As a born and raised Catholic girl, ex-‘Catholic Youth Co-Ordinator’ and designated weekly Sunday Gospel reader; how did I end up conjuring images of having a past life or even past live(s)? It goes against the grain of all I’ve ever been taught, the Western societal norm and what the Catholic church teaches.
Socrates wrote: ‘I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence’.
Carl Jung wrote: ‘I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had to be born again because I had not fulfilled the task that was given to me’
There was a period of time when I believed, like the rapper Eminem said, ‘You only get one shot’. But my recent musings into the ‘New Age’ literature advises otherwise. And this seems to be of a great relief to me! I get another shot?! And another?! And another?! Now that’s my kind of living.
As opposed to the Catholic view of humans living once and after that having a big ‘judgement’ day. Even Jesus himself is not to have been reincarnated. He was ‘incarnated’ as he had a pre-human existence and was from heaven (not earth) and never had a previous human experience. He did however have a ‘resurrection’. And that again is different to reincarnation, because he came back to the same body and was the same person after his death on the cross.
It’s a belief in the Catholic ‘circles’ that if you believe in reincarnation then you are reducing human beings to the same level as animals as well as losing human dignity and moral code, as no matter how ‘bad’ you are in this life, you get another chance at it.
Needless to say, I oppose these teachings and have more curiosity about what could possibly happen after death.
Can anyone prove me wrong? Nope.
Am I certain in my belief? Nope.
All I have is a curious, imaginative mind and an openness to the unknown – as life after death is exactly that – Unknown.
The late Michael Newton is fairly well-known in the New Age ‘circles’ for his studies and accidental discoveries in Hypnotherapy and accessing memories of former lives and what Souls did between lives on Earth. He aims to answer the big questions: Why are we here on Earth? What will happen after death? This is attained by hypnotising clients into a ‘superconscious’ state, and it’s in this altered state that they can recount their findings.
Every case has its own uniqueness, and yet also has a consistent thread that encompasses most scenarios which is quite intriguing. The clients in the case studies vary on the ‘religious’ spectrum. Some came from highly religious backgrounds and others had no solid beliefs. By the end of a hypnosis session, the client was to have had a ‘healing’ process by finding their place in this World and gaining more meaning and understanding of their current life.
Is it all legit? Who knows?!
Do I want to try it? Hella yeah!
Will the age old ‘Catholic guilt’ make me feel like I will go to hell for trying it? Probably.
But, one of the delights of being a Human is ‘Free Will’ and with that allows varied life choices.
I would like to rest the Catholics minds’ at ease (if that is at all possible by this stage of my writings). The representations of Michael Newton are that Souls reincarnate into the higher intelligent beings – which on Earth – is Humans. Also, that reincarnation does not pose a threat of ‘do whatever you want – because it all doesn’t matter’, because Souls recount that their lives are reviewed and most of the judgement on their lives is made by themselves. In addition to this, we are given a choice to live another life and learn another valuable lesson such as compassion, sacrifice or generosity. Last but not least, there is no ‘dogma’ created from Newton’s findings. It is simply literature that shares his experiences.
To finish off, I will provide one more quote. By Freidrich Neitzche: ‘Live so that thou mayest desire to live again – this is thy duty – for in any case thou wilt live again!’
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