Spiritual Life

I went to church* this morning and it was a little different from normal. My friend Corey came with me (Jarrod was supposed to come too but he had to work). I'm in the Young Adult group (18-22; high school graduates) and I was the only one there today who's been going to this church for more than a couple of months. So what we did today was basically go over the history of The Science of Mind and go over some of its basic teachings. Part of our conversation came up to the concepts discussed in The Celestine Prophecy and what happens in the afterlife and what goes into reincarnation. The one that made me really think was about how we may choose who our parents are going to be while we are still living in a purely spiritual plane in between lives.

This wasn't the first time I'd heard this idea, however it was the first time I heard it from church. Still, it kind of makes sense. My dad once saw a hypnotherapist and something he talked about was being before he was born and deciding who his parents were going to be. It was interesting how he described it and it really did make a lot of sense. Today, I heard my friend and teacher, Carol, talk about it in class today about how she feels that this idea is correct. She told us of how she must have chosen her parents for the lessons they would teach her. The way she talked about it really made me feel like it must be true.

Still, the issue I came across was why I would have chosen my parents. In both my dad and Carol's cases, I could see why it was that they would have chosen their parents, but I think about my own parents and it's much more difficult for me to see it. Sure, I learned a lot from my parents (they've only been raising me for the past 17 years) but for me to think of something specifically about them that would make me choose them out of any other couple on the planet, that was significantly more difficult.

I am a firm believer in an afterlife. My vision of it consists of the planes described in the novel What Dreams May Come, by Richard Matheson (yes, the book. The movie was good, but I'm talking about the book here. Very different). I also believe in reincarnation. I feel that between lives we spend time in the spiritual planes learning and growing as souls, so that when we come back again we main gain even more insight then the life before. During this time between physical lives I can see us discussing, talking, thinking, and sharing ideas for who we will be and who we will become in the next life. If we do that, it would only make sense that we could decide who are parents are and for different reasons. But I still am not sure why I would have chosen mine. Maybe I didn't choose them, maybe they chose me.

I've been told by my mom that I've taught her a lot, and that the biggest thing she's learned from me is how to lighten up. My mom used to be really up tight and stressed out. She was OCD about cleaning and neatness. It's only been recently that she's been able to take a step back in life and mellow out. She doesn't feel guilty anymore for taking an indulgent moment for herself. She doesn't take everything quite so personally, and I'd say she's much more pleasant to live with. She says it's because of me. So that leads me to wonder if maybe she was the one who chose me, rather than the other way around. What if she chose me because she wanted to learn how to relax and live life a little and she knew I could teach her? Or, what if she wanted someone to teach her and others in the spiritual realm assigned me to her, to help her grow?

Another idea, what if I was chosen to be with my parents by other spiritual beings? What if I was assigned to my parents to be a teacher to them? What if I was sent to them so that I would be presented with more opportunities to bring me closer to my purpose in life? And there we find ourselves in a completely different realm: Life Purpose. The question that puzzles us all, why are we here and what is our purpose? Maybe we know in between lives and we have to be able to find it and live it in the physical plane.

For me, I've been getting a growing sense of what my purpose is. I feel that I am to teach others about being complete with themselves. I think I am supposed to be here to help people learn to heal and grow spiritually so that they may achieve a higher spiritual level of well-being. This is all a theory, but the more time I've spent considering it the more likely it seems. Still, I need to think about that some more. But let's say that this was my purpose in life. If it was, I would have chosen my parents for the opportunities they provided me with. Without them, I wouldn't have learned about keeping an open mind and growing. I wouldn't have had the freedom to explore what I believe, what I feel, and what I think about life, love, religion, philosophy, etc. This all seems very probable. So maybe that's why I'm here and why I am who I am and why I know the people I know.

Anyway, I know it sounds like a crazy idea, to be the one to decide who your parents are, rather than having no control at all. Still, you should think about it. What if you did choose who your parents were? Why would you have chosen them? Even if they seemed bad, what about them made you who you are? It doesn't hurt to think about it, even just a little bit.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living
-Officially we are a church but we are very different from your average church. Basically what we teach is a philosophy on how to live life to your benefit. We're very open-minded and we accept everyone. We're just happy people.