 John Van Auken
is a former director of the Association
of Research and Enlightenment, the Edgar Cayce Research
Foundation.
He is editor of the newsletter
Living in the Light and author of
many books, audio tapes, and
videos. He's an expert in Egyptian, Hebrew, and Christian
mysticism, and is a skillful teacher of meditation – from
kundalini to his unique “passage in
consciousness.” He practices the techniques he teaches and has become a popular speaker, leading retreats, workshops, and tours, and writes regularly as a columnist.
He is also the author of
many books on the Cayce readings including: The Lost Hall of Records,
Past
Lives and Present Relationships,
The
End Times: Prophecies of Coming Changes, Ancient
Egyptian Mysticism,
Edgar
Cayce on the Revelation, Spiritual
Breakthrough, and Reincarnation: Born Again
and Again.
[Webmaster
Note: The following is a discussion concerning consciousness
and how it relates to reincarnation. It is an excellent explanation of
reincarnation that dispels many myths that people have about it. One
particular myth is that people are forced to
reincarnate immediately after death in the manner that some eastern religions teach.
This myth is dispelled by many NDE testimonials which suggest that
reincarnation is not bound by time nor is it necessarily a linear
cycle. Time as we know it does not exist in the realm of the NDE. A
soul can spend an "eternity of eternities" in
the realms after death before deciding to incarnate again.] Below is an excerpt from John Van Auken's outstanding book,
Reincarnation: Born Again
and Again.
This source
of answers to the mysteries of life has no unifying name for its body of knowledge. Various parts of its principal concepts are actually scattered
throughout different cultures and countries with no central collection point for the
ideas. Because of this, and because many of its ideas are not widely known
(often the
adherents of these ideas have purposefully withheld them from the
public), this school of
thought can be referred to as the "secret teachings." But it is not a single
school of thought; rather, it's a hodgepodge of concepts from many diverse and often
unrelated sources that reveal a very similar view of life and its meaning.
The
Beginning of Consciousness
 Science might
categorize the secret teachings as metaphysical, meaning "beyond the
known laws and observations of physics." Religion might refer to them
as mystical, meaning that they belong to a collection of thought
considered too mysterious to consider or of dubious origin.
It's
interesting to note that the great religions had sects that knew of and
ascribed to some or all of the secret teachings. In Islam it was the Sufis;
in Judaism, the Kabbalists; in
early Christianity, the Gnostics
and later, from the Middle Ages through the Reformation to even modern
times, the many Christian
mystics.
Science, too,
has had its adherents to concepts held by the secret teachings. Many quantum
physicists have written about theories of life beyond the physically
observable. In the field of medicine, doctors have found that some
patients, who have been declared dead and later revived have had
near-death experiences that confirm many of the concepts found in the
secret teachings.
According to the
secret teachings, the universe was not first created out of matter, but
existed prior to material creation in spirit form. Imagine a consciousness
similar to our own, except that this first consciousness was boundless, a
Universal Consciousness. This is God. At some point, the Universal
Consciousness desired to express itself. It began to conceive, to imagine,
and to express Its inner promptings. And so the creation began – light,
sound ... eventually stars, galaxies, trees, and rivers. This point in
creation was still prior to the physical creation of the universe that
science records. This was a realm of thought; no physical forms existed,
only thoughts in the consciousness of the Universe. The physical universe
had not yet been created.
According to the
secret teachings, there came a point in this creation where the
Creator's Consciousness desired to bring forth
companions, creatures
like unto Itself that would share in this expression of life. In order for
the creatures to be more than creations, they had to possess individual
consciousness and freedom so that they could choose to be companions.
Otherwise, they would only have been servants of the Original
Consciousness. So within the One Universal Consciousness many individual
points of consciousness were awakened and given freedom.
It's important
for us to realize that at this point in our existence we did not have
physical bodies. All of what has just been described occurred within the
Mind of God. Consequently, its "form" resembled that of thought
rather than physical objects. In the very beginning we were individual
points of consciousness within the one great Universal Consciousness.
At first we were
quiet, our wills content to observe the wonders of the spiritual creation
as they flowed from the Mind of God. In these early periods we were so
much a part of the Creator's Consciousness that we were one with It,
virtually indistinguishable from It. However, it wasn't long before some
of us began to use our wills and express ourselves. At first, we simply
imitated the Creator, but eventually we gained experience, and with
experience came knowledge and confidence. Then, we truly began to create
on our own, adding new realms to the spiritual creation, much like a
second voice adds to a song by singing harmony with the main melody.
This was exactly
why we had been created – to share in and contribute to the great
expression of life and to be Its companions. To fulfill this purpose we
were created in the image of the Creator: consciousness with freedom,
capable of conceiving, perceiving, and remembering; capable of
communicating directly with the Creator and the other companions.
Consciousness
and free will were the greatest qualities given any creation, but they
came with equally great responsibility for their use or misuse. Of course,
the all-knowing Universal One knew the potential dangers in giving beings
complete freedom to do as they desired. However, the potential joy of
sharing life with true companions, not servants, was deemed worth the
risk. Therefore, each of these new free-willed beings would simply have to
learn to take charge of themselves and to subdue harmful desires in order
to live in harmony with the other companions and the Creator. To do
otherwise would only bring chaos, suffering, and
separation.
 Unfortunately,
chaos came. As we continued to use our godly powers, we became more
fascinated with them. We began to focus more and more on our own creations
and became less concerned with and attentive to their harmony with the
Creator, with the Whole. The more we thought of just ourselves and our own
desires with less regard for the Whole, the more self-centered we became,
eventually perceiving ourselves as separate from the Whole.
Of course, this
sense of separation was all in our minds, so to speak, because there
really was no way we could exist outside of the Whole because everything
was of spirit. It was more a result of our sustained focus of attention on
ourselves and our self-interests that resulted in a heightened sense of a
distinct and separate self.
This was the
beginning of trouble. It led to a very long fall for us. A fall that
eventually left us feeling alone and separated from the rest of life, even
to the point that we, who were actually companions and co-creators with
the Universal Creator, today come to think of ourselves as little more
than dust-like creatures, descendants of apes and inhabitants of a planet
on the outskirts of a typical galaxy in the endless and diverse universe.
This chaos
occurred in spirit when no physical universe existed. To know ourselves
and yet be one with the Whole was the ideal condition, but the centering
of awareness on self alone resulted in a sense of separation from the
Whole. The more we exercised our individual consciousness and free will
for self-interest, self-gratification, self-glorification, and
self-consciousness, the more we heightened our sense of self apart from
the Whole.
The resulting
loss of contact with the Source of our life and the purpose of our
existence was the beginning of darkness and evil, which is ignorance.
Without a clear sense of our relationship to the rest of life, many of us
began to use free will in ways that were never meant to be. Others simply
let themselves be carried along with the current of life, abdicating their
free will to the will of others. In both cases, these were things that
would make it very difficult for us to be companions to the Creator.
However, the
Creator foresaw this potential and, prior to creating companions, It
created a Universal Law: Whatever one did with its free will, it must
experience the consequences. The law was not intended as punishment or
retribution for offenses, but as a tool for education and enlightenment.
Thus, as we used our freedom, we experienced the effects. In this we came
to understand and learn.
Interestingly,
both science and religion recognize this law. In science it is often
stated, "For every action there is an equal and opposing
reaction." Its religious counterparts are, "An eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth"; "As you sow, so shall you reap"; and
"As you do unto others, it will be done unto you." Even today's
common knowledge expresses this principle in the saying, "What goes
around, comes around."
This is the
law
of karma, of cause and effect. It was, and is, the great teacher of the
companions-to-be and it is an integral part of the secret teachings. Once
this law was established, the Creator conceived and freed countless
independent points of consciousness within Its own infinite consciousness
and the companions came into being, each conscious and free. What a
trembling wonder it must have been in those first moments!
Again, it's
important to realize that the companions were not physical bodies. They
were like "ideas" in the mind of the Creator that were given
freedom to be independently conscious. As they used their freedom, they
developed into unique points of thought, feeling, desire, expression, and
memory. Each was slightly different from the other by virtue of its
different vantage point within the Universal Consciousness. Each companion
had a spirit, mind, and a
soul. Spirit is the essence of life. Remember
the condition of the Creator before the creation; alive yet still. This is
Spirit. It is the living stillness in the midst of activity. So often we
identify life with motion, but the essence of life was there before the
motion. Spirit is the essence of life.
Life in motion,
or the power to move and shape ideas and even physical forms out of
spirit, is mind. Mind is the sculptor, the builder who conceives,
imagines, and shapes ideas out of the essence of life. Spirit is life;
Mind is the power to use it.
Each of the
companions had spirit and mind. As they used their life forces, they
developed experiences, memories, desires, fears, etc. This caused them to
become unique from one another – each having its own collection of
experiences and aspirations; each its own story. This individual aspect of
the companion is its soul. Soul is the sum total of all that the companion
had done with its free-will consciousness. It's the companion's story,
its complex of memories. All of the companions have spirit and mind, but
each developed a unique soul, because each built a different collection of
memories and experiences, resulting in different desires, hopes, and
attitudes about life. Thus, spirit is the life force, mind is the power to
use it, and soul is the being that develops. All are one in consciousness.
The
Division of Consciousness
The creation
then progressed from essence to thought, thought into thought-form, and
from thought-form into particle-form or atomic-form; in other words,
matter. There are many realms to life. One of these
realms is the
third dimension – physical form, as we know it today.
The companions,
filled with their newfound consciousness and freedom, went out into the
vast universe to experience life and to learn about themselves, the
Creator, and their relationship to it. In their travels through the
cosmos, some of the companions entered the three-dimensional influences of
the planet earth
where they entered into physical form for the first time.
Here they became so encapsulated in the physical that they began to
identify themselves more with their form than with their consciousness.
They began to think of themselves as physical entities rather than free,
living consciousness. Incredibly, they began to think they were only
terrestrial beings and their celestial origins began to be forgotten. Form
was so substantial, so captivating that it was difficult to hold on to the
more delicate reality of spirit-thoughts, pure point of consciousness in a
Universal Consciousness.
To have an
individual body was also the ultimate in self-identity and
self-expression. It then had the power to separate the individual from the
Whole and the formless spirit-thoughts of higher realms.
Strong
identification with the physical made the companions subject to the laws
of nature, and, of course, a part of nature's cycle is death. The body
would come to life according to the laws of nature, live for a time, and
then die. In their original state, the companions were continually alive,
but those that began to strongly identify with their physical bodies were
now affected by death. Since they thought they were their bodies, they
considered themselves dead when their bodies died.
This led to
great confusion, and when the companions who had not become involved in
the material universe saw what had happened to the others, they decided to
help those in the flesh regain their former state. However, it was not
going to be easy.
In addition to
the influences of the physical dimension, the souls were building reaction
patterns (karmic patterns) with their willful activities in the physical
universe. According to Universal Law, these actions had to be met –
properly met in the physical universe where they had been initiated. The
more one acted in the physical dimension, the more one built debts that
had to be met in the physical. Death changed nothing except those with
karmic debts to be paid had to pay them by incarnating into another
physical body. The result of this was reincarnation.
 Another effect
of entering the physical dimension was the division of consciousness.
According to the secret teachings, as an individual entered deeper into
the physical, its consciousness separated into three divisions of
awareness. Two of these divisions we acknowledge today: the
conscious and
subconscious. The first entails the physical realm where the human body
required a three-dimensional consciousness to function. It has become the
part of our consciousness we are most familiar with, what we have come to
call the conscious mind. Many of us would consider it to actually be the
"I" or "me" of ourselves. It is within this part of
consciousness that we experience physical life, and our personalities are
developed.
The second part
of consciousness is shadow-like while one is incarnate in the physical
dimension. It lives life as a shadow, always there, listening, watching,
remembering, and only occasionally making its profound and sometimes
frightening presence known. We have come to call this part of our
consciousness the subconscious mind. From out of this area come dreams, intuitions, unseen motivations, and deepest memories.
According to
many teachings, the subconscious is the realm of the soul that uses the
conscious mind as a mechanism for manifesting in the physical realm
through the five senses. Often the thoughts and interests of the conscious
mind, combined with the desires of the body, become so strong and dominant
that only its activities seem important and real; the subconscious seems
illusionary and unrelated to outer life. But in truth, the real life is
occurring in the subconscious.
The third area
of the now divided consciousness is the most universal. It is the part we
can perceive and commune with the
Universal
Consciousness. We have
different names for it: the Collective
Mind, the Universal
Mind, the
Collective Unconsciousness, and the
superconsciousness.
The more one's
attention moves into the conscious mind, the more narrow and limited the
focus and awareness becomes. The more one moves toward the
superconsciousness, the more one becomes aware of the Whole, the Universal
Forces, the Creator.
It may be more
difficult to perceive the infinite when one is grossly involved in the
finite, but the Universal Consciousness and the potential for attuning
oneself to It remains. Curiously, access to it is through the inner
consciousness of the incarnate individual and not outside of it, making it
a very mysterious passage for a physical being.
In time,
however, the companions trapped in the physical dimension could again
become aware of the difference between terrestrial and celestial life.
They could again come to know their original state and purpose, and regain
their celestial birthright of companionship with the Creator. In time they
could again come to realize that the conditions in their present physical
life were the result of their free-will actions and choices before the
present life.
If the
companions trapped in the physical dimension could genuinely begin to
believe that the physical cannot possibly be all there is to life, they
could begin the long journey back from form to spirit, a very difficult
journey. In many ways we, as human beings, are no longer spirit. Flesh has
become very much a part of us, not just physically but mentally as well.
Even when we are out of the body (through death, deep
sleep, or some
altered state such as meditation), bodily manifestation is still very much
a part of us. Otherwise, there would certainly be no reincarnation. We
would simply leave the physical dimension and never return.
The great
paradox of humankind is that we are now both spirit and flesh. That's
like saying we are a combination of oil and water, two substances which do
not combine. The mystical analogy would more properly be fire and water;
these, too, don't combine. How can anything be made up of two substances
that are impossible to combine? Yet, such is the nature of humanity. We
are constantly forced to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable: mercy
with justice, cooperation with independence, unity with diversity,
tradition with change, feeling with thought, love with truth, and on and
on.
The
Consequences of the Division
 In order to
fully appreciate the secret teachings, we need to understand how the
Universal Law of cause and effect works. It's easy to say that the
experiences in one's life are the result of past activities, but the
forces of this law are greater than we may first imagine.
Every action,
every thought, every idle word sets up reactions, according to the
Universal Law. When one thinks a thought, that thought makes an impression
on the Universal Consciousness. Nothing is lost or done in secret.
Everything is done within the Universal Consciousness, and the Whole is
affected by it (as well as all others within the Whole).
This isn't
easy for us to believe, living in our own little worlds. The words
"secret", "private", "alone", and
"separate" are active words in our vocabulary. This is due to
our current separation in consciousness from the Whole. In the higher
realms of consciousness, there is no space. Things and people are not
separate, but part of a Whole. All is actually One. All is within the
Whole. By increasing the focus on self, we have created the illusion of a
self separated from the rest of life, but it just isn't so. Our
individual actions and thoughts make an impact on the Mind of the
Universal One (the Whole).
Thoughts are
things. Thoughts are real.
Reactions to
past thoughts and actions become our
fate, destiny, and
karma. An
individual's fate is simply the rebounding effects of previous choices
remembered by its soul. The reason the effects of these previous choices
often seem unfair to the conscious mind is because the personality
doesn't see beyond its own life for sources of current conditions.
As companions of
God, we are free to live and choose and grow almost as we desire, but not
without being subject to the Universal, Spiritual law. Through meeting our
thoughts, actions, and words we learn to discern wisdom from folly,
lasting strength from weakness, and true life from illusion. In turn we
become more able to fulfill our ultimate purpose for existing: to be a
companion to the Universal Creator. The law is actually a magnificent tool
for perfect learning. It is completely impersonal – everyone experiences
it equally and for the purpose of enlightenment.
The law of karma
is not some fierce god in the sky keeping track of everything so that it
can zap people when they least expect it. Most karmic reactions, in fact,
come from the individual's own deep memory of what it has done.
Karma has been
described as memory. Karma is memory coming to consciousness again. What
has occurred in the past is recalled and has an effect on the present.
Now, the recollection may not surface to the conscious level; the
personality may have no awareness of the memory, in fact. Yet, it exists
at the deeper, soul level. Nevertheless, the soul sees through the same
eyes as the personality and is reminded of its past use of free will and
consciousness. Naturally, some of these memories will be compatible with
the Universal Mind and some will not. Memory is an important concept in
understanding how the law of karma works.
As a soul draws
closer to the Universal Mind, it becomes aware that some of its memories
are not compatible with the Creator, and since its ultimate purpose for
being is companionship with the Creator, it seeks out opportunities to
resolve these incompatible memories.
Suppose a soul
criticizes another soul among its peers and behind its back. As it becomes
more aware of its true nature, it will recall this wrong and, because of
its incompatibility with the Creator, will seek to correct it. Now, the
resolution could take many forms. The soul might seek out an opportunity
to work closely with the injured soul as a supporter, assistant,
publicist, agent, or the like. Or perhaps it would seek to re-create the
original scene – putting itself in a position to criticize the other
soul again in front of the same peers. The test would be to see if the
soul would choose not to criticize this time, even if it meant a certain
loss of position for itself. Throughout all this the soul grows wiser and
more compatible with the Creator.
If, however, a
soul has gotten so far away from its true nature that it has no
conscience, then the law of karma can become a formidable obstacle to any
further free-will action. Such a soul becomes surrounded by its karma;
everywhere it turns, it meets the terrible effects of its previous action
and thoughts. Yet, even a soul who has gotten in this pathetic situation
can return to perfection because there is no total condemnation from the
Creator or the law. If the soul turns away from its self-centeredness and
begins acting, reacting, thinking, and speaking like a companion to the
Universe, then the law is just as perfect as it is with error; and the
reactions begin to build and establish a new destiny for that soul.
Karma is memory.
As one recalls or relives situations, one meets self again, and a new
decision point, or crossroads, is presented to the soul. In life,
"good" would be equated with compatible, harmonious actions and
thoughts which consider the needs and desires of others, along with
self's needs and desires. "Evil" would be equated with actions
and thoughts that are motivated by a self-orientation that pays little or
no attention to the needs and desires of others and the Whole.
Metaphysically speaking, good results in oneness, and evil results in a
sense of separation. Decisions in one's life could be approached by
evaluating which choices promote greater oneness and which promote
separation.
One must meet
every bit of one's karma. However, there is a way that it can be
modified, softened, even ameliorated. If a soul, knowing another soul has
wronged it, forgives that soul and holds no lingering resentment –
perhaps has even forgotten the wrong in the depths of its forgiveness and
understanding – then it begins to take hold of the power of forgiveness.
The more it forgives, the more it perceives and understands forgiveness.
Then, when it approaches the Universal Consciousness and realizes it
possesses memories that are incompatible with It, forgiveness is much more
viable, removing the barrier of separation. The law is so precise (what
one gives one receives; no exceptions) that if one begins having mercy on
and forgiveness of others, one begins to receive mercy and forgiveness
upon oneself. Unless, of course, one refuses to forgive oneself.
All of one's
karma has to be met. And yet, no soul is given more than it can bear to
carry – this is the paradoxical blessing hidden in the limitations of
time and space. A soul is given the time it needs to turn away from its
selfish ways and, like the prodigal son, return home to a feast of joy and
welcome from our Creator.
Reincarnation is not a way to avoid judgment and
responsibility; it is a way to allow the soul enough time to correct its
mistakes and develop itself.
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