Wisdom of Ramadahn by Ursula Roberts

Chapter 1

Questions About Incarnation

  Does a spirit choose a particular body and come to earth at a certain time so that conditions will be right to obtain the experience needed?

 In theory this is so, but in fact when the spirit comes to take hold upon its bodies it will forget many of the theories and original purposes as it becomes enmeshed in the life of the earth. Our teaching is to help each one to regain the realisation of their identity as a spirit using the body for purposes of experience rather than being a body with a vague spirit form.

 Must we always come in a body?

 No, not all spirits incarnate. There are certain cleansings undertaken by some spirits who feel responsible for the errors of a past experience so some return in a body while others stand by and help. Spirits also enter the atmosphere of earth to work through a medium or to use one as a channel through whom blessing may be released, as with those dedicated to nursing, healing or surgery, or of work in which they try to lead a body of people unto greater truth. In doing these things each will find he has to contend with earth's ignorance, dissensions if he is a priest or teacher, selfishness and hatred if a leader of a nation. But each, as they fulfil their work, will have around them a group of spirits who are also engaged in trying to cleanse the earth of its weight of woe.

 What if we find ourselves in a body we dislike?

 There are many in this state-even as there are many who wish they did not live in the house they occupy-because the experience becomes hard and bitter and each one desires to escape the lesson. But it is wise to continue to the end with the realisation you are using the body for a short season. Through this use you will bring the greatest degree of good to the earth.

 What is the difference between soul and spirit?

 Spirit is the subtle, indestructible, divine manifestation while soul, which is composed of the fine mental and emotional bodies, is the being through which the spirit manifests.  

Why do we lack awareness that we have a soul and a spirit?

 As you enter your life experience the soul body and the physical body become closely interblended, especially when there is a good state of health and energy between the two. Therefore the best method to gain self-realisation is to withdraw your attention and say: "Which part of me is acting? Which part is thinking? What is it within me which says I do not know of my spirit?" It is not the mind, not the heart, nor yet the body; that in you which says who am I? That is it!

 At what stage does the spirit enter the body? If it is pre-physical birth, what happens in the case of a still-born child?

 The spirit may be near a woman, seeking life, for some while before the actual moment of conception. The joining to the actual growing foetus body comes about when there is a quickening or movement within the mother's womb, but the spirit may be conjoined and waiting within the area of the mother for some while before this happens.

 When a child is born and the physical body is not able to retain life, the soul and spirit together have touched the vibration of the mortal world and have formed the nucleus of the soul bodies. These bodies will then continue to grow and develop within the regions of the spirit world. Here, spirits who have great love and wisdom tend and care for these infant souls. The soul body grows and develops under the stimulation of movement, sound, and in the exchange of love one to the other, even as a soul is nourished on the earthly plane by the exchange of love and companionship.

 An expectant mother often looks radiant and is at the peak of her health. Could it be because she has this second spirit around her?

 This is so. It is imparting spiritual energies to her to aid in the formation of this new soul body.

 In the case of a miscarriage, why does it frequently occur around the fourth month?

 Sometimes the incarnating spirit is not sufficiently strong to retain its hold in creativity upon the body which is developing. It may seek another opportunity for incarnation.

 Is this why it is often the first pregnancy that miscarries?

 This is true.

 In that case, are abortions wrong before the period of quickening in that they are denying a soul entry?

 Yes, there are many who have questioned this. What is termed abortion-the violent termination of the development of the infant body-brings about shock to the spirit who is hovering, trying to seek incarnation, but even more than shock; sorrow because of rejection. Surely it would be wiser to use means to prevent conception of a body which is not desired, and that men and women learned to control the passions of their sexual bodies. Surely, too, it would be better and wiser if infants were brought into your mortal world to be nurtured and loved instead of this harsh thrusting of them back into the life of the spirit.

 You have said there are seven spirits in an affinity or group. Does this. mean there are some spirits guiding from the spirit world others who are in an earthly incarnation?

 Yes, regarding affinities in the soul group, sometimes one, two or three may enter into any earthly incarnation while the others watch or guide from the spirit realm. Some may remain away from earth in the high clear light of the purer spirit places, but always, because there is unity between them, there is a telepathic link which can be strengthened at any time. When there is only one in the earthly realm you will say, "Here is one who is always lonely, who seeks hither and thither without fulfilment or rest, because those who are in attunement are not to be found on earth."

 But when that one opens the spiritual mind and comes into unity with the spirit forces, then indeed do they discover great joy and abundant comfort, for the others of the group will reveal themselves and the loneliness will be healed. In your world the idea is held that affinity only applies to man and woman, but I say there are seven in the soul group.

 Following on that idea, are the experiences of the earthly one imparted to those still in the spirit realms? Do they learn from those experiences?

 Truly, for even as a drop falls into a cup of water imparting its colour or flavour to the whole fluid, so the experiences of the one will bring understanding to the others. When the seven are again united within the pure places of spirit, then there is enrichment and understanding from the sharing of their mutual experiences.

 Can two people on earth previously have been part of a twin soul spirit?

 Yes. Quite frequently one may choose to enter into the life incarnation simply to give comfort and love to the other if the other half of this twin soul has chosen to endure a life experience of extreme difficulty.

 If it is possible to meet souls from an earlier incarnation, why have they not progressed onwards?

 They may remain static because they are aware of the particular lonely or difficult incarnation being undertaken by the one entering the mortal life. In the spirit world there are no limitations of time, so what may seem a long time in earthly measure may be but a short time in the measure of spirit existence.

 Often ties of love and kinship seem to bind us, preventing us from doing what we desire?

 Such a binding surely teaches you how to love those surrounding you without becoming completely absorbed in the affairs of your family and friends. When you come to know that you yourself are a spirit using your body for a time in this relationship, then you learn to give some part of yourself while retaining a kinship and understanding with the higher forces of life.

 When we incarnate, are we destined to have certain difficult experiences, regardless of how hard we try to live a pure life?

 Surely, for you are born into an environment which often has been planned before you entered your earthly body. You choose the soil into which the roots of your experience will sink. This means a certain choice is made as to nation, place, family, and the climate of opinion in which you may find yourself when you enter the earthly life. So you may be born into a Jewish or Christian family or into the family of an agnostic, and each will give you a certain atmosphere of thought, a soil from which you may gain some earthly experience. Then, as you move through the pattern of your life, certain events occur which will test either your strength, understanding, or involve you in some greater comprehension of the world, some fuller unfoldment of your spiritual mind. Within this broad outline of events you have choice and freedom of will to do as you please.

 What purpose is there for one forced to live in isolation and loneliness?

 One of the most important lessons is first to learn how to be separate, then how to come into unity once more. The spirit in its pure state knows a wonderful sense of joy and unity in the spirit existence: soul flows unto soul, thought flows unto thought of others, and love is a wonderful unity. Yet to learn how to be alone is a necessary lesson. Some spirits take their plunge into the mortal life that in their separation and loneliness they may realise again their true spiritual identity as spirit, separate from the body but acting through it into the mortal realm. Yet upon that spirit plane they may learn to be in unity with the spirit group, the great creative power, but they may only come to appreciate the beauty of this unity and love when they have sojourned for a while in loneliness, in apartness, in the isolation of mortal existence.

 Until you have learned separateness you cannot know the value of contributing your own personal aspect of understanding unto the whole group, the whole unity of life, for each spirit gains an identity particular to itself, and through this it goes forth to enrich and re-create in other spheres and places by the knowledge it has gained.

  What is one's own identity?

 Your identity is the core which lies at the centre of your soul. Your mental and emotional bodies have absorbed radiations from the men and women who have surrounded you, and as you go into your inner search for self realisation, so you must discover how much of your outer personality is that imposed upon you by your parents, what part you absorbed from your teachers and from those you have loved. When you have understood this, you may find deep within there is another part of yourself, that which sought knowledge and reached out in the desire for love and understanding-that inner part-this is your real self. Spiritual development, the unfoldment of spiritual understanding, becomes in essence a search to discover your own real self.

 What is the reason for incarnation?

 There are many reasons, but for those to whom I speak it is threefold. First, to gain experience, experience which can only be gained in the world of matter itself. The Master Creator has set upon the great string of existence myriads of worlds and stars, innumerable states of life. The living soul cannot know these places simply by thinking about them. The spirit learns by experience, by contact, and so gains knowledge of the creativeness which lies within himself.

 The second reason is to learn to master earth's forces: the great forces of heat and cold, of attraction and repulsion, the powers of the air, the mighty winds which would blow you hither and thither. You master these forces that your existence may continue through the physical body, and as you do so, you also master the instrument through which the will of your spirit is expressed. You learn to control your hungers, the desires which draw you, and so inevitably you come at last to master the emotions, the feelings, angers and loves. If this were taught in your youth you would not allow yourself to be tossed this way and that by your appetites and anxieties, but instead you would know that the great challenge of life is to overcome.

When you realise mastery, then you can fulfil the third great reason for incarnation, the transmutation, or cleansing of the soul of the earthly world by imparting to it some quality of your own spirit which will cleanse, enrich and beautify it.

 Sometimes your creative efforts may be in forming a body through which another spirit may come into the earth. Do not despise this action of the creativeness of life, but undertake it with reverence, understanding the privilege of creating a body through which a beautiful spirit may come into the ensoulment of the earthly world.

 So, first you come to learn, secondly to master and thirdly to contribute something of love, a pattern of beauty, a restoration of harmony, a bringing forth of healing.

 Teach your children the purpose of life, that they may no longer be sucked down into the whirlpools of negative thought and wrong impressions. Be sure that you give out light, love and forgiveness in all your thoughts, words and actions.

 If we return to earth for another experience, are we affected by our previous aura?

 Truly, but not all people using a physical body today have lived in the earthly world previously. There are many planets and worlds in which the soul may learn its lessons. Here within your earth there are many souls coming from less developed planes of experience, to be taught and to blend with people who have experienced it before. But there are some who have lived not once but many times with a mortal body, and they bring with them certain radiations, a spiritual aura which contains qualities gained in a previous time of living. Thus there are some who know instinctively how to live, to teach, to create music, to unfold earth's finer forces. Sometimes they know also in their inner consciousness what they wish to do and achieve in their present incarnation.

 If we reincarnate, do we marry the same person again?

 Possibly. Where there is extreme love in a previous experience and the man and woman were not able to remain together in harmony, and died with a great longing to live life on earth together, then they may enter again into earth's atmosphere for this purpose. But it is more usual for one who has had a previous life experience to meet or become partnered to a spirit of a differing experience because each come to learn a new lesson.

 We talk so much of the many incarnations the spirit may undertake, yet it is your present incarnation that is fraught with a most important destiny. Try to withdraw your mind sometimes from consideration of what you were, or even of what you will be, into the thought that if you can live now to the highest and fullest of your ability then you are making the best use of the treasure of time which the great Master Creator has granted unto you.

 Even the fleeting moments can be made golden with joy and fruitful with love. Do not destroy them by regret. When sorrow, frustration and hopelessness press in upon you, if you cannot bring joy into being, instil into the living moments the thought of peace, thus shall you make the best use of you present incarnation.

 Is karma something to do with one's return to this planet?

 Karma is simply a word which embodies the law of sowing and reaping. If you take an earth experience and sow no seeds of harmfulness, neither hurting nor destroying creation nor bringing harm to the soul of the world, then there may be no reason for you to return to outwork a karma. Your karma should be to sow in the times of your earthly life harmony, love, truthfulness and cleansing light, then you are sowing with good seed. When you leave your earthly body you will reap the result of such a sowing. Your karma may carry you forward into a further life of progress in the spirit regions.

 Why do some people have distorted, imperfect bodies?

 The spirit, in forming its being and entering the earthly life, comes into conflict with great currents of thoughts and tides of feeling that have been impressed upon the ethers by people who have incarnated before. Thus the spirit may find that the mind or body is strongly influenced by religious or racial prejudice in the community of that place. The sensitive spirit, feels this tide flowing against it, may not be able to combat it completely. You will see the effect as distortion in the vehicle which the spirit has made.

There are many forces and tides which affect each individual person. The one who knows that he or she is spirit will easily overcome these great tides of feeling and retain their own identity. But the one who feels that only the body and mind are important, will be swept into the great racial and religious currents of war and persecution.

 Teach your brothers and sisters they are spirits using their bodies and minds, then they will be able to shift the emphasis of consciousness from the mortal to the immortal self. Thus shall you bring healing not only to the body and mind, but to these great streams of influence left upon the earth by past generations.

 What about these poor unfortunate babies who are born without hands? Will they be compensated?

 Although some are poor and unfortunate you must remember that life is a very large and wide circle of experience, and there is life before this earthly body as well as after. Sometimes men and women, who in a previous time of existence have ignored the usefulness of their hands or deprived others of the use of theirs, may choose to return to earth to learn how hard it is to be without such a tool, that in the wideness of experience they may truly value all the faculties which the Master Creator gives unto them.

 Could such a disability be the result of resentment in a past life?

 Not so much resentment as neglect. Often those who have been rulers or in positions of high power and who have ordered that their subjects for some small offence are deprived of the use of their hands, when they come into the spirit life may view what they have done differently. Then, with a deep sense of regret, on reincarnating they come minus the use of their hands.

 There are others who on entering the mortal life may see a possibility of certain imperfections in the body, but think that they are strong enough to overcome them. Always the soul is compensated for its time of weakness: always it gains knowledge by such experience.

 Why is there so much sorrow, suffering and pain in the world?

 When you retain your awareness of spiritual reality, seeing that all this is but a passing thing, you can live through all the experiences of your world without too great a suffering or pain, for you will not allow yourself to become too deeply immersed in the changing activities of your world. You are souls and spirits of light and beauty, and have an identity which is wider and greater than this which you know at the moment. This mortal existence is but a flowing pattern, a passing thing, and the reality is the spirit, the soul. It is in what you learn from the world of matter that the importance of your incarnation comes.

 What about old people who are bedridden and blind or deaf? It seems they are not learning anything. Why are they not freed by death?

 If they had been wise, they would have sought to learn lessons of patience in the earlier seasons of their experience, but by the goodness of the Great Power, often a longer span is given unto some souls that they may learn lessons more completely and so bring their treasures into the spirit realm with them. So what appears to be a punishment, or an unjust or bitter experience, is in itself a blessing, but the blessing will not be revealed until the life journey is completed.