WARNING: What you are about to read is so controversial that if you are firm in your religious convictions and are absolutely unequivocally intolerant of other beliefs, you may become angry by reading this article. So before you go any further, I ask you to discontinue reading if you are intolerant of beliefs other than your own. 

If, however, you are open to the possibility that none of us truly knows why things sometimes make no sense in a world filled with opposites – where good battles evil and it appears that evil is winning – I invite you to read on.

According to some people, we are souls inhabiting a body. But if that statement is true – that the body houses the soul – what then happens to the soul when the body dies? 

Some people believe that when the soul dies, the body dies too. For them, life begins at birth and abruptly ends at death. The journey is over. Life has ended. They cannot comprehend a spirit or soul that lives on, nor do they give any consideration to how infinitesimally small our life spans are in comparison to infinity. But then, can any of us truly understand infinity?

With my limited earthly language, I once tried to explain in the only way I could imagine, the comparison of our lives with that of infinity. In the article entitled, Life Between Lives, I admit that infinity, by definition, is incomprehensible to anyone who lives within the boundaries of time. And that, of course, includes all of us.

People who believe that this life is all we have, who are asked to consider a comparison of one lifetime to one grain of sand, as related in the aforementioned article, are not convinced of even the possibility of living more than this life. They believe in only a finite existence – a life begins – a life ends. Period.

But isn't energy the force that moves our bodies? Scientists have proven that energy never dies. So what happens to the energy that resides in our bodies when our bodies expire?

For others, spirit lives on, but for them, the soul either enters Heaven or plunges to Hell. An eternity of endless bliss is bestowed upon people who lived their lives well, who never had an evil thought or committed an evil deed. An eternity in Hell awaits those who committed a single crime or committed a mortal sin. 

How sad for the children of alcoholic parents to know they will be going to Heaven while their parents will forever reside in Hell. How sad for the parents of depraved children to know they will be in Heaven while their children will live out the consequences of their actions in Hell. Forever.

For still others, spirit immediately finds another body and is reincarnated. They believe life, like a tree, lives through cycles of birth and rebirth, a process that brings the soul closer to perfection with each incarnation. But for those who believe the soul continues after the body dies, where does that soul go?

Nobody knows with any certainty what happens immediately following death, but one hypnotherapist has regressed enough people to believe that something happens just after death.

In the early days of hypnotherapy, nobody sought help from a hypnotherapist to glean information about a period of time (after death) they didn't know existed. The reasons people sought hypnotherapy varied. Maybe they wanted to quit smoking or maybe they wanted to lose weight. Sometimes they wanted to discover if some childhood event provoked current behavior.

What a hypnotherapist does is delve into patients' minds looking for triggers, events that impacted patients so profoundly, those events and the emotional reactions to those events affect behavior in ways that disrupt patients' lives. Maybe something significant happened at an early age that altered their patients' perceptions and reasoning skills as adults. Knowledge empowers, and patients want to know why they behave as they do.

In seeking answers, some hypnotherapists move beyond childhood and venture to a time before childhood – babyhood. Dr. Newton regressed his patients, however, to a period of time just prior to birth, where patients recounted what it felt like to be in the womb. 

While other therapists unveiled their patients' current and past lives, Dr. Newton, intrigued by the possibility that patients could remember their own births, investigated further. He explored the moments just prior to conception and just after a previous death – the period of time between incarnations. This period of time beyond this life – before this life – is a dimension that mystifies even believers. 

Dr. Michael Newton, author of Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression, regressed a number of individuals and, after listening to story after story, discovered a remarkable similarity in their experiences.

What he found was that people in the interim – in that period of time between lives – examine their own past lives and choose which lessons they want to learn in their next life. After numerous patients discussed with Dr. Newton a classroom-type experience where they met friends and family members who had passed before them, Dr. Newton couldn't help but wonder why the stories were so dramatically similar.

These patients revealed to Dr. Newton that they engaged in an evaluation process of the life just lived on Earth. And they were able to objectively witness their previous life without judgment. Knowing they would go into their next life with no recollection of this "life between lives" period, they chose to live again anyway, and they participated in selecting experiences and people who would benefit them most in their next phase of learning.

Dr. Newton noticed that these people – unrelated to each other and not associated with each other – experienced similar events just after the death of their former self and just before the life they were now living. 

Are events in our present life direct results of actions we precipitated in our former lives? Does Karma play a role when people choose their future lives after all? Maybe we all intrinsically believe in cause and effect.

Visualize, if you can, the repercussions of actions performed in a past life impacting rewards or consequences in the next incarnation. Maybe Karma allows us to make amends to people we have hurt. Maybe Karma allows us to experience the same pain we once delivered to others. And maybe Karma allows us to help the people we love by bringing us closer to what some people refer to as the "God Consciousness."

Eastern religions (and many Westerners) believe in the concepts of Karma and Reincarnation, concepts that, by virtue of their definition, demand people to be held responsible for their actions – they reap the benefits of or pay the consequences for their actions. When you think about it, what sense does it make to live just one life and never take responsibility for actions you perpetrated? Does an eternity in hell for committing one crime, even if the crime resulted in a fatality, sound like cosmic justice?

Think about times you, or people you love, got behind the wheel of a car when you (or they) were impaired. Chances are, nothing happened. But what if somebody died because you forgot to turn the wheel quickly? Are you now forever doomed to Hell because your mistake resulted in somebody's death? 

What about your neighbors who drink and drive every time they get behind the wheel of a car? Are they free and clear, headed straight for Heaven, because they didn't kill anybody even though, unbeknownst to you, they were heavily intoxicated while driving your daughter to soccer practice?

If you were able to answer that question with absolute clarity, are you assuming you know with certainty just what THE PLAN is? If so, are you playing GOD? Am I playing God by writing this article? 

According to people who visited the realms of existence between lives, judgment plays no role in determining the next phase of existence. God is not the one who examines our lives – we are. We alone are responsible for our thoughts and for our deeds.

For many people who claim to know what God expects of us, examining our own lives and the lives of others with absolutely no judgment seems impossible. They believe that only God is supposed to judge us. But if the kingdom of God is within us, shouldn't we be the ones who judge ourselves?

And now for the controversy. I want you to imagine this scenario: what if your higher self, The Supreme Being, Jehovah, God, or whatever it is you call that connection between your Earth-bound spirit and that part of you that is connected to everyone and everything else, asks you, after you die, to help elevate the Earth's consciousness. Being a good Christian/Jew/Buddhist/Hindu/etc. you agree to participate in this lofty goal, despite the fact that you won't remember this plan after you are born.

God (we'll call the higher power God) says, "You will be hated by many, you will be loved by many, and actions you perform on Earth will bring the nations together like never before."

Sounds like something He might have said to Jesus, doesn't it, or to other prophets who delivered God's message to love others as we love ourselves. But might he also have made the same request of Hitler? 

Think about it. Both men transformed the world. Both were hated. Both were loved. Jesus wanted us to recognize the God within ourselves. Hitler wanted us to recognize his god of power, hatred, segregation, and control. But through Hitler's outrageous behavior, the dictator taught us that to blindly follow deranged leaders without thought or integrity, with malice and with cowardice, was unforgivable and detestable. His life served as a warning to us to pay attention to our own thoughts and deeds.

If we see a woman being raped or assaulted, for instance, do we break up the assault, do we call the police, or do we walk away? 

We witness our neighbor's child killing small animals. Do we ignore the silent pleas for help, or do we, by our non-action, enable that child to become a serial killer? 

Our best friend comes over with bruises all over her face. Do we ignore her suffering or do we help?

Do we have the courage – in any of these scenarios – to make a difference in any of these peoples' lives? Or do we just complain about how horrible our world has become? Are we capable of facing our fears, overcoming our trepidation, and gathering our courage to step out of our comfort zones and make a difference?

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

While many "good men" attempted to end Hitler's reign, others did nothing. Good people, perhaps out of fear, blindly followed a lunatic leader. They allowed peer pressure to blind them to their own consciences. Many of them probably did not want to perform the actions that led to the deaths of millions of Jews. Many of them were probably afraid of the consequences for their own families if they didn't participate. We cannot judge them. But we can learn from them.

You may not want to read this next sentence, but what if Hitler, after he died, said, "OK, God, I hated being put in that position, but I did what you asked."

Impossible? Maybe. But what if God said, "Look what has happened as a result of your tyranny. People are now beginning to question their motivations. They are finding the courage to speak up for themselves and for others. You did as I asked. Thank you for bringing my people back to me."

We are beings of rational thought. I admit that what I just wrote might be considered controversial or blasphemous. The thought that God would engage in any kind of bartering with evil might be construed as sacrilegious. But even Satan was once an angel loved by God. We truly do not know how our souls progress and what pivotal circumstances bring us closer to the truth of knowing not only who we are, but also who we are in relation to everything and everybody else in this world.

Our actions impact others. Our actions impact ourselves. When we leave this life, can we look back with satisfaction? What will we bring with us into that classroom of life between lives? Will we be able to improve upon a life lived well, or did we judge our neighbors, our friends, and our relatives without knowing all the facts?

Were we so perfect that nothing we did to other people resulted in pain? Did we do anything to improve even one life of one other human being? Are we willing to risk our future lives by negating the possibility that more awaits us than just this one life?

We can ignore the possibility that something significant happens to us in the moments immediately following death. We can continue to live depraved lives filled with greed, lust, envy, and all of the other deadly sins. Or we can, in this one life we are currently living, recognize the contributions we make in our own lives by living consciously – living a life that bring us (and the God within us) joy.

By the way, good will win out over evil, because it takes more effort. Taking the evil path is lazy,  easy, and cowardly. Doing what's right, standing up for your neighbor, your friend, your loved ones, and yes, yourself – takes courage. In courage lies strength. Good is stronger than evil.

(Photo: Dr. Michael Newton from his web site)