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Reincarnation On Trial
Conflicting Testimonies
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The afterlife testimonies, prima fascia, offer a split-decision on the reality of reincarnation. While hundreds of examples could be offered regarding this disparity, at the moment, I will present but one or two for each side.
Father Robert Benson, in his several channeled books, denies the existence of reincarnation. He speaks of our continued growth and development in the Spirit world with no hint of any reincarnational return-trips to the earth.
Father Robert Benson, More Life In The World Unseen:
How old would you say Radiant Wing is?
I can’t hope to guess..
He’s turned six hundred…
It’s amazing, isn’t it? You remember Omar is two thousand if he’s a day. His Egyptian aide is even older, in the region of five thousand years. What is it the psalmist says? Longitudine dierum replebo eum: I will fill him with length of days.
This is an ageless world, Roger, and some of us, at any rate, would appear to be the same. No lined faces… All it can do is to suggest a gargantuan number of years. If the spirit world were in existence so long ago as that, and we have every assurance that it was, then there are existing people in these lands, somewhere, who can claim at least that gigantic number of years as their age.
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Also, Edward Randall, who for twenty years worked with medium Emily French, in thousands of communications with other-world persons, records that not one of these spirit-visitors believed in reincarnation.
However, there are many channeled accounts from the afterlife which seem to affirm reincarnation. One comes to mind just now - Flashes of Light from the Spirit-land (1872), compiled by Allen Putnam.
What's up with this? How can spirit-entities be in disagreement on such an important subject?
This question bothered me for years. I now have a partial answer which begins to satisfy:
1) The afterlife is a huge place and a more complex society than our own. There are many regions, areas, or, if you will, neighborhoods, over there, with correspondingly varying levels of personal development for their respective inhabitants. Just as in our world, these citizens of the Spirit realms do not see or know the same things.
This analogy might help. If you were visiting Earth from some far-away place, you would form one impression of the planet if you were to speak to an Aboriginal from the Australian outback; and quite a different view if you landed in downtown Manhattan. The afterlife is even more differentiated.
2) In the next dimensions, there is no monolithic culture, no general level of education, no one-size-fits-all degree of awareness - it's all over the map! And the level of sophistication of one with whom you might speak will greatly determine the quality of information received.
3) The more advanced one is on the Other Side, the less Earthlike one becomes in one's vibrational essence, and therefore, the more difficult it is to communicate with those in our world. As such, while many mediumistic messages derive from Summerland, most communications and contacts with our world originate from levels closer to the Earth-plane; we speak here of the dark and twilight worlds of confused and disoriented spirits (see the work of Dr. Carl Wickland).
Those recent arrivals in Summerland might enter that wonderful realm believing in reincarnation, and they, in their fragmentary knowledge of how things work, might communicate their ignorance to ones here; this happens not infrequently.
Denizens of lower levels very often subscribe to reincarnational notions, and may even enter into determined process of attempting to be reborn - but this effort becomes part of their dysfunction and delusion, something to overcome (see the work of Dr. Carl Wickland).
According to many afterlife researchers, the higher one climbs on the ladder of being, the less likely one will hear of reincarnation.
a yes-no answer
Some time ago I had a conversation with fellow afterlife-research Mark Macy. During the 1990s he was part of an investigative group which received, not only reports but, many electronically-transmitted photos from the next dimensions.
However, some of this information did not easily mesh with some of my favorite purveyors of information from the other side, for example, Father Benson.
Mark and I talked about this disparity, as it had come to mind for us many time over the years. All this acknowledged, the sense of cognitive dissonance is caused by our own limited views of the astral realms. It’s an immense, in fact, ultra-gigantic domain that cannot be reduced to one-size-fits-all.
A noted “out of body” traveler to the next worlds had this to say about the issue:
The following is from Excursions to the Spirit World by Frederick C. Sculthorp. “Remembering the conflicting reports of the spirit states and life in spirit which we get at times, I began to think that it would be a good idea if I, an inhabitant of earth, could bring back the facts - the whole truth and nothing else. However, I found that it was not so easy as that. Many a question about conditions in the spirit world has to be answered by: ‘Yes and no!’ - the true answer depending on the sphere one is dealing with. Both answers can be correct for the corresponding state.”
The afterlife is populated by ones of every conceivable philosophical notion; not only this but, every level of spiritual maturity or lack thereof. In other words, as the saying goes, we see things not as they are but as we are.
I submit to you that belief in “R” is an immature concept harbored by the spiritually unevolved. For them, "yes," reincarnation is true, but merely in a subjective sense. It's all they know and what seems real right now. This will change when, as Dr. Peebles put it, they discover the "true self" within.
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Editor's last word:
Unscrupulous politicians, seeking advantage, have been known to disseminate false information -- we call it "fake news"; so, too, millions of immature dark spirits, ones who refuse to go to the Light, practice disinformation campaigns in order to cause people trouble.
And sometimes the bad information centers about reincarnation.
I personally came up against mischievous and malicious spirits during a reading with a reputable medium. Before beginning a reading, his normal practice had always been to pray and shut-out any spirits with bad intentions. This time, he'd forgotten to do that; an omission caused by the situation -- I was visiting him just to socialize, with the reading happening almost accidentally. Without the normal safeguards in place, I soon was getting information that I knew was patently wrong. My friend stopped the reading and apologized for not having set things up properly!
My point in mentioning this is that one needs to very careful about the quality of information coming through in a reading, even from a gifted medium. There are vast hordes of mischievous and malicious spirits who lie in wait to deceive and cause trouble - as much trouble as one will allow.
I feel compelled to add a postscript, though it is off-topic; however, I know that some will be bothered by the above: "If dark spirits lie in wait for us to cause harm, then I'll just avoid mediums and the afterlife information altogether."
And this, too, is another pitfall, as dangerous as the first. I'll tell you why.
First of all, you cannot avoid the dark spirits by avoiding mediums; it doesn't work that way. But here's the general principle: If you are whole-hearted in your attitude, secure in the knowledge that you are a son or daughter of God, ambitious for the sake of others and always seeking to render service - then, my friend, no dark design, in the whole universe, will be able to touch you. You are invincible. To live contrariwise, that is, to live in fear, is to attract dark spirits to yourself, as they readily attach themselves to victim mentalities.
Think of that glorious, radiant lady, on a missionary errand in the Dark Realms, offering encouragement to all wretched beings in her path! On her left and on her right cringed and scowled all manner of perverted creatures, but none dared touch her, and all slinked away, but for the humble who drew near to be fed. She lived and worked as a Christ-figure - invincible, invulnerable, unassailable, unbowed - And why? She knew who she was, and was in touch with her own divine inner self.
And so, for the rest of us, instead of hiding under the bed, or repressing and living in fear, simply become who you are, that true divine self - and, in this confident realization, no one in the entire universe will be able to lay a finger of harm on you.
P.S. "Harm" is defined as per the words of the archetypal Christ-figure: in this world, he said, "they can only kill your body," and that's not much of a threat, now is it.
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