From: pagemail@swcp.com   
      
   > >Now yer talking; but I think how it works is that you   
   > >have to come to *accept and embrace* the wretched   
   > >place, horrors and all, before you are qualified to *leave   
   > >it behind forever*.   
   > >   
   > >Sounds just like life, doesn't it?   
   >   
   > Well, in earth life, you don't have to accept and embrace the world,   
   > do you?  I mean, in any hypothetical particular incarnation.   
      
   No, and most of us don't; but I believe that your last life on   
   this planet and in physical form is the one in which you do in   
   fact come to the place at which you accept and embrace the   
   whole shebang, horrors and all.  Maybe acceptance means no   
   longer being *engaged* with it, so that there's nothing to draw   
   you back here: been here, done it, given it all a hug and a tear,   
   and moved on out, says the T shirt.   
      
   > I read in a very good metaphysical book, which unfortunately is packed   
   > up somewhere so I can't cite the title or author, that one can refuse   
   > to reincarnate indefinitely despite the urgings of higher spiritual   
   > beings.   
      
   I think that's wishful thinking.  And I don't think we need any   
   urgings, either.  We come back because -- I'm just making this   
   up, y'all, got no special insight -- after death we think over our   
   just-past life, and put it in the context of all our other past lives,   
   and we see places that need dealing with, threads of plot and   
   development that require resolution, experiences we haven't   
   had yet and need to round out our experience of this place and   
   make it complete.  And some of our old friends, currently dis-   
   carnate like us, come around and ask if we're up for being their   
   mom next time to make sure they get a great musical education   
   starting right away (they have Mozartian plans for Next Time),   
   or if we're ready to jump in with them to take care of monster   
   karmic debt lying between us and them, or exploring Mars   
   with them (assuming things work out, of course).   
      
   And because we are old, old comrades-in-arms and in everything   
   else with them, we say yes, and then we go around connecting   
   up with other friends for stuff we want to get done ourselves, and   
   meantime we realize that we can't *remember* what fresh-   
   squeezed orange juice or fine Belgian chocolate or smoked bacon   
   actually *tastes* like, only that it was unbearably wonderful, and   
   so was running in a strong, healthy body (and all that other stuff   
   we do in those bodies), and next thing you know, we're ready to   
   jump back in.   
      
   You didn't think we did all this stuff *alone*, did you?  Every   
   last one of us has old friends all over the world (and out of the   
   world too, of course).   
      
   > However, if one is meant to reincarnate and never does, the   
   > penalty is annihilation of the soul - to miss the chance of finally   
   > joining with "God" or the highest consciousness.   
      
   My info is that we all get back; we are what that consciousness is   
   made up of, dispersed into the universe, and that consciousness   
   is not whole again until every last scrap comes home, no matter   
   how long it takes.  After all, we've got eternity; there is no meter   
   running.   
      
   > I'm not sure if that penalty bothers me all too much.  Of course, my   
   > perspective would probably be different between incarnations when,   
   > after a rest from the traumas of earth life, I would see how   
   > relatively short an earth life is compared to any hypothetical   
   > "eternity" in spirit, and go for it again (shudder).   
      
   Exactly; I think it looks unimaginably different from out there.   
   I only try imagining it because I'm a fiction writer, and that's   
   my skill.  But I'm still just blowing smoke rings about all this,   
   just like everybody else.  Which is another one of those   
   enjoyable things you can only do while you're *here*, isn't it?   
      
   C   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)