ASI
The Theory
and Practice of Spiritual Acupuncture
Lecture 7 – The Archives of Memory
The
Continuity of Consciousness
Repressed
energy patterns
Practical
Uses of the magical memory
Past
Life Regression
Polar
Opposites
THE CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
WHERE DO WE COME FROM before we are born? Where do we go when we die? These questions are not to be answered by the reasoning mind, but rather by direct experience. A continuity of consciousness through the process called "reincarnation" is the generally accepted theory throughout much of the world, but this exists primarily as a belief system and is rarely based on direct experience.
The subject of previous existences can be touchy in our society. Each time this course has been offered as an in-person continuing education seminar, almost everyone present believed (or claimed to have direct experience) in reincarnation and previous existences. However, there were usually one or two students who did not believe such a concept is possible (often due to their own religious beliefs) or said that they "Did not know."
If you are open to the subject, then this Lecture will address the issues of previous lives. If you are among the "one or two" that maintain that there are no previous lives, then feel free to skip this material and do not include it in your practice. But note that there are other ways to explain the concept of prior lives: Recapitulation and Genetics.
- Recapitulation is a psychological/metaphysical concept that states: "The essences of the karmatic data held in the causal body will manifest in the birth, infancy, and childhood cycles of the developing human, and may extend into adolescence and early adulthood." In other words, all the prior lives’ Karma is transmitted into the present life as a series of events called recapitulation. So, it really doesn’t matter whether you subscribe to Reincarnation and the law of Karma, because by the time you are an adult, it has all caught up with you. Then you can simply use the spiritual acupuncture techniques while looking for causes in early-life events, rather than in previous existences.
- Genetics offers an explanation of experiences that seem to come from prior lives by attributing the experience to our ancestors. For example, if your ancestor on your mother’s side was a tree-chopper in Russia in the year 709 AD, and he had a fight with a Bear that nearly killed him, and he hated Bears thereafter, then you might hate Bears and say that you had an experience of a previous life in Russia where you were a tree-chopper. But really, the experience and the tendency to hate Bears was passed from his DNA to yours.
Take your pick of the explanations. Regardless of how it works, the evocation of apparent past lives leads to positive results and the resolution of emotional complexes in the present time.
The obvious question is, "Why can I not remember my previous lives?" The esoteric tradition tells us that the portion of ourselves that survives incarnation is stored at the Soul (Causal) levels, and to remember those previous lives you must first contact those higher levels of your own consciousness. Sometimes readers will offer to read your past lives for you, and such readings are often worse than useless, for if they contain false information (and they usually do!) an illusionary thoughtform can be created that will cause endless havoc. This is something each individual must do for themselves. It is our job to assist them to do it in a clear and non-manipulated environment.
That part of yourself upon which you rely so heavily - your personality with its mental, emotional, and physical units - all of your physical, emotional, mental, and social programming and imprinting - is lost with the death of the brain. That which remains is the subject of our search into the magical memory.
REPRESSED ENERGY PATTERNS
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES are said to influence the Soul (the essence of the causal body), and the Soul influences the selection of a fetus that is then imprinted by experience. The previous experiences cause a pre-programming to take place within the human fetal nervous system. This pre-programming is what we call "past karma." It leads to repressed consciousness energy patterns. These are unusual behavioral response patterns that are not linked to learned, conditioned, or imprinted experiences. An irrational fear of water or swords, a longing for time in the arctic, or the desire to build a city might be examples of repressed energy patterns that seem to have a will of their own that is capable of over-ruling all other consciousness patterns.
Some people will not accept the concept of previous existences and will explain past life memories and the activating of repressed energy patterns as the tapping into the genetic archives inherited from our parents. There is no need to discount this view, especially in view of the fact that those previous experiences are going to be re-experienced in this lifetime. Tradition tells us that the entire course of our previous lifetimes is rebuilt, relived, and re-experienced at an extremely rapid rate beginning with the union of egg and sperm, and continuing forward through the animal-like stages of prenatal development to birth. The initial experiences of life are re-creations of the major events that shaped our consciousness in prior lives. We all look forward to that specific day when our consciousness realizes that the pre-determined experiences have all been acted out and we are truly now moving forward into new territory.
Note: This occurs in three primary stages:
(1) When consciously entering the Spiritual Path at Sphere Ten on the Tree of Life,
(2) When consciously making Soul contact at Sphere Six on the Tree of Life, and
(3) When completing the final balancing of "past life karma" and crossing the Abyss to reach Sphere Three on the Tree of Life.Whether put in esoteric, metaphysical terminology such as "Previous Existences," or expressed through the psychological concepts of "Imprinting" and "Conditioning," the magical memory still remains a source of information relating to unexplained behavior patterns, and we maintain that it must be apprehended by direct experience.
PRACTICAL USES OF THE MAGICAL MEMORY
THE OBJECTIVE in searching the magical memory is not to remember that one was Cleopatra, Joan d'Arc, Osiris, or Attila the Hun, or even to remember that past life spent as a wretched cripple, or the one where death came with the plague at age twelve. The objective is to retrieve information that explains yourself to yourself in the here-and-now.
THE AKASHIC RECORDS
THE Cosmic Memory of past lives is said to reside at the level of the Soul (Causal plane). The record of each individual's lifetimes is engraved into the Causal Body. The overall record of everyone's careers, including the rise and fall of civilizations, is found in the Akashic Records.
In our studies of diagnostic methods we saw that Karma is the Law of Cause and Effect. When a person gets off-balanced due to thoughts, words, and deeds, their causal "bank account" is debited. When a person redresses off-balanced thoughts, words, and deeds, their causal "bank account" is credited. The Causal body may be likened to an individual's bank book - a record of their account. The Akashic Records are like the bank's records of everyone's accounts, including an overall picture of the history and position of the bank itself.
PAST LIFE REGRESSION
CONTEMPORARY METAPHYSICS and new-age psychology call the process "Past Life Regression," based primarily on various hypnotic-like procedures by which a counselor or guide leads a client into directly experiencing a previous existence. It is critical that the counselor allow the client to obtain and interpret all information by himself or herself, and that all material (memories) contacted be immediately compared to the client's everyday consciousness in order to find any causal connections. Please refer to the Lecture on "Techniques" for a regression technique.
EXPANDED PAST LIFE REGRESSION
PATIENTS who are evolutionarily advanced (initiated) will find that their expanded consciousness will allow them to not only read or re-experience prior lifetimes, but that it is possible to tap into the prior experiences of other people. This can also happen accidentally, so one must be careful not to mix up someone else's karma in your consciousness. This happens most easily with members of one's "Soul Group," that is a grouping based upon commonality of ray type, purpose, prior projects, and esoteric linkage.
POLAR OPPOSITES
THE THEORIES and beliefs held about soul mates are very powerful medicines and poisons. Every one of us is primarily yin or yang, and our unconscious, spiritual self is the opposite polarity. It is our fondest hope and urgent desire that a suitable polar opposite will manifest in our lives in human form. Unfortunately for most people, the manifestation of anything near a polar opposite is enough for them to project an image of polar perfection upon the opposite party. This results in the condition known as romantic love, which always proves to be a temporary condition, and the polar-perfection-for-eternity image is shaken or shattered. Beyond this, only time will tell if polar opposites have united or reunited in order to pursue a common goal. The phenomena of active, romantic love is a sea of romantic and cosmic memories that tend to be more glamorous than scientific.
By the simplest definition, a "Soul Mate" is anyone with whom you have had a prior existence relationship. Your coming together again is in response to the similar frequency you both share. If there is discord in the frequency, then there will probably be karmatic balancing through dynamic activities.
A deeper definition of "Soul Mate" limits its identification to a group of individuals who are linked as a group or network at the Causal level, usually in order to pursue a common goal. Energies of this type can be kept flowing through time and constitute the concept of "Lineage" (see the Lecture on "Empowerment). Any two persons of opposite polarity from a soul group are usually able to generate tremendous love energy, and are often capable of manifesting a soul-mate relationship. Such relationships are not free of distress; do not confuse the ideals of romantic love with the realities of higher polarity mating.
This discussion of Soul Mates and Relationships is not intended to be a sourcebook within itself (fat chance of that!), but is included here as relationships often play some major roles in the "Magical Memory."
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