Fact or Fiction?
Is reincarnation fact or fiction? Depending upon one’s spiritual beliefs or religion, this question can evoke quite an emotional response. Somehow, if by asking it at all, we are trying to undermine someone’s very belief systems, or their validity as a person.
Let’s consider another possibility, does it matter? Only we can answer that for ourselves, but it is one that is worth asking.
The idea of reincarnation is not new. It is commonly known that Hindus and Buddhists alike believe in the existence of reincarnation, although the details of how it works aren’t exactly the same.
Reincarnation is Found in the Bible
In the bible there is reference to John the Baptist having been the reincarnation of Elijah the prophet (Malachi 4:5 ESV “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”) In full disclosure, most Christians do not believe this scriptural reference is about reincarnation, however, at the time there were those who thought it did.
What is the Relevance Right Now?
The question we ask is this — Whether or not reincarnation exists, what relevance does it have in our life right now? A little? A lot? Something in between?
Now, consider the traits each of us has in our personality make up. Undoubtedly, we have numerous positive qualities that we should hold onto along with a few other attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, which at the very least, should be modified and spruced up a little bit. While there might be some that should be completely released and replaced with more positive attributes.
Consider the Possibilities
Just for a moment, let’s explore reincarnation from a life storyline perspective and leave any belief systems aside – just for a moment.
Let’s say we have a fear of deep water, which is known as thalassophobia. We’ll just call it a fear of deep water, like we find in an enormous lake or deep, vast ocean where one cannot see the bottom.
Exploring a Past Life
For those who believe that reincarnation exists, they may wish to explore a lifetime or lifetimes where they drowned. In the interest of keeping this short, we’ll only look at the event itself without going into the details of how or why it happened.
It might have occurred at sea or in some deep, large body of water. If this were the case, there could have been a great deal of emotional trauma, pain, fear and suffering that accompanied the drowning event, depending what exactly happened and how long the event lasted.
No Time to Process Emotional Event
Because there would have been no time to mentally, emotionally and spiritually deal with trauma of this drowning event while it was happening, it would be brought forward into each next lifetime until it was released or resolved. Unfortunately, most people don’t have conscious access to past-life memories, leaving them with unexplained fears. If left unresolved over multiple lifetimes, it could have spawned situations where new traumas occurred, and created a proverbial trauma-snowball that got bigger and bigger as it rolled downhill into this lifetime.
With this in mind, we refer to any unresolved traumatic event as emotional or energetic baggage, regardless of whether it happened a year ago or three lifetimes ago. And, whether it was the first traumatic event, or the last one in a series of ongoing unfortunate mishaps, each event having created a new trauma that was stuffed on top of the old.
Traditional Psychological View
Now let’s look at this same fear/phobia from a more traditional psychological perspective where the theory of reincarnation is not accepted. Or, at least it is not seriously considered.
Evaluated from this view, people with thalassophobia could be genetically predisposed to the fear of water, like their mother, father, uncle, grandfather, etc. Environmental factors may have been involved, such as hearing about other traumatic events, drownings, pirate attacks on the ocean, and so on. It could also be seen through the lens of current life events, childhood upbringing and other developmental factors. Together, these dynamics could create a subconscious fear of deep water.
The list of causes for this fear could be extensive. Yet it can be summed up quite easily in both cases.
The Result is the Same
Whether the fear of water was caused by a drowning event in a past life or the result of genetic, environmental or developmental factors, our situation is the same. We have a fear that is emotionally, mentally and psychologically impairing us in the here and now. So, we need to deal with it in the here and now, regardless of the origin of our fear, or other emotional, spiritual, or psychological issues.
With this in mind, reincarnation whether it is real or imagined, becomes less important. Working to attune ourselves to our true nature, our High Self, then becomes the focus. Otherwise, like many things in life, reincarnation becomes our story rather than the actual issues we are working on.
Reincarnation Doesn’t Define Us
Just for reference, we do believe that reincarnation exists, but we do not let it define us. We believe that looking at previous incarnations can be helpful, if we use them to understand our current life situation and our attitudes and behaviors now as compared to previous lifetimes. Are they essentially the same or have we grown since then?
With this understanding, our focus then becomes on aligning ourselves to our true self, our High Self; the part of our being that is our innate connection to the Divine (God).
Release Baggage Now
We can then become aware of and release the emotional and spiritual baggage we carry with us – the limiting beliefs, as well as the energetic and behavioral habituations we have held onto for so long, both consciously and non-consciously.
As we seek our spiritual path, the Divine, our guides, angels and other spiritual beings who are part of our higher guidance will help channel us to the connection to our true self and soul’s high path (Joseph Campbell). It can lead us to what we refer to as spiritual quickening, as we accelerate on our divine journey.
Eternal Now
Ultimately, each of our destinies is to dwell in our sacred connection with the Divine, living in the eternal Now – with or without reincarnation in our past.
