"Messages From the Masters" by Brian Weiss, M.D.
Written by: Jaclyn Popola
I've been reading Messages from the Masters by Brian Weiss, M.D., the same author who wrote my beloved Only Love is Real. A skeptic scientist and psychiatrist turned unyielding believer when his own path suddenly split off in a different direction, Weiss has discovered there to be truth in the idea of reincarnation. He suggests that after we die, we go through several planes of higher consciousness, the first being a period of reviewing the life you just left, absorbing the lessons you have learned, the next being a long period of rest. And then, if and when you are ready, you can choose whether or not you want to go back. If you decide to take physical form again, you can actually choose which life you want to partake of, including which parents--biological or adopted--you want to have. Once you have made your choice, you are allowed to preview and plan the life ahead.
He writes: "Not accidentally or coincidentally are we born into our families. We choose circumstances and establish a plan for our lives before we are even conceived. Our planning is aided by the loving spiritual beings who eventually guide and protect us while we are in our physical bodies as our life's plan unfolds. Destiny is another name for the unfolding dramas we have already chosen.
There is considerable evidence that we actually see the major events in the life to come, the points of destiny, in the planning stage prior to our births. Mapped out are the key people we will meet, our reunions with soulmates and soul companions, even the actual places where these events will occur. Some cases of deja vu, that feeling of familiarity, as if we have been in that moment or that place before, can be explained as the dimly remembered life preview coming to its fruition in the actual physical lifetime.
The same is true for all people. Often, people who were adopted wonder whether their life plan has been somehow disrupted. The answer is no. Adoptive parents are chosen as well as the biological ones. There are reasons for everything, and no coincidences exist on the path of destiny. Although every human being has a life plan, we also have free will, as do our parents and everyone with whom we interact. Our lives and theirs will be affected by the choices we make while in physical state, but the destiny points will still occur. We will meet the people we had planned to meet, and we will face opportunities and obstacles that we had planned long before our births. How we handle these meetings, however, our reactions and subsequent decisions, are the expressions of our free will. Destiny and free will co-exist and interact all the time. They are complementary, not contradictory."
It changes when you look at it like that. All you really need to do is reframe. Life isn't something happening to you, it's you happening to it. I feel certain I hit one of those "destiny points" in June 2001 when I fell in love with another woman for the first time, a moment when I froze, looked at the two distinct roads diverging before me and felt as though I had to choose.
And I almost did. I almost made a concerted effort, a conscious decision, rather than trusting and allowing my life and my love to take me where they were urging me.
