<Quietly>
“Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream…”
The words drifted into my mind as I drowsed comfortably awake in a calm place without discernible form or color. A comfortable, inoffensive light illuminated “us” and it was evident that the soul across from me was sharing these words.
I mused: “I know that song. It’s from my childhood.”
“I hope you do. It’s a mantra I sent with you into your life that I wish all children were taught. It contains every important tenet to living your life on ‘earth’ and it’s very, very simple. Do I need to explain it?” came the reply.
“I guess I have time,” I said with a grin.
I got the sense that something surreal was going on, but I was somehow comfortable with it all. I just “got it” the way you do in dreams where everything is so real and you just “understand” things.
I considered ‘our’ circumstances and added, “I think I see where you might be going with this. I’ve passed on. I’m in Heaven, aren’t I?”
“You would be right, but we’ll get to that. I’m ‘Universe’ by the way. It’s a namesake I chose that I thought you could most-easily understand.”
The voice continued: “Row your boat.”
“Rowing your boat downstream is a loaded line, referring to the fact that a soul has to help itself. And row. And row. Speaks to continued and reasonable effort to make it in life.” There was a pause.
“God helps those who help themselves, right?” I confirmed.
“Yes. Yes indeed.”
The voice continued: “And row, but gently, and mainly row downstream. Life wasn’t set up to be easy, and there are certainly struggles, but literally rowing upstream isn’t a way of living. I meant “go with the flow” when I put that in there.” There was another pause.
“Universe” continued: “Your boat” is a subtle but specific reference: Not someone else’s boat. “Mind your own business” is the intent of that reference. Otherwise I’d have put “the boat.” It’s very sound advice.
“Stream” is a metaphor for your pathway or avenue. Instead of a path you walk on, as you may have discovered through your time, life is really a river of constant change and really, life takes you on its path. As much as you feel like you’re choosing and walking your own path” the voice trailed off.
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” huh?” I quipped.
“How do you remember Allen Saunders”?
<quietly> “Uh, I thought it was John Lennon.”
“Ehhh not-so-much. That was Allen Saunders, first. 1957.” the voice said.
Clearing an ethereal ‘throat’ ‘sitting’ across from me, “Universe” continued: “Merrily” means you should approach life with love, and the degree of mirth and appreciation you are hoped to. A “soft answer” turneth away wrath, while Goethe learned to choose a positive outlook, and the most successful lives are fulfilled by the cultivation of merry memories.” Universe said.
This rang true for me.
“I learned money is better spent on experiences and memories, not things.” I shared.
“Good, you picked up a valuable pearl this time.” came the response.
“Life is but a dream” speaks to several things including the fact that the entirety of existence is just ‘energy’ and awareness of its arrangement. Atoms have no mass. They are not subject to gravity. You might not have known this in your particular lifetime.”
Universe continued: “Substance” and matter is all in your mind. Earth is in a solar system, which is in a galaxy which is in in an expanding universe which is just in a “consciousness” and is not a tangible place. Existence only has “time” in the sense that there is a moment to moment experience you have as you “live” your physical life. This creates the sense of time. But in reality? Everything is all in an instant. All the time. When you are finally born, you will experience this totality. Time will not be a construct you need in order to get your head around the totality of your awareness.”
“I doubt I will ever understand that.” I replied.
“You don’t really need to ‘get it’ at this point. First, you’re not ready for the ‘big picture’ and secondly, you have to admit that it never mattered to you before, that you didn’t understand nuclear fission or how a computer motherboard worked as long as it did. Your ‘training’ and experience didn’t call you to know these things this time.”
“Okay that’s the second time you referred to “this time” what’s that all about, please?” I asked.
“Do you know about ‘reincarnation’?” was the question.
“Uh, sure! People are sent back to earth over and over again for more lives?” I offered.
“Close but here’s the thing: It’s not ‘people’ – it’s just you.”
“Whaaaaaaaaat?” I asked incredulously. Mind. Blown.
“You. Are reincarnated over and over in every life and every human body, in every time since the beginning of your human consciousness.”
I was unsure of what Universe was saying.
“Help me out. Break it down like I’m five.”
Universe chuckled “In a way, you really are.”
“In this most recent life you were a veterinarian with a happy childhood and a prosperous career. You lived well and learned much. You made mistakes and hurt people, and you were brilliant and helped people. You even saved a life though you never knew it. At several times you noticed some glaring “tells” I’ve left around your world, helping you come very close to scratching through the very thin paint obscuring reality and seeing a great deal of what’s going on, including certain aspects of our meeting here.”
“Intelligent design, for example.” I realized aloud.
“Yes. Yes indeed. In your life as a veterinarian you were one of few that realized there was no reason for a simple molecule to ‘evolve’ to pick up more ‘building blocks’ in its own creation that would result in anything more than a blob. Somehow the collective “you” in this time and world figured out that DNA is actually already finished. It’s the blueprint that life is building according to a pre-defined structure that takes a lot of your world’s ‘time’ to be fully realized. Only the organisms that possess the next step specified in the blueprint move forward. And move forward they do. For the majority of your time as a “scientific being” you viewed DNA as a random construct building on its successes, not the other way around.”
I felt I could ask: “So, evolution is a ‘thing’?”
“Yep” the voice said. “Only, evolution has a blueprint which has (by intent), specified successful diversification consistently, leading to the creation of the current you, and is programmed to go even beyond this.”
I remembered some things from my life. “I remember noticing the rainbow spectrum of the Scarlet Macaw, how the seven primary colors in its wings and tail were arranged in the exact order as the rainbow. And how the Platypus had the various parts of more than three different genera of animal.” I recounted.
“Yes!” laughed the voice “Complete with eggs, milk, pouches, duck feet and beak, beaver tails, and fur! You should have seen some of the other signal beacons I had out for you in the Rain Forest. Blazing signals that you extincted before you even saw them.” The voice trailed off.
“Sorry about that.” I said, sheepishly.
“Don’t be. You’ve made much worse mistakes. And what you’re doing on the planet now is growing pains like you’ve had before. Chances are you’ll wreck the place before you really figure it all out.”
I didn’t sense anger. I picked up an acceptance (bordering on resignation) as if Universe was experienced with this sort of thing. There was a pause and I decided to change the subject.
“So, about this reincarnation.” I led.
“Yes, you are experiencing the world through billions and billions of eyes. Human and otherwise, but there is no comprehension through the eyes of the animals in your ‘world’ and only a primitive understanding through your own human eyes. But when the ‘human-bodily-you” died, “you” actually didn’t. “You” remain in your world but the bodily eyes you had on it, the eyes in this person’s head, are now closed to it. You continue to ‘see’ your world through the eyes of your other twelve billion incarnations.” the voice continued.
There was a pause.
“Are you saying that my “soul” is really the consciousness of one entity? One “me” seeing through the bodies, lives and identities of billions of ‘persons’?
The voice responded: “Yes, like the sun is reflected in a hundred barrels of water: Not as an image divided over a hundred barrels but a complete image of the sun in each barrel. Each ‘man’ is made in “my image” (Your image, actually).
The voice continued: “As simple incarnations of “you” my son, each ‘person’ that exists in the world is an iteration of one entity, much as the Trembling Aspen in your Utah, is truly one, single, colossal organism. One that simply appears as a thousand individual trees.
“So, it’s not “souls” in these persons. It’s the “you” in each of these persons. A collective soul. The soul is just that pinch of “you” contained in each temporal body. Haven’t you noticed the ‘collective’ nature of the human psyche? The human soul’s connection to each other?” Universe continued.
“In your short lifetime you even started to realize that “you” have a favorite music. The “you” in every person, the soul of every person, at its base, shares certain preferences universally. For example, almost any song that is written with a specific chord progression will be popular*. You really like the C to G to A to F chord progression. A lot.”
“I saw that on YouTube. And I like every one of those songs.” I related.
“Universe” commented: “If you had any idea how close to the totality of your human consciousness that YouTube is, the revealing window into your own ‘soul’ that represents.
“Am I as tacky as it makes me seem?” I asked, thinking about the bawdy and rank YouTube presence I had witnessed during my life.
“Not hardly”. Came the reply.
“The You, or your consciousness through billions and billions of eyes, ears and minds is deluded more in some places and iterations in the world than in others. So sure, you’re pretty awful in America for example. A fledgling culture without ancient cultural boundaries and seemingly unlimited resources to be squandered. And yet in other parts of that world “you” live in peace with each other and the world.”
“So, what now?” I asked.
“What now?” the voice asked.
“What now, is that I return you to “you” in another incarnation. It’ll be very different; but lovely in its own right: a child was just conceived in a beach-hut in Phukut, Thailand. Your eyes will open into that world next. Your eyes will also open into the “world” of 14th century England at the same millisecond and ten million other ‘lives’ in the current ‘world’ and time alone. And you will be beaten or loved, supported or neglected, privileged or deprived and pressured by a million different cultures and climates. You’ll be shattered and finish your life seeing the world through a useless, ruined pair of eyes. You will be every President of the United States and you will take your incarnation as Mussolini. You’ll be a stillborn baby, and you’ll set a record in Georgia, Soviet Union for longevity.” The voice stopped.
“Okay. That’s a lot. But I had a feeling there was a connection between every mind in the world. That the “we” was truly a “we” of a more cumulative kind.” I said. “But what’s the point? Why am I recurring in the world constantly and repeatedly?”
“Because someday you will transcend the lessons of the world “You” are experiencing. You will have experienced every evil and every miracle and it will create a You fit for ascension.”
“Like a birth?” I asked.
“Or a Graduation.” Came the voice.
“The world is a womb!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, your petri dish, your nest, it can be your Heaven, your Hell, whatever you, through your billions of eyes choose to make it. You experience both planes in your World and you are already aware that your actions and reactions create those climates around you. Your incarnations as prophet already extol that to your human consciousness and in a hundred languages and iterations.”
This sparked some recognition in my mind. “I noticed strong parallels among religions and the uncanny convergence of the prophets over the millennia.”
“You’ve been a perceptive pupil.” the voice said.
It started to click. “I’m a good… son?” I probed.
“Yes if you choose to conceptualize this in the Catholic “Father, Son” and Holy Ghost terms. Then yeah, I am your father and you are my son. When you were walking the earth saying you were my Son, and also that you were the “Son of Man” you pretty much ‘got it’ but almost no one was ready. So you killed you.”
“That sounds odd, but I get it.” I remarked.
“We have our conversations here quite a lot, son. But it’s about time to send you off again to continue your experiences through other eyes.”
“Why do I have to enter my different iterations without the recollection of each incarnation?” I asked.
The response: “”Can you imagine, within the necessary framework that ‘time’ creates in your worldly existence how your mortal brain could contain all your experiences at once? No, that’s for your birth. You’ll be ready and you will come to yourself again, whole. And besides, if you recollected each life from every time and perspective, even a tiny fraction of them, it would bias and shape each incarnation and color the experiences you’re supposed to have over the millennia in your growth.”
“I could be going to Heaven or Hell this time, huh?” I asked.
“Depends on what “you” have crafted wherever or whenever it is you’re being incarnated. If your actions have cultivated a hell around your kin, that’s what you’ll get.”
The voice continued:
“So when I say you reap what you sow, or “thou” shalt not do this or that; it refers to the collective you, even though you internalize it per your bodily incarnation that it means THAT individual “you”. The net effect is cumulatively the same. And for now, a lot of “you’s” aren’t creating a Heaven. So good luck”.
And off I went.
© 2019 Dr Erik Johnson All Rights Reserved
