ABORTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: PAST LIVES AND SOUL MATES By Soul Choice International Copyright © 2013 Soul Choice International. Cover design by: Artistic Inspirations, LLC PERMISSIONS: You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on SoulChoice.org website is preferred. Soul Choice International must approve any exceptions. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: Copyright © 2013 Soul Choice International. Website: SoulChoice.org CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: PAST LIVES CHAPTER 2: YOUR SOUL CHAPTER 3: REINCARNATION CHAPTER 4: KARMA AND REINCARNATION CHAPTER 5: DÉJÀ VU EXPERIENCES, CHILD PRODIGIES AND DREAMS CHAPTER 6: SOUL MATES AND TWIN FLAMES CHAPTER 7: CONSIDER THE POSSIBLE PLIGHT OF THE TIBETAN MONK CHAPTER 8: CONSIDER THE POSSIBLE PLIGHT OF THE CHRISTIAN MARTYR CHAPTER 9: EVERY SOUL IS UNIQUE AND IRREPLACEABLE CHAPTER 10: THERE IS MORE TO ABORTION THAN MEETS THE EYE CHAPTER 11: ADOPTION—A RESPONSIBLE ALTERNATIVE CHAPTER 12: WHAT IF YOU’VE ALREADY HAD AN ABORTION? CHAPTER 13: WHAT IF YOU’RE PREGNANT NOW? NOTES ABORTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: PAST LIVES AND SOUL MATES PAST LIVES Imagine, for a minute, that you were a peaceful, law-abiding Tibetan monk in the last part of the 20th century. One day you were rounded up like a criminal, tortured, forced to witness or participate in unthinkable things involving your fellow monks and nuns and then “found guilty” of a trumped up charge and thrown into prison for life, never seeing family or friends or anyone from the outside world again. With beatings and a few grains of rice and filthy water as your “daily bread,” the years went painfully by until, one day, your broken body wore out and you passed from the screen of life, hardly noticed. Or, imagine that in a past life, you were with Jesus in his last days and became one of his devoted fol owers after his death and resurrection. You were so devoted, that you were persecuted and killed with innu-merable other devotees. These are just two examples of horrific yet commonly endured hardships and deaths that have traumatized thousands of souls over the last 2,000 years. Memories of such experiences would scar a soul for centuries. Without the understanding of reincarnation we cannot real y understand our soul’s path of evolution and our reason for being. YOUR SOUL Your soul is your life essence. It has a definite plan. It started a long time ago in the heart of God. (1) Your soul has the opportunity to become immortal. But this does not happen overnight or even in one lifetime. After a physical death, your soul returns to life in another body. Reincarnation gives your soul the opportunity to evolve by learning the lessons of love through many different life experiences. REINCARNATION It is not possible for people to experience and understand all there is about life and its purpose in a single lifetime. Reincarnation is not a new concept. (2) It has been part of Hindu and Buddhist tradition for thousands of years. In fact, reincarnation was also one of the beliefs of the early Christian church. By understanding and accepting that we have lived many times before, we are able to develop a sense of the continuity of life - past, present and future. Knowing that we have lived as both male and female in different areas of the world and have belonged to different racial groups encourages us to have a more tolerant heart. We become aware that the choices we made in previous lives are often the cause of our circumstances today and we are better able to deal with the suffering and difficulties in our lives. We also become more appreciative of the blessings and joys we experience in al aspects of our lives - grateful to God for the opportunity to reap the good that we have sown along with the bad. KARMA AND REINCARNATION This law of cause and effect is called karma. Karma is a concept that’s been around for thousands of years. All our actions, in this or previous lives, have inevitable consequences. Like a personal boomerang, whatever we send out returns to us—for better or for worse. Reincarnation also explains the great love and mercy that God has for his children. Consider the infant who dies at birth, or the child born with mental or physical handicaps. Think of all the young men and women killed in wars and accidents. Surely, they are part of a greater plan that al ows them the opportunity to be born again and to live full lives in order to develop and share their unique gifts and talents with humanity. DÉJÀ VU EXPERIENCES, CHILD PRODIGIES AND DREAMS Just because we cannot remember our previous lives, does not mean we didn’t have them. Many people have déjà vu experiences where they suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere feel that they have done something before, been somewhere before, or feel that they know someone who they have just met. Many of us have also heard of or know children who were born with a special gift in music or science, who became professionals at an early age. This is often an indication that the soul has picked up where it left off from a previous life, bringing with it talents and skills that are part of its service to mankind - its reason for being. A lot of people have dreams that are set in different time periods, where everyone in the dream is wearing clothing that was worn in previous centuries and where buildings and towns are completely different from the present life. Dreams like this can mean that your soul is working out unresolved issues from a previous life that may have to do with a current life situation that may be causing you problems. SOUL MATES AND TWIN FLAMES Your soul’s life began many thousands of years ago, when God gave you a spark from his own heart. And you were not created alone. You were created with your twin flame (3), a very special soul with whom you share a unique mission. No one else can accomplish what the two of you were destined to do together. But somewhere along life’s path, you became separated from your twin flame. Over many lifetimes since then, your soul has been trying to find your twin flame and get back home to God. Along the way, your soul has met kindred spirits called soul mates. You may find more than one soul mate during your life–a special friend, a lover, someone who shares your passions. But you have only one twin flame. So, if a soul can reincarnate—be born again in another body— what’s the big deal about abortion? Wouldn’t reincarnation be the ideal argument for abortion? Wouldn’t reincarnation infer endless opportunities for a soul that was aborted? You know—rejected and unwanted by one but welcomed and wanted by another, who just might be in a “better place” or “better situation” to have a child? Not really. There’s a lot more to reincarnation than just jumping into a developing body whenever one might want to return. It’s not as if you can go shopping for a potential body or a specific family or assume that one size fits all or any. Reincarnation is more than an opportunity for another life; it is the opportunity for a soul to heal, to balance her karma (right and wrong thoughts and actions) from a previous life, to forgive and to get things right with the right people at the right time. In order to do that, you have to be born at the right time, in the right place to the right people. CONSIDER THE POSSIBLE PLIGHT OF THE TIBETAN MONK…. Imagine that it is the beginning of the 21st century, and you, the Tibetan monk, have the opportunity for a kinder, freer life in the West. The man and woman who have been assigned to nurture and love your precious soul are happily married and starting to become financial y stable. But, your potential mother is at an impasse: she’s 28 and just landed the job of a lifetime, one that will most definitely propel her to the top of her profession. As far as she can figure, having a baby now would do nothing but stop her dead in her tracks. She’s only 4 weeks pregnant and considers getting an abortion without telling her husband. He’d be against it. He wants to start a family now. She’s having a tough time deciding what to do. You’re not able to tell her that you simply must be born now, that most of your dearest friends from previous lives—your soul mates— are already born and waiting for you. You have to wait and experience what she chooses. CONSIDER THE POSSIBLE PLIGHT OF THE CHRISTIAN MARTYR…. Let’s say, again, it’s the 21st Century. And you, the early follower of Jesus, now have the opportunity to be born into a devout Christian family through a young woman who is not yet 17. She loves her boyfriend very much, but he wants nothing to do with a baby. He says he’ll break up with her if she doesn’t get an abortion. Her father is a minister, a good family man, with a good heart. But, the young woman doesn’t want to cause the shame she assumes her unplanned pregnancy would bring upon her family, so she decides to abort. From your perspective, as the soul waiting and hoping to be born, you are aware that the young pregnant woman is a friend of yours from way back—one of those with whom you were persecuted and died. And you’re also aware that her minister father is none other than the brutal guard who arrested you and took great pleasure in your demise. It’s been almost two thousand years, and, as the law of karma demands, he has paid for his brutality by enduring many difficult lifetimes. In this life, he has the opportunity to pay his debt to you and his daughter; by protecting and defending you both and by welcoming you into his family, loving and caring for you regardless of what those in any crowd or congregation may say. But you are unable to explain this to your mother-to-be. She can’t hear you when you try to tell her that now is the time when all three of you can be cut free, through love, from the karma that binds you together. You are at her mercy. You are at the mercy of those who would influence her: her friends, her boyfriend; the school nurse, the pregnancy counselor—even the ads she sees on television and the movies she watches. She is vulnerable and impressionable, and you are even more vulnerable and more impressionable—she gets to choose; you don’t. EVERY SOUL IS UNIQUE AND IRREPLACEABLE When a pregnancy is terminated, the soul is denied the opportunity to get back to earth at the right time and in the right place. This is devastating, not only for the soul, but also for those whom they were supposed to be with and help. Who doesn’t know of men and women in their 20’s and 30’s who simply haven’t met the correct person for a meaningful relationship? It’s as if whomever they were supposed to be with just isn’t here, they just didn’t make it. When you figure that over the past 40 years, there have been about 56 million abortions in the United States alone (4), there are an unbelievable number of soul mates and twin flames whose assigned partners are simply “out of luck.” Not only that, but the children they were scheduled to have won’t be born, and neither will their grandchildren or their great grandchildren. THERE IS MORE TO ABORTION THAN MEETS THE EYE There is more to abortion than meets the eye and there is more to abortion than meets the “I” of those who have the opportunity to choose. Undoubtedly, many of the women and men who choose abortion probably give it quite a bit of thought beforehand and do not make such a decision lightly. Asking them to also consider the evolving soul of their baby and its need for a body so it can be born at the right time and in the right place to fulfill its own divine plan might add an unexpected burden. Yet, it might also be the missing piece of information that puts everything into perspective. It may relieve them of the burden of ignorance. ADOPTION—A RESPONSIBLE ALTERNATIVE So, what if a woman is pregnant and willing to carry her baby to term, but is just not ready for or interested in being a parent? Adoption is worth considering. When you get pregnant—either on purpose or by accident—you usually attract a soul you have a karmic obligation to. But you may not be karmical y responsible to raise the child. You may only be responsible for giving the soul an opportunity for a physical body and finding adoptive parents. Their karma might require them to nurture the child and bring her or him to adulthood. It is important to consider adoption if you are faced with an unplanned pregnancy. WHAT IF YOU’VE ALREADY HAD AN ABORTION? What if you have already had an abortion and then find out about the soul and reincarnation and how important one lifetime is? You take care of yourself. You do not condemn yourself for past choices. Consider getting counseling so you can forgive yourself and others who may have influenced or forced your decision. Being kind and compassionate toward your own soul is important. While each abortion experience is unique, the pain and suffering that often fol ows is nothing new to those who serve in the healing professions. You may eventually want to work with children as a part of your healing to help them and love them. You may one day give birth or choose to adopt or support a child financially. WHAT IF YOU’RE PREGNANT? Unplanned pregnancies can happen to anyone. Whether you are single and alone, or married and struggling to make ends meet, there are caring people in every city in America and in most countries around the world that will be happy to help you. There are alternatives to abortion. NOTES (1) Elizabeth Clare Prophet, THE STORY OF YOUR SOUL, Recovering the Pearl of Your True Identity, Summit Publications, Inc., 2007. (2) Sylvia Cranston and Carey Williams. Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion and Society, published by Theosophical University Press, 1999. (3) Elizabeth Clare Prophet, SOUL MATES AND TWIN FLAMES, The Spiritual Dimension of Love and Relationships, published by Summit Publications, 1999. (4) Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, from his 1.18.13 article: 55,772,015 Abortions in America Since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Copyright© 2013 Soul Choice International