I may not know all the reasons why I take a certain position on the pro-life or pro-choice question, but I came to a decision based on what I have learned and what I believe. Science teaches that life begins in the womb and they likely are correct. But a scientist can only accept physical evidence. They do not consider the soul and religions refer to their own documents for their ‘truth’ but both would affirm that life begins at conception. The church takes comfort in the fact that it has the support of scientists on this, though they differ on many other topics. But neither religion nor science is aware of what happens in mind. The temporal embryonic brain isn’t capable of growing an eternal spirit or a mind.One could merely accept the smug conclusions, or seek for a more inspired source - an unbiased authority. Such authorities do exist, not from science or religion, but from the higher psychic mind, and in this borderland area of life it should be considered the most reliable source since it is the connected approach.One higher authority would be the extensive psychic readings given through Edgar Cayce, who is accorded by Jesus in His Masterpiece: A Course In Miracles, Urtext as having great accuracy.
“When he spoke of a dream in which he saw his own rather immanent reincarnation, he was perfectly accurate. He was sufficiently attuned to real communication to make it easy to correct his errors, and free him to communicate without strain. It is noticeable throughout his notes that he frequently engaged in a fallacy that we have already noted in some detail: namely, the tendency to endow the physical with nonphysical properties. Cayce suffered greatly from this error. He did not make either of the other three. However, you will remember that it is this one which is particularly vulnerable to magical associations. Cayce’s accuracy was so great that, even when he did this, he was able to apply it constructively. But it does not follow that this was a genuinely constructive approach.” Acim Urtext, Chapter 3, II. Atonement without Sacrifice, (Tuesday, November 22, 1965) http://www.courseinmiracles.com/urtext/chapter_3/section_3.htm
Edgar Cayce, the American psychic, when asked during readings about these areas of mystery could consistently describe the basic laws of operation, noting possible variations, and then answer related questions. The question of life’s beginning was put to the ‘sleeping’ Cayce on more than one occasion.
From the Edgar Cayce Reading 3744-5 (2/14/1924):
“(Q) Where does the soul come from, and how does it enter the physical body?(A) It is already there. "and He breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul", as the breath, the ether from the forces as come into the body of the human when born breathes the breath of life, as it becomes a living soul, provided it has reached that developing in the creation where the soul may enter and find the lodging place. All souls were created in the beginning, and are finding their way back to whence they came.”
Edgar was consistent in the answers he gave on the ‘breath of life’ entrance of the soul or spirit into a separated physical form.From Edgar Cayce Reading 2390-2 (12/5/1940):
“(Q) Does a soul ever enter a body before it is born?(A) It enters either at the first breath physically drawn, or during the first twenty-four hours of cycle activity in a material plane. Not always at the first breath; sometimes there are hours, and there are changes even of personalities as to the seeking to enter.(Q) What keeps the physical body living until the soul enters?(A) Spirit! For, the spirit of matter - its source is life, or God, see?”
Here, spirit is not the soul or personality but like life, it is from God and the mother is the only personality involved with the life in her womb.
The readings of Edgar Cayce inspired a team of investigators who became motivated to compose a book to help many with spiritual understanding. For several years they met with Edgar to refine their concepts for their two books called A Search for God parts 1 and 2.From Cayce Reading 281 (Prayer Group) -53 (3/7/1941):
“(Q) The entity preparing to be born into the earth has an influence upon the mother in building its own body.(A) No. That would be the same as saying that an atom had an influence upon that to which it could be attracted! See the variation?As in the realms outside of the material body, we have influences that are sympathetic one to another and we have influences that have an antipathy one for another, - as in fire and water, yet they are much alike. There are other forces that are active in the same manner, or that are of the same nature.But in the physical world there is builded a body, by the process of a physical law, see? Now: There is builded also a mental body, see?God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a LIVING soul. Then, with the first breath of the infant there comes into being in the flesh a soul, - that has been attracted, that has been called for, by all the influences and activities that have gone to make up the process through the period of gestation, see? Many souls are seeking to enter, but not all are attracted. Some may be repelled. Some are attracted and then suddenly repelled, so that the life in the earth is only a few days. Oft the passing of such a soul is accredited to, and IS because of disease, neglect or the like, but STILL there was the attraction, was there not?Hence to say that the body is in any way builded by an entity from the other side is incorrect. BUT those mental and physical forces that ARE builded ARE those influences needed FOR that soul that does enter!(Q) The entity desiring to enter governs the change in sex, which may occur as late as the third month.(A) It may occur even nineteen years after the body is born! So, it doesn't change in that direction!(Q) The physical development of the child is wholly dependent upon the mother from whom it draws physical sustenance, but its purpose, desire and hope are built up or influenced by the minds of all concerned.(A) That's the first question you've asked correctly. CORRECT!”
In the second question Edgar was referring to a transsexual person - one whose mental or physical sex is undecided at birth, but may be a decision made later in life. This would require surgery and hormone replacement therapy when the decision is made to change. In some cases when the body is born undecided doctors have sadly made the decision for the infant soon after birth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexual
The term spirit has been substituted for soul in this Cayce reading, 281-49 (10/23/1940):
“Then, it is not that the entire life experience is laid out for an individual when there has been received that imprint as of the first breath, or the spirit entering the body as prepared for activity in the material world. For, again, choice is left to the individual, and the personality - as to whether it is the laudation of the ego or cooperation with its fellow men, or as a consecration to the service of the Creative Forces in its material environs.All of these are to be taken into consideration, then; just as they are indicated in the study that first prompted this search for the BEGINNINGS of individuality and personality in an entity entering and becoming active in the material complacency of a changing world.”
Later, Paul Solomon, another gifted American psychic contributed further evidence of the requirement of the first breath as the true beginning of an individual’s life in this world.From a Paul Solomon reading about astrology (9054) http://www.paulsolomon.com/NewFiles/9054%20Astrology.doc%20[Compatibilit...
“From time to time in the latter stages of that development, the soul may often actually enter as if trying on for size, if you will excuse the term, the feeling of adapting to the material cloak that is put about the self. Brief incursions, as it were, are likely to occur during the last weeks, months of pregnancy.But the more or less permanent entry of the soul, which causes an interaction, for lack of a better term, we would call this for the moment a radioactive, or radiological interaction between the physical instrument and the external environment. When the physical instrument leaves the mother's body, the soul causes an inhalation. The moment of this inhalation is often the same moment of soul entry into the body and for taking in of the prana. For it is during that time when the seven seals extend or make contact with, accept their entry. It is as if it were that these permeate the body, make contact with their sources, the sources of the metal minerals that give properties to the body and are taken from celestial bodies, establish their kinship with their Source in the spheres, so that in instinct made one final influence. May we attempt now to identify their extent.For a time, from the time of conception to the time of birth, the astrological influences upon the development of the fetus are not particularly important in the sense of assigning of the conception moment. The idea of a conception chart for example is inappropriate, for the materials to use in the structure are taken from the mother's body and are converted to the entry of her birth and are under that influence. Every metal mineral and element used in the creation of that fetus comes from and is related to other spheres in the solar system.Yet during the time of pregnancy, the stage, the mother's body is the universe. The mother's body is the zodiac to which the fetus, being earth, is in. At the moment of leaving that universe, the body then is born into another. The soul then enters to incarnate upon its earth, which the universe or the solar system in which this body, earth, matter, now is the greater solar system,When breath through the nose and the lungs is first taken, there is a change in orientation between the elements in the body and their source in the solar system, rather than these elements relating to their source within the mother’s body.The influences upon the developing fetus up until that moment of birth, breath, those influences had been the influences of heredity, the mother’s thoughts and actions, that activity of the mother, father, that which they contributed to the child, the karmic pattern. The thoughts have been impressed upon the soul occupying the body and such, but the influences are not particularly strong astrologically except through the influence of the mother.At the moment of first breath, the patterns, trends, and the relationships of the heavenly bodies to one, impress into the self at a final moment the thoughts, the patterns this soul will encounter in this life, this incarnation.That moment is the important moment for the astrological time, even though this soul has often entered and left and entered again before that moment. And be certain that after the soul entry, even after this moment of first breath, during the period of the first year in the life of a child, the soul actually spends nearly as much time outside the body as within it.”
Although the chemistry we call life begins in the womb, the soul is not in a body until it takes the breath of life by its shared will, and even after that it is not locked in, but maintains a loose connection.
Religious organizations have never been able to prohibit anything. In the 1920’s they attempted through our nations laws to prohibit alcohol and drugs which generated the social disaster known as The Roaring 20’sRealize that if the laws are reenacted to prohibit a woman’s right to choose, abortions will continue, but rarely in a safe medical environment.
Do the unborn have responsibilities and relationships beyond those with the women carrying them?
If only life begins in the womb, does an unclaimed life form need rights?
Does a tumor have rights?
Should we assume we have the right to make one common personal decision for everyone?
Should we worry over the removal of a particular opportunity for an individual’s life in this world?
Should we consider our nation a free country after giving away our freedoms?
These must be answered from within.
“Your creation by God is the only foundation which cannot be shaken, because the light is IN it. Your starting point IS truth, and you MUST return to this Beginning. Much has been perceived since then, but nothing else has happened. That is why your Souls are still in peace, even though your minds are in conflict.You have not yet gone back far ENOUGH and that is why you become so fearful. As you approach the beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought-systems upon you, as if it were the fear of death. There IS no death, but there IS a belief in death.The Bible says that the tree that bears no fruit will be cut off and will wither away. Be glad! The light WILL shine from the true Foundation of Life, and your own thought-systems WILL stand corrected. They CANNOT stand otherwise. You who fear salvation are WILLING death. Life and death, light and darkness, knowledge and perception are irreconcilable. To believe that THEY can be reconciled is to believe that God and man can NOT. Only the Oneness of Knowledge is conflictless. Your Kingdom is not of this world because it was given you from BEYOND this world. Only IN this world is the idea of an authority problem meaningful. The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth CAN be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits.” ACIM Urtext, Chapter 3, VIII. Creating versus the Self-Image, (December 11, 1965, Text, p. 45-46/50-51) http://www.courseinmiracles.com/urtext/chapter_3/section_9.htm
A newborn is a garment we all chose to wear for a while to express our individuality and to physically experience the results of our choices. But the body seems to limit our ‘reality’ to a tiny bit of time and space. For the first year we were torn between the illusion and our eternal reality, but eventually we surrendered to live another life in this world to again learn and master our past lesson failures. Thank you for deciding with me in this life to share and to learn to find our way beyond this world of problems and testings, and to accept His Truth that will again set us free.
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