An Overview of the Basic Principles of Reincarnation
The study of reincarnation, among other topics relating to the development and journey of the soul, has actively been part of my life for about ten years. In most cases, spontaneous memory recall begins so early that a child may not yet have the verbal abilities to convey those memories to their families. Spontaneous memory recall happened for me as a toddler, long before I could ever begin to understand the implications of what I remembered. Children typically begin suppression when they enter school age. Unsupportive parents, teachers and peers reinforce the media by drilling it into a child’s head that things like ghosts and reincarnation are not real, that it’s all make believe and fun for Halloween. Children who express knowledge of paranormal matters are typically ridiculed and told that it’s all just their imagination.
Personally, I resisted the idea of reincarnation in general for so many years due to trying to be “normal” that it contributed to bouts of serious depression as well as an anxiety disorder. Eventual acceptance and exploration into who I am led to a huge relief in my depression and anxiety disorder symptoms (although I don’t want to be mistaken by saying it’s a cure because it’s most definitely not), leading to the tools through meditation that allowed me to control my symptoms. Exploration of past lives allows people to see the progression of their souls and reads like a road map of where you have been and what you need to do to improve the journey ahead. In my experience, I have only encountered a few people who are less than five lives into their journey. The vast majority of people have lived multiple lives. Spotting a new soul is fairly easy because they tend to be extremely naive, even as adults, they have an extremely difficult time coping with everyday stress, they are flightly and exhibit selfish behavior without truly understanding why it is selfish behavior. As we progress and develop into more lives, the negative, infantile characteristics give way to a greater understanding and empathy for things bigger than the self.
“I loved the past life reading that I got from Jessica. She was very spot on! It was awesome! I look forward to getting another reading done in the future.” – Michaela,
find out about readings with Jessica here.
For some, getting so wrapped up in the past prevents them from living in the present, which is a huge reason for why I do readings and spiritual counseling. I teach people how to release negativity from their pasts so that they can fulfill the purposes in who they are today. While reflection on where you have been in the past is important, it’s more important to understand why you are exploring your past. Motivations must lie in deeper spiritual understanding of yourself and where your journey is headed, not a mere curiosity to do for the fun of it. Everybody has done bad things in their pasts — everybody — and I do not shrink away from describing the bad things because it’s important to understand every facet of the soul. Many intuitives like to be the sunshine and roses, everything is wonderful, type of readers but I’m a very strong advocate of deep self-exploration. You cannot improve who you are if you ignore the bad because the good is more fun.
The purpose of reincarnation is to learn through predetermined lessons how to be more tolerant, generous, humble and loving souls. Free will exists in the afterlife as well as life. Before birth, we plan out our own obstacles and how we react to those obstacles in life will determine success or failure, happiness or unhappiness. We choose the look and health of our bodies for various reasons, we enter into agreements with other souls to be our family, friends and enemies, and so on. We all incarnate into soul groups. A soul group is a group of souls that incarnates together in life after life, switching roles in order to teach and learn from each other. Some of the most common role switches are siblings to spouses, parent/child to friends/enemies, friends to enemies, enemies to friends, etc. Within the soul group, there are different levels:
Twin Flame
We each have one Twin Flame and the term is often mixed up with Soulmates. Most believe that Twin Flames began their existence as one soul. The soul split into two, became individuals and became like Yin to Yang, plus to minus, male to female (typically, but there are same-sex Twin Flames). Twin Flames rarely incarnate together but when they do, it is always a romantic connection that serves a greater purpose to humanity. When they incarnate together, it is a lifetime commitment and one will feel completely empty and lost without the other. It’s not unlike feeling like your literal other half is missing. Examples of Twin Flame connections are John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Marie Antoinette/Louis XVI, Fanny Chamberlain/Joshua L. Chamberlain (my own case).
Soulmates
We have multiple Soulmates, which are not limited to romantic connections. Soulmates are the souls with whom you have shared so many lives that you recognize each other instantly and you often feel like you’ve known each other forever. A Soulmate can be a lover, a family member or a friend. Soulmates do not have to be permanent lifelong connections as with Twin Flames but they do have to have a major impact on the development of your soul. People born to multiples pregnancies have built-in, ready-made Soulmates, for example. Oprah and Gayle as best friends are Soulmates, for another example. The five members of New Kids on the Block are Soulmates to each other, for a third example.
General Souls
General Souls are the most numerous within the soul group. There is a connection and a certain level of recognition but you don’t always incarnate in the same life, so the impact is not as strong. It’s very much like the extended family members that you don’t see very often but they are still family, so there is some connection. These souls fulfill functional roles in each others’ lives but do not exhibit the same impact that will be found with Twin Flames or Soulmates.
“I have had two past life readings completed by Jessica and have been happy with both. I highly recommend her services to anyone interested in discovering more about him or herself.” -Lauren,
find out about readings with Jessica here.
Each soul has a dominant gender, meaning the soul will prefer to incarnate most often as either male or female. There will be lifetimes in which the soul will choose to incarnate into the opposite gender in order to gain life experience from a perspective that could not be attained from the dominant gender. According to research done by Dr. Walter Semkiw (www.johnadams.net), which corresponds with my own research, the switch to the opposite gender happens about 10-20% of the time during the soul’s total journey through life.
I’m often asked how homosexuality or transgenderedism figures into the scheme of reincarnation. My experience with my gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered clients has led me to believe that most of the time, it is a choice the soul makes prior to being born, for a variety of reasons, just as anyone chooses how they look, who their family members are, and obstacles and lessons. It is not a “lifestyle” or something that can be “cured.” It is who they are in the life they’re living and it is always for a greater purpose. Most GLBT people that I work with made plans prior to birth to use that specific lifetime to teach a higher level of tolerance and acceptance to humanity, or they are trying to improve their own self-worth and personal acceptance. Transgendered people that I have worked with describe feeling like a male/female trapped in the opposite body. I’m not sure if this is another pre-birth lesson they set for themselves and society, or if the soul’s dominant gender simply rejects the opposite body it inhabits. One thing I know for certain is that being GLBT is not an accident, it’s not immoral and it’s not a mistake.
One question I struggled with for 25 years was how on Earth do people end up with severe physical and developmental disabilities? I have learned that with all “obstacles” people face that place them outside of “normal society,” it’s most often an act of free will to do for the greater good of humanity. I was once read by Kevin Ryerson (www.kevinryerson.com), who explained that my present disability was my choice prior to my birth. I absorbed the suffering of others in my soul group during the Civil War as a physical manifestation of protest against war today. People like me with various disabilities are here to show that the world should be putting its resources toward eliminating suffering rather than creating more suffering and destruction. And as with any soul choosing to exist within a “minority,” there is an element of teaching tolerance and acceptance simply through this existence.
When people are exploring their past lives, there is always some evidence already in us. Certain personality traits and tastes remain from life to life. Regarding physical appearance, to quote Dr. Walter Semkiw: “Facial architecture, the shape and proportions of the face, appears to be consistent from lifetime to lifetime. Physical habits, such as postures, hand gestures and the type of jewelry worn, can also be consistent from lifetime to lifetime. Even poses struck in portraits and photographs are often uncannily similar from one lifetime to another. Body types can be consistent from lifetime to lifetime, though the size of the body can vary. An individual can have a slight physique in one lifetime and a powerful one in the next. One can be short in one incarnation and tall in another, though facial features, postures and gestures, appear to remain the same.” He also writes: “Just as personality traits remain consistent from lifetime to lifetime, a person’s manner of expression seems to be similar from one lifetime to another. Some variation in writing style, of course, will be observed due to differing customs of various eras. Still, consistencies in modes of expression and in content are observed. Just as portraits allow us to see how one’s appearance is the same from lifetime to lifetime, historical documents, diaries and other available documentation allow us to study writing style across incarnations. Formal linguistic analysis has been utilized in studying one case in our series and in the future I believe it will be regularly used as a tool to help delineate past-life cases.”
Also in identifying and validating past lives, there will be reccurring symbols, synchronistic events and anniversary phenomena. As Dr. Semkiw writes: “A common feature in past-life research is that symbols from a prior lifetime are found in the person’s contemporary incarnation. For eleven years I worked for Unocal 76, also known as Union 76, an oil company whose slogan is ‘The Spirit of 1776.’ The company name and slogan reflect my participation in the American Revolution as John Adams. We shall see that others who contributed to forming the American nation, including John Quincy Adams, his Vice-President, John Calhoun, and the great explorer, John Charles Fremont, also worked at Union 76. Another feature we find in past-life cases is that of symbolic synchronistic events. In William Barnes’ book, Thomas Andrews, A Voyage into History, Mr. Barnes relates how he came to uncover his past-life as Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic, who died on the ship. Appropriately, William Barnes was born on the anniversary date of the Titanics’ sinking, 41 years after the tragedy occurred. In many of our cases, we will observe similar anniversary phenomena.”
Three-quarters of this planet includes reincarnation, ghosts and the soul as part of their belief systems. That’s four billion people. Hundreds of books, thousands of first-hand accounts, and thousands more of unrecorded experiences exist out there. The Western world is the last group still dragging its feet in accepting that not all things can be explained by known science. When you look at facts such as 96% of DNA being called “junk DNA” and 90% of our brains allegedly being “unused,” it begs the question of how can we be arrogant enough to claim to understand all aspects of life, death and everything in between?