Earthbound Souls, Suicide, And The Problem With Reincarnation -- Part 1
It is one's state of evolution and consciousness that determines what sort of afterlife
one finds one's self in after the crossing from this world into the realms beyond it. One's spiritual progress or development is largely dependent on the degree of one's personal illumination, love, understanding and forgiveness. We will explore what happens to souls who are overly steeped in materialism or dogmatic beliefs and to those that commit suicide. Also we will try to solve the problem of reincarnation.
Why Some Souls Start Out Earthbound
Search and rescue of earthbound souls is a common and very much needed occupation as many materialistic souls (not knowing anything about the astral planes or life after death) still cling to the earth for days, weeks, even months after they die simply because they know of nothing better and would often try to get the attention of their physical relatives and friends or take free rides up and down the streets on a bus! The only real problems encountered are those souls with very strong misconceptions (such as deep religious and old, life-long dogmatic convictions) about the afterlife. They are very hard to reach and often stay earthbound much longer than most souls and usually end up in a colony on one of the "belief system territories" of the lower astral worlds along with many other souls of that same very limiting religion or belief system. They are in most cases quite happy there, so might as well leave them well enough alone!
The Problem with Suicide
Well, after knowing just how wonderful death really is, why don't we all just kill ourselves and go back to paradise? One would think, especially if one is in a terrible predicament or suffering or pain or some other severe hardship that one might as well take one's own life and get it over with. After all, so many of the souls who come through can't help but say how extremely happy they are to be free from all the miseries and complexities of physical living and that death was the best thing that ever happened to them. However, the spirits warn that to go before one's time would be detrimental to spiritual wholeness.
Would suicide ever be justified? An assisted suicide might make sense for those patients who are on the life support, in intensive care, who are being forced to hang around in a "vegetable" state of total or extreme disability and/or who are only suffering and having no chance whatsoever of any future purpose, convalescence, joy, healing or happiness while still on Earth. If the physical body is very old, completely worn out, completely useless, in a coma, etc. then why on Earth prolong the suffering? Why not allow the soul its freedom of choice so that it can go on if it wants to? To deliberately force the soul to stay stuck in a painful, agonizing existence in a completely worn-out body and non-functioning brain would not make any sense whatsoever.
On the other hand, if one is still young, healthy, and can still in any way shape or form do some sort of good or service to humanity while still on Earth, it could be hazardous to one's spiritual progress or development to commit suicide, which would rather be like quitting school before one graduates or cutting "Earth" classes before the course is over. There is no such thing as a "shortcut" to paradise. To enter paradise, one's self-concept must be very upright or full of certainty or knowing that one has done only the best thing possible while on Earth with whatever hardship or seeming injustices thrown at one and has not overindulged in too much selfish behavior to the detriment of others. One must face one's self and that is the catch. Those who selfishly commit suicide will have to "live" with all the consequences of that decision, and face all the people hurt by or affected in any way by the taking of one's own life. It is universal law that when one causes pain in others, one never gets away with it.
Regarding life on Earth, no matter how difficult, suicide is never advisable, and death is not intended or designed to solve all one's problems, which are trying to teach one some very important lessons, not to mention all the very important reasons for being on Earth in the first place. Ask any soul who had committed suicide while still in the prime of life and they will lament at all the grief and sadness they had caused others to go through, lost opportunities to love, grow, experience and really become the person they always wanted to be. Every incarnated soul has a mission of some sort to accomplish, and from what I've learned, heard and read about suicide, to find one's self back "at home" without having first accomplished all that one has intended to do on Earth could result in having to go back to Earth and start all over again in a new body. Life, whether here or hereafter is a responsibility, and that responsibility can never be escaped from without great sacrifice to one's spiritual evolution and progress toward finer levels of happiness, fulfillment and salvation.
The Problem With Reincarnation (Not My Favorite Subject)
Very few souls ever want to go back to live (reincarnate) on Earth again. Some souls say reincarnation is possible, and there are many proven cases of reincarnation. According to a video of Betty Jean Eadie, author of Embraced by the Light there might be a form of reincarnation but nothing like what common eastern and popular western "New Age" concepts portray. According to the medium Robert James Lees (1849-1931), author of The Life Elysian, his spirit author (or ghost writer-ha! ha!), Aphraar states that the concept that one dies and reincarnates again and again is a distortion, in other words, there is usually no personal spirit that enters the body after its conception. He also states that there are many misled souls both on Earth and in the hereafter who will say that reincarnation is essential for spiritual and evolutionary progress, just as there are many who pass over still believing in old religious philosophies or dogmas, because no one suddenly becomes all-knowing wise and perfect just because they died.
William Charles Cadwell who is direct voice medium David Thompson's main spirit convener at the Circle of the Silver Cord, stated in one of the seances that half of the souls born onto the "Earth plane" have lived at least once before, while the other half are new souls with no past except as pure "God" energy. Getting exact, scientific knowledge of reincarnation even while in direct communication with spirits is still quite a challenge. Even though knowledge in the afterlife is so much easier to obtain and retain, the spirits can still carry with them many misconceptions and contradictions just as they had while on Earth. Other than for a great soul to come back as a teacher (like Yogananda or Jesus Christ), I would have to seriously question the reasoning of anyone who would want to come back and live on Earth again! My official view on reincarnation: it not only is possible, it is constantly occurring and is, unfortunately, essential for all souls who are still tied up with the Earth vibration. However, I personally dislike the idea of becoming physically restricted again after any period of heavenly freedom!
Anyway, I am still wondering about the sanity of those few souls on the other side who say they want to reincarnate! For example there is a Leslie Flint tape where the spirit of Annie Besant, a famous Theosophist talks for a while about reincarnation and spiritual development followed by an Italian lady named Estell (near end of tape) who wants to reincarnate so she could get married and have children which was not possible for her during her recent lifetime on Earth. (Why can't she do this on the astral plane where everyone's desire is provided for?) Annie Besant, who believed she herself would reincarnate right away (but speaking through Leslie Flint's ectoplasm 55 years after her death obviously did not!) states that there are group souls who reincarnate together to express truth and to uplift humanity. However I am a little uncomfortable and worried about what she says about reincarnation as if the time spent on Earth was so insignificant which may be true from the cosmic perspective, but from my viewpoint, just my present lifetime on Earth alone has been a rather traumatic, tiresome, unpleasant experience.
by: Russell Symonds
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