A New View of Consciousness and Reality :
Multiple Sources - Same Knowledge :
Everyone has a purpose they must fulfill
before death
Evidence from NDE accounts, past-life regression, and LSD Psychotherapy also suggests that the physical world is like a training ground for our souls. A general life plan is written for us in the spiritual world, of events and circumstances that we will experience in our physical lives. Starting with an NDE account, we will learn that our circumstances in life are chosen in advance, based on what we need to learn as souls. This woman describes the knowledge she was given about her life during her NDE:

“I knew I got this body because my mother and father had this little body and all their close spirits were used up.  It was going to be a very weak, sick female body, but it was what I needed to experience what I (the spirit) needed in order to grow spiritually.  It was like taking a college class that you hated, (like calculus) but you knew you had to get a passing grade in it in order to graduate.  So I reluctantly agreed to take this body that belonged to a family I had never been with before.  I also knew that I had been in a previous body that was a huge mean man who abused women and children.  I needed to experience what it felt like to be a small, sickly woman.  I understood why the body was dyslexic.  Now that was a real challenge back in the 40-50s when you were humiliated and punished because you didn't know right from left.” 69

This account suggests many things, including the fact that we choose our families and the circumstances of our life in order to learn as souls. As a large man who abused women and children in a past life, her lesson in this life is to learn what it’s like to be a weak sickly woman who is abused.

Psychologist Michael Newton, in his book Journey of Souls, also writes that souls choose their bodies before they're born in order to learn the lessons they need to learn.70 His knowledge of this process stems from hypnotically regressing people to past lives as well as in-between lives. In one of his cases a woman remembered a past life in New England in the 1800's. At the age of six in that life she had fallen out of a horse-drawn carriage and subsequently run over by one of its wheels. The wheel crushed the bones of her legs just above the knees leaving her unable to stand or walk again for the rest of that life. 71 Upon inquiry it was found that this incident had been planned in the spirit world before she was ever born.

The reason she chose to become crippled was to gain intellectual concentration. In her own words, "being unable to walk made me read and study more. I developed my mind ... and listened to my mind. I learned to communicate well and to write with skill because I wasn't distracted. I was always in bed.” 72 She also comments on why she chose the family she was born into, saying that she "picked a family in a well-established, settled part of America.” 73 The many libraries in the place she chose, along with the loving care of her parents, allowed her to devote herself to scholarship. So again, we get the impression that our lives and life circumstances are planned and there is a purpose for them.

Psychiatrist and consciousness explorer Stanislav Grof also relates a personal story in his book, When the Impossible Happens, about the purpose he found behind one of his relationships. After immigrating from Czechoslovakia to the United States and establishing his professional life at Spring Grove state hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, it was time for him to meet a mate. After many unsuccessful attempts he finally met Monica, whom he had an instant deep attraction for and connection to. He describes how he fell in love with her quickly and they developed a passionate and unusually stormy relationship. Furthermore, he states:

"Monica's brother Wolfgang hated me from the very first time we met. He and Monica had an unusually intense relationship that seemed to have distinct incestuous features. Wolfgang was violently opposed to my relationship with Monica and treated me like a rival.” 74

During this time in history LSD was being tested for its psychotherapeutic potential. Grof, having done extensive research in this area and realizing the powerful psychological agent that LSD is, decided to volunteer for a high-dose LSD session at the hospital he worked at. At that time, it was open to professionals to have these sessions for training purposes. During the session it was his intention to unravel the complex dynamic that was going on in his relationship with Monica. As the session progressed, he found himself in a past life as the son of an aristocratic Egyptian family. While walking in a hall of an ancient Egyptian palace, his brother in that lifetime approached him.
Grof relates:  "As the figure came closer, I recognized that it was Wolfgang. He stopped about ten feet from me and looked at me with immense hatred. I realized that in this Egyptian incarnation Wolfgang, Monica, and I were siblings. I was the firstborn and, as such, I had married Monica and received many other privileges that came with that status. Wolfgang felt cheated and experienced agonizing jealousy and strong hatred toward me. I saw clearly that this was the basis of a destructive karmic pattern that then repeated itself in many variations throughout ages." 75

This explains the instant connection and deep love he felt for Monica shortly after they met in his current lifetime, as he was married to her in the Egyptian lifetime. It also explains the “distinct incestuous features” of Monica’s relationship to Wolfgang in this lifetime, as he had been her sibling before and had desired to marry her. Finally, it explains Wolfgang’s instant hatred for Grof in the current lifetime, as Grof’s relationship with Monica stirred up the unconscious memory of his hatred for Grof in the Egyptian lifetime for marrying Monica. It’s just one big giant puzzle, which the past is the key to unlocking. We clearly see that Grof’s current life experiences are in no way accidental; there is a purpose and reason for them.  

While experiencing the intense hatred coming from the past life figure of Wolfgang, he decided to try and dissipate this hatred somehow. He telepathically communicated to Wolfgang that he had taken a powerful mind altering drug which allowed him to time travel and that he would like to do anything possible to dissipate this hatred Wolfgang had for him. He then stretched out his arms in an open position and telepathically relayed the message:  "Here I am, this is all I have! Please, do anything you need to do to liberate us from this bondage, to set both of us free!" 76 Next, Wolfgang accepted his offer and Grof experienced Wolfgang's hatred in the form of two intense rays of energy which burned his body and caused him great pain. Finally after some time the rays of energy lost their power and faded away.

Now, skeptics might chalk something like this up to a psychological fantasy imagined by Grof. However, an intriguing synchronicity suggests otherwise. Shortly after his LSD session, Grof received a phone call from Wolfgang who wanted to discuss a problem he was having in a relationship with a woman.

Grof writes: "He thought about discussing the issue with me, but had rejected the idea because of his strong negative feelings toward me. But then his attitude toward me suddenly changed radically. His hatred dissolved as if by magic, and he decided to call me and seek help. When I asked him when this had happened, I found out that it exactly coincided with the time when I had completed the reliving of the Egyptian sequence." 77

It's one thing for Grof alone to experience psychologically the resolution of this ancient karmic pattern, but quite another for another player in the karmic pattern, who had no knowledge of what Grof was doing at the time, to experience the resolution of the same karmic pattern at the exact same time that Grof did. This suggests that something much deeper was going on beyond the confines of Grof's own psyche. It also suggests that Grof was indeed going back to the source of the karmic pattern that was playing itself out yet again in this life.

We can see from the previous account that Grof's relationship with Monica and Wolfgang was no accident. It was meant to happen, as it was part of a karmic pattern that had been repeating itself since his days in ancient Egypt. The plan for Grof's life included this relationship. Somehow this hatred between Grof and Wolfgang needed to be dispelled. Possibly this resolution could have occurred through later interactions in this life. However, Grof did it via an alternate route. In an altered state of consciousness, where his psyche had access to the information of his past lives, he went back to the source of the hatred between him and Wolfgang.




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