Misty Visions

More Wisdom of Ramadahn by Ursula Roberts

CHAPTER TWO

Incarnation and Reincarnation

There are many, many reasons why spirits come into the mortal life. Some come because they entered into the mortal existence and did not complete the fullness of the life they had undertaken, which had been shortened because of famine or disease. Others choose to take another earthly existence because in a previous time they had set into motion forces in the earthly world that were destructive, which still continue to reap vibrations of disease or destruction. Having passed through the experience of death and seeing this, they wish to return to stop the vibrations of inharmony by endeavouring to sow greater love and greater peace in the mortal world.

Into the realm of your agriculture there do come men and women who, having in previous times, destroyed the herbage, the forests, and laid waste the crops, and those who pillaged, fired and destroyed that others did starve and who now wish to discover new means by which earth may be used a little more tenderly, to bring about greater fertility and a greater prosperity that may be shared between earth's children.

There are others who choose to return into the earthly incarnation with the express desire of mending the broken and wounded bodies of humankind, for these in a previous life had created war and destruction, overcoming by their will people whom they had killed and enslaved. Such take hold upon a new body and enter into a family where they may have the opportunity of creating harmony and recreating bodies that are imperfect and broken. Then of such it will be said: “He is a wonderful healer; she is a wonderful doctor; how beautiful it is that we have such souls taking their incarnation in the mortal world�? But we of the spirit often see that their purpose is in the righting of the balance, which was upset in previous times of the earthly life.

Others come because they are simply lovers of the planet. In previous life existences they had loved the gentle fields and loved the creation. These become known as the “Light Bringers�?or the “Saviours�?or the “Saints�?- those who share love amongst earth's children, which is not the love of the body or the love of the emotions but the love of the soul, which you will call compassion. Such lovers of the world simply give themselves to serving, or saving, or cleansing or harmonising some section of your mortal world. Such come not because they owe a debt but because they are aware of the need of the planet. So they work with those higher spirit ones, whom you sometimes call the “Angelic Ones�? who are endeavouring slowly but surely to transmute and to cleanse the whole aura, or the whole soul, of your earthly planet.

The devout ones and the mediums in your midst: some of these choose to come back into the mortal life to be channels, or mediums, for spirits such as myself who is now teaching through this medium.

There are others in the mortal life who have earned their mediumship, or their spiritual faculties, through other existences, or even in the schools of the spirit, and they come to shed light and to bring spirit truths and spirit comfort to earth's children.

Do we have other bodies?

All around and about each one of you there is the flowing ethereal body (the body of your soul) which interpenetrates the mortal body of flesh and holds into unity the myriad activities of all the moving cells, the atoms, of which your mortal body is composed . . . Even as your mortal body is nourished upon the energies of air and water and food, and it becomes subject to the subtle energies that flow from the stars and from the earth itself, so your ethereal body is similarly strengthened and nourished. As you stand upon the soil of your world your etheric body receives energy from the soil; when you stand out in the stillness of the night and you uphold your hands towards the starry heavens, then indeed you receive through the ethereal hands that control your fleshly ones, energy from the starry heavens and this energy strengthens your etheric body.

Also, you have other bodies which need to be strengthened and nourished from time to time, for when you come to the ending of your life in the mortal body and you move out into the ethereal realms of the spirit, then you need other bodies with which to take your way to other places of experience.

One of the most important of these is the body of feeling, the body of love, which is sustained and nourished whilst you are in your earthly world by contact from individual unto individual, by the interplay of the radiations which are sent from one to another in the gentleness of friendship, in conversation, in understanding, in the clasp of the hands in love, and in the exchange of the tokens of affection. So it is good and right that each one of you conjoin yourselves in harmony unto your little groups - which you call your circles - wherein you may sit in quietude and exchange sympathy, love and understanding one between the other, for in this there is a healing because it is a nourishment of this subtle soul body. But if there is no nourishment given, then indeed when that one comes to the closure of the earthly life, they will have what could be termed a shrunken part of the soul body, which will need much healing, much love, lavished upon it in the healing homes of the spirit.

So, beloved ones, be generous with your love, be generous with your friendship and be kind one to the other. Praise each other, for praise is surely a sign of loving kindness, and when you meet those who seem to be unlovely and unlovable, recall to yourself that they are unlovely and unlovable because they are in need of love. Even if you cannot speak words, let your heart open in compassion unto them, that you may nourish the heart and heal the soul at its source, from your own richness of love within yourself. For as you give forth love, kindness, and the goodness of your soul, so eternally are you renewed, replenished, remoulded, and nourished from the great eternal source of Divine love itself.

There is another body which will be of value to you when you come to the end of your earthly life existence. This could be called the body of intelligence, globe-like in its shape, nourished by the interchange of thought from person to person, and by the indrawing of energy in the quiet moments of concentration and meditation, when you absorb from the higher regions of the spirit that energy which nourishes this more subtle part of your bodies - your soul . . .

When you finally come to the departure from your mortal body and you move step by step through the spirit spheres, then you may be given the opportunity to develop even higher and more ethereal bodies, in which to express your spiritual will in the years which are still to unfold.

But whilst you are in your earthly body, fulfilling your daily occupations, it is sufficient for you to know that you need to maintain nourishment for the physical body, maintain nourishment for the ethereal body, and for the nourishment of your mental and emotional bodies. By quietly and persistently seeking to enrich yourself through sound and music, through the feasting of your eyes upon symbols expressed in the beauty of sunlight, blossoms, and symbols which man has created, you do stir and nourish the subtle body of your thinking and intellect, so that step by step and phase by phase, you may unfold and strengthen all your faculties in these seasons of your earthly life.

If one's true self is one's spirit, how does one's memory and brain work together - and does one need a brain?

You need a brain, beloved one, whilst you are living in this earthly world, because if you are not able to use your brain, then you are not able to accomplish control over the many things which are occurring all about you. But your memories are not entirely confined to your brain; therefore, when you come to the end of your life's experience, and your brain ceases to respond to your spiritual will, you will still retain memories that are distinct from the brain's action, but whilst you are using your mortal body as an instrument, you need your brain cells to respond to the will or the desire of your spirit.

The mind is spirit?

This is true. The mind will continue when you have left the use of your mortal body, and in that mentality there are stored many memories and many talents, but to express them in the mortal world you need to have some brain cells.

Has this mind the memories of past incarnations?

This is true but not of everything, because an important part of your earthly and your spiritual existence is in forgetting as well as in remembering. Therefore, you may not remember all that you ate when you were an infant in your last incarnation, for that memory is unnecessary, even as you may not remember what you ate in your infancy in this life.

When does the spirit enter a new-born child?

There are three moments in which this may occur. 1. For some while before conception the spirit may be near a woman seeking life. 2. Often the spirit is conjoined unto the developing infant body when the body is quickened or begins to move. 3. Sometimes the spirit may not join until the breath is drawn and it enters into the mortal life.

Where did we come from before we had our first incarnation?

Before you had your first incarnation in the mortal world you may have been anywhere in the great vastness of the starry universe. For although you regard yourself as a man or a woman, standing with two legs, looking with two eyes, holding out two hands, in your inner self you are but a spark of light, and it is the spark of living light within your soul that moulds the atmospheres into which you come and which eventually results in the form of a physical mortal body. But you may equally have been incarnated as a spark of light with a body that was tubular in shape; or you may have been incarnated into a region wherein your body would have had the multiple facets of crystalline formation; or you may have been in another region where your spark of light could have been incarnated in the midst of a cube, for throughout all the various regions there are many differing geometric shapes which go to compose the shape and the being of that special planet . . . But you have come into this watery planet in which the shape of the soul is as a globular being. In your mortal world the symbol of the perfection of creation is invariably that which is circular or globular, and so this is your present state . . But I would say to you: forget this mortal and bodily identity and realise yourself as the golden spark that is the radiant light in the heart, in the centre of your person.

Do we choose our parents and the circumstances into which we are born?

Frequently this is so, especially if you belong to the stream of spirits who are coming into earthly incarnation down - from above. When this takes place there is a very definite choice of parent, choice of environment, and also frequently a realisation of some part of the pattern which may affect the nation into which you may be born.

But in your earthly world at this time there is a stream of spirits moving upward from a less developed planet of experience; many of these are forcing their way into incarnation, not all aware of the conditions into which they may be born, and they do not have sufficient knowledge to choose their pattern of existence.

So you have a meeting place within your world of those coming for specific experience and those coming upward from another planet. Some of them, coming hastily, meet experiences which are strange and unfamiliar, and some of them come without preparation and therefore they are rejected by the parents, or the mother with whom they sought incarnation.

Are all spirits of the same age?

One who has only touched the earthly life for a short period in infancy, or in childhood, will continue to grow in the soul body until a state of maturity is attained, and those who may live in the earthly body until the body has become very weak and aged, on leaving it will attain to a body which is not aged or weak but reveals the maturity of the soul.

Assuming a person has had several incarnations on this plane, how will he or she be identified after arrival in the spirit world?

When you come to the closure of your earthly life you will at first be met by those whom you loved most closely in this present incarnation. After a period of time you will meet with friends who have been linked to you, who may have manifested as guides and helpers belonging to different nations, different places of experience, but who are still part of the whole soul pattern and unity. Sometimes after a period of time in the spirit life, you may prefer to change your identity from the one adopted in this English land, and to take up once more your identity of another land, depending on your feeling of greater fulfilment in a previous incarnation.

But I would say that you keep your true inner identity; you maintain the same Divine spark of creative life, or light, from one life experience into another.

Who designates to whom a spirit shall reincarnate, or when or where'?

No one designates this. When the incarnation is completed and you or your dear ones continue in their experience into the spirit spheres, it may be within your own awareness, or consciousness, that you desire to return because you have something special which you want to do, or some balance which you need to recreate in the atmosphere of earth. If there is such a thought or desire, then you will be taken to the place of Waiting. There you will be shown - by those whose task it is to aid in such a work - in a great mirror the conditions of the mortal world into which you may desire to return. So, if you have been one who was incarnated long ago in Egypt, as you gaze into the mirror of your world you may desire to see the familiar place that you knew long ago. But you will see that now it is blurred (because of different peoples, different landscapes, different happenings) and so you may decide “No, I do not wish to return to that land because I have a particular work I would desire to do, so I would like to go into a place where it is fertile and green and filled with flowing waters, for I remember how I died of thirst when I lived in that land long ago�? If then you decide that you would like to be born into the pleasant English land, the mirror will be pointed (focussed) a little more clearly until you will see men or women for whom you feel an affinity, a harmony, a liking.

Then you may be shown that if you enter into that condition you may inherit a weakness of the body, which would mean that you would have to struggle with illness or with some other condition. But because you feel so strong an attraction you will still decide that is the parent and that is the place where you want to go. So, by your spiritual will, you will be taken stage by stage through the various ethers until you form your bodies, and eventually you are conjoined unto the aura of the one who is to bring you into birth.

How many reincarnations do we need to have?

You do not need to have many incarnations, but quite often there may be a series of six or of twelve if the particular soul is trying to understand, or develop, certain soul qualities, so there may be incarnations under the differing astrological influences which govern life on your mortal plane, until the soul, having gained fullness of wisdom, can then progress through the regions of the spirit, without any necessity of return to the earthly world, unless it is to give some very special kind of service.

Can a spirit incarnate more than once into the same family with the same children?

Yes, if the spirit seeks life through a body and finds it impossible to retain a hold over that particular body, it may seek to come back again into that same family environment, if it is drawn by affection or even by the desire of those who are there.

You have spoken of spirits coming to earth to experience love - would spirits not be more able to experience love in the spirit word?

Not always, for there are some spirits who are moving upward into your mortal plane, coming from a more distant star or planet wherein love is not known to them, as it is known on earth; where they dwell it is cold and crystalline and therefore they come into the mortal life seeking to find love. Some of those who come in this particular fashion are those who, you will say, are a little deficient in the development of the brain understanding, but because of their simplicity so they attract love from earth’s dwellers and this is the reason for their coming. Having been made aware of the warmth of love, then they move into the spirit regions and there learn other lessons.

Do some people who are born with physical handicaps volunteer to be incarnated with these handicaps, or would they be paying for something they had done in a past life?

Some come, not volunteering to use an imperfect vehicle, but because in the creation of the more subtle bodies which are essential before the physical one is animated, they will either be careless or they will make some mistake in the creation of either the body of the ethereal self or the mental or the emotional parts. Sometimes they may carry within themselves a remembrance of some ancient error or hurt, and as they come they may reflect this into the forming bodies, resulting in an imperfect body which they struggle to use through the times of the earthly incarnation. But, as I have said before, some come seeking love, and their very helplessness or their lack of ability draws forth from earth's dwellers some protective lovingness which gives to this soul comfort, understanding, warmth, which they would not have received in any other fashion. As earth is moving forward in its years of evolution, so there will come a greater degree of the mastery of the great healing life forces, and men and women will begin to learn how to give a greater degree of aid to these whom you call damaged, either in brain or in soul. Through that strength and healing a greater control of the imperfect body will be attained - indeed, this is already occurring.

Why is it not possible to remember our previous lives?

It is not possible to remember if the veils of forgeffulness have been thoroughly brought through your consciousness. I would say to you not all should desire to remember their previous life experience, for not all of these were happy ones. Those of us in the spirit who are able to help the beloveds to have some memory of the past, only allow this if it is a memory which is kind and good and helpful. So regard the forgetfulness as kindness to the soul, the same as you would regard the forgetfulness of a child in your life today. If you have a child in your care who passes through a painful experience such as the burning of a limb or the injury of a hand, after the injury is healed, do you not make a great effort to help the child to forget the pain and the suffering, by taking that child into newer and happier conditions, by trying to build a new fund of memories which will help the unhappy experience to be forgotten? Similarly, as you come back into a new life, you are helped to forget the past experiences, especially if they were unhappy ones.

When a spirit comes to this earth it may take on the body of a man or a woman. Is there any reason for that choice, or is it purely chance?

There is reason for that choice, for within man is to be found the more positive principle of the active intellectual body, and within woman is to be found the more negative principle of the active emotional body. Therefore, the spirit desiring experience will form the bodies according to the experience that it desires. Sometimes the spirit, in entering into its incarnation, may shape the body differently for its purpose, and may bring about a balance of these two principles, and then you will say: “This is a being who is neither male nor female�? but always there is reason for the choice.

The Avatar in India by the name of Sai Baba - what is he?

He is a reincarnation of a man who lived his life in India and became what is known as a “holy man�? Having gathered new wisdom and inspiration in the regions of the spirit, he then became involved in the being of this one whom you call Sai Baba, I would say he is a very highly - spiritually enlightened person.

What is the spirit view of abortion?

If you are speaking of abortion of the life before birth, then I would say it is not in accordance with the law of life, nor with the law of the spirit, that the soul should be separated from the body once it has gained a control over the developing infant body. But very often the incoming spirit does not conjoin to the foetus until the foetus is quickened, and therefore if there is a termination prior to that time, it is not always harmful to the soul.

What is the appearance of a spirit incarnating into a body?

The spirit in its essential state could be likened to a shining spark of light which gathers around itself what you could describe as a globe, or an aura, to form a nucleus of energies - and another globe form which becomes, as it were, the nucleus of the body of feeling. It then moves unto the earth atmosphere from which it draws to itself a body of etheric matter, but all is like a little glowing ball or globe, and as it draws near to the earthly body then it is anchored, or moored, to the semblance of the embryonic physical body. So, even in your time, when you consider yourself to be a fully-grown individual, you are still enmeshed in the slightly globular body which you call your aura.

I know of a lady who lost six babies; what is the reason for this?

I would say that this lady had some basic weakness in the actual physical structure of the body and maybe subject to some changes in the etheric atmosphere, but the infant souls may try to come again for love of her into incarnation through her, so she has not necessarily ‘lost�?all that number of babies, but maybe one or two who were unable to maintain their contact with her.

The younger a person dies, will they come back quicker?

Not always, for there is much time of growth here in the life of the spirit. Sometimes it may not come back at all if it has completed its purpose, although in some special cases, if it has been unable to hold its body it may choose to come again to the same parent.

Is it true that two people on the earth plane could previously have been part of a twin soul in spirit?

Yes, this is true, and quite frequently one may choose to enter into the life experience for the simple wish of giving love and comfort to the other, if the other half of this twin soul has chosen to endure a life experience of extreme difficulty.

Is reincarnation always through our own self-will?

It is invariably through your own self-will if it is a re-entry into this life of the earth. But if you come for the first time (and there are many who come for the first time into the mortal body) then this is not always brought about by self-will, but sometimes by a great attractive force - the natural laws of the mortal world. If it is a soul coming for a very particular reason, then it will come in the care and guidance of the Ones of Light.

Is it always the same spirit and soul that incarnates, or would it be a different spirit each time?

It is a different aspect of your own Divine spark. Think of a spark of light, and as you gaze upon it you will see that pure light becomes divided into various colours - even the purest and the smallest piece of light contains within itself varying degree of colour contained in the one pure spark.

So your particular spark of individuality is expressed in varying bodies for differing reasons, but the inner identity, is the same. . . It is not necessary that every one has to come back again to take hold upon another physical body. For there are many planes of serving, many schools of learning, and there are many spheres in which the soul may continue to serve, to develop and to express its delight.

Do we get a forecast of the conditions to which we are going?

Yes, this is true. Not that the whole of your life is predestined or planned but certain important happenings are chosen by you before you incarnate. In your pre-birth condition you will see the outline of certain happenings, which you will accept and live through, but as you take your life day by day so you paint into that pattern variations of detail. You may live that life simply by saying. “This is what I have chosen�? or, you may live that life by embellishing the pattern with golden threads of joy and of laughter. You may weave into that same pattern glorious colours of self-sacrifice, love, kindness and service, which are not really essential because they are not the chosen pattern, but they are your embellishment of the pattern and the totality of the greater service that you are giving to the planet which is giving to you life.

Do people who terminate their lives before they fulfil their experience come back at another tine to continue that experience?

Not in all cases, for there are many planes of experience in the regions of the spirit, but if a soul feels regret at not having continued the life experience and has the desire to return, then indeed this may be so.

Would they live a full earthly lift?

Invariably they will come back to lead a full life and possibly extend the years of experience beyond the normal span, because they would be, as it were, counter-balancing that which was incomplete in a previous life, so it might be they will live to what you will term great age. But there is no invariable rule about this.

Is it true that we have a spirit helper with us from the time we are born?

When you enter into the physical body you come with a companion who is often termed in the language of religion “an angel�? or in the language of Spirit “a spirit�? It is a friend who has known you when you came into the spirit life and who will greet you again when you come to the ending of your life. And that companion will, from time to time, link with you during your life experience.

Is there incarnation on other planets?

Many of you who are incarnate in your earthly world now are those who have either taken a life's existence upon the planet Venus or else are progressing towards that planet, and those who have known a life's experience there know very much the meaning of love. They are people who ‘outflow�?lovingness which is natural unto themselves, because this is largely the quality that is developed upon Venus. The body which is used there is less dense than the physical body you now use, it is more elongated, more ethereal and the light shines more from within the centre, rather as a flame shines within the centre of a lamp.

There are also many souls taking their first incarnation in your earthly world, who come from the planet Mars. These are those who are undeveloped in human intelligence or who are content with very simple and elementary things of the mortal life. Often because of their lack of the love element they war with each other, fight, quarrel and destroy. But there comes into being on your earth planet a meeting together of spirits of both kinds, so that the love from the higher spirits may uplift and redeem some of the more crude aspects of those coming into their first state of existence, who express themselves in selfishness, wilfulness, and often a desire for war. Because of the meeting together of these two forms of incarnating life, the earth world becomes a great plane of transmutation and of cleansing.