Most people who are interested in metaphysics want to know about their past lives. It's fun, certainly, and they can help us understand our current life and its lessons. Choices we made in past lives continue to affect us in this one, particularly if they are not healed or released. For example, a previous vow of poverty can affect you now unless you release the vow. There is no question that we have lived before in all kinds of bodies and as all kinds of people. But as we begin to examine the big picture in which we are all One, we begin to understand that on the spiritual level, we have not only experienced our past lives, but everyone else's, too.

We are the product of God's decision to individualize itself, but we are not separate from God. One way to think of it is that we are the cells in God's body. We are each unique and created with a specific purpose, but we cannot survive alone. We require the body as a whole to live and fulfill our purpose. As we do this, we create our own experiences, and we each have our own perspective on what happens to us and around us. Our unique perspective helps God to experience itself through us, and since we are part of God, we have access to the experiences and perspectives of every other cell in the body. We grow and evolve together.

As far as past lives go, there are several kinds. There are "regular" past lives in which we learned the things we needed to learn, and there are also parallel lives that fulfill the same function. Time does not exist, so in the spiritual realm, everything is happening at once. Our multi-dimensional selves have no problem dealing with this, but it's not something that our human brains can handle, so we perceive a linear timeline in which things happen in a sequence. This is just a part of the illusion of our world. It is not unusual to have two or more lifetimes occurring within the same Earth timeline. We have a lot to learn and do, and this is just Spirit's way of multi-tasking.

Another way in which we experience lifetimes is as a "group soul." Some people come in with such a big job to do that one soul is not enough. The experience and mastery of a group of souls is needed. All of the souls involved contribute to that person's path, and all of the souls learn from the process, just like with any other lifetime.

Of course, while part of us is here on Earth, inhabiting a human body and playing the game, our "higher soul"—our God-self—is still with God and is experiencing everything there is. So in a very real sense, we are experiencing every lifetime that has ever been lived on this planet or anywhere else. This is what it means to be One being.

We have been Jesus Christ, Buddha, Joan of Arc, William Shakespeare, all of the dictators and kings, countless peasants, factory workers, farmers, hunter-gatherers, slaves, criminals, merchants, warriors, fathers, and mothers. We have been the Japanese kamikaze, the American soldier, the German soldier, the Russian soldier. We are the Palestinians and the Israelis. We are the Christians and the Muslims. We are all there ever was or is to be.

When we finally reach the point in our consciousness where we understand this, we will have peace. We will be able to create a great society and heal the Earth. This isn't a pipe dream. It's a real possibility, but it means that we must recognize the divinity inherent in every single one of us. It means we must know that all of the things we think we hate are just reflections of ourselves. It means we must finally come to know and love and accept ourselves. This is what healing is all about.

Namaste (I bow to the divine in you)

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