From The Archives: Life is experienced in the continual Now.

[Fist posted 12/31/12] Added is some more material on the pastime of reincarnation.

Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending a yearly end-of-year celebration at the warm and cozy home of Phyllis and Marc, where I reunited with a few good friends and met with a few more interesting and enlivening souls. I even got an offer to appear for an interview on a  tv show here in Manhattan; but I think I'll decline for now.

A well-known psychic felt compelled to share with me her slight sadness regarding my mediumship,  saying, "I can see where you go, but also that I can't go there; it's as if you're allowed to go through the door, but I 'm not." "Not yet, but you will be," I was able to answer with complete confidence. She asked me about reincarnation — as so many do — because she was worried that she would have to come back, and she didn't want to; "I'm over it and ready to get out of here and into the light!" I assured her she had no worries, for in spite of the mass collective race conscious belief in such things, such things have no basis in Reality. Tim brilliantly 'splains it all in the final chapter of The Risen, and it seems appropriate for this posting on the last calendar day of 2011 to offer some especially exquisite comments of his about "the pastime of reincarnation."

As well, Tim would like me to convey that there is also nothing to the belief  in being afraid of 2012. All the hoopla designed to engender and raise worry and fear is nothing but the attempts of the collective of ego-minds to exacerbate and escalate fear. Forget about the Mayans, forget about the low-level channelers who seek attention by posturing as if in some kind of wax museum of horrors; turn your spiritual eyes away from the shadows and instead, CONSCIOUSLY lift your thinking to the realm of higher-vibrating realms of light, where we, as Authentic Self, forever dwell in ever-present calmness, peacefulness, and serenity. If you are still so overwhelmed by the lack of being able to control your own mind to bring it to such a state of rest, he suggests you watch the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Glenda, the Good Witch of the North, laughs away the pathetic, vaporous threats of the bullying Witch of the West: "Oh, rubbish. You have no power here. Be gone, before some one drops a house on you, too!" (please note that the original publisher of this scene apparently likes to spell it as "wizzard" - we like it!)



Here are some key discernments from Tim's discourse in The Risen on the pastime of reincarnation:

“Belief in survival in another body as a different life may be directly due to Authentic Self’s deeper knowledge that one does survive and arise in a new body—as Risen. This awareness is generally not explored sufficiently to allow for a following through to the correct conclusion. The conclusion would be that one does not start over in a new life in a different body but rather continues on with one’s single immortal life in limitless, infinite forms and relationships. This ‘one’ is just that—one—meaning it is all there is. And all is more than enough, isn’t it? So it appears we don’t get reborn backwards, which is yet another way of saying that we don’t return to do it again.

“Is this so hard to conceive? Those on earth are quite aware that the body they start out with is not the same body at the age of seven, twenty-one, or ninety-one. It’s not difficult to see that it is in continual fluctuation and never the same in any given moment. And yet it is also apparent that one is somehow still the same individual while this individuality expands and contracts, waxes and wanes, ever changing, ever responding to the Principle of Novelty.

“And so, I submit that the evidence strongly indicates that we cannot be re individuated again. We are our own birthday present. I like to say that with increased awareness we become our own presence. My observation is that there is never any need to go back to do it again, for the universe is infinite and never-ending and will provide me with unceasing opportunities, always new, fresh, and alive, to explore, learn, and expand my self-awareness on a continual basis. I don’t need to claim more than one life because my one life is enough. Because this one life is eternal it will always be more than enough, which is the core meaning of ‘abundance.’ Other individuals will perhaps come to different, even radical observations of their own.

“Clearly, we are reborn upon our transition, but this rebirth is always into a new world and a unique state of existence, not back into the old one. The old one no longer exists—life is experienced in the continual now. We develop and carry forward the template for our new life. We are the template, and a new world will simultaneously arise from us as we arise from it, as a direct result of how we lived our lives on earth or from wherever we are continuously transitioning. The more brilliantly we live—that is, the more light-filled—the more spectacular will our lives manifest as we transmute ever onward. There are no limits to brilliance except as self-imposed. But even that is an illusion, for there is no real limit to anything.

“The purpose of Earth, then, would be as the starting place for our birth as an individual. It provides us with an initial environment in which to begin to get a sense of the individuality that is ours forever, and nothing more than that. If this is truly the primary purpose of an earthly life, and if that life is eternal, then people could stop trying to make it anything more. They could ease up and enjoy the wonder of ever-growing consciousness, of ever-rising awareness of self. What freedom there is in that! Even if they could be reborn back onto the planet, they would never be able to learn all there is to know, no matter how many times they return—which some seem to believe is the absolute requirement for eventual de-planeting. As their time on the earth is, by default, limited in an earthly fashion, so then are the experiences within that time."

As a final reflection, remember to look down at your own ruby slippers, and know that not only is there no place like Home, but that you're already There Now.

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Newly added on 12/31/2013

In an attempt to encapsulate some of the more complex ideas, Tim offers three brief suggestions as summaries to keep in mind:
  1.      One’s reality is defined by three I’s: Individuality, Intensity, and Infinity.
  2.      Only one individual can claim that individual’s life experience.
  3.      When Original Creator Source gifts us with individuality, It always gets it entirely right the first time.

He goes into great depth regarding various “Risen theories” about the continuance of life and living, and it seems clear that many on the Other Side have similar as well as conflicting ideas about the topic of rebirth. It seems to be a robust topic of research and debate there, stimulating more questions rather than resolving them.

Here are a few examples:

Theories of Race Evolution

“Classical” reincarnation – meaning, returning to the same Earth but in a different role --  may have actually once existed countless earthly eons ago, but was phased out or evolved to something entirely different, and so is no longer an active process of transition. Tim cites examples of certain older, indigenous cultures that may have vanished because of their transformative evolution.

Theories of Individual Evolution

Allegedly, some individuals return to earth in the “classical” model because they haven’t yet evolved to a higher vibrating state of conscious awareness, enabling them to change their belief system and thus break free of the cycles of birth-death-rebirth, to then “de-planet” off and beyond the earth into other dimensions.  Such individuals differ from those who try to focus those same abilities to maintain beliefs of reincarnation, and where the goals are different.

Theories Discounting Pre-existence

Tim elaborates on this line of thought which branches from the theories of individual evolution:

“There appears to be some indication that the vast majority of Risen—perhaps all—did not exist as individuals prior to their human existence on the earth. Those who were born on the earth first came into existence there as individuals. We have to start somewhere, and that is what the earth is for. Humanity appears to have been custom-made to extend life through a particular process known as ‘reproduction’ which is tailored—or ‘designed,’ as some Risen theorists assert—specifically for life on a planet such as the earth. It has been observed on worlds in other dimensions that the life-extension process does not always follow this plan.

“The purpose of Earth, then, would be as the starting place for our birth as an individual. It provides us with an initial environment in which to begin to get a sense of the individuality that is ours forever, and nothing more than that. Even if we could be reborn back onto the planet, we would never be able to learn all there is to know, no matter how many times we return—which some seem to believe is the absolute requirement for eventual de-planeting. As our time on the earth is, by default, limited in an earthly fashion, so then are the experiences within that time.

Theories of Mega-Individuality

This theory involves the notion of a group soul, where many individuals are sparked from a “mega-being.” Perhaps they will eventually all reunite into yet another mega-being. Tim explains: “These sparks would be seeded possibly on just one world, such as earth, or on several—perhaps even other dimensions would be utilized. Not all would necessarily be seeded at the same time in the same era, but scattered across many time periods to gain a multi-experience as extensive and abundant as possible for the sake of the group mind. They would all have varying awareness of one another as well as individual feelings of pre-existence. This might explain the feelings of having lived other lives in other times. Individuals would be interconnected through their own evolving group underconscious. Their rate of return to Mega-Being Mind would be greatly different amongst them, spanning perhaps what an earth-mind might experience as trillions of millennia, or longer. There would be an intuitive connection between those who have transitioned into the astral dimensions. The configurations would be creatively endless in order to achieve the maximal amount of experience, information gathering, and communication. Those who have strong intuitive connections with the sparked individuals in other dimensions might struggle with confusion about where their real natal home is.”

Tim summarizes:

“So it appears to me thus far that we are reborn upon our transition, but this rebirth is always into a new world and a unique state of existence, not back into the old one. The old one no longer exists—life is experienced in the continual now. We develop and carry forward the template for our new life. We are the template, and a new world will simultaneously arise from us as we arise from it, as a direct result of how we lived our lives on earth or from wherever we are continuously transitioning, as we transmute ever onward.

He goes on to clarify:

“It’s sometimes inferred that our spirits will take on new bodies again. Actually, our spirit will be our actual body, and then at some point it becomes the cocoon for the next transition. A higher vibrating form of spiritual being will then evolve from that event, eventually moving on to yet another new geography. The spirit then becomes a newer form of body that is appropriate to the higher vibration. It cannot return to earth to be reborn once again because its new and higher state of vibration would no longer be appropriate there. Upon transition one is no longer spiritually human because of the higher vibration, and so cannot return to being earthly human in the equivalent way.

All the above barely does justice to the rich and extensive material Tim was able to bring forth, going into great and detailed depth regarding the more elusive psychospiritual issues. “The underlying factor consistently supporting the generally unchallenged belief in reincarnation is that old nemesis, the fear of mortality—and even fear of immortality. The thought that one is immortal and will have to move beyond the earth, never to return, can be extremely threatening, especially if one has not taken the time to become informed of the facts about the process.”

Virtual Reincarnation

He expounds on a novel but brilliant hypothesis, which is that while we cannot literally reincarnate, we can virtually reincarnate:

“If one wants to reincarnate, it’s not possible in the ultimate way of creating another original life for oneself. However, if you want to have the experience of a pre-existence to the primal birth on the home planet, or the experience of reincarnation, you can have it, including that of being a co-creative manifestor. As we make our own self-experiences we also make our own ‘rules’ or ‘laws’ about our experiences.”

I commented that it all sounded like some fantastic, enormous game.

“So why can’t it be? If you want to step into the part and play it to the hilt, who says you can’t? If you want to make up a game about reincarnation and make it seem so real that it appears real, why not? No reason whatsoever. And isn’t it interesting that the word ‘game’ is synonymous with pastime? ”

I dared to ask, “How is this done?”

“It appears that any manifestation of reincarnation is not enacted upon the original version of earth. But there’s no reason why a person can’t manifest yet another experience on another version of earth that is completely like the one they left. Mind is that powerful. Everyone can manifest their very own earth to return to, exactly like the one they left. Of course there would have to be a built-in restriction of self-imposed amnesia to make it suit one’s beliefs and needs, and this amnesia can be tailored in any way. And if they want, souls can co-creatively manifest the experience of being together or finding one another as their own desires for drama dictate. Sometimes there are ‘leaks’ that get past the amnesia—hence, feelings of déjà vu, past lives, and all kinds of ‘evidence’ that would manifest to help sustain the illusion. Since the illusion is built directly upon a foundation of Reality it has an apparent feeling of reality all its own and will respond to its manifestor’s mind as directed.”

Finally, I (August) can very briefly comment about progress and growth as related to the idea of reincarnation: They cannot be achieved backwards.