspect of being with wisdom. We learn to use our discrimination. In the 1980s, for about seven years, I was involved with a Guru-based group that emphasized nondual teachings. Eventually I learned that the Guru I saw (and some other gurus I knew about), wasn’t as wise and beyond being wrong about spiritual matters as I believed. So, I left his group. I do not mind that I was with this group for several reasons 1) I meditated a lot while I was with his group and got used to tuning into my spirit self, 2) some of my fellow group members were good-hearted people with sincere spiritual aspirations, and it was good to hang out with them for a while, and 3) going through the process of being involved with the group and eventually seeing its shortcomings, helped me develop my discrimination. Regarding this later point, if I could have been provided with the option of somebody setting me straight about the Guru and his group at say around year three of being with his group, I would say “No,” because I believe my discrimination received a better learning opportunity when I figured things out for myself.
There are many belief systems within this World. They represent what is true and what is false to varying degrees. Nevertheless, we choose to get involved with such belief systems, because doing so provides us with an opportunity to develop our discrimination. For example, many people have become involved with some form of fundamentalist religion, eventually found their way out of such a belief system and developed some spiritual muscle and discrimination. If they chose to not challenge themselves at all, they would’ve gained nothing. Instead, they would’ve remained in a state of ignorance where they didn’t become master of their mind aspect of being.
It is true that some people cling to a false belief system their entire life, but this doesn’t mean that other Souls should be prevented from going through the learning opportunities life in this World provides. If the process of life in this World is going to have enough free will so the possibilities can be explored, then it has to be allowed that some failures take place. This is okay, because we also learn through our failures and mistakes. We often learn by observing the mistakes of others. In a sense, mistake-makers are like teachers. Eventually their Souls will have an opportunity to get it right. Perhaps, after they die, and during their life review, they will learn about the mistakes they made. They will explore their mistakes with great depth and honesty and become wiser. It is also possible, that a future self, which actually exists concurrently with their current lifetime, will be the time when their Soul has a focus of attention that gets it right and learns the desired lesson.
Consider a person who has the goal of becoming a concert pianist. If such a person quit the first time he played a wrong note, he wouldn’t accomplish much. If he stays devoted to the challenging task of becoming a concert pianist, he might accomplish his goal and be able to create beautiful music.
Don’t underestimate what our Souls are willing to go through as they try to become wiser. We are going to exist for all of eternity. If we want to eventually have the most wonderful, beautiful and fulfilling way of being possible, then we need to be willing to go through some growing pains. People get to enjoy the view from the top of Mount Everest, because they are willing to make the climb. Others can only theorize about the matter. Experience matters.
Remember, each of us “isn’t” going to have incarnate numerous times. Rather, a Soul’s focuses of attention share their knowledge and experience with each other. And Souls share their knowledge and experience with other Souls. The fruits of our labor are enjoyed for a wondrous eternity.
At Soul level, we are motivated by love when we choose to take on the challenge of a body-based life. I had a pre-birth memory where I remembered what it was like before I incarnated into this World. I had some trepidation about the experiences I would have to go through. I chose to incarnate because I understood that overall, it would be beneficial to do so. I am now 64 years old, and despite the challenges I have gone through I don’t regret my decision. The challenges have helped me learn and grow. The person I used to be and who I am now, is quite different. I am joyful of the fact that I will be able to share what I learned with my other Soul parts and others. I consider what I have to offer a gift that is motivated by love. I understand that I have benefited from what my previous Soul parts have gone through, and I thank them for the path they put in place for me.
How Reincarnation takes place
Below are examples of people who have found that a Soul is able to project more than one incarnating self.
From Ron Krueger’s NDE account:
“Directly in front of me, but slightly below, stood a group of spirits: less than 100, but more than 50. Each spirit had an identity of sorts, but they were part of each other-a single entity, a single awareness, all part of a single force. In the center of the front row were three oriental women. I realized that all of the spirits comprising the entity were my past lives, and the oriental women were my most recent lives.
Their faces were clearly humanoid, but from their shoulders down, their forms blurred gradually. Their arms and legs dissolved near their ends. Hovering on the same level, in rows, they seemed loosely joined at the shoulders. Their identities were of both sexes and all nationalities. None were deceased relatives, and I recognized none of them from my recent life.
Each of the spirits had lived once, but the truth and experience and wisdom of each lifetime was integral to the entire group. When each soul returned, their lives were absorbed by all, so there were no distinctions between thoughts and attitudes within the group. Each of them shared completely every experience and every knowledge of every lifetime into a single conscience. Like spices and other ingredients added to a Mulligan stew, each added to the mix, but the resulting flavor was one. I was them, and they were me. They were all of my past, and they were of my present.
They communicated with me as one, not with words, but by a kind of telepathy. Every thought, whether it was one simple emotion or volumes of information, came packaged with instant and complete understanding. No message could suffer misinterpretation, the problems of syntax, or variance of intelligence.”
https://www.nderf.org/Experiences/1ron_k_nde.html
Near death experiencer Thomas Sawyer wrote the below:
“Reincarnation is not a linear thing. One of the problems in defining it is that there is no analogy to it. It is outside of time, yet we can’t help but think of it in terms of the past and the future, and this incarnation. The whole story is so big and so involved.
Reincarnation is an opportunity to reach a goal. The goal is true self-realization. Self-realization is to know that you are a soul, a part of God, yet also the Whole. Perhaps no one has a very good image at all of his or her soul – the whole self. And they have no idea of what proportion their personality is in relationship to their soul.
As an example, a characteristic of your personality is one percent of all of your personality characteristics put together, and all of your personality characteristics make up your personality, and your personality is only about five percent of your soul, then we are blinding ourselves to 95 percent of the rest of our soul in order to reincarnate.
Reincarnation is an opportunity to evolve through many personalities. The definition of reincarnation is that your personality is who you are in your current lifetime, and that it can be reincarnated as an entirely different personality with the characteristics of the previous personality and previous personalities including even characteristics of another soul altogether. That is, characteristics of your present personality may be the reincarnation of other characteristics of personalities from your previous lifetimes as well as characteristics from personalities from other souls.”
https://www.near-death.com/experiences/ … awyer.html
Near death experiencer P.M.H. Atwater wrote in her book We Live Forever, page 37:
“I saw that what resides within our earthly frame, what we think defines us as human beings, is but a finger of what we are, a projection from our soul’s mass.”
Near death experience Christian Andreason wrote:
“What I observed in the realm went way beyond what I would have originally thought reincarnation would be….
Reincarnation (I learned) is about birthing new energy from our original energy. When we take on a new lifetime, this happens by us merging new energy (gifted to us by God) with bits and pieces of our older energy mixed all together.
Heaven then helps us to fit into a new space (in this case a physical body) so that we might explore new ideas or feelings that require additional Soul searching and/or experience.
If there is any part of our core Self that causes us to hold serious questions about ourselves and our abilities, you can bet your bottom dollar that we will re-incarnate again and again until we are satisfied with the answers we eventually find.”
Robert Monroe’s (a well know out of body explorer) book Ultimate Journey (page 166) also provides an example of a soul projecting additional parts of itself according to need:
Robert: “How far back does this [his soul’s history] go?”
Robert’s I-there: “Before you were born.”
Robert: “You had better tell me. I don’t remember.”
Robert’s I-there: “You wouldn’t. You didn’t exist. We made the decision to become human again. We selected the time and place and organized the DNA mix—elements from the physical and elements from us. We took those parts of us that seemed most appropriate, rolled them up into one, and sent them in. There you—and we—were!”
Robert: “What exactly did you send in?”
Robert’s I-there: “Personalities, memories. What else?”
Such way of evolving spiritually extends to Soul Groups. Paul Elder’s book Eyes of an Angel (pages 157-158) provides an example of souls sharing their lessons to a significant degree:
“As you know,” Meldor [Paul’s spirit guide] explained, “the main goal of a soul’s journey is to attain the perfection of unlimited love through the accumulation of knowledge by experience. Most soul groups accomplish this through a cycle of incarnations, challenging themselves, and working to overcome the obstacles. Every entity in the cluster adds to the experience, knowledge, and energy of the group. Although each soul has its own plan and life blueprint, it is loved, encouraged, and supported unconditionally by the entire group.
“The life experience of every member of the group contributes immeasurably to the strength of the whole. This is a very important aspect of the soul group. As the entire cluster of souls vibrates as one, the individual life experience of any single member becomes an experience shared by the rest of the group. This is of tremendous benefit to the advancement of the entire group. With several members of the group incarnated at the same time, the process of learning and accumulating experience is significantly improved. As the combined experience of the cluster grows, so does the power of its overall spiritual vibration. This acceleration of the developmental process allows the group to move more quickly to higher levels of understanding and vibration.”
Meldor’s statements intrigued me. “So are you saying that other members of my soul group are able to share the experience of the life I am now living?”
“Yes, precisely,” he replied. “If you could have the experience of several lives simultaneously, would it not accelerate your understanding and accumulation of knowledge?”
I am weary of information that is obtained through channeling; however, I have found a few such sources that seem credible. Geraldine Cummins received information from the spirit of Frederick Myers. In the book “Road to Immortality” she wrote the below:
“Chapter VI THE GROUP-SOUL THE GROUP OF PSYCHIC CONSCIOUSNESS– THE PHYSICAL BODY A GROUP OF ATOMIC CONSCIOUSNESS THE group-soul is one and yet many. The informing spirit makes these souls one. I think I have explained to you before, that as there are certain centers in the brain, so in psychic life there are a number of souls all bound together by one spirit, depending for their nourishment on that spirit. When I was on earth I belonged to a group-soul, but its branches and the spirit–which might be compared to the roots–were in the invisible.
Now, if you would understand psychic evolution, this group-soul must be studied and understood. For instance, it explains many of the difficulties that people will assure you can be removed only by the doctrine of reincarnation. You may think my statement frivolous, but the fact that we do appear on earth to be paying for the sins of another life is, in a certain sense, true. It was our life, and yet not our life. In other words, a soul belonging to the group of which I am a part lived that previous life which built up for me the framework of my earthly life, lived it before I had passed through the gates of birth. In this invisible world there is infinite variety of conditions.
I can only speak of what I know. I do not claim to be infallible. Take the following as the axiom I would lay down for you. Many Soul-men do not seek another earth life, but their spirit manifests itself many times on earth and it is the bond which holds together a group of souls, who, in the ascending scale of psychic evolution, act and react upon one another. So, when I talk of my spiritual forbears I do not speak of my physical ancestors, I speak of those soul-ancestors who are bound to me by one spirit. There may be contained within that spirit twenty souls, a hundred souls, a thousand souls. The number varies. It is different for each man.
But what the Buddhists would call the karma I had brought with me from a previous life is, very frequently, not that of my life, but of the life of a soul that preceded me by many years on earth and left for me the pattern which made my life. I, too, wove a pattern for another of my group during my earthly career. We are all of us distinct, though we are influenced by others of our community on the various planes of being. When your Buddhist speaks of the cycle of births, of man’s continual return to earth, he utters but a half-truth. And often half a truth is more inaccurate than an entire misstatement.
I shall not live again on earth, but a new soul, one who will join our group, will shortly enter into the pattern or karma I have woven for him on earth. No doubt “karma” is a word I use incorrectly here. For it is something more and something less than karma that he inherits. I am, therefore, a kingdom, and yet I am but a unit in that kingdom. You may say to me that, for the Soul-man, one earth life is not enough. But, as we evolve here, we enter into those memories and experiences of other lives that are to be found in the existence of the souls that preceded us, and are of our group.
I do not say that this theory, which I offer you, can be laid down as a general rule. But undoubtedly it is true in so far as it is what I have learned and experienced. Now, this speculation–as you would probably call it–is interesting when applied to genius. The souls who have preceded us on earth naturally stamp us mentally and morally. If a certain type of psyche is continually being evolved in the one group, you will find that eventually that type, if it be musical, will have a musical genius as its representative on earth. It will harvest all the tendencies in those vanished lives, and it will then have the amazing unconscious knowledge that is the property of genius.
Here, in the After-death, we become more and more aware of this group-soul as we make progress. Eventually we enter into it and share the experiences of our brethren. You must understand, therefore, that existence for my soul-as separate and apart from my individual ego–is dual. I lived two lives, one in the world of form, and one subjective, in the community of which I am a member.
http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/myers/Ro … tality.pdf
“The Team” books by Frances Rae Key provide a lot of details on how soul groups work together. She uses the word “Team” rather than soul group.
