Reincarnation

[Susan Hosken]

I am doing a correspondence course on spirituality and metaphysics. We are exploring reincarnation. Do you believe in it or not. I am beginning to like the idea of being creative for numerous life times. I hope to be a wood carver in a future lifetime and a mosaicer and a potter and, and,.........I'd love to know your opinions on it.
Lots of love from Susan in Australia

[Mary Hicks]

Susan, growing up I always felt like I'd been a pioneer woman somewhere in "my past." I was always in love with wide open spaces - like Wyoming! When we moved to southern Colorado after Warren graduated from seminary, those feelings all came back to me. I was so at home there in that wide open San Luis Valley, surrounded by mountain views and able to both the sunrise and the sunset from the same room in our house. We planted a huge vegetable garden, and I loved tending it. We got chickens, and I loved taking care of them and "searching" for eggs. We even got goats, and taking care of them brought great joy to our whole family. The pasture just west of us had cows and horses, and I loved just watching them. They'd come right up to our fence, like we were family. It's been very hard for me to adjust from three years of that to living on a busy street in Worcester!

In my next life, I hope to be a really good piano player -- not for a living, but to be able to sit down and play anything. I'd also love to be part of a theater group, maybe professionally. And I'd love to be born in Ireland, just once!

Yes, Susan, I do believe in Reincarnation. I believe we - or at least, I - evolved from someone and something else. Maybe we'll be neighbors next time around! I'll keep my light on for you.

[Susan Hosken]

Mary,How spooky. We have already been neighbours. We have been pioneer women together. I have a really close connection to wagon trains and log cabins and the simple lifestyle. I lost many children in that life and it made me not want children in this lifetime along with other reasons. I thought being a Christian you wouldn't believe in it but I am a Christian and believe in it too. I belong to an Independent church that believes in it.
I am a bit scared of the science fiction lifestyles in the future.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

I'm not sure whether I "believe" that my soul has lived in a different physical body in the past, or will come back to the earth in a different form in the future. I do feel that all souls are individual parts of one whole. I feel that we each have lessons to learn from living before we become one with the whole again. I've experienced deja vu and dreams of being in places I've never been in reality, yet felt totally comfortable in. So I suppose it's possible that I've lived before. I want to learn all I possibly can about love in this lifetime. I feel that's what we are here to learn :)

[Susan Hosken]

Barbara, I believe our ultimate aim is to learn about love in life too. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Beth Clark]

I have to get in on this! I have struggled with the idea of reincarnation over the years. Being raised a staunch, conservative Christian, I was taught that there is no such thing as reincarnation. Over the years, though, my experience with different churches, life experiences and gut feelings have really made me wonder, "but, what if.........." I still believe in Jesus and who He said he was/ is, but the idea of living several lifetimes could possibly make sense to me. (Or is it just a romantic notion?) Susan, how do you make reincarnation fit into the Christian belief system when Jesus died to bridge the gap between us and God? And we only have the one choice to make, (to accept Him or reject Him), to gain enternal Heaven or eternal Hell? Depending on which we choose? I knew a lady once that was a Christian who believed in reincarnation and I remember saying that perhaps we live many lives until we come to accept Christ and then we stop reincarnating because we have "seen the light". I was satisfied with me answer to myself until she said, that she believed that she had been a Christian in other lives as well. Blew my little theory out of the water! :) I would really like to hear your take on it, because, especially now with the craziest things going on in our world, I need some new spiritual backing. All the things that I was certain of when I was younger are no longer concrete and I feel time is running out. Sorry to be so wordy, but I have really been needing to talk to other about stuff like this and have'nt found others really willing to discuss it nicely until now. Thanks for all your insight!
Hugs to you and everyone here!

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

The thing that bothers me most about Christianity is the notion that there is only one way. Other religions assert this, too. I feel that idea is based on fear of the unknown, and that more understanding and acceptance of "All That Is" would heal wounds and would bring peace to this planet. I was raised in the Christian religion and I feel that the story of Jesus is a true story. I also feel that there are many other true stories. I think it is possible to accept Jesus Christ and also to accept other ways, not reject them.
People are not meant to live in fear; people are meant to live in joy. By our own attitudes we can make living on earth our own Heaven or our own Hell.
I've had my share of fear. I intend to experience and manifest joy, for myself and for others, and that means all others, not just those who "believe" in something.

[Susan Hosken]

Beth,
I don't know how Christianity and reincarnation fit together. My problem is I have memories of past lives. Really vivid memories. Someone said it is my DNA that has the other life time memories on it. This is a possibility. I'm still exploring all this and trying to make sense of it.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Beth, what do you mean when you say you feel "time is running out?"

[Beth Clark]

Hi Barb!
As a Christian, (although my understanding of God and His Plan has changed quite a bit since I was younger), I still believe in a "second coming of Christ", however you want to interpret that. (Rapture, no rapture, Heaven on Earth, etc. etc. etc, :-) ) So, I kind of feel that my confusion about what really is Truth or what God really means needs to be cleared up fast because what if Jesus does come back and I'm still wondering and as the books say, I'm "left behind"? Actually as a young teen when I was being pressured by my family to accept Christ, I had several nightmares of Jesus coming back and taking everyone but me! I remember in my dream, running down a deserted street through our neighborhood at night completely alone!! Everyone was in Heaven together and I was doomed to wander the earth totally alone forever! Pretty frightening when your 13. Anyhoooo. I want to believe that God will look at the intent of your hearts as opposed to the outward actions, ie: I am living with my boyfriend, have been for two and a half years, been together for four 1/2, and in my heart am "married" to him. He feels the same, (he had a couple of bad marriages and is soured on the whole "piece of paper" thing as he calls it), but most mainstream Christians would condemn me and say I'm going to Hell because I'm "living in sin". What's worse? A couple who are legally married and are horrible to each other, or people like us who have a loving, respectful relationship but don't have that "piece of paper" that says we're legally married? What will God truly judge us on? Sorry about the drawn out answer but there are alot of questions and uncertainty in my spiritual life right now. I could go on and on..........Got a couple of hours? :) LOL Have a great day, Barb.
Hugs to you

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Hmmm ... well, all I can say is, read back through what you've written, and decide for yourself how much of this is based on fear. Thank goodness my family didn't instill that in me through religion ... but we all have fears instilled in us in one way or another. I feel that being a spiritual person with right intentions is far more important than following dogma, and I'm not able to sit through a Christian church service these days without feeling really uncomfortable about the assertion that the divine is male ... males did not treat me very well when I was a kid. I've processed a lot of what I needed to process and am now at a place where I feel better about males and my negative experiences don't influence my relationships with them like they used to. Yet I feel that the divine has no gender, and I feel that our current patriarchal society has really done a lot of damage to women's sense of self worth by insisting that it does. We may just need to agree to disagree on spiritual matters ... and I agree that "God" knows what is in your heart, and that's what matters :)

[Beth Clark]

Barb,
I agree with you more than you realize. That has been part of my spiritual journey over the last couple of years, as well. Coming into my own as a Woman, I have felt that need to connect with God on a feminine level, too. I was raised as God being male, but I do struggle with that alot. In nature, the male and female either do an equal part in the family unit or the male impregnates the female and leaves her to do all the rest. Hmmmmm. I would like to think as God as being a combination of both Male and Female. I have parts of my femininity that only a Female Divine would understand. I've always wondered about "Sophia" in the Bible. She's mentioned briefly in the beginning and then ignored. I've always wondered if She is indeed the Feminine Divine. Like I said, I have alot of questions, and one of them is, are we reincarnated. I took a art seminar once with a lady who was a Reiki master, Spiritual Counsler, and one of the excercises was to draw something with our nondominant hand. I think I drew a horse and bird or something, which looked rather cartoony to me, but she walked by and said, "you need to use your nondominant hand". I told her I did and she told me that I must have been an artist in other lifetimes as well, and, frankly, I liked that. I don't totally disbelieve reincarnation because as I get older, I see more and more evidence of things that aren't black and white according to Christianity but that's why I got involved with this discussion because all of you give me food for thought and new things to consider. I do believe that there are alot of truths out there and I'm still learning. Thanks for your input! :)

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

A really good book on this subject is by Sue Monk Kidd, and is called "The Dance Of The Dissident Daughter". In it she chronicles her journey from a very strict religious background ... it's an interesting and eye opening read ... and Sophia is in there :)