A Rational Reason for Reincarnation: The Human Experience

A Contemplation of Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss

A Message to the Reader:

The following content includes my personal thoughts and beliefs about the phenomena of life, our existence, and the infinite nature of consciousness. Some of the ideas shared may be incomplete or only in their infancy of development. Others, I consider truths I've learned about the nature of the self, society, and a God that I am only beginning to know. I encourage you to use your discernment when reading this content. There may be some things you agree with, others you don't understand, and probably more you may reject. My only ask is that you contemplate the concepts that resonate with you and leave the rest behind. I share my thoughts not to persuade anyone to think or see the world as I do. We all have our own unique journeys to travel and perspectives to gain. I just hope that my creative expression helps others feel a little less alone and a little more loved as they wander their path back to the heart of the Creator.

The Inspiration for this Contemplation

A couple of months ago, I decided to read Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss because it is one of the most highly-rated books that deals with the fascinating subject of reincarnation. From a spiritual or religious standpoint, reincarnation or the notion of past lives isn't an accepted or fully respected belief in Western society. Some would argue that is because of the overwhelming influence of Christianity. In his book, Weiss briefly discusses how references to reincarnation were removed from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helena in A.D. 325. Reincarnation was later declared heresy in A.D. 523 during the Second Council of Constantinople meeting.

Throughout the years, reincarnation has become a well-known yet misunderstood concept of multiple faiths and has been featured in mainstream, big-budget movies like Tykwer and the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas and What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Annabella Sciorra. I've chosen to examine it in the next few posts because when I finally took the time to contemplate its merit and accept it as a truth, everything else regarding life's procession, purpose, and dance began to fall into place and make sense.

The first four posts published on this site, from The Wonderful World of Wanderers to Forsaking Our Flawless Facades, provided a foundation for understanding who I am. Starting with this piece, I hope to articulate and discuss some ideas, concepts, and theories that will lay out a framework of belief that may make the experience of life more sensible, tolerable, and even enjoyable for those currently struggling to find meaning or purpose in it. The process of reincarnation serves as one of the building blocks to some of the future topics I will discuss and attempt to weave together to form a unified perspective of truth that seekers of life's most intriguing questions and elusive answers may comprehend.

We are Spiritual Beings Having a Human Experience

"To paraphrase the mystic Teilhard de Chardin: 'We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.' Our bodies are temporary. We are souls. We are immortal; we are eternal. We never die; we merely transform to a heightened state of consciousness, no longer needing a physical body. We are always loved. We are never alone, and we can never be harmed, not at this level."

- Dr. Brian Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters [Afterword]   

As I mentioned in Contemplations for Our Collective Conscience, I recently struggled to find the motivation to write these posts. I don't know why, but I have been going through stretches of doubt and uncertainty about my purpose lately. For the first time in a long time, I felt a deep sadness that quickly spread and affected every fiber of my being. It wasn't long before I began losing appreciation for my job and became increasingly frustrated at work. I didn't have the reserves of energy needed to genuinely show the empathy and engagement often required to be a good leader or provide the support my team needed.

When I was home, I noticed how little energy I had to play or engage with my son, Alex. I just wanted to eat and sit down in front of a television. While there's nothing wrong with wanting to eat and sit down to enjoy some television after a long day, it was alarming that even when I was off for multiple days, that's still all I wanted to do. The energy that was once available to expend playing with my son in his playroom was no longer there. I was tired and could feel a malaise settling into what seemed like every cell of my body.

After some deliberation, I decided to share with my wife how I felt. I asked her not to worry about it because it wasn't something to be concerned about. I just needed to understand what was happening to make a change or take some type of action in my life. I knew I was feeling this discomfort and borderline apathy toward living to examine it and learn an important lesson. For nearly two decades, I have accumulated knowledge and gained wisdom by examining my experiences. That knowledge and wisdom, in addition to my faith, have proven beneficial in helping me process and preserve my mental and emotional well-being. But in this instance, I felt it didn't make a difference. I knew everything happened for a reason and that what I felt was for my benefit, yet the desire to continue living slowly drained from me.

Thankfully, I was able to diagnose what was happening fairly quickly. It may sound weird and maybe even a little dramatic, but I realized a fundamental truth about my existence. I have to write. I need to experience life, process it, and then share it with others. It isn't simply something I want to do or even just something I love to do. I believe it is my overriding purpose in this life. I now understand that I must do it, or I will pass from this existence. As I said, I know that sounds dramatic, but after finding my inspiration to write again and adjusting my schedule to do it, I started to feel more energetic after only a couple of days. My zest and love for life has also returned.

I have a new perspective and maybe a better comprehension of Teilhard de Chardin's quote. I can't think of a time in my life when I didn't believe that each of us was comprised of a body and spirit. Since I was a child, that was something that was ingrained in me during weekly church attendance. Despite my scientific curiosity and explorations of different trains of thought, there was never a moment that I felt I questioned the idea of humans having a spiritual component. What Teilhard de Chardin said goes further than that, though. He posited that we are, first and foremost, spiritual beings that have experiences in human form. We are not primarily flesh and blood, highly evolved animals that have to reconcile an eerie spiritual aspect about themselves. This is incredibly important to fully grasp and understand because, with that comprehension, we must reconsider the hierarchy of our needs and the actions we take to fulfill them.

So, what do I mean by that? What does that look like? Well, if we invert our thinking and accept that we are spiritual beings with human experiences, then our spiritual needs should rise to the top of our list of priorities. The growth and development of our spirit should take precedence over everything else. Now, that doesn't mean we don't take care of our bodies or that there's no merit to Maslow's psychological theory of human motivation. In fact, I would argue there is even more reason and motivation to respect, love, and appreciate our bodies and understand our needs while in human form.

My grasp of the body/spirit connection is evolving in real-time, and now I see more clearly how our human experiences develop us spiritually. Our bodies and the other physical aspects of this experience are obviously important, and we should never neglect or ignore them. But when we put those concerns into proper perspective, we may begin to realize that satisfying our physical needs enables us to address the spiritual ones and improve the overall well-being of the soul. In other words, learning how to take care of our bodies, developing harmonious relationships with others, and striving to accomplish goals in life engage us in the experiences we need to learn the lessons required for the growth and development of that which is eternal. In fact, if we look closely, we will see the spiritual correlation embedded in the nurture and care for the physical aspects of existence.

Our happiness in this life boils down to our ability to identify and satisfy the needs of our physical and spiritual components. There is an order in which those needs must be fulfilled. If we fail to address them or fail to address them in the correct order or sequence, we will experience deficiencies, dysfunctions, and malfunctions throughout our lives. There is a reason for their ascending hierarchy, and they just so happen to align with the energy centers of the chakra system introduced in the ancient text of the Vedas and taught in Eastern philosophies for centuries.

What I felt over the past six weeks when I was unable to write helped me see that my life has a spiritual need that cannot be ignored. When I am not actively addressing that need, I feel less alive. It's like my being is slowly deteriorating. So, with that said, things have become rather simple for me. Everything I do (eat, sleep, exercise, etc.) supports my ability to fulfill my spiritual needs and purpose, which I believe is to learn from this incarnation and share my experiences through the recording of my thoughts and feelings. If I choose not to learn or share this life's lessons with you, there will cease to be enough reason to support this human experience for long.

Some of you may be shocked to read that last statement and may even feel that my family or some other connection to this world should be enough to carry on. And to that, I say I understand the sentiment. Let me put it this way. Taking care of my family and loving them immensely is a true joy and a wonderful blessing that only has reason when nestled within the ultimate purpose of our souls' development. That purpose is the energetic force that powers movement in this body. I don't say any of this to sound macabre or depressing. On the contrary, I say it because I understand what I must do to live life with vibrancy and fervor.

Each of us yearns for a purpose, and we ask the timeless question, "What's the meaning of life?" because, within its answer, we subconsciously know there's a wellspring of energy capable of powering us indefinitely. Finding the answer is elusive because it isn't bound within the context of a single life or lifetime. In fact, looking at it from a single lifetime's perspective will always undermine our search and sabotage our efforts. We have to look behind the veil of the physical illusion to discover the purpose that enables and fuels infinite lives and lifetimes. We can never comprehend this if we believe we can point to the beginning of our existence on a calendar. Who we are existed long before and beyond calculable time. And who we are will continue infinitely longer than this precious, fleeting moment in human form. When we truly understand that, we will firmly grasp the key to unlocking many of the mysteries of creation.

So, now that we've opened the door to the idea that we're spiritual beings that have human experiences, what does that look like? Weiss provides accounts of his past life regression therapy sessions with one patient named Catherine, who reportedly had lived more than 80 previous lives. Her previous incarnations consisted of her experiencing lives as different ethnicities and sexes from varying socio-economic backgrounds. When you're able to accept the possibility that Catherine's experience may actually be true, how does that change how you view life? How would it change how you live life? I'll share my thoughts on both of those questions in the coming weeks.

Take care of yourself, and know that you're never alone and always loved.

"Sacred Tears" 

from A Memoir of Mortality (2006. rev)

The eyes that behold the beauty of life

View worlds and dimensions in revealing light.

I gaze upon myself in purer forms

While awakening dormant passion asleep in all.

This devotion guides me to purpose

Through dark tunnels and miles of mystery.

Yet, upon this passage, my laughter will grow

And my smiles will become more sincere

For they shall be born from sacred tears

That reveal the pains my heart endures

and the joys that spring forth afterwards.

Life lessons birth and end incarnations,

But I resurrect stronger and wiser as

My mind and heart inch closer to God.

There, I lay longings before his feet

And rest my soul from a lifetime's journey -

Filled with lies and divine truths,

Iniquitous nights and righteous days,

The warmth of love's caress and sacred tears

... trickling down humanity's face.

- Kahlil Jiddu Hill 

To my Son, Alexander:

"You are momentarily clothed in the limitations of mortality to gather the gift of experience for the Creator. But know that your true nature is eternal and that you embody a unique expression of the divine consciousness."

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Recommended Reading and Entertainment:

• Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss

• What Dreams May Come starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Anabella Sciorra

• Cloud Atlas written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Lilly Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski