Is This All There Is?

Have you every wondered about who you really are?  Why you even exist?  It's easy to get lost in these thoughts on a clear starry night when you gaze into the universe and see the countless possibilities for other life.  Or perhaps you think that there is nothing more than being born, living, and dying.  No before.  No after.  Is there anything to the idea of reincarnation, or are you just here for the duration of your lifetime?

If that were the case, would life itself have any purpose?  For the premise of this book, just imagine that there might be something to this whole thing of life beyond life.  Believing that might give you the opportunity to view life in a way that goes beyond your life.

If there is something beyond your current lifetime, then how do you know?  At the moment, there is no hard, scientific proof of that.  Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia has done the largest body of reincarnation research over a 40-year span.  He has compiled more than 3,000 case studies that strongly indicate the possibility of past life experiences.

If you would like to investigate some of Dr. Stevenson's findings, you may want to read his book Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (See Appendix B).  Published in 1997, he documents 200 stories supported by photographs and other evidence of children's past lives.

For a moment, let's consider what it might have been like back in the beginning of your soul's existence.  The soul is defined as the "principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in man", and is considered to be a separate part of the mental, physical, and spiritual self.  It is believed to survive beyond death.

Where did you start?  Perhaps if there is such a thing as a Universal Energy Force, in the beginning you were a part of that energy.  And like a mist from a cloud, you were spawned into the pure essence of knowing.

In a hypnotic trance, the great seer Edgar Cayce was able to access the Akashic Records and look up the history of a soul (see Chapter 4 for more on Cayce and the Akashic Records).  He envisioned one of the soul's early existences in the lost culture of Lemura.  There the soul had no physical form.  In another lost ancient land, Atlantis, he saw souls that had evolved into a human form as well as souls that had no form.  If this is true, after the soul is created it goes through an evolution to gain its physical form.

When you are close to the end of your soul's reincarnations on earth, you are known as an old soul.  Old souls are people who just don't seem to fit in with others.  They know more than they can tell anyone; if they try, they are looked at as odd or a misfit.  An old soul can spend a great deal of energy trying to block the knowledge that their soul contains.  Many of them would be much happier living simple lives of self-pleasure as many of their friends and families do.

When you reach the stage of old soul and have completed your lessons, you will again shed your earthly body and return to pure energy.  At that time you may assist fellow actors who have not yet completed their play.  Your role may be as an angel, a spirit, or just a miracle.