More reflections
Your past lives
People want to know if they were a certain person in a past life. There are two ways to find out, that I know of.
The first way you can’t make happen — but if it happens all by itself, then it furnishes absolute proof. This way is when you “take on” your spiritual body from a previous incarnation; you take it on from one moment to the next, in full consciousness. This way can only be provoked by a strong trigger, and it’s outside your control.
The second way you can make happen — it’s the simple “hand levitation” exercise, using a written list of names. I describe this exercise in Part 3. You can argue that this way doesn’t furnish absolute proof. Myself, I think the proof is good enough. But that point is debatable.
True dreams
These are psychic dreams. Joan Grant had many of them. They reveal an event, or events, from a past life. Maybe you’ve had some of these.
My psychic ability, limited though it is, has enabled me to have the occasional true dream. You really do see an event, and yourself actively involved in that event, your own event, from a past life. A true dream requires a trigger. Me, I find the trigger to be a person. If a person, someone whom I knew in a past life, comes into my environment, their arrival might trigger me to have a true dream. Do I know which person it is? Sometimes I do.
I won’t recount my several true dreams here. I’ll mention just one. I had it when I was a teenager. It showed me an event that happened, in which I was involved. I read about it later, when I was a older. My true dream was accurate, even pinpointing the exact location, a location I can visit today. I figure that if one of my true dreams is accurate, they all are.
True dreams mostly deal with past lives, but I had one that showed me my next life, from age 19 to about age 26, so seven years.
Early memories
From earliest childhood up to age 10, I could remember the places where I had lived before. By “places” I mean the facades of buildings, and by “before” I mean the time before this time.
As a child, it didn’t occur to me to mention these memories to Mum. I assumed that everyone had such memories. When I got older and realised that such memories weren’t universal, I did mention them to Mum, just once.
My theory: All infants and small children remember scenes from their most recent past life. But they grow out of these memories so early that they don’t later remember having them. In my case I didn’t grow out of the memories until age 10, so I never forgot that I had them. I can’t recall those facades today. I know only that they were European buildings, not Australian buildings.
Your next life
If there’s something you want to achieve in your next life, do the groundwork for it in this life.
As I say elsewhere, work on your delinquencies now, otherwise you might take them with you into your next life.
You are now — or will become — a huge reservoir of experience, gained over many lifetimes. You gain stature with every lifetime. An old soul has immeasurable stature.
Reflecting further
Humans are the highest entity in the physical world
The highest entity that can live in the physical world is the human soul. Higher entities can visit on a spiritual plane, but they don’t come physically into the world.
The world’s quietest moment
When did the first human soul come into the world? We know it happened, because we’re here. My theory is this: A divine spark, creating a human soul, was bestowed on two embryos, male and female. The two children were born. They belonged to a tribe of our earliest ancestors.
The two children grew up in the tribe. Together, they produced more children. Their children were human souls, who in turn produced human souls. And from those two earliest humans we all descended. You can call them Adam and Eve if you want to, but I call them Og and Ug, because we didn’t have language back then.
What a day it was in our world when the divine spark was bestowed. What a moment. But no reporter was present, no cameraman. It was the world’s quietest moment.
The higher spirit world doesn’t interfere
The higher spirit world doesn’t step in to stop bad stuff from happening. Our decisions are our own free will. A higher entity doesn’t appear before us and say, “Would you like to re-consider your decision?” As Dolores Cannon says on YouTube, “This is a free-will planet.” We alone bear responsibility.
There’s an exception to every rule. I’ve heard of an occasion when the higher spirit world did step in to stop something bad from happening: A Negro teenager and two adult Negro men were about to be lynched by an angry mob. A voice in the crowd spoke, “Leave the boy alone. He had nothing to do with it.” The voice, unidentified, spoke with such authority that the crowd obeyed. The teenager grew up to become a pastor.
The key to peace
The key to peace is assimilation. Gandhi said, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way”, but Gandhi got it wrong. There is a way to peace. It’s assimilation.
The three commandments
We have the Ten Commandments, and we have the Noble Eightfold Path. And then we have my three — you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not harm. The rest takes care of itself.
The seat of knowledge
The solar plexus chakra is our seat of knowledge. Sometimes a piece of knowledge comes up from there, into our conscious minds. That’s the gut feeling that people speak of. You can strengthen this ability. Take a minute to travel in your mind down to your solar plexus. Be there, and be aware that you’re there. I find this simple exercise strengthens my ability to get gut feelings.
Dilys Gater describes the solar plexus chakra very well in one paragraph in her book, Celtic Wise Woman.
The grounding cord
When meditating, or just simply contemplating, it’s very important to stay grounded. If you don’t stay grounded you can open yourself up to spiritual harm. Use your grounding cord, like this: Imagine a very strong, thick root that’s wrapped around your waist. It goes down, down into the ground, very deep. It keeps you well and truly grounded. You can practise this exercise anywhere, even when standing in a queue.
The colour spectrum of the chakras
The seven main chakras each have a colour, and the colours follow the order of the colour spectrum. Since colour arises from light being refracted, this shows that our chakras are receiving spiritual light and refracting it. Why do our chakras receive spiritual light? Is it so that colour can be created, thus creating beauty? Or is there some greater purpose? I suppose that spiritual light, refracted or otherwise, is one of the essential qualities of the spirit world.
Seeing visual purple
Rhodopsin, so I read, gives rise to the visual purple we sometimes see when our eyes are closed. But what triggers this to happen? For me, it works like this: When I have contemplative thoughts, “edifying” thoughts, if I can use such an elegant word, it produces visual purple in front of my closed eyelids. The purple is like a beacon light, revolving. But when I stop thinking “edifyingly”, the purple disappears immediately.
Psychic moments
Sometimes we have a psychic moment when waking up — the brain has theta brainwaves upon waking up, for a few seconds — this is a well-known phenomenon.
People who are on the move become more psychic. Simply travelling in a vehicle increases my own psychic ability. I also became more psychic as I grew older.
The difference between men and women?
What makes us different is testosterone, not the various appendages.
The way I see it: A man has two masters, testosterone and ego. He has to get them under control. A woman has no testosterone and an angelic ego.
For a man, it’s a case of Do or Die, but a woman doesn’t entertain such nonsense. Women don’t like things happening outside their control. A man can handle that, and sometimes even goes looking for it. A man can ride on the back of a whale, attached to it by a piece of string. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. A woman can’t do that. A woman doesn’t like danger and abhors injury.
Why do girls not like getting hurt? We have to protect ourselves. We’re going to bear new life inside us, one day. We mustn’t get any injury, especially an internal injury.
The soul has to progress, and the only successful progression is a well-balanced one. In some lifetimes we have to use male power, push boundaries. In other lifetimes we need to have a different range of experiences, to live effectively, but in a subtly different way.
Goethe was once asked what the world’s most important work was, and he said it was the work of a mother. (I can’t verify that this is true. I read it decades ago in a leaflet.)
Melody of Ode to Joy
It’s clear that Beethoven didn’t compose this melody, and apparently Mozart didn’t either. When I came to live in Vienna in 1978, I read in German that it was a Volksweise, a folk tune. This was stated in one sentence, without further detail. The original composer wasn’t named (I assumed his name was no longer known). I think I read this sentence on the sleeve of a recording of the Ninth Symphony. I’m pretty sure it was a recording, and I didn’t buy the record because I didn’t have a record player. I know of no way today to find that single sentence again. People have long ago stopped quoting it, and it’s gone out of our knowledge.
Back to the melody — Mozart popped it into KV 222. Beethoven made a grand affair of it. I think Beethoven copied from Mozart, and Mozart copied from the Volksweise. Or they both copied from the Volksweise. Well I’m glad they did that, or otherwise we would have lost the melody.
Every time we mention the Ode to Joy, we should mention Schiller.
The Gospel of Judas
Years ago I saw parts of a documentary on TV about this. An ancient manuscript has been discovered. It records some things that Christ is said to have told Judas alone, in private. One of the things was, “You will exceed all the others” (meaning all the other apostles) — because Judas’ action enabled Christ’s destiny to be fulfilled. It’s not clear in what way Judas will exceed the others. A great many lines from the manuscript have been lost. But even if we had every line still intact, we might find that Christ didn’t clarify this matter further.
When will Judas “exceed the others”? It won’t happen while he’s a human soul. No human soul is raised above the level of another human soul.
My theory: Judas was asked, in the spirit world before he was born, if he would take on this role. (As we all are asked to take on roles, big and small.) Judas said “yes”. (As we all say “yes”.) After he was born, he had no conscious memory of this. Christ was well aware of it. It was, for some reason, not appropriate for Christ to share this information with anyone. In the gospels Christ is quoted as saying some pretty harsh things about Judas (“It would be better for that man if he had never been born”) — but did He really say these things? Perhaps those words were put into His mouth.
Why did Judas commit suicide? Because he had no conscious memory that he had agreed, in the spirit world, to perform this deed. But why did he agree? Why didn’t he say no? He can say no, can’t he? Yes, he can. But he knew that if he says no, someone else will have to do it.
Be clear about one thing, people: I’m not doing a whitewash job on Judas. He was a misguided man, who totally misread the situation. But a misguided man was needed. None of the others could be asked to do this deed; they weren’t misguided.
Whatever we decide about the Gospel of Judas, we have to remember one thing — Christ chose Judas.
Daily stuff
How to think properly
Rudolf Steiner said that, in order to think properly, you should remove yourself from the subject and then think about it. This is very good advice. Follow this advice and you’ll become neutral and fair. Your opinion will no longer play a role. Follow this advice and you’ll never be bettered in an argument.
The power of formulas
Formulas are very powerful things. Some of these are my original ideas, others have been told to me.
- Don’t contrive — The first formula I ever devised. It allowed me to comport myself properly in an awkward situation, several times.
- You don’t need to look for courage if you put fear aside.
- Action is better than inaction — This simple sentence gets you up and moving.
- When in doubt, say “yes” — We don’t know what to do. The pros and cons weigh exactly the same. Say “yes”, not “no”.
- This is the perfect moment to do this thing.
- Be of good cheer, but if you can’t be of good cheer, be of good energy — Restores your positive mood.
- What would superman do? — Very helpful in an insecure moment.
- I also read this: If someone frightens you, imagine them dressed in long underwear. My own idea: If you dislike someone, imagine them being very old, very old and frail. Do this repeatedly — it brings your mind into proper balance as regards that dislikable person.
- And finally, a very important formula: If you see someone who doesn’t like you, you might be unsure how to handle yourself in that moment. Tell yourself this: “That person doesn’t like me. That’s alright. That person doesn’t have to like me.” It defuses the situation immediately.
The power of visualizing
You have to learn a physical skill? In your mind, do this physical thing again and again. This is “visualizing”, and it will improve your skill greatly. I learnt a physical skill to a very high level doing this.
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Anger?
Anger is a regular human emotion. As I learned in the Art of Living (AOL) course, you may get angry but don’t be angry.
Revenge?
You don’t always win. Don’t take revenge.
Hatred?
We’re supposed to hate what people do but not the people themselves. This means we hate what Hitler did, but we don’t hate him. Manage that, if you can.
Forgiveness?
Is forgiveness only possible after atonement has been done, even hundreds of years later? Perhaps. And atonement can be done as a service to any person — it doesn’t have to be done to the original victim.
You forgave someone — you succeeded in forgiving them, and yet you couldn’t make it stick. I think you just have to acknowledge it. I come back to the thought that forgiveness will be possible after atonement is done.
Your decisions
Don’t blame other people for your decisions. You knew what you were doing.
My two epiphanies
When I was in my 20s, I had two epiphanies. An epiphany is not simply getting a new idea. We do that all the time. An epiphany is more powerful: You wake up to something; you never forget it, and it guides you for the rest of your life.
Realist vs idealist
I was 24 years old. I was at work at IIASA, standing by my IBM typesetter. I suddenly had a revelation: I can be either an idealist or a realist, but I can’t be both. It’s time to decide, and my decision will set my path for the future. Up until that moment I had been an idealist, and I defended idealism. I decided to become a realist. I changed in that moment.
Thinking for myself
I was in my late 20s. I was hiking. I crossed a farmer’s field and saw something incongruous in the field. I didn’t know why it would be there. I looked around. Was there someone I could ask? Was the farmer out there somewhere, within calling distance? Nope. As I stood there, it dawned on me that people aren’t going to come to me and drop answers into my lap. If I want answers, I’ll have to figure them out for myself. From that moment on, I started thinking for myself.
(I can’t remember what the incongruous thing was.)
