By being able to understand and appreciate the truth of reincarnation, we move on to the vaster consciousness that helps us absorb hidden and unexpected truths. One such truth is the matter of Parallel Selves. Many case studies have come up.

The conventional mind-set of human beings is embroiled with petty ego-based matters of life, so much so the wider aspects of life remain unknown. People who show interest in the esoteric side of life understand this and spread their wings of awareness beyond the self-created prison. That is the attitude needed to perceive the truth of hidden issues like reincarnation. Once we are interested in flying free, we keep on discovering deeper and deeper truths about our life on this planet. That helps us bring about certain natural discipline in our daily living. Most of all, we exude unqualified compassion towards all, without identifying oneself with a nation, religion , language etc.

Topics like reincarnation, NDE and Out of Body experiences make us reflect and be adventurous in our explorations of life on this planet. They particularly take us away from falling prey to the surrounding conditioning influences leading to religious fanaticism, adamant atheism and stubborn agnosticism. The explorative spirit sustains certain humility and frees people from emotional attachment to conclusions, especially to favourable and unfavourable prejudices.

It has been noticed by researchers on reincarnation that the soul is eager to experience the many aspects of manifestation on this planet. That is how it goes though many lives incarnating under various life circumstances. From each life, the soul carries the expansion in awareness. We build on what we had learned in all our previous lives. This enables us advance in spirituality characterized by love, joy, and deepening awareness. Thus the soul moves forward towards Divinity to rejoin the source of all energy and intelligence. The following is an excerpt from the presentation by Karen T (nderf.org, NDE No. 4317) on her near death experience. To the interviewer’s question, “Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience?”, she gave the following reply. Her reply clearly shows that the true spirituality is beyond all religious conditioning.

“I expected to meet Jesus and I expected to face judgment of my sins. There was no element of judgment, nor were some people qualifying for life after death because of belief in Jesus and others not being allowed to have eternal life. This was in sheer contrast to what I had believed before my NDE. I no longer believed that Jesus was the only one who could save me and allow me to have eternal life. I now see Jesus as God's expression in human form of how God would ideally have us live our earthly lives. I now believe in reincarnation and the innate value of every human life. I believe that our Earthly lifetimes give us experiences that can lead to our spiritual growth .”

Parallel Lives Of late, there have been research findings which indicate that sometimes the soul prefers to incarnate in more than one body; that is, as two individuals at the same time. When a soul needs to learn from wider experiences, Parallel Lives are the answer. The soul "splits" its attention; the best qualities and traits are divided up between the two individuals. This means each individual has to bear less karmic load and so can learn faster. It enables them to make different choices, to experience different outcomes, and to learn different lessons in each of their bodies and circumstances. The sum total of it all will advance them through the uniting soul whose level of awareness is heightened by the double receptivity during the process.

An interesting case study of parallel lives is presented by the well-known researcher Prof Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia. For details, you may visit the following links: http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page=semkiw-reincarnation-penney-peirce-s...
http://www.healpastlives.com/future/rule/ruskepta.htm#Parall

The Transformation
As a result of applying ourselves to the study of reincarnation and parallel lives, our vista expands to absorb all that which lie beyond the apparent. The peace that descends on us due to the expanding awareness is irreversible. The little cocoon where the ego makes a lot of noise can be left behind. Narrow minded sectarian religious practices that bring in hatred between various groups will be dissolved. All self-centred activities in the name of religious affiliation would also end giving humanity the chance to bring about universal camaraderie and well-being.

In the recent past, several cases have been recorded where the soul reincarnates even before the previous physical entity has ended. The Institute for the Integration of Science, Intuition and Spirit (IISIS) published a very interesting article by Walter Semkiw entitled “Past life Story of Eeva-Maija Kaartinen | Maria-Liisa Kaartinen: Soul Plan, Reincarnation & Talent, Split Incarnation or Parallel Lives”. Interested people may look into the link: http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page=semkiw-ian-stevenson-reincarnation-E...

Those who appreciate the meaningfulness of reincarnation find themselves being presented by unusual aspects of that process, such as the one above. Those things make us sense how little we know of the vaster consciousness in which our little individual consciousness functions. That is how the possibility of expansion of our consciousness becomes clear to us. It generates a deep interest in understanding our life regarding its place in the immense scheme of things. In the absence of such a disposition, the petty human mind conceives life merely as means to ego-satisfying results, like ensuring a place in heaven after death . Here it is good to note a pointer from Nisargadatta Maharaj: The lust for heaven is no different from the lust for the woman.

When we dig into the hidden areas of life and sense what wonderful things welcome us there, we are reminded of the lines in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

The book “ In Quest of the Deeper Self ” deals with related matters. Details of the book are given in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com .

Author's Bio: 

Gopalakrishnan T. Chandrasekaran was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978; served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.

Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.

Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in the southern part of India, with his wife Banumathy. Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com