Tag Archive: past lives


The Role of Karma in Relationships

Filed Under: Destiny/Higher Plan, Karma, Past Lives, Relationships by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Role of Karma in Relationships

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Dear Soul Arcanum:

My question concerns karmic bondage. It is generally said that when we have unfinished karma with another person, like if there is strong hatred, anger or guilt, then after we leave this physical world, we reincarnate together to play exact opposite roles to clear up the karmic baggage of previous incarnations. Does this happen even when one has unconditional love towards the other? Can love make people reincarnate again, even if one of them has achieved self-realization? Can we stay un-affected by others’ intention to reincarnate with us? Thank you!
Muralidhar

Dear Muralidhar:

I’m sure that humankind’s understanding of karma, reincarnation, and similar subjects is very limited. As these are huge questions, I can only offer you what I’ve come to understand via some 20 years of past life readings as well as in depth study of research into these matters, such as the work of Dr. Michael Newton, Ph.D., who has regressed many subjects to the period between lives and then asked them deep questions about how incarnations are planned, as well as the research of great minds such as Dr. Brian Weiss, Dr. Ian Stevenson, Carol Bowman, etc.

It’s my understanding that when we are acting out karma in an unconscious way, we tend to do one of two things: we either act/react as you describe, or we get stuck in the same pattern over and over again. By the way, I believe this is true whether we’re talking about past lives or past experiences in our current life, so it may be easier to understand what I’m describing if we ponder how we all deal with various types of issues in a single lifetime.

Let’s take, for example, a relationship between young siblings. One child lashes out and strikes the other, at which point, the other child tends to respond by hitting back, cowering in submission, running away for help, etc. What an individual chooses to do in response to another’s actions depends on theirpersonality, social conditioning, level of spiritual development, etc. It is only when young souls mature that they begin to attempt more skillful, mindful responses.

So when we are acting out karma from an unconscious level, we do tend to either act/react or get stuck in certain patterns from one lifetime to the next. We may spend lifetime after lifetime trying to do unto others as they’ve done unto us, or playing the victim or bully over and over again in relationships. With time and experience we learn and grow, however, which leads us to change.

Please note my qualifier above that this is what happens when we act out karma from an unconscious level. When we grow conscious of why we are doing what we are doing, and we make a choice to reach for something better, we set ourselves free from this mindless karmic dance, and can then move into a higher level of experience.

When we grow more spiritually aware than your average bear and begin to consciously work from a metaphysical level, we can purposefully affect situations as desired. (We are unconsciously creating our realities all the time. The difference here is in our level of awareness: the more aware we are, the more empowered we are to break free of subconscious patterns and influences.)

So what’s missing from the simple view of karma as an endless dance of cause and effect is the truth that we are all divine creators of our own experiences, and are blessed with free will. Some people do unconsciously act and react over and over again, playing out the sort of karmic dynamics you describe, while others will purposefully break those patterns and make quantum leaps into new levels of experience instead of endlessly bouncing back and forth along the same old line.

It is thus through the cultivation of higher awareness that we attain liberation from karmic bondage. (Sound familiar?)

The way you phrased your question suggests that life on Earth is something we are better off avoiding. We must remember that our perspective on rebirth while we’re here in the physical is very different from how we may view it when we’re in Spirit and planning our next incarnation. It’s my understanding that we don’t have to reincarnate with someone if we don’t want to, but if it would be beneficial for us to do so on a soul level, then we may happily choose to do just that. From a higher spiritual perspective, this feels like a powerful opportunity, not a prison sentence.

On the flip side, love can and does lead us to reincarnate. In fact, all heartfelt desires tend to be fulfilled, so if we long to live with someone we loved in the past again, we will reincarnate in order to fulfill that wish. I often see this with people who fall in love with someone whom they can’t live with for some reason. When it’s not possible for them to be together as life partners, and they deeply desire to have this experience, then their strong desire naturally leads to a future life in which they can be together. Vows and promises are powerful soul contracts, so whether we promise someone we’ll come back to them or we vow to get even, we will play those plans out on a subconscious level until we become conscious of them and make a new choice. I view incarnating like taking a big trip or vacation: we choose to do it for the sake of the experience/adventure. Yes, traveling can be exhausting and scary and full of mishaps and inconveniences. Nevertheless, we all hunger to explore and experience something new and different, for it is our nature (as well as the nature of the Universe) to continue to expand: to spiral up and out, ad infinitum.

Also, our quality of life and our feelings about rebirth are greatly influenced by our level of spiritual development: the greater our power to consciously create what we want in the physical, the better our trips get. Thus there are people living in third world countries who long to escape this life, and there are also people who have attained a higher level of spiritual power and awareness who are signing up to go over with the Peace Corps for the sake of the experience and the opportunity to help make the world a better place. Both end up living in the same basic circumstances, but one is coming from a position of disempowerment and suffering, while the other is empowered and having a fine time.

In summary, yes: some people do mindlessly repeat the same karmic dance over and over again throughout many lifetimes as you describe. Eventually, however, we all learn and become motivated to change, which leads us to a higher level of experience. The bottom line is that our karma is personal: we are the ones who determine our level of freedom. The more we cultivate higher awareness, the freer we are to consciously choose our own course of experience.

– Soul Arcanum

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How to Handle Heavy Past Life Memories

Filed Under: Healing, Hypnotherapy, Karma, Past Lives, Reincarnation by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on How to Handle Heavy Past Life Memories

 

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I had a dream about my mother-in-law. It was set in the 1800’s; I could tell by the clothes we were wearing. It was very vivid, in full color. My mother-in-law was my mother, and she was trying to kill me because I had lost my virginity before marriage. As it turns out, I killed her in self-defense. I’m wondering if this is truly a past life experience – a message from spirit that my mother-in-law was indeed my mother in a past life. Are we together in this life to make up for my karma in the past? Do I tell her about my dream or will she think I’m crazy? What do I do with this dream? My birth date is 8/5/1970.
Katrina

Dear Katrina:

Your dream certainly sounds like the memory of a past life experience, since it’s set in another time period and involved people from your current life who were different people in the dream. Even more important, however, is your intuitive feeling about it. Of course, to access confirmation, more information, and/or healing of the issues involved, you could always pursue past life regression with a hypnotherapist.

Let’s work under the assumption that this is indeed a dream about a past life experience. Since souls tend to reincarnate in the same groups over and over again, it makes perfect sense that your mother in a past life would have a close relationship with you in this one.

Both our best and our worst relationships tend to be deeply karmic in nature. Since we learn the most from big challenges, when relationships are really difficult, we are wise to ask ourselves what we are learning as a result of that person being in our life.

I’d like to share with you a similar situation of my own. I knew the first time I laid eyes on my husband that he was part of my soul family and was destined to be important in my future. Months later, I also immediately recognized his ex-wife upon first meeting her. (She seemed to recognize me on some level too, as she was markedly unfriendly.)

My husband and his ex used to have a very antagonistic relationship, but I was determined to turn all of that around. Sadly, she didn’t seem to have any interest in having a harmonious relationship with either one of us, and no matter what I did, things always seemed to fall apart.

When I meditated on the situation, to my surprise, I remembered a past life in which his ex and I had been sisters. In that lifetime, he had begun to court her, which thrilled her because he was a really good catch. The first time he came to our house, however, I opened the door and the sparks flew. (We already had a soul mate bond when we met in that lifetime.) To make a long story short, he switched his attentions from my older sister to me, and my sister never forgave me.

After remembering this, it was easy to see why I wanted so badly for things to be good between us, and why she may have had animosity from the start. We’ve finally made peace, but this relationship still seems more important to me than it is to her. This may be because spiritual growth is more important to me in general, or it may be that in remembering that past life, I reawakened all the guilt and angst from that time for myself, so I’m highly motivated to resolve the karma and feelings involved.

Since we forget our past lives so that we can test ourselves to see if we have really learned the lessons involved, we often remember them when we finally master those lessons. I’m betting that close to the time of this dream, you achieved some sort of epiphany or spiritual breakthrough that relates to this lesson. With a bit of contemplation, I bet you can determine the dynamic or event in your relationship with your mother-in-law that triggered this memory.

As you contemplate this, you might ask yourself what you’ve learned or are learning as a result of having her in your life. For example, from the tumultuous relationship I described above, I’ve learned that we can only do our own best to create love and harmony: No matter how badly we may want to create greater love with someone, if the other person doesn’t want it, we have to respect that.

I’ve also learned that we don’t need the other person’s cooperation to heal our own souls and set ourselves free from karma. In fact, it’s normal for one person to be more motivated to work things out than the other person is, so we must focus on our own personal issues in relationships.

If you get hung up on the quality of the relationship itself, it can be very frustrating to try to create peace with old enemies since most people try to avoid those connections as much as possible. This is essentially the difference between one who is on a conscious spiritual path and everyone else: people who are motivated by fear tend to bury big issues and avoid emotional pain, while people who are motivated by love are eager to bring to light anything standing in the way of greater harmony.

Everyone comes to healing in their own time and way, and it’s not for us to decide what others should do or desire. For this reason, we must listen to our inner guidance and honor it. Then if we do feel called to make some effort, we’re wise to do so without attachment to receiving a particular outcome or response. If you can get into a vibration where you can remain kind and peaceful whether your efforts to create love and forgiveness are well-received or rejected, you will free yourself no matter what anyone else chooses to do.

You don’t have to do anything overt to heal yourself from the past; what’s important is what happens inside of you. Can you have compassion for yourself and all that you were up against? Can you also find compassion for her and recognize how stressed she must have been to act as she did? When you fully integrate the lessons this relationship is teaching you, and you forgive yourself and everyone else involved, you will be free.

Finally, our point of power is right now, so resolving past karma isn’t as important as creating good karma today. Instead of getting hung up on the past, I recommend you focus on making your current relationship as good as it can be. If she remains antagonistic, you can always send love to her in your heart and mind without needing any particular response in return.

In summary, ask your own inner guidance how to best make peace with the past, and act on the intuitions you receive. At the same time, strive to create loving relationships with everyone in your life right now. This will not only lift you above old karma, it will empower you to soar to new heights of health, happiness, personal power and prosperity in this lifetime, and align you with wonderful spirit family reunions in all your lives to come.

– Soul Arcanum

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A Spiritual Perspective on Codependency

Filed Under: Destiny/Higher Plan, Emotional Well-being, Healing, Relationships by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on A Spiritual Perspective on Codependency

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Dear Soul Arcanum:
Could you please explain what codependency is? What fears lie behind it, and what healing tools could be used to heal it? Thank you for the wonderful job you do with Soul Arcanum – your words bring more light into my life!
Ellen

Dear Ellen:

Codependency ultimately arises from a lack of faith in a higher plan and power. If we believe that we won’t be okay unless we remain vigilantly in control, and that others won’t be okay unless we personally guide and rescue them, then we will go to insane lengths to try to make things go the way we think they should go.

Codependency is of course also a relationship issue involving a lack of clear personal boundaries. Basically, codependents misdirect their efforts by taking responsibility for others’ choices. Further, everyone has fears of abandonment/being alone. Some people avoid the potential pain of being rejected by avoiding getting too close or attached, while others (codependents) try to prevent the potential hurt of being lonely by clinging on tight, avoiding the truth, and smoothing things over. They literally lose themselves in relationships.

Codependency always involves an addict – otherwise we’d just call it obsession. In this scenario, the addict may addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, attention, drama, or even just being lazy and irresponsible, while the codependent is addicted to the addict. All addicts feel they can’t live without whatever (or whomever) they’re addicted to, and this is what motivates their desperate, self-destructive, crazy behavior. In the dependent/codependent relationship, neither person is centered in their own personal power; both are looking for God or emotional sustenance in something/someone outside of themselves instead of within.

I believe that we all have addictive and codependent tendencies, for we all have fears of being vulnerable, alone, helpless, unloved, abandoned, unhappy, unfulfilled, etc. Further, even seemingly emotionally healthy people have buried issues that can lie dormant for years and then be reawakened by any number of triggers.

For example, we may meet someone from a past life with whom we have dependent/codependent karmic patterns, or connect with someone new who pushes one of our buttons. When this happens, we tend to feel a strong sense of connection or attraction to that person, and may mistakenly assume that this means we’ve met the soul mate we’ve been praying for and will live happily ever after with them. Instead, our inner beings feel drawn to these people because they can help us heal something deep within us that needs healing.

This is what happens when children of alcoholics grow up and marry other addicts. Even when they carefully screen out overt alcoholics, to their dismay, many find themselves repeating familiar old patterns. If Sandy was forever covering for dad when she was a girl, she may marry a man who constantly needs rescuing in some way in order to learn that this sort of behavior isn’t truly loving or respectful of either one of them. If Mom was affectionate and cheerful when drugged up but mean and withdrawn when sober, Bill may be strangely attracted to women who run hot and cold in order to heal the emotional wounds he suffered as a child.

The possibilities are endless: the point is that what attracts us to other people on an unconscious, spiritual level is always meaningful and purposeful. While we are drawn to certain people because they may have the traits we consciously desire in a partner, there are other, deeper forces at work as well.

I did my own wretched tour of codependent duty when I was a freshman in college. As I had grown up with an obese, food-addicted father, I was well-trained in codependency myself. When I met Dan, there was an instant feeling of soul recognition, and yet my heart didn’t swell with love and delight. Instead, it was like I’d just come across a live wire on the ground that was sending out fiery sparks: I felt enthralled but wary.

Dan was brilliant, fascinating, sexy, self-possessed, and a mean, ugly drunk. When he was sober, life with him was heaven; when he was drinking, it was hell. He loved me beautifully two thirds of the time, and the other third he treated me like dirt. This was profoundly heart-wrenching and confusing, but because I was so attached to the ecstasy, I kept hanging on through the miserable times with him. Nothing was more important to me than him loving me completely, so I accepted his addiction as an excuse for his totally unacceptable behavior. Instead of telling him what I really thought and felt, I tried to smooth things over and keep them going. Instead of drawing a firm line with him, I let him emotionally use and abuse me.

I know that many people reading this can relate. For those who haven’t been through something similar, imagine a pimp getting you hooked on crack by giving you a little taste and then disappearing…showing up suddenly with another little bit of heaven, getting you high, beating the crap out of you, and then taking off again…returning with sweet apologies and lots of what you want but then suddenly claiming a supply shortage and jacking his prices sky high. If you want it, you can have it, but you’ll have to sell yourself to get it. Since you feel like you’re dying without it, you’re willing to give up anything – your health, your self-respect, your very soul – just to stop the pain.

This is what happens when codependents get hooked on addicts. By nature, addicts are not emotionally honest with themselves or anyone else, which generates seemingly crazy, irrational behavior. When we remember that codependents are also addicts, it’s easy to see how confusion reins and endless crazy swings between hope and despair become normal.

In terms of spiritual development, codependents tend to ignore both reason and their intuition. They will continue with this as long as their fear of being alone or unloved is greater than their fear of being used, abused and in a miserable relationship. Eventually, however, the pain and frustration grow intolerable and they begin to reason their way out of the mess they find themselves in.

My head kept trying to tell me that what I was doing with Dan didn’t make sense and wasn’t leading where I really wanted to go, but I believed I couldn’t live without him. Eventually, reason convinced me that if I really wanted to feel loved and happy, I was going about it all wrong. How could anyone truly love and respect me when I was unable to respect myself enough to stop the insanity?

Of course, by enabling their addict, most codependents believe that they are acting in a loving manner. Once they realize that enabling addicts is more hurtful than helpful of everyone involved, they naturally begin to change.

Finally, at the heart of the journey of healing from codependency is the development of faith in something bigger than ourselves. When we have faith that everything happens for a good reason and everyone is doing whatever they need to do in order to learn what they need to learn, it’s easy to give up trying to save or control them. Others are already doing whatever they need to be doing, and they can only save themselves anyway. This goes for us too, of course: we realize that instead of wasting our time and energy trying to force square pegs into round holes, we would be wise to focus on fulfilling our own goals and dreams with trust that if we align with what we want within, whatever happens in our outer experience will prove to be for the best.

– Soul Arcanum

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Startling Parallels in Karmic Soul Connections

Filed Under: Energy/Vibration, Past Lives, Reincarnation, Relationships, Strange Phenomena by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Startling Parallels in Karmic Soul Connections

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

It has been a very long road since my husband John’s death, and now that I’ve moved on and found new love, I’ve been trying to figure out how my husband John and boyfriend Michael are connected, for they have many similarities in terms of their likes, expressions and even some aspects of the way they look. I didn’t see any of this upon first meeting Michael, but I did feel an instant sense of recognition. Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out the connection, and after reading some of your articles, it dawned on me that the three of us may have been one soul before, and now we’ve divided into different bodies. Do you think that’s possible? Thanks for sharing your light!
– T.

Dear T.

You’ve reminded me of something strange that happened to me a long time ago. I haven’t told anyone about this before because it’s pretty far out.

My first love, Todd, was on the short side and very stocky/muscular. He had a strong jaw and an unusual scar on his right shoulder. It’s called a keloid scar, and it looked like a raised, reddish bubble about the size of a grape. He was very into rock and roll, and was in a rock band. Though he hid it from everyone (including me), he also had a major problem with drug and alcohol addiction. He was born on January 16, 1967.

Todd died very unexpectedly at the age of 18, and it was due to the incredible experiences I had around the time of his death that I began to question the nature of reality and ponder some big spiritual questions.

I left for college about 18 months after he died, and was placed in a dorm room right next door to that of a young man named Dan. I felt a very strong karmic connection to Dan right away. Here’s where things bend so far beyond the scope of coincidence that any sane, reasonable person has to wonder what the heck is going on.

Dan had the same stocky build Todd had had, the same strong jaw, and he was also into rock and roll. In fact, he played a mean electric guitar, which was really unusual at the very conservative university we were attending. I was soon to learn that Dan also had a serious alcohol addiction.

As I mentioned, I felt a very strong connection to him and he seemed to feel an equally strong attraction to me. We soon became lovers, and that’s when I discovered that he had a scar on his right shoulder that was identical to the one Todd had had in the same place. I could feel something strange rippling beneath the surface here, and without consciously thinking about it, I found myself asking him when he was born.

When he told me he was born on January 16, 1967 – the exact same day that Todd was born – my mind was just totally blown. As I tried to wrap my head around all these amazing parallels, I remembered something that Todd’s mother had told me the first time I met her. At that time it had been a subject of mild interest, but now it was like a flashing neon sign in my mind. She’d told me that Todd was her “miracle baby” because he’d had a twin who had died in the womb.

While I knew this was a really far out idea, I naturally began to wonder if Dan could be Todd’s twin somehow. Perhaps they had intended to be born to the same mother, but then Dan decided that a different body and family situation would better serve his soul’s needs.

I’ve since studied a lot of past life regression research and learned that people who are regressed to the period between lives consistently report that we have a choice about the bodies and families we’ll be born into. However, there are only so many bodies available, so we have to try to find the best fit for us given various factors. If something went wrong with the body of the twin, Dan may have had to find an alternative. Of course, it’s possible that he changed his mind first and when he withdrew his life force energy, the body of the twin stopped growing.

I certainly felt a very strong sense of connection to both of these young men the instant I met them, though at that time, I didn’t know what that strange feeling was. I now believe that our deep karmic connection naturally drew us into each other’s experience again.

As for how all of this may work, when I ponder the idea of reincarnation, I keep returning to a model of the incarnating soul that mirrors biological cellular division. We know that living cells divide into new “incarnations,” which divide into further incarnations, so it makes sense to me to assume that the metaphysical mirrors the physical, and that the same dynamic happens on a spiritual level.

This model resonates with me for many reasons. In fact, it explains all sorts of phenomena. For example:

  • It’s in harmony with the notion that “God” is both our Source and is everywhere and in everything.

 

  • It explains the universal spiritual teaching that we are all ultimately One: all from one Source and all connected on some level. Just as the cells in our bodies have all grown from the same fertilized egg, our souls have all grown from the same Divine spirit.

 

  • It explains how more than one person could remember living the same past life, that incarnation having occurred before that spirit divided into more spirits. It also illuminates the dynamic behind the notion of spiritual families, the members of which would be more directly or recently descended from the same ancestor spirits.

 

  • It explains the keen sense of connection and recognition we feel with some people, these being those we were more recently at one with.

 

  • It explains how reincarnation could be true despite the fact that the population of the planet is increasing, for there are ever more souls to incarnate than there used to be.

 

  • It jibes with our awareness that on a spiritual level, we are immortal, for we are forever expanding into new experiences, world without end. It is our nature to go forth and multiply. It also mirrors our awareness that the Universe is ever expanding.

If your mind can handle a bit more stretching, try this on for size: perhaps to each cell in our bodies, the whole of who we are is “God,” and similarly, what we consider to be God is a living entity of which we are a tiny aspect. The microcosm mirrors the macrocosm.

I don’t know that this is how it works, of course – no one can say for sure. It’s just a mental model that may explain some of the strange things we experience in karmic relationships.

– Soul Arcanum

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Mirror Gazing and Transfiguration

Filed Under: Past Lives, Reincarnation, Strange Phenomena by Soul Arcanum — 1 Comment

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I was trying to learn to read my own aura by looking at myself in a mirror when a very strange thing started to happen. I looked into the mirror at my forehead and looked past that point. I saw very little by the way of an aura, but I did see something weird: I began to see faces superimposed over my own. The first couple of faces were kind of scary looking, and then they began to change rapidly. I saw a wide variety of faces, including some that looked like they weren’t fully human, like homo erectus or something. Can you tell me what was happening?
– Justin

Dear Justin:

This is such a common experience given what you were doing that many people gaze into a mirror in order to initiate this very phenomenon. Great instructions on how to try this can be found at near-death.com.

The most common term for what you’re seeing is “transfiguration,” which of course means a marked change in one’s appearance. Transfiguration is also a type of physical mediumship in which spirits use the etheric energy of the medium to project their image over the medium’s own face.

It’s quite possible you were seeing either the faces of spirits who are attached to your aura, or the faces of spirits who want to communicate with someone in the physical dimension who can perceive them. This happened because you were in an altered state of consciousness and able to see into the fourth dimension. When you became able to perceive subtle energies (such as your aura or the energy of spirits), earthbound entities rushed forward in hopes of being seen and heard.

There is another possibility, however. My own experiences have led me to understand that we can also perceive our own past selves and the past selves of other people in a similar way. This is because those other selves don’t exist in another place and time but rather in a parallel dimension. We are living all sorts of lives simultaneously, and by becoming aware of other dimensions, we may interact with ourselves in other forms. If we aren’t aware of this possibility, we may assume that these faces must be the spirits of so-called dead people.

The first time I experienced transfiguration many years ago, I had never heard of anything like this before. I was sitting with my friend Charlie, with whom I had a very powerful spiritual connection. At the time this event occurred, it was late at night, and we were both exhausted from arguing about our relationship, which we believed to be ending. We were sitting on the floor at his apartment, and were across the room from each other with our backs against facing walls. The room was very dim.

After we’d run out of things to say, we just sat staring at each other for a while. Then as I gazed at him, his face began to change. I saw a series of faces, one after another. Some were male, some were female, and some looked inhuman. One of the last faces I saw resembled a Spanish conquistador with dark hair and a long pointy beard. Just then Charlie broke our trance by gasping in alarm.

When we shared what had just happened, we learned that we had experienced the exact same thing: we had both seen a succession of different faces superimposed on the other’s. At the end, he had also seen me as a man with a pointy beard, but because of his Catholic upbringing, he had interpreted this to be the devil, which had scared him. We were dumbfounded and wondered if what we’d seen was how we’d looked in other lives we’d shared. As you might imagine, this experience made us instantly forget about arguing!

I’m also reminded of a story I read years ago in which a woman described how she was warned of danger by her own future self. She was in a hotel room with some very bad men who wouldn’t allow her to leave, and when she went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, she saw her face change to one that was different yet familiar. The woman in the mirror told her she had to get out of there, and she even told her what to say to the men in order to do it. She did as directed and escaped. About twenty years later, she was looking in the mirror when suddenly these two events came together: she suddenly found herself remembering that event and felt the pressing need to warn her younger self of danger. She then realized that the face that had warned in her the mirror was her own face aged some twenty years – that’s why it had seemed different yet familiar.

When we ponder the idea that time isn’t linear, all sorts of explanations become possible for this sort of phenomenon. Thus the faces we see may be the spirits of departed loved ones, earthbound entities who are drawn to us because we’re of similar vibration, or even our own “spirits” from other lives.

We can learn a great deal about ourselves and others based on the faces we see, for they reflect our own unconscious natures. If, for example, you see a lot of angry faces, it suggests repressed or unresolved anger issues because when someone is full of angry energy, they attract entities of a similar nature. When we become conscious of some repressed or buried issue, we begin to process it and release it or clear it out. As we then change, we naturally attract more positive energies. So by reflecting on what we see, we can become conscious of repressed issues and work through them.

As for why some of these faces may seem inhuman, it’s because they are from dimensions where such beings exist. I even believe that people can live parallel lives that aren’t human because I have had very vivid “dream” experiences of my life as a dolphin. Perhaps you have a parallel life as a “homo erectus,” as you put it. Of course, it’s also possible these images are not part of “us” but rather beings that exist in another dimension.

While it’s absolutely mind boggling, maybe sometimes what we are seeing with transfiguration is past lives when we’ve shared an identity with someone else. Think about it: at the highest level, we are all of one soul, and since everything and everyone exist simultaneously, some of the people we are close to in this lifetime are part of ourselves in other lives.

It’s a bit like cellular division: We begin as one soul that divides over and over again into new incarnations. Since time isn’t linear, we continue to exist both as our individual selves now and as the selves we were before splitting off into our current personalities. If two people tune in to a higher dimension together, they may thus access lives in which they were aspects of the same person.

This means it’s possible that what Charlie and I saw that night was identical because we were seeing other lives that belonged to both of us prior to us splitting into separate entities in this lifetime. This idea resonates with me because if there was a purpose to what happened that night, it certainly felt like we were being guided to quit arguing by recognizing that our perceived differences were nothing compared to our deep spiritual kinship.

– Soul Arcanum

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Karma

Filed Under: Destiny/Higher Plan, Karma, Past Lives, Reincarnation by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Karma

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I overheard someone mention the word “karma” today, and it got me thinking. What exactly is karma, anyway? Do you believe the concept of karma is legitimate, or do you think it’s an idea dreamed up by people who want an excuse to not take personal responsibility for their lives? I would much rather believe in free will and our ability to make better choices for ourselves as opposed to something like fate. Is karma real? Is it worth even talking about? If so, what can we do about it? Is karma “fair?” Who enforces karma – God? If I seem to be experiencing patterns of “bad luck” in my life, does that mean I have “bad” karma? I am a Christian who believes in reincarnation, but I am not sure that what I did in past lives can affect me now for better or for worse. What are you beliefs on this subject?
– Elena

Dear Elena:

In Sanskrit, the word karma means “action.” When we speak of karma, we are basically referring to the universal law of cause and effect, action and reaction. We might say an individual’s karma is the sum of his or her actions that are still awaiting reaction.

I was surprised at your slant on karma and responsibility, because it seems to me that believing in karma is not a cop out in which we blame our “bad luck” on some force outside of ourselves. Instead, believing in karma is taking total responsibility for whatever we’ve created in our lives, whether we created it recently or in some distant time and place. Further, believing in karma means we know we will have to “answer for” our choices in the future.

Some people believe that “God” or some other deity will enforce the law of karma and dole out rewards or punishments based on our behavior, but most people seem to share my view that it is simply a natural universal law like gravity.

Karma simply acknowledges the universal truth that “like attracts like.” If we send love into the world, love returns to us. If we are selfish because we fear lack, we get more lack. Working with karma is therefore not so much a matter of being “good” as it is choosing to embody and focus upon what we desire to experience. If we desire love, we must be loving. If we desire happiness, we must spread happiness. If we desire success, we must focus our resources on creating that success. This takes the need for any sort of moral judgment by a deity out of the equation.

If we replace the word karma with a more familiar term like “momentum,” it’s easier to see how karma is just a natural law. Then the questions many people have about karma become obvious. Do you believe in momentum? Who enforces momentum – God? Is momentum “fair?” If momentum is carrying me in a certain direction, is it because I was “bad” in a past life? Further, when we view karma as momentum, it’s easy to see that to end up somewhere other than where we seem to be heading, we need to exercise free will and choose to move in a new direction.

It is helpful to think and talk about karma because when we become conscious of the effects of our actions, we can learn to choose more wisely. We all have habitual reactions to most circumstances, and so long as we continue to react the same way, we will continue to get the same results. When we recognize that we are creating our experiences and we choose to respond in a more conscious way, we move into a higher level of experience and essentially free ourselves from that karmic pattern.

To do this, we must be able to honestly observe ourselves. Given the powerful role of the ego, this can be very hard to do. The ego naturally wants us to blame other people for our problems instead of recognizing that we have brought them upon ourselves. Even when we do realize we are creating our own experiences, getting past the ego can be very challenging.

A conscious spiritual path is one in which we begin to pay careful attention to our choices and what may result from our actions. It is a constant quest to uncover what is truly right and important, and to stretch ourselves past the ego to take right action. This requires great courage, tolerance, patience, humility, etc.

For many of us, the most challenging karma we deal with involves our closest relationships. When we have strong feelings of love or hate for someone, it’s usually a sign that there is a lot of karma between us.

If we want to improve our karma, the most powerful thing we can do is rise above the most negative emotion we feel. If there is a relationship that is very troubling, we can work on healing it. If there is someone we hold hatred for in our hearts, we can find a way to forgive them and make peace with them.

It doesn’t matter if others work with us or not. We can’t change another’s karma, and we will only feel the effects of our own anyway. If, however, we have wronged or hurt someone in some way, we must at least try to make things right or help them feel better. When we reach the point where we can love our enemies as our spiritual brothers and sisters and appreciate all we’ve learned through our interactions with them, then we have transformed a former enemy into a future friend.

There are a couple of aspects of karma that frequently confuse people. One is the matter of intention. Our intentions are paramount. If we “kill a bad guy” in order to save a bunch of innocent people, we don’t carry the karma of a murderer but of a hero, for our intention was to save innocent people. If we break a law in order to help or protect someone, and we hurt no one else by doing so, then we carry the karma of helping or protecting someone.

Another point that many people overlook is the matter of duty. Some passive types seem to believe that it is best to try to do as little as possible in life in order to avoid incurring bad karma. It’s my understanding that this is rather backwards, for failing to take appropriate action is just as bad as doing the wrong thing.

It is thus foolish to stand back and watch someone suffer when we could help, to stand in the way of someone trying to do the right thing, to fail to speak up for what’s right because we’re afraid, to fail to apologize because we’re too proud, etc. Further, we all have duties to fulfill. If we bring a child into the world, we have a duty to lovingly care for that child. If we marry someone, we swear to do and be certain things for that person, and it is our duty to fulfill our vows.

Also, from a higher perspective, having a “hard” or challenging life is not a bad thing. We do not incarnate to do nothing but party – we live in order to learn and grow. Believing that having lots of challenges must mean we have bad karma is like assuming that students who choose a challenging course of study in college must have been bad students before they got there. Instead, it suggests that they are ambitious and want to learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Finally, when it comes to karma, most people focus too much on the past – on explaining what has already happened and blaming karma for it – instead of focusing on the future and aligning with what they desire. We are wise to remember that if past mistakes can create present problems, then present wisdom can create future blessings. The law of karma teaches us that our “fate” is not out of our hands; instead, it is of our own creation.

Talking about karma reminds us that we can never really avoid anything, and it’s foolish to give up, for we will naturally have to deal with the repercussions of our choices eventually. In fact, the more we acknowledge and consciously work with the law of karma, the faster we can manifest whatever we want in our lives, whether that is a higher level of experience here on Earth, or the ultimate spiritual goal of “enlightenment.”

– Soul Arcanum

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The Opposite of Grief: Reuniting with Someone from a Past Life

Filed Under: Afterlife, Death and Dying, Destiny/Higher Plan, Emotional Well-being, Healing, Past Lives, Relationships by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Opposite of Grief: Reuniting with Someone from a Past Life

 

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Dear Soul Arcanum:

My husband of six years passed away two years ago after a long battle with cancer. I have been blessed with sensing his presence at times, and with truly believing he is free from suffering and I will see him again someday. Nevertheless, I can’t seem to move on. Maybe I’m just not sure where to go from here. I’m in my mid-thirties, we had no children together, and I have a satisfying career. Despite all the good things in my life, it feels like I’ve already had the best love had to offer me. I would appreciate any advice you could give me.
– Brenda

Dear Brenda:

I’d like to share a personal experience with you.

When I was a young woman, my first love died very suddenly. There are many amazing spiritual stories surrounding that event, but there is one in particular that is relevant here.

A few days after Todd died, I awoke in the middle of the night in a panic. I was burning up with heat and gasping for breath, and as I opened my eyes, I could see the room was filled with smoke. Assuming the house was on fire, and I catapulted out of bed and flew across the hall, where I pounded on my parents’ door yelling, “Fire! Fire!”

My father was at the door in a flash with a fire extinguisher in his hand, shouting, “Where? Where?” As I turned and looked back into my room, the smoke was gone. There was nothing there. Speechless, I mumbled something like, “It was there, I swear…”

For three nights in a row I was awakened the same way. The second night I actually repeated my frantic scramble for help. (My father did NOT make it to the door nearly as quickly that time). The third night I forced myself to sit still in bed, and as I did so, the smoke dissipated before my eyes.

Many years later, I am now married to the love of my life. I don’t have room here to go into all the incredible details of how we found each other, but it was definitely preordained. The important thing to note is that I have found even greater love than I lost long ago – and with a firefighter. It took me nearly 20 years to figure out those “fire” experiences in the night, but I now believe that Todd was trying to give me a sign that I would find true love again, and how it would come to me.

When our grief over someone’s passing has subsided but we still feel empty, I believe we are wise to focus on just what Todd was trying to shift my attention to: all the people we have yet to meet whom we already love so well. We must remember that just as death is inevitable, life is ever leading us back to people we have loved in other lives. The cure for your emptiness is deciding to reconnect with these kindred spirits.

Also, while I believe that grief is totally natural, I think we have developed some unhealthy ways of dealing with it. Some people, for example, assume that the devastation they feel when someone dies must indicate that death is indeed a horrible and final end.

As I see it, grief is a natural response to the end of anything we have loved well. It’s normal to be sad when we are leaving some person, place or era that has held a lot of happiness for us. Ironically, it’s my understanding that many souls feel some grief about leaving the spirit world to incarnate here on Earth, which makes our grief over doing the reverse seem a bit overblown. It’s focusing on the past that causes us pain; at some point, it only makes sense to shift our attention to all the possibilities on the horizon.

Every time someone we love departs our experience, it creates room in our lives for someone else who is just as special. Too often people feel that they are somehow betraying a departed loved one by loving someone else. I say that by holding themselves back from new love, they may betray someone they have loved just as deeply in another life, whom they have yet to meet again in this one. Just think: what if you had met someone else prior to meeting your husband, and when that person died, you closed yourself off from new love?

Romance aside, there are many people you have loved in other lives who are waiting to love you again, and I think you owe it to all of those loved ones to stay open to creating new happiness with them. For example, I have done readings for parents who had lost a child, and to whom that same soul had already returned in the form a new baby. It often takes such parents years to recognize the departed child in the younger sibling. Eventually when the child begins to talk, however, they will do things or say things evidential of their true identity. Some children will even refer to the “last time” they were here, before they died in some manner, when they were so and so, etc. Then those parents realize that they have spent years grieving for a child who was sitting right beside them!

I have similarly read for number of widows and widowers who say that they will never fall in love again, and been shown an even greater love for them in the future. This is always a love that already exists, and usually it is with someone they have loved even more deeply and truly than the person they say they will never get over. I think it’s exciting to know that for each one of us, there are many people out there whom we have been missing on an unconscious level and have yet to meet up with again in this lifetime.

While big reunions between souls are often destined to happen at certain junctures, there are some things you can do to reconnect with as many people you’ve loved in other lives as possible. Here are a few:

  • Act on your impulses to go certain places and speak to certain people.
  • Stay open to meeting new people and letting them get close to you.
  • Call or contact people who frequently come to mind, for often these are relationships you are being guided to pursue.
  • Accept invitations from strangers you feel drawn to.
  • Honor your hunches and feelings about seemingly unrelated matters, such as which job you will take and where you will live. Often we are led to meet important people through such decisions.

Here are a few signs that you’re in the presence of someone you have loved before:

  • You have a very strange feeling, or it seems like time stands still when you first meet them.
  • They seem vaguely familiar or you feel unusually drawn to them.
  • The way you meet is surrounded by lots of synchronicity, like you were guided or destined to find each other.
  • You can see certain turning points or incidents in the past that are strongly connected to this meeting or to this person. For example, my ex-husband said that for his entire life, he’d had a picture in his mind of his “ideal girl.” He thought this was just a fantasy until he met me and discovered that the girl with that face actually existed.
  • Other people in your life are strongly connected to someone you feel an instant sense of kinship with. For example, if you have a strong feeling of familiarity upon meeting your brother’s fiance, it could mean that you’re GOING to know her in the future, but it could also mean you’ve known and loved her in another life. Since we reincarnate in soul groups, it’s common for there to be strong connections between your loved ones.
  • This relationship seems to have a life of its own – it just happens.

As I see it, my friend, the future is rich with exciting opportunities to love again. Please do remember that the karmic bond you feel to people from past lives is no more special just because it began in another time and place. As a very wise song goes, if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with. You could create the most magnificent relationship EVER with someone you meet for the first time today.

– Soul Arcanum

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How Does Psychic Information Help Us Create Change?

Filed Under: Divine Guidance, Emotional Well-being, Past Lives, Psychic Ability, Psychic Readings, Reincarnation, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on How Does Psychic Information Help Us Create Change?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

A little over a year ago, I fell down some stairs and hit the top of my neck. It’s been a long path to healing, but when I realized that I could consciously relax this area, the level of chronic pain became much more bearable. What hasn’t really helped was the information given to me by a healer who said that the reason I hurt my neck was because in a past life I was tortured and killed by a “dark energy cult” who did something gruesome to my neck. It’s not like I find this unbelievable or even particularly frightening; I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it. I’ve experienced plenty of things in this life to explain why I remain inert in the face of approaching danger or why I walk carelessly down a wet spiral staircase. To what extent are we defined by our past lives? I find it difficult to imagine why I would recreate a shadow experience of something terrible. Are we even supposed to know what happened in past lives? I ask this because I have never found self-awareness to be a major impetus for behavioral/physical change.
– Karla

Dear Karla:

I think this question is really about the power of conscious awareness. Whether the experiences affecting us at a subconscious level stem from our past in this life or another life, if we are unaware of why we are doing what we are doing, then those experiences are controlling our behavior. When we become conscious of why we do what we do, then we gain the power to make a conscious choice to do something else.

Here’s a simple, classic example that is sadly all too common: Let’s say that when Sandy was little, she was molested by her father. She may have a vague recollection of this, or have totally repressed her memories of it. It doesn’t really matter, so long as she is not conscious of how those early experiences are affecting her today.

Fast forward twenty or thirty years, and now Sandy has a hard time getting close to men. As soon as a man begins to get too close, she finds fault with him or starts acting “crazy” and pushing him away.

She may come to me for a reading, asking, “Why can’t I find the right guy?” Or, if she has some self-awareness, she might ask, “Why do I sabotage these relationships? Why do I always treat the nicest guys like dirt?”

Well, Sandy learned at an early age that it is the men you should be able to trust the most – the ones who are supposed to protect you and take care of you – that you have to watch out for. When a man says he loves you, beware. Thus as soon as a guy seems to care too much, she feels panicked and starts to flail around to get out of the relationship.

If she can get conscious about why she is doing what she is doing, then she can work through the irrational, self-defeating aspects of her belief system, and choose a more empowering and fulfilling approach to relationships.

I know this works myself. When I was a teenager, like many girls that age, all I wanted was to be pretty and popular. I put a lot of effort into being skinny, attractive, etc. Then I was stalked and raped by a man who saw me as so “desirable” that he had to have me for himself.

In the wake of that experience, I blamed myself. I said things to myself like, “Well, you wanted to be irresistible! That’s what you get!” I then started gaining weight and wearing huge clothes. I stopped wearing makeup. I stopped getting a lot of male attention. I wasn’t happy being out of shape and unattractive, but I felt safer.

I woke up one day and realized WHY I was overeating, not exercising, and dressing in baggy clothes. I then decided to “empower” myself by getting very strong and fit. I started eating right, lifting weights, running, and training in karate. I became obsessed with being fit and strong.

To this day, I still work out a lot. There are some healthy, positive reasons for this, but there is also a bit of that desire to be able to protect myself too. Maybe that’s unhealthy, or maybe it’s just wise given the nature of the world. I do know that becoming conscious of why I was doing what I was doing freed me to find the healthiest way to deal with it. I’m happy feeling strong and fit. I feel empowered.

Our past lives often do continue to affect us. The more intense/traumatic an experience in our past was, the greater its potential power over us will be. Since we don’t usually remember our past life experiences, they tend to influence us in unconscious ways.

When a big past life trauma is swept under the rug of our conscious awareness, it forms a lump in our lives that we can’t really see. We then trip over that lump again and again until we make a connection between walking in that area and getting hurt. Then we may be able to walk around it to avoid it, but of course, the hazard is still there. If we aren’t “paying attention,” we could trip over it again. If we consciously address that lump – if we lift up the rug and drag it out into the light and clean it out of there, we won’t have that vulnerability anymore.

Just because something happened in a past life, however, that doesn’t mean that we’re doomed to experience it again. While I won’t comment on the accuracy of the unusual reading you received, I find it rather strange to be seeking the reason for an accident in a past life in the first place. Accidents happen; they don’t always have some deep or higher meaning. We can have an accident if we simply fail to consciously manifest well-being. If we’re not grounded, not paying attention, not fully in our bodies, then accidents happen, and we’re snapped back to reality. If we keep finding ourselves in the same sort of pattern of experience, however, then it may be helpful to seek the metaphysical reasons why.

You asked if we’re even supposed to know about past life experiences. I found that a most interesting question. Why indeed would we generally not remember them unless there was a good reason?

I asked Spirit, and it was explained to me that we gain access to power and information as we become ready for it. Thus the more evolved we are spiritually, the more spiritual abilities we’ll gain, and the more awareness we’ll have of things like our past lives, the deeper meaning behind our experiences, etc. Spiritual evolution is a journey of ever expanding conscious awareness. We can trust that if we are made aware of something, it is natural and right for us now.

I feel that this fall sparked a big surge forward spiritually for you. Often accidents release a surge in kundalini. If you look back, you will see how this fall launched you into a period of deep spiritual questioning. That may not have been its “purpose,” but it was the result. Take it for what it is, and make the most of it. Instead of looking back and asking “Why?” look forward and ask, “Where do I want to go from here?”

We are not doomed to repeat past life experiences. In fact, the whole point of accessing past life information is to become more aware of any unconscious programs that are driving self-defeating habits so we can create what we want instead. Regardless of what happened in the past, we have the power to choose what we will create in our lives now.

We’ve all had hard times and dark experiences in this and in other lives. Becoming conscious of the deep fears we carry as a result of these experiences can empower us to release them. As all great spiritual teachers have taught, the path to realization is one of self-awareness. The more we know ourselves, the more empowered we are to consciously work with natural spiritual law.

– Soul Arcanum

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When We Bump Into People We’ve Known in Past Lives

Filed Under: Past Lives, Reincarnation by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on When We Bump Into People We’ve Known in Past Lives

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I had a striking experience in a shop last Saturday. Someone quietly asked my husband and me if we were assistants in the shop. We turned around to answer “No, we’re just waiting for our son,” and when I saw this man, I was just transfixed. I had an overwhelming feeling that I can’t really put into words. He was a Frenchman, and while he was handsome and had a soft voice, that wasn’t the source of this overwhelming feeling. The best way I can explain my feeling is to say it was one of deep love – the kind you might feel for a child or someone very dear and special. While this was happening, I was partly conscious of my reaction and how I must appear to others, but I just couldn’t pull myself out of it, it was so warm and peaceful. He too had an obvious reaction, for he sort of shook himself after a moment like he was coming out of a daydream. Since this experience, I’ve had a feeling like I said goodbye to someone I should have embraced. I have never felt anything like this in my life. Is there an explanation for it?
– Jaki

Dear Jaki:

I love this question, for I have had a similar experience. My children and I attend two karate classes every Monday night, which makes it tough to cook dinner, so on our way home those evenings, I started to take them to a sandwich shop. The first night we went in there was a tall handsome man working the counter. Something electric happened the minute we made eye contact that was strange and special. I could feel that he could feel it too, and because I am shy (and also very happily married), I quickly placed our orders and left the shop.

Every Monday we would return, and over the weeks, I began to relax a little bit more, though I was still quite nervous around him. (I am accustomed to being the only one who can sense such things, and therefore I don’t speak of them. I often know it when I’m meeting a “future friend,” for example. It was very clear that he sensed it too, however, though I wasn’t sure how he was interpreting all that energy).

Over the nine months of Mondays that followed, we would talk bit as he was preparing our orders. He had a strong accent, and when I asked, I learned that he was from Hungary. He told me his name was “Gabor – like Ava Gabor.” As I make a habit of using people’s names often, I kept repeating “Gabor” to myself all the way home. I kept mixing it up with “Garbo” (as in Greta Garbo), and I was afraid I’d make that mistake in addressing him someday. All that night I was going around in my head, telling myself that there was a very strange connection between us, and then telling myself that I was being ridiculous, that he was just handsome, kind and flattering, etc.

Well, the day after I learned his name, I got a story submission here at Soul Arcanum. The subject of the story was the author’s phenomenal connection with Ava Gabor. (I kid you not!) That was a message from Spirit, telling me to trust my feelings and quit second-guessing myself. After that I would go into the shop planning on speaking to Gabor, but I didn’t know what to say. (“Do you know we’re spiritually connected? Can you feel this energy?”) One day my husband visited the shop with me, and I could feel that HE could feel the energy too. In fact, he went outside to wait for me, he was so uncomfortable. That’s when I knew I should not encourage whatever this connection was.

Not long after that my kids and I visited the shop, and Gabor seemed very sad. He just kept staring at me like he wished he could say something, but in my anxiety about not encouraging him, I hurried out. I learned later that this was his last day there – that he had returned to Hungary, and would not be coming back. I felt this profound sense of sorrow, like I’d found an old friend and been given the chance to reconnect, but I’d blown it.

So, what is my explanation for these strange feelings? Just try for a moment to estimate how many people you have had some kind of relationship with in this lifetime alone. Go way back to childhood, to the children you played with and attended school with, the teachers you spent your days with, the neighbors who were friendly to you, or whom you helped in various ways. Scroll forward through all the years of your life, including not just friends and relatives and lovers, but also coaches, teammates, coworkers, doctors, dentists, nurses, therapists, bosses, ministers, mentors, etc. Now let’s say that you’ve had a hundred or so past lives here on Earth, and multiply all those relationships accordingly. Then try to imagine that you’ve also had other “lives” in other dimensions, relationships while in the non-physical, etc. to try to get some concept of how many other souls you have connected with at some point, somewhere, sometime.

I’m trying to illustrate that the odds that we will run into people we’ve known “before” in our current lives is very high. The experiences that you and I had are very similar to what one experiences when they meet a “soul mate” or new best friend. It’s like “love at first sight,” but without the subsequent relationship. So if nothing more comes of them, why do these encounters happen?

Sometimes I think they’re quasi “accidental.” If someone we’ve had a strong tie to in some other time is in the vicinity (and the odds of this happening are very high, remember, given how many people we’ve been in relationship to before), then I believe that natural spiritual law creates sort of a gravitational force that draws us together. The stronger our bond is with someone, the stronger the gravity will be that draws us back together again. (This is how we “find” soul mates again in future incarnations).

This is what I think is happening in the two stories mentioned here. That Frenchman gravitated toward you because it was natural to do so. Perhaps I chose that sandwich shop because I was drawn there by the unconscious gravity of my connection to Gabor. Sometimes these are past life connections, but there is an even deeper resonance when we meet up with someone from our soul family.

When we are between incarnations, we review and assimilate our experiences much as one might in school here, and we do that in groups. The souls in each such family form profound bonds, and share a very distinct vibration. We also continue to work with these soul families while we’re incarnate via dreams and unconscious interactions. We might compare the intimacy of these spiritual relationships to what might develop if we were in “group therapy” with the same people for hundreds of years. These are indescribably powerful connections. When we meet up with those souls, we recognize each other at a very deep level.

So given the sum of our experiences throughout our existence, we are connected to a vast number people. When we “bump into” someone who inexplicably touches our souls, we may pick up the relationship where we left off in some other time and place. When we don’t, however, we are at least reminded of how magical a place the Universe can be, and how we never know when serendipity will place a special soul in our paths.

If I ever have an experience like this one again (and I expect to), I’ve learned that I’d rather seem a little weird than let an old friend slip through my fingers. I won’t let myself be so shy next time. Those strange feelings exist for a reason. They’re our inner homing device telling us that we’re in the presence of a kindred spirit, that something special is taking place – and that should be honored.

So, dear reader, if you’re ever in the throes of an undeniable, unexplainable connection to an apparent stranger, I hope you will be wiser than I was and do something about it!

– Soul Arcanum

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When We Bump Into People We’ve Known in Past Lives

Filed Under: Karma, Past Lives, Reincarnation by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on When We Bump Into People We’ve Known in Past Lives

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I had a striking experience in a shop last Saturday. Someone quietly asked my husband and me if we were assistants in the shop. We turned around to answer “No, we’re just waiting for our son,” and when I saw this man, I was just transfixed. I had an overwhelming feeling that I can’t really put into words. He was a Frenchman, and while he was handsome and had a soft voice, that wasn’t the source of this overwhelming feeling. The best way I can explain my feeling is to say it was one of deep love – the kind you might feel for a child or someone very dear and special. While this was happening, I was partly conscious of my reaction and how I must appear to others, but I just couldn’t pull myself out of it, it was so warm and peaceful. He too had an obvious reaction, for he sort of shook himself after a moment like he was coming out of a daydream. Since this experience, I’ve had a feeling like I said goodbye to someone I should have embraced. I have never felt anything like this in my life. Is there an explanation for it?
– Jaki

Dear Jaki:

I love this question, for I have had a similar experience. My children and I attend two karate classes every Monday night, which makes it tough to cook dinner, so on our way home those evenings, I started to take them to a sandwich shop. The first night we went in there was a tall handsome man working the counter. Something electric happened the minute we made eye contact that was strange and special. I could feel that he could feel it too, and because I am shy (and also very happily married), I quickly placed our orders and left the shop.

Every Monday we would return, and over the weeks, I began to relax a little bit more, though I was still quite nervous around him. (I am accustomed to being the only one who can sense such things, and therefore I don’t speak of them. I often know it when I’m meeting a “future friend,” for example. It was very clear that he sensed it too, however, though I wasn’t sure how he was interpreting all that energy).

Over the nine months of Mondays that followed, we would talk bit as he was preparing our orders. He had a strong accent, and when I asked, I learned that he was from Hungary. He told me his name was “Gabor – like Ava Gabor.” As I make a habit of using people’s names often, I kept repeating “Gabor” to myself all the way home. I kept mixing it up with “Garbo” (as in Greta Garbo), and I was afraid I’d make that mistake in addressing him someday. All that night I was going around in my head, telling myself that there was a very strange connection between us, and then telling myself that I was being ridiculous, that he was just very handsome, kind and flattering, etc.

Well, the day after I learned his name, I got a story submission here at Soul Arcanum. The subject of the story was the author’s phenomenal connection with Ava Gabor. (I kid you not!) That was a message from Spirit, telling me to trust my feelings and quit second-guessing myself. After that I would go into the shop planning on speaking to Gabor, but I didn’t know what to say. (“Do you know we’re spiritually connected? Can you feel this energy?”) One day my husband visited the shop with me, and I could feel that HE could feel the energy too. In fact, he went outside to wait for me, he was so uncomfortable. That’s when I knew I should not encourage whatever this connection was.

Not long after that my kids and I visited the shop, and Gabor seemed very sad. He just kept staring at me like he wished he could say something, but in my anxiety about not encouraging him, I hurried out. I learned later that this was his last day there – that he had returned to Hungary, and would not be coming back. I felt this profound sense of sorrow, like I’d found an old friend and been given the chance to reconnect, but I’d blown it.

So, what is my explanation for these strange feelings? Just try for a moment to estimate how many people you have had some kind of relationship with in this lifetime alone. Go way back to childhood, to the children you played with and attended school with, the teachers you spent your days with, the neighbors who were friendly to you, or whom you helped in various ways. Scroll forward through all the years of your life, including not just friends and relatives and lovers, but also coaches, teammates, coworkers, doctors, dentists, nurses, therapists, bosses, ministers, mentors, etc. Now let’s say that you’ve had a hundred or so past lives here on Earth, and multiply all those relationships accordingly. Then try to imagine that you’ve also had other “lives” in other dimensions, relationships while in the non-physical, etc. to try to get some concept of how many other souls you have connected with at some point, somewhere, sometime.

I’m trying to illustrate that the odds that we will run into people we’ve known “before” in our current lives is very high. The experiences that you and I had are very similar to what one experiences when they meet a “soul mate” or new best friend. It’s like “love at first sight,” but without the subsequent relationship. So if nothing more comes of them, why do these encounters happen?

Sometimes I think they’re quasi “accidental.” If someone we’ve had a strong tie to in some other time is in the vicinity (and the odds of this happening are very high, remember, given how many people we’ve been in relationship to before), then I believe that natural spiritual law creates sort of a gravitational force that draws us together. The stronger our bond is with someone, the stronger the gravity will be that draws us back together again. (This is how we “find” soul mates again in future incarnations).

This is what I think is happening in the two stories mentioned here. That Frenchman gravitated toward you because it was natural to do so. Perhaps I chose that sandwich shop because I was drawn there by the unconscious gravity of my connection to Gabor. Sometimes these are past life connections, but there is an even deeper resonance when we meet up with someone from our soul family.

When we are between incarnations, we review and assimilate our experiences much as one might in school here, and we do that in groups. The souls in each such family form profound bonds, and share a very distinct vibration. We also continue to work with these soul families while we’re incarnate via dreams and unconscious interactions. We might compare the intimacy of these spiritual relationships to what might develop if we were in “group therapy” with the same people for hundreds of years. These are indescribably powerful connections. When we meet up with those souls, we recognize each other at a very deep level.

So given the sum of our experiences throughout our existence, we are connected to a vast number people. When we “bump into” someone who inexplicably touches our souls, we may pick up the relationship where we left off in some other time and place. When we don’t, however, we are at least reminded of how magical a place the Universe can be, and how we never know when serendipity will place a special soul in our paths.

If I ever have an experience like this one again (and I expect to), I’ve learned that I’d rather seem a little weird than let an old friend slip through my fingers. I won’t let myself be so shy next time. Those strange feelings exist for a reason. They’re our inner homing device telling us that we’re in the presence of a kindred spirit, that something special is taking place – and that should be honored.

So, dear reader, if you’re ever in the throes of an undeniable, unexplainable connection to an apparent stranger, I hope you will be wiser than I was and do something about it!

– Soul Arcanum

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