“Surely God would not have created a being as man...
to exist only for a day!
No, no, man was made for immortality.”
~Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Funeral Procession, Harper's Weekly

Belief in an Afterlife

“Death is simply a disguised deliverance, or, like the budding rose,
it climbs up on the garden wall to bloom on the other side.”
–James Martin Peebles (1822-1922)

“The wise man looks not to how long he lives,
but to how he dies. For him death has no terrors,
because it is the day of his birth to immortal life.
And he will be mindful of those he has left behind,
and will commune with them.”
–Seneca (4? B.C.–65 A.D.)

A recent poll indicates that 82% of Americans believe in an afterlife. The numbers are also increasing for those who believe that they have had communication from a loved one on the other side.

It would seem that the religious instinct is innate within humankind, as though a template for the religious experience had been programmed into our genetic structures that govern human expression. Within the innate religious or spiritual instinct are experiences that might be classified as miraculous. But, are many of the events or experiences actually miracles or no more than ordinary occurrences?

Reports of extraordinary and astonishing events attributed to supreme being or divine power will be found in virtually every world religion, every culture, and probably within every human mind from primitive times right up into the modern age. Many cultures do not regard miracles or paranormal events as anything extraordinary but merely the natural workings of a natural world. Most cultures who share that idea have well-formulated spiritual beliefs that have been carried forward from generation to generation, throughout history, and many of these cultures have evolved highly sophisticated belief systems.

When one reads the history of cultures, it is very apparent that there has always been a “knowing” within mankind that evolves into understandings that we are, indeed, spiritual beings and that life does not end with the death of the physical body. Mankind has always looked to the heavens in a search for answers. I have often wondered why that is and the answer I have come up with is that no matter our religious upbringing or belief system, we do, within us, have the knowledge that we are much more than a physical body having a life experience. We are temporarily using a physical body for an ongoing spiritual life.

When I look back at my life, I recall at a very young age knowing that there was more to life than just a few years we may have here on Earth. I have also been lucky to have experienced events that have convinced me beyond any doubt that life and love go on after the death of the body. I am hardly alone in that spiritual understanding. That idea and understanding has been presented in writings since the beginning of recorded history. We are also experiencing the coming together of science and spirituality and many in the medical profession are leading the way. Scientific studies are being conducted in various areas of life and death and maybe one day in the not to distant future there will be scientific evidence that consciousness lives on beyond the death of the physical body.

It is my hope that we are now into an age of new spiritual understanding where we can welcome and accept the gift of knowing that we are often given, no matter how subtle that gift may be. We are immortal, eternal spirits.

Those gifts not only make life more joyous, grief easier, but help to remove the fear of death that has been placed culturally as an obstacle to spiritual growth and understanding. We do know who we are. We just have to bring that knowing, our remembrance, to the forefront. And increasing numbers of people are achieving that while in the body. And for those who do not rediscover the knowing, they will know without doubt one day as they pass into another state of being.


~Linda

The Creative Dance of Reincarnation

In Western cultures there appears to be much resistance to the idea of reincarnation. Many do believe that we are immortal, but to allow for that immortality to have a beginning in previous lives, before our birth into this life, is difficult for many to accept. The belief in reincarnation, most commonly associated with certain Eastern cultures and religions, is not only an ancient belief but has been widespread throughout the world. Modern scholars have discovered that the idea had wide favor throughout the early Americas, both North and South, in Europe, and persisted into the Christian Era. Scholars can point to many examples of early Christian and Jewish thought centered around the idea of re-birth. Apparently the early Christians, somehow threatened by the idea of rebirth or reincarnation for the common man, had most references to it removed from the Bible.

Many of our more-contemporary great thinkers, philosophers, noted writers and poets, educators, and scientists have acknowledged reincarnation as the most sensible paradigm for human immortality. And the shift of paradigm in the Western world appears to be gaining momentum as evidence to support the idea comes forward from various avenues of serious study. It is an idea that will benefit from more exploration.

For myself, it has been part of my belief system for as long as I can remember. It just seemed to be logical and reasonable and a part of spiritual reality. Proof? I personally don't need any more than I already have gathered in my experiences and research. To me it is a fact of life. In some ways, I am still that young girl of seven or eight that knew I had been here before, and in all probability, would be again. Many of my experiences throughout life have only confirmed the fact for me. Especially Don, (my late husband) with the incredible love bond we had; knowing, recognizing each other the moment our eyes met across a room; and always knowing each other in the deepest sense of the word throughout our years together. Soulmates, you bet.

So is reincarnation part of our creative dance? I think so. Dr. James Martin Peebles (1822-1922), a leading Spiritualist in the 19th Century, wrote about the knowing of another soul in his 1869 book, Seers of the Ages. He penned, "Souls require no introduction. The recognition is intuitional. Meeting a noble soul that knows our soul, we indulge the pleasing truth to us, that we knew the loved one in a pre-existent state, and delicious were those delicate experiences in the sweet realms of blessedness."

Pre-existent state? Might I ask, where and when and in what form? A soul is a soul, is it not?–whether wrapped in the garment of the current physical dimension, or the etheric finery of the other dimension, or the garment of a past life that is delicately hidden away in the recesses of the soul's mind only to come forward in new and subtle awareness from time to time throughout the eternal journey.

The creative dance of the spiritual self personifies a succession of endings and new beginnings which go on throughout our human life–and forevermore.

But we are always filled with wonder–What is life all about? Who are we? Why are we here? Does life truly go on? When a loved one passes from the body and continues on their own journey, it feels very much like they have left us behind. But have they? Are they really out of our reach? Those answers are found inside our hearts, in our experiences, in our faith, and in the understanding that we are spiritual beings, only encased in a physical body for a short period of time.

Dr. Peebles wrote in his 1880 book, Immortality, "The soul is ever a questioner. From its earliest recorded experiences it has interrogated itself and the surrounding universe for a solution of the mystery of its being and the momentous changes that necessarily await it."

The creative dance is a dance of change and new beginnings.

~Linda