PureInsight | December 23, 2002
When you consider all the research published about reincarnation, the book Reliving Past Lives - The Evidence under Hypnosis by Dr. Helen Wamback is, in this writer's opinion, the most comprehensive and informative. In this book, Dr. Wamback systematically analyzed one thousand documented cases of reincarnation experiences and categorized them in terms of gender, economic status, birthplace, race, customs, dining tools and foods. She discovered that the case's stories correlated accurately with history, and were not something purely from fantasy or fiction. For an article about her research, see: http://www.pureinsight.org/pi/articles/2002/10/21/1165.html
The majority of research done on reincarnation has focused on recalling past lives. The research did not focus on exploring what happens to a person between the different lives. Life Between Life: Scientific Explorations into the Void Separating One Incarnation from the Next, published in 1986 by Joel L. Whitton and Joe Fisher recorded a ten-year study by Dr. Whitton on the spiritual experiences between one life and the next. The book is rather difficult to follow and understand. But it did describe several cases in a fluid and easy to understand manner. One case actually described a person who was able to recall the ancient languages of the Near East and Virgin Islands. The verification by linguists that the person was actually speaking these two perished languages was very impressive.
The most insightful and comprehensive study on the spiritual world of reincarnation was performed by Dr. Micheal Newton. Similar to the experience of Dr. Weiss, Dr. Newton's study on previous lives started accidentally. One day Dr Newton gave unclear instructions directing one of his patients to recall one of her past lives. While continuing to study her past lives, he accidentally discovered an even broader area for research through yet another unclear instruction. The person who opened both doors for Dr. Newton was a middle-aged woman. She was a very lonely woman who had come to Dr Newton for help. One day after she recalled one of her previous lives, Dr. Newton asked her to go back to where she lost her partner. He also asked her if there was a group of people that she missed very dearly. Suddenly the woman began to cry. When Dr. Newton asked her what was wrong she replied by saying, "I miss my friends, this is why I have felt so lonely in this world." Dr. Newton was very confused, and asked her, "Where are your friends?" She answered, "They are at my 'eternal home.' I am looking at them right now."
Accidentally, the woman's consciousness had traveled to the "other side" which she referred to as her "spiritual home." During this experience she was able to see the companions of her previous lives. From that point on Dr. Newton started to study the world on the "other side." He gradually developed methods for directing his patients' consciousnesses to experience the "other side." He also found that it was more important to direct the patients to the "other side" than to simply let them recall their previous lives. Among the patients of Dr. Newton were faithful religious followers as well as atheists. However, most of the people were somewhere in the middle, believing in various philosophies. Surprisingly, Newton found that when his patients entered the dimension of the other side, what they described was very similar to one another. Some people even used similar terms when they described their experiences. Of course the accumulation of cases was very slow. But after ten years of study, Dr. Newton finally established a model to explore the other side. During those ten years, Dr. Newton never disclosed his findings to the public. At the same time he did not read any metaphysical books in order to avoid forming any preconceived notions.
Newton's 300 page book Journey of Souls was published in 1994. This book recorded, in chronological order, the spiritual journey of several patients as they reincarnated from one life to the next. A large portion of the book was dialogues between Newton and his patients. Seven years later, on request from his readers, he published his second book, Destiny of Souls. This 400 page book was even more comprehensive in its documentation. Many people at that time were applying Dr Newton's method in search of answers for their own lives.
Of course, the world on the other side is often indescribable by our modern human language. The concepts of time and space are also totally different from ours. The description of the other world by Newton's patients should be understood as their interpretation about the "other side" based on their own limited experience and point of view. The patients saw the world on the other side as their true places of origin and their real homes. They simply separated from their material flesh bodies and returned to their home. An analogy can be made to a scuba diver who just surfaces after having been in the deep sea. The diver surfaces and can once again breathe fresh air and see sunshine. In their description, the spiritual world is a vast beautiful space that is vivid and shining. The reason we call them spiritual worlds is to draw a comparison to our material world. A better way to look at it is that the spiritual world is a more real and fundamental world with high energy. The beings there have no suffering and are in total peace. Their bodies appear weightless and they can float in the air effortlessly. The spirit of a man is a form of energy that can transform into mundane objects in our world. Once a person enters the spiritual world they are no longer deluded by our material world. Their Lives become pure as gold, full of joy. Every being has plenty of love for all other beings.
All lives belong to different groups and they reincarnate in groups. They accompany each other from one life to the next. The partners for any one particular individual will play various roles in his life. They could be his wife, parents, children, brother, friends or enemies. Of course they also have some type of predestined relationship with other groups. Of all the predestined relationships the relationship between husband and wife is the most significant. One's spouse is usually the closest person to you in your group, although in life we might match up with the wrong person for various reasons. Among Newton's patients there was a couple who used to live during the time period of ancient Rome. During that lifetime the woman was a slave who cooked for gladiators. One day that woman fell deeply in love with one of the gladiators. The night before that gladiator was killed in battle, he told her, "I love you forever." The reuniting of that couple during this lifetime fulfilled that oath. In China, loving couples pledge to each other, "Let's be husband and wife through all our lifetimes." This phenomenon actually does exist.
When a person returns to his spiritual home, he will find those people that he just couldn't forget going about their normal lives. How joyful he must feel! A person's spirit can divide just like a holographic picture. A person can even reincarnate into different people and experience several different lives at the same time, although this is rare. When a person reincarnates a part of his energy is left on the other side and it leaves a kind of movie like picture. If a person wants to view his mother who died 30 years ago he can, even though she might have already started a new life somewhere else.
Sometimes a person is not able to immediately return to his own group because he has committed some bad deeds in the world, and his energy becomes damaged. His body is all black. He is sent to places similar to the emergency room, where his energy can be adjusted. Seen from a distance, the place looks like a black sea. However, if his sins can not be forgiven he is sent to earth and becomes the victim of the same type of violence that he has once done to others. In the spiritual world, one is absolutely honest, and never tries to find excuses for one's sins. Because everything is obvious and clear, there is no room for excuses. All wrong doings, no matter if they were committed intentionally or unintentionally, will be repaid in the next life. If someone's wrongful deeds harmed a lot of people in this world, he has to pay it back by suffering similar types of hardships over several lifetimes.
Dr. Newton discovered that some people choose not to reunite immediately with their own group after they pass away. One patient was a solider in Morocco who fought against French colonialists. In 1934 he was arrested by the French and escorted from Mt. Atlas to the Sahara Desert. There he was tortured for information. The soldier's will was so strong that he would rather die than disclose any information. Later, he was bound to the ground, and died slowly under the baking sunshine. This person came from a relatively high level and in turn his ability to endure suffering was also high. He was so confident that he only brought 50% of his energy when he reincarnated into the world, although he knew how difficult it would be. When he returned to the "other side" it took him 25 to 50 years to recover. From these cases it becomes evident that some strong souls choose to reincarnate into the world but they do it not to suffer for their previous sins but to accomplish something even more precious. Although the soldier only brought part of his energy with him he was able to endure all the suffering without any compromising. It is truly admirable.
In his book Dr. Newton described an interesting phenomenon regarding energy. In other dimensions a souls' energy manifests as colors, and they are indicators of a person's spiritual enlightenment and development. It starts from pure white then goes to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and finally purple. The souls who are at the yellow level or higher are eligible to guide others. A person's level of enlightenment is not necessarily correlated with the amount of time in reincarnation. Dr. Newton had one patient who finally gave up his jealousy after 4000 years of incarnations. Dr. Newton also stressed that there is a hierarchy in the spiritual world, but this structure is very harmonious. It is completely different from the social classes and political hierarchies on earth. People on Earth believe that absolute authority results in absolute corruption, which has almost become the standard on Earth. However, patients of Dr. Newton find that there is honesty and freedom everywhere in the spirit world. Souls of higher levels treat souls of lower levels with compassion and tolerance, and everyone is respected and loved.
After joyfully reuniting with friends in the spirit world, souls come to meet higher level beings that become their spiritual guides. The highest level beings that Dr Newton's patients came in contact with had purple colored energy. Souls feel very close to those who guide them and have tremendous amount of respect for them. When souls meet with their spiritual guides it is somewhat similar to a student going to the principal's office. The soul tells the guide things they did right, things they did wrong and how they will compensate for it in their next lifetime. During one of Dr Newton's sessions a patient's spiritual guide mentioned a brief encounter that the patient had at a bus station during his present lifetime. The patient was very confused by this. One day while the patient was rushing to his office he heard a woman weep. He then stopped and sat beside her trying to comfort her. After a few minutes he left and never saw the lady again. The patient was very surprised that his guide brought up this brief encounter. He had donated money to charity groups throughout his life, but his spiritual guide did not comment on that. The guide appeared more interested in the brief encounter. In fact, the kindness the patient showed the woman from bottom of his heart was no less benevolent then his lifelong donations. It appears that everything a person does, whether it is good or bad is recorded in detail.
Just before souls are going to reincarnate they are brought to a place to choose a body. The soul is allowed to see glimpses of the future in a ring shaped screen. He can even use part of his energy to enter into his future body and experience what it will be like. One musician described seeing and experiencing New York before his incarnation. Souls often choose an imperfect life with hardships and tribulations in order to pay off past debts or rise up to higher levels.
After making decisions about their next life souls are sent to a circular performance like hall, where they are allowed to preview important events that are to take place in their next life. One particularly important moment viewed is the time when their spouse enters into their life. In ancient times a marriage was mainly arranged by a person's parents and this event happened very smoothly. However, in modern society it's hard to find your spouse among sentient beings, because personal interests and vanity often sway people. People tend to rely more on reasoning than their intuition. As a result, they sometimes miss the opportunity to meet their prearranged spouses.
One patient told his story of how he met his wife. Before the patient reincarnated he was told by his guide to remember some cues before entering into this lifetime. These cues were to act as landmarks during his life journey. The most important cues were his wife's laughter, his wife's eyes and the way she smelled when they danced together for the first time. His wife Melinda was told to remember the patient's big ears. She also needed to remember that he was a clumsy dancer and that he would step on her feet when they danced together. The patient and Melinda did not know each other while growing up. He lived Iowa, and Melinda lived in California. He almost got married to his girlfriend in high school before he moved to the west with his family. When he first arrived in California he did not know anyone and came up with the idea that he was going to go dancing. This was somewhat unusual since he was clumsy and did not enjoy dancing. That night he met Melinda at a dance. While talking with Dr Newton he realized that it was his guide, playing the role of matchmaker, who put the thought of going dancing into his mind.
In the spirit world, souls discuss with their mentors various lessons they learned from their previous life. They also go to a place similar to a library where they continue their studying. In one case, Amy returned to her spiritual home after living in a small British village. She had committed suicide in 1860 at the age of 16. At the time she had been pregnant for two months. Before committing suicide her fiancé had fallen off a top of a building while repairing a home and died. Amy was so distraught that she desperately jumped into a pool. In the spirit world, she saw herself in a library. In the library a spiritual guide wearing a white robe and holding several pictures came to her while shaking his head. He said to Amy you came back too early. In the spiritual world suicide is considered a big crime and Amy knew this. After a while, she resentfully said that she wanted to hit her guide with the pictures that he was carrying in his hands. She told him why don't you try and experience what she went through during that life. The spiritual guide looked at her very kindly and left the room. Amy thought that he was leaving to give her a chance to calm down for a while. But soon after he returned with a book. He turned to the first page and showed Amy a time when he was a young man in ancient Rome. During that lifetime he was taken to a coliseum and was torn to pieces by a lion because he would not give up his faith. He then put down his book of life and opened Amy's. In it showed several possible directions that her life might have gone if she hadn't committed suicide. Some of the endings were very good. It becomes clear that a sentient being's life can be changed by a person's free will. At the same time, we also see that the spiritual guide's endurance and persistence qualified him to guide Amy not to give up in the face of adversity.
Dr. Newton's patients also recalled that they learned some unique capabilities while in the spiritual world. Some of them reported being able to create and improve some small galaxies and low-level beings in other dimensions. Some of them also experienced incarnating into non-material dimensions. Through the supernormal ability of precognition and retrocognition (foreseeing the future and the past) some patients recall seeing the decline of a civilization developed by yellow-green people. In the spiritual world respecting virtues is far more important then learning knowledge.
Before finishing the review of Dr. Newton's research and other researchers I would like to clarify an issue. I have discovered that most scientists who do research in this area have realized that what their patient sees while in trance is controlled by beings in higher dimensions. If those beings want to intentionally block the patient from seeing something, no matter how hard the researcher tries the patient won't be able to see it. So why have these higher level beings decided to reveal these secrets to human beings during these past 30 years? Are there any reasons behind this?
Epilogue
The research I reviewed in this article is only a small percentage of the studies done on reincarnation. Since I have been very busy working on various projects I have not had time to review all the research out there. Furthermore, several topics related to reincarnation, such as out of body experiences, clairvoyance, and the ability of precognition and retrocognition, are not addressed in this paper.
We are living in a time when science prevails and we should look at these studies from a scientific perspective. I am very open to all of my readers' questions and doubts. After all science is a continuous process that is constantly evolving and renewing itself. From a modern scientific perspective, physical phenomena ultimately obey a set of mathematical laws and theoretically everything, including chemistry, biology, and society, must follow laws. Since the events we discussed in this article cannot be explained by modern science they are considered to be impossible. Should we consider everything that science cannot explain to be fiction? According to this theory, phenomena that modern science cannot explain are impossible.
Although physicists believe that everything in this world is strictly ruled by a set of mathematical equations, science is still very far away from having a unified theory of physics that explains how all matter and energy interacts with one another. Even if we finally find a universal set of equations that unifies the various fields of physics including gravity, weak electrical forces, and strong nuclear forces we still cannot exclude the possibility that other substances or forces exist. Of course, we may prove by other mathematical rules and observations that this set of equations covers everything; it still would only be relatively true. Both Newton's gravitation theory and Maxwell's electromagnetism are already considered to be perfect, but they are only a small picture of the even larger theory of general relativity and quantum electrodynamics. Therefore, I do not believe modern physics can deny the existence of multiple dimensions or space-times. On the contrary, recently the super-string and membrane theory has already pointed out the necessity of the existence of other space-times.
From the perspective of cognitive sciences, many researchers believe that consciousness and the mind are nothing more than reflections of neural networks running in the brain and body. For example, our sense of color can be attributed to linear resolution of light by three sensitizing cells in our retina. However this is only one explanation. It is far from being a universal truth. In other dimensions beings can also sense color, but they use some other corresponding physical structure. Looking at it from this perspective the thoughts in our minds might be independent from the central nervous system in our human body. It is very likely that the role our central nervous system plays in this dimension is only to process the data obtained by our sensory organs into a message that our main spirit can understand. Maybe if our human bodies didn't exist our main spirit might be able to obtain the information directly. From this perspective our human body's sensory organs could be obstacles for our main spirit.
If reincarnation does exist then our dimension is just like a big stage. Everybody plays a role here. "When you finish your show it's my turn. We even begin to believe the stage is our real home." The atmosphere on the stage is so real that when we arrive on the stage and breathe the air here, we revel in our roles. We forget who we really are and what the truth is. At the same time every single action we make on this stage is a reflection of our true selves and what we play will become experiences and lessons for our true selves. Our true self will take responsibility for what we do on this stage. If the stage is not puzzling enough and if actors do not devote themselves to playing their roles, the stage won't make any sense and our true selves will not be able to get the experience and wisdom that they came here for. In order to make this stage bewildering enough, our material world has to run automatically within the limited area that humans can observe. Furthermore, all traces of higher levels of life must be hidden from us. This is why all our memories about past lives and higher dimensions are completely erased from our minds. It is just like when a student does his homework, he is not supposed to have the answer key. He needs to find out the answer himself in order to master the knowledge.
Knowing that this stage is a maze, why can researchers disclose some answers to us then? Why are they allowed to tell us that we are actually part of this play? As a matter of fact very few people will believe them and they know that. Therefore, the riddle is still a riddle. For those who believe what they have said, they will try to play their roles better. Perhaps the hints themselves are part of the play and behind them lies something very profound.
These researchers have contributed a lot to our culture, but we have to point out the limitations of their work on a spiritual level. What they learned and observed through the heart of their patients was limited to a certain level and a certain range. Furthermore, what their patients saw was might not have been the true scene. They also deciphered what they saw according to their different cultural backgrounds and understandings. Hence conclusions made based upon what they saw or experienced might not be necessarily correct. For example, none of the patients mentioned seeing or experiencing hell, so some researchers have claimed that hell does not exist. This conclusion is as ridiculous as asking those who are not here please raise your hand. In addition, because a person's main spirit can stay or leave the body of an embryo or fetus and it is not completely combined with the human body, some researchers have even concluded that abortion was okay. This conclusion is definitely not correct. Even without a main spirit the human flesh body itself is a living being. In fact, besides our main spirit and our human flesh body, there could be a lot of other kinds of beings associated with a person. For example, the Taoist school in China believes one person has three spirits and seven souls, while the Buddha school believes that there are more than one immortal consciousness. Although hierophants did not describe the details of higher levels, Jesus did not mention reincarnation at all, and Confucius even said "we do not understand life, and how do we know death?", the author still thought that traditional values were much closer to correct and what Jesus and Buddha told people were fundamental to people.
I myself have practiced Falun Gong for the past few years. Actually Master Li Hongzhi has addressed all the questions and topics raised in this article. Here are only a few examples.
"We have also observed this situation: When a person is born, a profile of his whole life will exist in a specific dimension. In other words, where he is in his life and what he should do are all included in it. Who has arranged his life? It is obviously done by a higher life. For instance, in our ordinary human society, after birth one belongs to a certain family, a certain school, and upon growing up a certain workplace; various contacts in society are made through a person's job. That is, the layout of the entire society has been planned this way." (Zhuan Falun)
"During In-Triple-World-Fa cultivation, the energy that people can have in the very beginning is red, after that it will turn orange, yellow, green, …… totally nine colors and they are red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, colorful and colorless. The level of one person is very easy to determine. Continue practicing after colorless state, it will be Beyond-Triple-World-Fa cultivation." (Zhuan Falun II)
"We've also found that, because there's this kind of relationship, that is, a person has kindness and spite in one lifetime, has close relatives and good friends, has a wife and children, and so forth, then it's very likely that there's kindness and spite within this group—someone treats another well, someone treats another badly, one person repays another person… These things will then cause them to reincarnate as a group in the next life. But they don't come together; it's not that they'll reincarnate together. The timing of their arrivals in this world will vary, so some will be older and some younger. Anyway, there will be certain connections among this group of people, who will reincarnate at different times. You'll find that someone who walks down the street and doesn't belong to your group, who doesn't have a predestined relationship with you, or have anything to do with you, will seem to be in a totally different world from you. You won't seem to have anything to do with him. You'll also find persons who seem to be of a different type of people. Then these people aren't from your group, and you don't have any predestined relationship with them at all. So people usually reincarnate as a group and arrive at different times". (Falun Buddha Fa , Lectures in the United States)
"Committing suicide is another sin. This is because a person's life is pre-arranged. You have disrupted the sequence of the god's entire layout. Through the obligations you carry out to society, between people there is this kind of interrelationship. If the person dies, won't this entire sequence disrupt the god's arrangement then? If you disrupt it, he will not let you go. Therefore, committing suicide is sinful." (Falun Dafa, Lecture in Sydney)
What Master Li has told us are principles of cultivation. Master Li has explained the answers to many fundamental, momentous and age old questions in very plain language. According to different people's educational backgrounds and ways of thinking, Master Li has used words and examples from modern sciences to help allow people to understand his teachings. But the words and examples Master Li uses have completely different meanings. His lectures are not scientific seminars and not all the people listening to his lectures are people from scientific circles. The meaning of words that Master Li cites like "atom" and "molecule" are not limited to the definitions made by modern science. It is our hope that our friends from different scientific circles will not emphasize the form alone without looking deeper for the truth.
To conclude, I would like to cite a poem by Master Li:
The Big Stage
Five thousand years of human civilization,
has China Proper1 as the stage.
Foolishly absorbed in what unfolds in the play,
the grotesque scenes seem beautiful.
Awakening, people look at one another,
and realize the stage was being set for the Fa.
Li Hongzhi
February 1, 2002
References
Helen Wambach，Ph.D.，Reliving past lives - The evidence under hypnosis.
Joel L. Whitton, M.D. Ph.D. and Joe Fisher, Life between life: scientific explorations into the void separating one incarnation from the next.
Michael Newton, Ph.D., Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives.
Michael Newton, Ph.D., Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives.
Translated from http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/8/5/17092.html
