The Way Toward Health - May 23, 1984

May 23, 1984

On any given day, a youngster may take a ride on a merry-go-round.  The same little boy or girl might also sit astride a toy horse, and pretend that the horse is part of the merry-go-round.  The same child might see the image of the merry-go-round on the television screen, or be told about another youngster’s visit to a playground, and a subsequent ride on a merry-go-round.

The child will be completely absorbed in the merry-go-round ride that was directly experienced.  He or she may indeed by just as engrossed – or even more so – in the imaginary ride on the rocking horse.  There will be some involvement, of course, as the child watches the images of the merry-go-round horses on the television station, while the story about another child’s visit to the playground will not take nearly as much of his interest.

In somewhat the same way, events appear and are reflected in reincarnational existences.  All the lives are actually occurring at the same time, as the hypothetical youngster’s merry-go-round experiences happened all in one day.

In the reincarnational terms, however, the merry-go-round events might be experienced directly in some existences, or appear in a dream in another existence, or turn up simply as an image in another, or happen in an event involving real horses instead of merry-go-round horses.  In other words, in one way or another the events of one living experience are reflected in each other living experience.

I am not saying that events in one life cause the events in another, but that there is an overall pattern – a bank of probable events – and that in each life each individual chooses those that suit his or her overall private purposes.  Yet those lives will be connected.  An individual may have a serious illness in one life.  That event may turn up as one uncomfortable nightmare in another existence.  In still another life, the individual might have a dear friend who suffers from the same disease.  In still another existence the individual might decide to be a doctor, to seek a cause and a cure for the same disease.

No one is fated, however, to suffer in one life for any crimes committed in another.  The reasons and purposes for one’s own existence in any life can be found directly in life itself.