"We are each given the opportunity and privilege to come to earth for different reasons. Sometimes we come in order that we may personally develop and strengthen the fruits of our spirit; those of love, kindness, patience, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Sometimes we come to help someone else develop the fruits of the spirit. We all come to earth to become more Christ-like, as notes in Romans 8." - Mary Neal,
To Heaven and BackI love reading stories about near-death or past life experiences, which is what this book by Mary Neal is about. When I read it, it really took me back to one of the first books I ever read about the spirit world, which was a book by Sylvia Brown, who is a psychic that does a lot of talk shows and to me comes across as rather exaggerated for commercial purposes. But while I don't believe everything that Sylvia Brown talks about in her books, when I read them I was intrigued by the idea of each of us having a spirit guide, and together deciding with them what we were coming to earth in order to learn/develop/do and having them help us create a rough plot of our life journey before we were ever born. It made sense to me and felt real, and I have incorporated it into my life ever since, wondering if events I incur are preplanned, and if so what was it I came here to accomplish in this moment.
I also found it interesting that Mary Neal was a definite Christian after her near-death experience, but she never addresses the idea of reincarnation in this book, I think because that is against the Christian practice, but she often talks like we come to earth many times/for many lives, which is the feeling I get from her in this quote. We may come this time for a specific event for someone else, but maybe next time we will focus on learning true love, etc. She talks in more depth about this idea that you may come to earth to help someone else learn something in her book, which was a new concept to me and gave me a little more insight into maybe why bad things happen to good people or why children might die - because maybe it never was the "plan" for them to live a full life, maybe they only came into being in order to teach someone else in depth about love or compassion or some other core concept. Or to show people hate or sorrow in order that they could understand it and also its opposite.
This is my basic feelings about the one-or-many-lifetimes debate-- a person cannot learn anywhere near all that is necessary in order to reach enlightenment in one lifetime. It takes many lives to truly understand the core concepts of existence, Jesus, the Buddha, Gandhi, many of these highly spiritual people I believe have been through many more lives than the general masses, and it is from all of the wisdom that they gained from all of these past experiences that they are seen as so holy now and are able to so powerfully connect with a higher power. I can't make myself believe in the idea of one life and then eternal judgement either - life is all about change and the cyclicality of all things, it just doesn't click for me that we would have one brief life on earth and then our spirit would be forever sent to some afterworld. How we come into being and how we exit this life are a great mystery, as is what happens after, but however it goes I see it as being a continual process that will span all of time.
I also found it interesting that Mary Neal was a definite Christian after her near-death experience, but she never addresses the idea of reincarnation in this book, I think because that is against the Christian practice, but she often talks like we come to earth many times/for many lives, which is the feeling I get from her in this quote. We may come this time for a specific event for someone else, but maybe next time we will focus on learning true love, etc. She talks in more depth about this idea that you may come to earth to help someone else learn something in her book, which was a new concept to me and gave me a little more insight into maybe why bad things happen to good people or why children might die - because maybe it never was the "plan" for them to live a full life, maybe they only came into being in order to teach someone else in depth about love or compassion or some other core concept. Or to show people hate or sorrow in order that they could understand it and also its opposite.
This is my basic feelings about the one-or-many-lifetimes debate-- a person cannot learn anywhere near all that is necessary in order to reach enlightenment in one lifetime. It takes many lives to truly understand the core concepts of existence, Jesus, the Buddha, Gandhi, many of these highly spiritual people I believe have been through many more lives than the general masses, and it is from all of the wisdom that they gained from all of these past experiences that they are seen as so holy now and are able to so powerfully connect with a higher power. I can't make myself believe in the idea of one life and then eternal judgement either - life is all about change and the cyclicality of all things, it just doesn't click for me that we would have one brief life on earth and then our spirit would be forever sent to some afterworld. How we come into being and how we exit this life are a great mystery, as is what happens after, but however it goes I see it as being a continual process that will span all of time.