Q 1. May I take you up, please, on an answer you gave in the ‘questions and answers’ column of Share International July/August, relating to "How do souls occupy their time while we are in incarnation?" Your answer to that question is a very deep one. It reminds me of an answer given by the Source of A Course in Miracles which, when asked if reincarnation is a fact, answers in an indirect manner: Since there is no time (on a higher level), there cannot really be reincarnation (though the Source goes on to say that the concept is not harmful if it reminds people of the continuity of existence). I interpret your answer to mean: Souls live on a timeless level. Incarnation is a reflection or projection of soul on a time plus personality basis. But, if that is so, I cannot fit the first sentence of your answer: "It is the soul, not the personality, which is in incarnation" — nor am I quite sure how karma works. Am I right in thinking that the soul absorbs karmic influences during a lifetime, then between two lives "processes" these, as it were, to enable it to do its next choice properly?

A. It is true that I believe that the soul lives on a timeless level, an ever-present Now. Nevertheless, its body of manifestation, the causal body, which exists on the highest of the four mental planes, is the receptacle for all the experiences of its reflection — that is, the man or woman in incarnation, throughout all lives. It is this total experience which eventually becomes open to the physical brain around the time of the 4^th initiation, when the causal body is shattered, as being no longer needed. By "It’s the soul not the personality which is in incarnation", I mean it is the soul which makes the conscious choice of reflecting itself downwards on to the physical, astral and mental planes, working through the personality, and which is the conveyor of the life principle and consciousness to that personality. When the person —i.e. the body — dies, it is at the decision of the soul which then withdraws that life force. The soul, as I understand it, is aware of the action of karma, cause and effect, but it is in fact the Lords of Karma who make the decisions about how that karmic law actually works out in any given life. To this the soul responds cooperatively, so to speak, by arranging the life situation, etc, of its various incarnational periods. Time, as you know, is a concept of the physical brain and has no existence outside the physical plane. It would appear that our most advanced physicists are coming to this conclusion too.

Q 2. Why is it that normally we do not remember our previous lives and what is the mechanism which prevents us?

A. It is because we do not possess continuity of consciousness (that is, from ‘life’ through ‘death’ to life again). For a few weeks or months (depending on the individual child) the baby does indeed remember its previous life but this quickly fades as the impressions of the outer world impinge more and more on its consciousness. Although it is by no means always the case, by the time the third initiation is being taken, continuity of consciousness is beginning to be established. Eventually, at the fifth initiation, total recall of all past experiences is achieved.

Q 3. Where is the information of our previous incarnations stored?

A. In the causal body, the vehicle of the soul, to be found on the highest of the four mental planes.

Q 4. Is it coincidence that people who do seem to remember former lives (apart from those who make up the memories themselves) have often been violently killed in that previous incarnation?

A. No. The shock of violent or sudden death frequently provides a source of tension which drives the memory downwards to the brain.

Q 5. How can we be sure that even very clear and vivid images from a supposed former life are indeed real? Is it not very easy to be mistaken or misled here?

A. The simple answer is that we cannot be sure. It is very easy to mistake clear and definite images for one’s former existences when they are, for example, being picked up telepathically from someone else. (I spent years believing that certain clear ‘memories’ received in deep meditation were recalls of my former lives until told quite otherwise by my Master. They were in fact previous existences of someone with whom I have a close connection on the soul level.)

Q 6. Is it advisable or even helpful to attempt to regain memories of previous incarnations through guided visualizations or with the help of reliable psychics?

A. It is certainly possible but to my mind not advisable. After all, what is a reliable psychic; and which recalled memory can be proved to be authentic?

Q 7. Can some current fears and phobias — with seemingly no reason to exist — be better understood by knowing previous life experiences that originated them?

A. If the fears do originate in a previous existence then of course it would be of value to understand the circumstances of their arising. But the vast majority of our fears originate in this lifetime, whether or not we can see, consciously, their basis.

Q 8. Is regression to supposed previous existences under hypnosis reliable?

A. No, not absolutely. Sometimes it would appear that the contacted experiences are true and provable (but not necessarily having happened to the person under hypnosis). At other times they have been proved not to have been possible in the manner described. So the question remains: what are we dealing with in these ‘regressions’ — reliving of previous lives, or clairvoyance and telepathy? I suggest it is sometimes the one, and sometimes the other.

Q 9. Why should we use such a method (regression) to go back to our memories? If hypnosis works through relaxation, why would we not have spontaneous knowledge of former lives during the relaxation of sleep?

A. Indeed, spontaneous recall of former lives does sometimes take place during deep sleep, but, as with hypnosis, it is not reliable. The major content of dreams comes from the activity of the lower mind in light sleep phases. Hypnosis works not only through relaxation but, as in meditation, through a withdrawal of the attention from the outer world of the senses and a re-focusing of the attention inwards, (and, in meditation, upwards).

Q 10. Is there any use in knowing your former lives? Is there not a tendency to escape from difficulties in the present life to easier-to-cope-with former lives?

A. There is value in knowing former lives, if this can be done without getting lost in glamour. It can be illuminating and conducive to a sense of proportion. It gives a longer perspective to the evolutionary journey than mere theoretical belief in reincarnation.

I really do not think that a knowledge of previous lives provides a means of escape from present life difficulties. Someone who tries to escape from the present difficulties (probably most of us at some time or other) is going to do so whether past lives are known or not. And what if the remembered life was fraught with great difficulty and suffering? Would it then be a basis for escape?

I do believe, however, that in the West the new interest in reincarnation has centred almost exclusively in recall of past lives with the harmful ensuing glamours which that has released. The important life is the one in which we find ourselves now.

Q 11. People talk a lot about so-called déjà-vu experiences. Have they necessarily to do with incarnational memories?

A. Sometimes these déjà-vu experiences do indeed relate to previous life memories but as often as not this is not the case. There are many reasons for this sensation; very often it is the result of a lapse, and then regain, of attention when some person, place or happening makes a strong impression; in other words a ‘memory’ of a very recent event.

Q 12. At which level of evolution would we definitely be aware of our previous lives? Even the third degree initiates (Churchill, Mao) do not seem to have been so.

A. Certainly by the fourth degree some previous lives would be recalled. The fifth degree Master has total recall of all past experience. That third degree initiates like Churchill and Mao do not (we presume) recall past lives, or perhaps do not even believe in reincarnation, is not unusual. These ‘men of action’ are frequently so extraverted in their life activity that such soul knowledge would not be helpful to them. General Patton of the United States army, on the other hand, was both a man of action and a firm believer in reincarnation and claimed to remember previous lives (also as a soldier!).

Q 13. Since we do not remember our previous lives there does not seem to be any logic in karmic ‘punishment’. Are we not hunted, in this way, for deeds we know nothing of? Can we even be regarded as responsible for things we have not the slightest relation to any longer?

A. The questions show a fundamental misunderstanding of the Law of Karma. There is no punishment for deeds (or misdeeds) committed in the past. Karma is the process of cause and effect. Every thought or action we have or make sets in motion causes — energetic impulses — which eventually, sooner or later, have their effects. These effects make our lives, for good or ill. In the old Jewish dispensation (which the Christ came to end) the law is expressed — wrongly — as, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Thus expressed, the law does sound like punishment — vengeance of a wrathful Jehovah. The Christ expressed the Law of Karma very simply: "As you sow, so shall you reap". We ourselves are responsible, by our actions and thoughts, now and in the past, for what befalls us. There is nothing, moreover, in our long series of incarnations, to which we are not related. We have made and are making our lives. Our achievements and our mistakes are ours alone and we are for ever responsible for what we are and do. A point that perhaps should be emphasized is that for most people the ‘good’ far outweighs the ‘bad’. The Law, wielded by the Lords of Karma, is not only just but forgiving.

Q 14. It is said that we come into incarnation to improve previous relationships, and that we are related to the same people again and again. If so, would we not try to keep married no matter what happens? A divorce might help this time, but then we would have to undergo the same experience with the same person in another life.

A. Marriage is a man-made institution and its laws and customs vary from country to country. There is no karmic reason why a marriage should be kept intact "no matter what happens". It is the relationship, involving as often as not karmic ties, that matters, not the marriage as an institution. Karmic relationships do not necessarily involve marriage — otherwise we would all marry many more times than the average film star! The choice to marry or not is always made in this life by the people involved — it is not a karmic necessity. Similarly with the decision to end a marriage.

Q 15. Is misfortune always retribution for past lives or can it be purely an opportunity for spiritual growth through overcoming suffering?

A. We are so used to functioning under the pleasure-pain syndrome that we tend to consider all painful experience as misfortune and as necessarily retribution for past misdeeds. The law of karma is not about retribution, but about cause and effect. Our life proceeds in cycles, some painful —representing opportunities for growth through understanding and gaining of detachment — and others relatively pleasurable, evolving easily on the gain of the previous struggle.

Q 16. I. Whatever can be the soul’s gain or purpose to incarnate in the body of a Mongol? II. It is said that it is the parents’ karma to get a Mongol child — is it not as much the karma of the child itself, or a matter of combined karma?

A. I. In taking the body of a Mongol child the soul seeks a limitation of its life to fit in with karma. II. This question reminds me of the question of the Disciples to Jesus about the blind child: "Did this child or its father sin that it was born blind?" — a clear implication of the doctrine of reincarnation at the time of Jesus. The karma pertains to the child itself, not the parents.

Q 17. Do some incarnating souls change their minds shortly after birth, thus accounting for some of the sudden infant deaths that occur among seemingly healthy children?

A. It is not a question of the soul "changing its mind" in such cases, but of the personality refusing the new experience, perhaps because of a particularly strainful incarnation immediately before.

Q 18. What effect does abortion have on the reincarnating soul?

A. Obviously, it prevents incarnation! This might well be a good thing in preventing the premature incarnation of an immature soul which would otherwise be drawn into incarnation by magnetic attraction of the prepared vehicle.

Q 19. What karmic liability does having an abortion create for the parent?

A. It depends on the purpose of the incarnation. Not all incarnations have the same value for the world.

Q 20. Is this (karmic) liability increased or diminished relative to their level of evolution, ie, the more spiritually developed the greater the responsibility and thus the greater the liability?

1. Yes. Precisely.

Q 21. I. Are physical handicaps always the result of karma? II. Is it possible to use physical handicaps as a means to evolve faster, while there is no karma involved? III. Is it inevitable for all of us to live, in one or more lives, with such physical handicaps — or are there other ways to deal with karmic debts?

A. I. No, physical handicaps are quite frequently the result of straight forward accidents at birth. Karma is not only reaction but action. New causes —which produce the effects, karma — are continually being set in motion.    II. Yes. The effort involved in overcoming handicaps has often a great character-forming role, thus aiding evolution.  III. No. There is no law which says we must all experience physical handicaps. Where they do have a karmic origin, however, they are frequently, though not always, the result of physical cruelty to others in the past.

Q 22. Do all souls when incarnating choose their own parents, localities, ray structures, etc, or do more advanced souls help the younger ones make these choices?

A. It depends on the level of evolution. The masses of unevolved humanity are swept into incarnation with very little say as to time, place etc. Evolved souls, on the other hand, do indeed choose the parents, environment, ray structure, and so on. This is usually done with the help of the individual’s Master.

Q 23. When an evolved soul chooses its parents for incarnation, is it to provide the right environment for the particular service for that life time?

A. Yes. With the help of his Master, the advanced soul chooses those parents who will best provide the situations, bodies and experiences through which its service purposes can best be realized.

Q 24. In an age of surrogate mothers and sperm banks, is the soul’s job made more difficult to discover its desired parents?

A. No. An advanced soul, at least, will choose to be born only to those parents with whom it has karmic connection.

Q 25. Can we consciously choose our parents, sex, country, etc, for our next life?

A. No. These choices are made by the incarnating entity, the soul, in accordance with its purpose(s).

Q 26. If souls incarnate in groups, does one choose parents who have the same soul ray as one’s own?

A. It is usually the case that parents and children have the same soul ray but this is by no means always the case.

Q 27. Can a parent obtain an indication of their child’s soul purpose for the current lifetime by studying the astrological rising sign and aspects to that position?

A. No. What can usefully be learned from such a study is the particular forces likely to be influencing the soul in that life. Of course the relevance of that information when applied will depend on the point in evolution of the child.

Q 28. Is it possible to know future lives? If so, does this imply that everything is, after all, pre-ordained?

A. Yes, it is possible to know future lives. Those who are familiar with Alice Bailey’s Discipleship in the New Age will remember the frequent references to the following lives (and ray structures) of certain of the disciples, and my Master has already given me my ray structure and indicated the general area of work in my next incarnation. Clairvoyance or pre-vision is not, of course, the monopoly of the Masters, but this whole area of clairvoyance is so saturated with glamour and illusion that I personally would believe only that of a Master. Is everything, thus, preordained? In a sense, yes. Everything co-exists in the eternal Now (the Master and the soul sees both ways, so-called past and so-called future). The time factor is an experience of the physical brain. All possibilities exist in the eternal Now but our acts, decisions and thoughts determine which of these possibilities precipitates, thus setting in motion the Law of Cause and Effect (or Karma).

Q 29. In a specific life as a Westerner, could it still be visible that one was from Asia or Africa in a previous incarnation?

A. In physical characteristics, no, but in ways of thought, general approach to the world, yes.

Benjamin Creme is the British chief editor of Share International, an artist and an esotericist for many years. His telepathic contact with a Master of Wisdom allows him to receive up-to-date information on the World Teacher's emergence and to expand on the Ageless Wisdom Teachings.