Since the beginning of recorded history, man has created just three major theories to explain existence.
The first, that of the Materialist, being that the only “real” thing about life is that which is physical. Therefore, when the body dies, the mind dies, and the individual being is no more.
The second is that we are souls, created at the moment of our physical birth, and meant to live on as souls after the death of our flesh and blood bodies. The Christian expression of this is that, depending on how “good” or “bad” we are during our one lifetime on earth, our souls will spend eternity in either a perpetual state of bliss (Heaven) or eternal punishment (Hell).
The third, reincarnation, asserts that our essence is spirit (energy) which assumes physicality while living on Earth. Spirit/energy cannot die; however, it can “transform.” I agree with the physicist, Raynor C. Johnson when he states: “The idea of reincarnation presents no logical difficulties whatever the emotional reaction to it. What the soul has done once by the process of incarnation in a physical body it can, presumably, do again.”
A vast number of people on Earth embrace this third worldview, which expresses itself in many world religions and philosophies including: Hinduism; Buddhism; mystical Judaism (Kabalists) and Christianity (Theosophists & Rosicrucianists); the Sufi sect of Islam; tribal religions world-wide; and the many New Age teachings by Ascended Masters, Deepak Chopra’s “Chopra Center,” channeled information from well-known psychics such as Edgar Cayce, hypnotic regressionists, and more.
At the time I wrote Karma: How To View it, Use It, and Lose It the most recent polls conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corporation and The Harris Poll concluded that approximately One Third of Americans, from various faith expressions, believe in the possibility or probability of reincarnation.
Inherent in this world view is the belief that each soul is a unique expression of its Creator and will enter into many physical bodies/life experiences in order to learn, grow, and express its individuality until it attains spiritual self-actualization. In Cayce’s words, the goal of successive lives is coming “To know ourselves to be ourselves and yet be one with God.”
These cycles of physical death and rebirth will come to an end when we have finally attained the perfection and wholeness of our original, immaculate conception. “Rewards” and “punishments” come by way of experiencing the effects of all we have caused through our thoughts, words, and deeds–our Karma.
Eventually, all mankind will attain union (re-union) with God.
