I have a question to throw out there to people who study this kind of "data" and reflect on such matters, which I might have trouble articulating, but I'll give it a go anyway.
In a recent interview that Bob Olson did promoting his new book (he's the one being interviewed by James Van Praagh), he maps out what he's come to as a personal research conclusion regarding the soul and the spirit, which isn't new, but is a perspective that makes some sense to me and that I come across elsewhere. This is the idea that your or my personality (he labels it "the spirit", the words don't matter) continues on pretty much as is upon death, and continues to grow in the afterlife.
Now, that's not what reincarnates, according to Bob. The spirit or personality-level entity/consciousness is a sliver of a Higher Self (he labels it "the soul"), which sends off different slivers of itself, creates different "spirits" if you will, who incarnate (and sometimes maybe don't?) and create and continue their own paths. So it's not "reincarnation" per se.
This explains why, for example, you rarely/never get a mediumship reading and are told "Sorry, you can't speak to uncle Bob, he's off reincarnating."
Now, again, this makes some sense to me. (And James Van Praagh says he agrees with Bob on this view.) But it does raise several questions, but I'll try to keep it to just a few.
If that is so, then what about what you often (always?) come across in classic Spiritualist mediumship, which tells of the spirit ascending different planes of existence (6, 7, 9, 10, whatever). How can this portrait of the "spirit"/personality-level consciousness climbing the ladder, so to speak (to become what? a Soul?), be reconciled with the portrait of the Soul or Higher Self sending out little portions of itself, different "spirits", to live their "lives" (in flesh or in spirit)? Am I the only having a difficulty with this here?
Second question/dilemma regarding the "planes of existence". If the "spirit" grows and crosses different planes (which, traditionally, means that when the spirit reaches higher planes, it's harder or becomes impossible to communicate with lower levels, including of course Earth life), does it really happen that you try and contact your uncle Bob through a medium and get told "Sorry, he's ascended to the 6th Plane, but here's your aunt Bertha instead"?
Anyone's free to share their thoughts, but I'm especially interested in answers or thoughts by people who immerse themselves in this "data", study these questions, and are not just inclined to philosophical speculation.
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Here's where Bob spells his thoughts out, in answer to a caller:
33:48 to 37:30
In a recent interview that Bob Olson did promoting his new book (he's the one being interviewed by James Van Praagh), he maps out what he's come to as a personal research conclusion regarding the soul and the spirit, which isn't new, but is a perspective that makes some sense to me and that I come across elsewhere. This is the idea that your or my personality (he labels it "the spirit", the words don't matter) continues on pretty much as is upon death, and continues to grow in the afterlife.
Now, that's not what reincarnates, according to Bob. The spirit or personality-level entity/consciousness is a sliver of a Higher Self (he labels it "the soul"), which sends off different slivers of itself, creates different "spirits" if you will, who incarnate (and sometimes maybe don't?) and create and continue their own paths. So it's not "reincarnation" per se.
This explains why, for example, you rarely/never get a mediumship reading and are told "Sorry, you can't speak to uncle Bob, he's off reincarnating."
Now, again, this makes some sense to me. (And James Van Praagh says he agrees with Bob on this view.) But it does raise several questions, but I'll try to keep it to just a few.
If that is so, then what about what you often (always?) come across in classic Spiritualist mediumship, which tells of the spirit ascending different planes of existence (6, 7, 9, 10, whatever). How can this portrait of the "spirit"/personality-level consciousness climbing the ladder, so to speak (to become what? a Soul?), be reconciled with the portrait of the Soul or Higher Self sending out little portions of itself, different "spirits", to live their "lives" (in flesh or in spirit)? Am I the only having a difficulty with this here?
Second question/dilemma regarding the "planes of existence". If the "spirit" grows and crosses different planes (which, traditionally, means that when the spirit reaches higher planes, it's harder or becomes impossible to communicate with lower levels, including of course Earth life), does it really happen that you try and contact your uncle Bob through a medium and get told "Sorry, he's ascended to the 6th Plane, but here's your aunt Bertha instead"?
Anyone's free to share their thoughts, but I'm especially interested in answers or thoughts by people who immerse themselves in this "data", study these questions, and are not just inclined to philosophical speculation.
----
Here's where Bob spells his thoughts out, in answer to a caller:
33:48 to 37:30