Like many other people, I have always been fascinated with the idea of time travel: I have come to the conclusion that this stems from a need for confirmation as to whether or not life continues after death and whether or not the soul is eternal. I believe it also comes from a need to have a certain degree of control over our lives, irrespective of what mistakes we make and the misunderstandings we create in our dealings with the people around us, often in spite of ourselves. In other words, it coincides with our interest in the concept of reincarnation. This, in turn, has led to a series of hypotheses concerning karma and the cycle of rebirths.

Moreover, to some extent, the concept of reincarnation provides a credible escape from the fear of judgment after death, much dreaded by almost all traditional religions. As Andy Tomlinson says in his book, Exploring the Eternal Soul – Insights from the Life Between Lives, an examination of discoveries made under hypnotic regression regarding the existence of the soul between lives:

The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with ensuring that they would gain a favorable ruling when they came to the ‘Judgment Hall of Osiris’ and their heart was ‘weighed in the balance’. This would ensure their soul’s immortality because an adverse ruling would necessitate its destruction. Indeed the elite of their society spent considerable sums having inscriptions on the walls of their tombs and their sarcophagi that contained all the spells they would need to pass the ultimate test.

At least in Ancient Egypt they had a sense of how to draw things to a conclusion, with unworthy souls destroyed. By contrast, their Mesopotamian counterparts believed that those who obtained an adverse judgment from the gods who ‘decreed their fate’ were destined to live on in the ‘netherworld’, in a kind of gray limbo state. Even worse, by the time their influence had filtered down through Judaism and into the Christian Church, we find that unworthy souls are condemned to everlasting torment. It seems that the primary motivation for this development was not new spiritual insight, but instead the desire to keep the uneducated masses under control. After all, what could be more successful than to threaten them with eternal damnation and torment if they stepped out of line?

Therefore, since ancient times, the concept of rebirth has been a stratagem to avoid eternal damnation, or even the annihilation of the soul.

However, the traditional concept of karma as a process of ‘action and reaction’ and the ‘payment of debts’ is currently being replaced by those who study hypnotic regression to so-called past lives. A far less reductive and simplistic concept, it is based on the idea that, immersed in the beatitude of what people under hypnosis often define as ‘light realms’, the soul becomes impatient and longs for learning and growth, often through the experience of overcoming difficult circumstances. To do so, it works with a group of companion souls or soul group, to design a custom set of circumstances, challenges and lessons to learn in each incarnation.

Reincarnation also helps soften the blow of losing a loved one. For instance, I have known people who found great relief in the idea that their misfortune may be a way of making up for evil deeds committed in a past life.

However, the accounts provided by near-death experiencers and by discarnate spirits who have described their transition through deep-trance mediums, tell us that three-dimensional space and linear time only govern our physical waking life. This notion is also backed up by the latest findings in the field of quantum physics.

In particular, near-death experiencers who have had access to this notion describe past, present and future lives as all taking place ‘simultaneously’ while they observed them from the point of view of their own indestructible personal identity, which I like to refer to as our Whole Self. When we exclude the notions of space and time as we know them (something we can also experience in our dreams), it is very difficult to find logical, rational, analytical explanations (as prenatal regression researchers feel obliged to do) for the multidimensional nature of the soul. Even the concepts of evolution and growth lose substance once the concept of linear time is removed from the equation. This is because, at least in our dimension, both are inextricably linked to the linearity of time.

As I researched the topic, I realised that, in order to cope with this linearity, we develop the illusory conviction of being separate from our Divine Source and from each other, something that newborn children are unaware of, at least until they are taught the difference between ‘I’ and ‘you’.

I realised that we humans have probably chosen to express our exquisitely spiritual qualities through a limited and limiting view on life, like goldfish who only see what lies just outside their bowl. This is what I call ‘the fishbowl perspective’ in my book on incarnation.

It may sound cruel to deliberately abide by this illusion, which unfortunately includes the fear that death may be the end. However, by examining life as if through a magnifying glass, we can appreciate things that in the world of pure spirit we simply take for granted, even if this means temporarily losing our bird’s eye view.

Here is why I started viewing man not as a an arrogant being challenging God’s authority, but as a hero who is actively co-creating with our Divine Source.

I realise that the issue is not a simple one and that it is often much easier to deal with adversity by turning to the unfathomable plane of the divine. On the other hand, if I had not had direct experiences giving me glimmers of light on this subject, I would most likely have no opinion on incarnation, let alone reincarnation.

The Afterlife: Hereafter and Here at Hand and Looking Beyond the Fishbowl: A New Comforting Perspective on Reincarnation by Giulia Jeary Knap are available from http://amzn.to/2Em3JnS and http://amzn.to/2E4fQmb. Find out more here: http://fracieloeterra.org/en/