AWAKENINGS

INTRODUCTION

I first became interested in metaphysics around the age of 13. I was fascinated with anything that had a mystery to it or was "out of the ordinary." "Ordinary" was just too boring for me.

Being an avid reader with an interest in non-traditional ways of looking at things, I came across a book one day on UFOs. It was utterly fascinating to me, and opened up a whole new world to me. When I came across a reference to ESP in the book, I began a search for more information about extra sensory perception. This search led to something else, which led even further and ultimately to the subject of metaphysics. By the time I was 23, I had devoured all I could find on metaphysical thinking, psychology, philosophy, religion, science and mysticism.

One day, while reading a book that seemed to be repeating what I had read in other books, I realized that all the authors were saying the same thing, perhaps in a different way, but the messages were the same. It was an epiphany.

Since then, I have noticed that there is really "nothing new under the sun"—at least as far as man’s awareness of himself and his world are concerned. This reminds me of an old saying: "all learning is simply remembering." We all have this knowledge and awareness within us. We simply need to remember it. However, that is usually the hard part!

Many of the concepts you will read about in this book you may have heard of before, or perhaps they will be brand new to you. But I guarantee that you will come across them again in some other form from some other teacher somewhere on your path in life.

My purpose in writing this book was to take many of the concepts that seem difficult or fearful and make them as simple as possible. It is my goal to take as much of what people refer to as "cosmic crap" out of the New Age thinking and bring it down to earth.

The outline of the book is based on the most-asked questions I have received throughout my years of giving classes, seminars and private consultations. Within these pages, I have answered as many questions as I can while posing new questions for the reader to consider, encouraging an ongoing search for knowledge. As a friend of mine once told me, "Questions are more important than answers, because, if you ask the right questions, you’ll find the right answers."

This book will give the new student a solid foundation to build on as well as provide the more advanced student new ways of looking at concepts that are the basic building blocks of metaphysics and the New Age thinking that is continuing to grow.

I hope you enjoy the book, gain a better knowledge base about metaphysics and develop a desire to understand more—continuing your own search for information to expand and enrich your life.

Steve Tackett

CHAPTER I—Reincarnation and Karma
Our Many Lives

Through reincarnation, we have experienced a diverse and wide-ranging set of existences. in past lives, we’ve been rich, poor, thin, fat, beautiful, ugly, black, white, male and female. Over a series of lifetimes, we’ve embodied all possible combinations of traits and lived under all possible conditions.

There is no preset or determined number of lifetimes. If a psychic tells you that you’re currently in your 17th lifetime and that there are only 21, this is false. Reincarnation is always a choice. No one is forced to be reincarnated. We choose to be reincarnated, making that choice because we realize that our learning is accelerated by experiences on the physical plane.

And just as there is no set number of lifetimes, there is also no determined length of time between incarnations. After the termination of one lifetime, we may decide to reincarnate immediately; after another lifetime, we may choose to wait a century before coming back to the physical plane. The choice is entirely up to us.

Our Many Relationships

Also, we choose the parents that we wish to be born to in each lifetime, and, on a subconscious level, they agree to the birth. We also influence the conditions into which we are to be born by setting up our own astrological chart before our birth. By choosing our time of birth, we influence our personality and the karmic conditions with which we need to deal.

I would like to make the point here (however controversial it may be) that the soul does not enter the body at the moment of conception but rather at the moment of birth. THIS IS A BASIC TENET OF REINCARNATION. Prior to the time of birth, the foetus is a form of biological life, but it is not infused with a soul.

Therefore, until that time, both the soul, which has chosen to reincarnate, and the parents who had subconsciously agreed to the incarnation, may change their minds. If the soul changes its mind, a baby may be stillborn. If the woman or the couple decides to terminate a pregnancy by abortion, the soul that had chosen these parents will find another vehicle. All of these factors involve choices, and the basic point behind these choices is what we need and want to learn.

Over the course of these lifetimes, we have also, in some way, been associated with every person we currently know in this lifetime, although our relationships with these people may change from lifetime to lifetime. For example, our father in our present lifetime may have previously been our brother, our mother, our husband or our child. Or perhaps someone who is now a close friend was formerly just a casual acquaintance.

The Scientific Perspective of Reincarnation

Let’s consider reincarnation from a scientific perspective before studying its metaphysical dimension. From a scientific angle, we know that everything in the universe is energy. We ourselves are energy—we are simply assuming a physical form while inhabiting this world.

Think of the body as a temporary vehicle, which we take on and make use of as we might a car. When we get into our cars, we drive from Point A to Point B. When we "get into" our bodies, we move from birth to death—from one point to another. When we shed this body at death, we are once again just energy—energy that can assume any form and still retain its essence. For example, water at one vibration is a solid, which is ice. At a higher vibration its becomes liquid, and at a higher vibration still it becomes steam. But in each of these forms, it retains the same essence of water. Our souls are similar. They are indestructible energy, and they retain the same essence regardless of their external form.

As proof of this fact, it’s appropriate here to cite a famous scientific study. In this experiment, physicists first measured a single particle of energy, recording its specific mass and weight, and then isolated it in a cloud chamber. The chamber was then completely sealed so that nothing could either enter or escape.

With the aid of very sophisticated equipment and camera techniques, scientists were able to monitor the movement of that single particle as it moved throughout the chamber. At first, the particle followed a particular pathway, but then dropped to the bottom of the chamber and remained there. The strangeness of this phenomenon took them by surprise, but, as they were discussing its possible significance, the particle suddenly began to move again t