Reincarnation

A Satsang (Discourse) given by Maitreya on "Reincarnation; Ghosts; Meditation; Dreams; Universal Mind."

 
10/11/1987 Satsang (Discourse) by

Maitreya

Question: How do you explain the fact that when you meet someone for the first time, you like them or dislike them? And what do you think about ghosts? When you gather and ask them to come and they come. Sometimes people believe in this and they say, Well we had a meeting last night and they came and they said all of this. Is it true, are there ghosts here and can we ask them to come and is it good or bad?

Maitreya: You have two questions in one. The first question is that we see some people and we know we feel either very good about them or we don't.

People have been put under hypnosis and have said things about their previous lifetimes. For instance, someone in the United States was put under hypnosis and said she had been in Germany and such and such a thing happened and she was killed in such a way. They went and checked with the newspapers of the time she described the events, and found at that time such a person was living and she died exactly the way she had described under hypnosis.

Or someone was put under hypnosis who, for example, spoke English all their life -- they never had learned German or French or any other language. Suddenly, they start talking in that language.

There are many explanations. A lot of people are trying to explain how it is possible.

The easiest and most appropriate explanation is that these people have lived many lives. So they start experiencing, or remembering that part of their consciousness that had been hidden from them after they were born in this lifetime. That part of consciousness of their previous lifetime is the subconscious mind, which is in a level between the conscious mind and the Universal Mind.

In the subconscious mind, we already know these things -- we already have a feeling. We don't understand why we feel like that and why doesn't everyone feel like us? It is because you had different experiences than other people. That's why people are different from one another.

Your question can be answered that there has been some relationship with these people in a previous lifetime, which was either pleasant or unpleasant. If it was pleasant, you feel comfortable and good about these people. And if it was unpleasant, then unconsciously you do not feel good about them.

Your subconscious already knows these people, you don't because you think you only have this lifetime and this brain. You think you only know those people in your family or those with whom you have been acquainted. The subconscious mind already knows that person and will say, "Watch out, I didn't have a very good experience with that person." So you don't feel good about that person. Or you say, Hey, this person is OK, I like him/her because I had such a good experience with this person.

Question: Can we trust in these feelings?

Maitreya: We just talked about the subconscious mind. There is the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the Universal Mind -- is everything. It is the mind of God. The conscious mind is what you're conscious about right now. The subconscious mind is like programming in this lifetime and many, many previous lifetimes.

Because of our experiences, we learn how to cope with our environment -- how to feel, how to be, how to think, how to react. This program is really what runs our lives. It says, if this and this happens, you do this, like computer programming. Have you ever written a computer program? When you say, if you see this and this, go to this. If you didn't see this and this, you saw that, go to another action, etc.

That's also how our subconscious works. If people treat you like this, you react like this. If people don't treat you like that, you react like that. Also it runs your life by more than this lifetime. Sometimes you don't even understand why you react like this. This is the program from your previous lifetime, because of those experiences.

One of the things meditation does is to stir the subconscious mind to bring this part of you out. Eventually you become more and more familiar with this part of you.

I used to give Satsang when I first met Sarah in that group in Colorado. I was talking about creatures in us. These black creatures run our lives. They tell you to do this, do that, go here, go there. Don't do this, don't do that. Your life is completely taken over as your subconscious mind tells you what to do. They really are your master.

"Go and drink." Some people have problems with drink. Why? Because in their previous lifetimes somehow they escaped everything by drink. They didn't face the reality of life. So then their subconscious mind is programmed -- if you are in trouble, go to the bar. That is often a program.

Or some people are overly attached to the opposite sex. What happens to them is their program is, you need love, your problem can be solved if you have a partner. That is how the program works.

Through meditation you start putting Light on these creatures, on these programs that run your life. These creatures can work only in darkness.

What does the psychiatrist ask? He makes you lie down on the couch -- at least they used to -- and lets you talk about yourself. In this relaxed state the subconscious mind is loosened. It is open to reveal itself. Meditation is a more relaxed state than lying down on a couch! When you start talking, this subconscious mind is like a chain. For instance, when you are talking you reach a point where you say, I became angry yesterday for no reason. Then you remember, I was angry a week ago, also for no reason. I became angry two months ago, I didn't have a reason. I was angry a year ago, etc. The link starts going down and down and down, deeper and deeper.

So when you start picking up one set of the chain, another set starts coming up, one after the other. You remember, in your childhood for instance, something happened that makes you react whenever you are in that same situation.

Still the psychologist never can reach to the bottom of everything because the program is not only from this lifetime but from previous lifetimes. They can't take you there. They can take you to your childhood and solve some of your subconscious problems but not all of them, because most of them come from your previous lifetimes. That is why when you are put into hypnosis, some of your problems are solved, because you can go to the previous lifetime and see why you react to situations as you do.

Meditation does the same thing. Meditation also brings these things up. Probably you will not remember why everything happened in all your lifetimes. You will see the knot in your consciousness, realize it is there and why you feel like this, or you are like that. If you keep that in the Light of your meditation -- if you keep in your consciousness why it is happening -- it eventually dissolves by itself. Suddenly one day you wake up and see you don't have that problem any longer. You don't react the way you used to react. People can't run your life.

These creatures are the darkness and can only live in darkness. They run your life from the darkness. One day you wake up in the morning and you say, Enough is enough. I Am the master of my life. Get out of here! These creatures say, No, No, No, No, you can't do that. You do not understand, we are trying to protect you from yourself, trust us. We've been running your life all this time, you can't just wake up this morning and say we are not going to do it any longer. However, if you keep them in the Light long enough, they will dissolve and you will become the master of your life. You will replace that old programming with the Universal Mind which knows all and is all.

Question: How can you keep them in the Light?

Maitreya: By meditating. By seeing the knots and the reasons behind the misery of human existence. For instance, I started doing self-analysis when I was in college. I didn't know anything about meditation then. I was very interested in psychology and psychiatry. When I was twelve or thirteen years old, I started reading books on these topics. In college I found a book called "Self Analysis," written by an American Psychologist. It had some rules and regulations, some basic things about psychology.

I started sitting and observing my day -- why I felt the way I did, what I felt, etc. I began writing how I felt that day and why I felt that way. Then I would remember the same kind of feeling or event from the past. I started bringing these chains of events to the Light. It helped me a lot but I didn't reach the bottom of them until I started meditating.

When I started meditating, naturally I remembered this lifetime and I remembered my many other lifetimes. I experienced the same thing that they had written, in my previous lifetimes. So then I realized why I react the way I do and why I am the way I am. I realized why I feel differently about things and why I am attracted to certain things.

So as you start to open yourself up with these questions, you remember things, you understand and realize these things -- you become more and more comfortable with your subconscious mind. You become familiar with your subconscious mind. You understand your subconscious mind and those creatures eventually dissolve by themselves. So you really don't have any vigorous effort. You change yourself by realizing yourself.

Your other question was about people who gather together and call upon ghosts. This universe has been created from many different levels of consciousness. One level of creation is ether. We have solid factor in the universe. We have liquid factor. We have the fire and air, aerial factor. Gas is the same as air.

Beyond the aerial factor is the ethereal factor, ether. Even scientists know about the ethereal level of the universe. Of course, they can't pin it down because it's such an elusive factor they can't catch it. They cannot say, Here it is, it is ether. This ethereal level neither can be touched nor carries sound. It cannot be seen. It does not have taste, etc. It doesn't have any of these qualities which are related to the visible universe.

The aerial factor cannot be seen. If you wave your hand, however, you can feel it -- Yes, there is air. It has a quality of touch but it doesn't have the quality of vision or solidity or liquidity. The fire or heat can be seen, can be touched, yet it doesn't have form. That is why the moment you see the fire, it dissolves into the air. It no longer exists in the form of fire.

Then there is the liquid factor. It has elements of visibility, shape and touch. It's not, though, completely a solid factor, it does not have solid form. The solid factor has all these qualities. You can touch it, it has visibility, form and touch.

So the higher the element goes, the less form and visibility it has. When you go beyond air, you go to ether which has none of those qualities. In that ethereal level there are Souls, there are Spirits. That's where your Soul actually resides. Soul is even more subtle, more un-seeable, untouchable, un-understandable, unknowable than ether. Yet Soul resides in ether. The Soul needs the ethereal factor to create its astral body which is ethereal.

Question: What is ethereal?

Maitreya: That which is beyond aerial factor. So these Souls have an ethereal body. When these people who gather together and call upon an ethereal being (those who really can do it are few), the Spirit of that person manifests him/herself. You can use your energy for much better purposes than sitting and calling Souls back in to talk to you.

Question: Yes, but if you want to see someone that you liked before and he's dead, is this good to do?

Maitreya: The question is, if you know someone who is dead, can you call that one up to come back? If it's God's Will that they have a message for you, or wish to see you, you can see them. You can receive messages from them in your sleep or in your meditation. But by force, bringing them from another world to this world, is your will, not God's Will.

An example of this is when King Saul wanted to talk to Samuel. Samuel was a Prophet and he was dead. Samuel had been the advisor of King Saul. King Saul foresaw this disaster coming to him, so he went to this woman and asked her to call Samuel, "I want to talk to him." When she called Samuel, Samuel was very angry. He said to Saul, "Why did you call me from the other world to this world? Why did you do that? And because you did that, these things are going to happen to you for sure."

So, it is not good to interfere with the universal flow with your spiritual powers. There are spiritual powers that exist but if you misuse them, they backfire on you.

Comment: You were answering the question, that sometimes you meet somebody and you don't like them. And other times you meet someone you do like. You had answered that you've had a good experience with them in a past life or a bad experience in a past life. I wonder if you could expand on this because, what I have found in this life is that, right within my own family members was one who I had a very difficult time with from childhood. This was mainly because of a temperament for dominance -- trying to dominate me all the time. All that did was create an avenue of expression that brought me directly to the Father. As I grew older, I got into meditation and got rid of some of those darkies in my subconscious mind. I began to go to the unconscious mind to have that clearing. I saw the beauty, the Spark of Divinity in this person, and what an ugly role that one had to play in order to get me to where I had to go. I used that one to get me where I had to go. I asked forgiveness for this. Sometimes these people that you see and feel you don't like, aren't to be shunned, but to be worked with. Maybe it's in you and not in the other person.

Maitreya: A very, very good point. That's very true. Actually the eventual goal is to connect to the Universal Mind. The Universal Mind doesn't hate anyone, cannot be dominated and doesn't have any ups and downs. It loves everything because everything is a part of It. Some people have a mission and a calling to bring others to some understanding, and sometimes they have to play an ugly role to do that. In the end all is good.

Question: I would like to know about dreams. What do you think about dreams? Are there good dreams? Do all dreams have a meaning? Or special ones have a meaning in them?

Maitreya: Well, we have explained in THOTH that there are three kinds of dreams. There are dreams that come to a person because they ate too much. That's the kind of a dream that's usually a nightmare, because the stomach is full and the blood wants to do two things at the same time.

One of the things Spirit does is to clean up the brain and the things that make us tired. Really it's not a physical tiredness, it's a psychological fatigue. You become tired more from psychological than physical stress. When you sleep the blood and the Spirit want to get rid of the impurities, but at the same time your stomach is full. So what happens is the blood has to work two places at the same time -- to go to the brain and get rid of these impurities, and also to digest the food you ate which was very heavy.

So what happens is that the programming in your brain becomes confused. Again, just like a computer which becomes confused, you will have a lot of junk on the screen instead of what you want to accomplish. That's what happens to you. During the night you have completely crazy dreams that have no relation to anything -- not in this life, not to the previous life. The blood has to flow to two important tasks at the same time. It does not do either one well. It sounds like, "You cannot have two masters." You will not serve either one well.

Other dreams are very much related to day-to-day life. These are usually the messages for how to solve your day-to-day or current life problems. These kinds of messages are giving you a solution -- there's a way to solve that or those problems. For instance, in solving mathematical problems, some students, if they try and cannot solve the problem, go to bed and sleep. When they wake up in the morning, they can easily solve the problem that they were not able to do the previous night. What happened is that while they were asleep, their mind, their brain worked on it. The subconscious mind is working to solve the problems that you have. It gives you dreams or messages.

Then there are other dreams that are prophetic dreams. These are very deep dreams. Usually when you wake up, you are very shaken or you feel very deeply affected. And it stays in your consciousness not only for the moment but for days, maybe for the rest of your life, depending on how powerful or high the dream was.

Those dreams are from the unconscious mind, from the Universal Mind or from God. These dreams are not related to your individual problem but the collective concern. They might not even be related to any problem. It might be a calling for you. It might be something that God is trying to reveal to you about your life or others' lives.

So that's why it's so important to become aware of the dreams that come to you. One of the things recommended in psychology is that you have a pad and pencil close to you when you are sleeping. In the middle of the night when you had a dream, immediately write it down when you wake up. Then you can break the dream down into different parts and start analyzing it.

Why is this dream the way it is? For instance, you dream that you are traveling on a train and this train never reaches anywhere. You wake up and write this down. Also maybe on the train, some other things happen that seem completely unrelated to each other. If you wake up, write them down and analyze them, you usually see there is a message.

For instance, your life is not going anywhere. I'm on a train and it's going nowhere. That dream usually also gives the answer to why it is like that. So, in that kind of dream you become familiar with your subconscious mind.

When you are in touch with the Universal Mind, you don't have those dreams any longer. You don't dream. You go to bed and sleep all night, completely, peacefully and dreamlessly. There is no dream there, unless you have eaten too much. You just put your head down, and you go to the Universal Mind, God. You wake up the next morning, refreshed, joyful and you are ready to go. Your life is not in a shamble. There is no message in the subconscious mind and everything is FINE (Formless, Invisible, Nameless and Eternal, God).

Question: And when do you reach the Universal Mind?

Maitreya: That's when the subconscious mind no longer exists. The subconscious mind is completely dissolved. There you have no programming. You said, Erase, or Delete to your subconscious mind. It's completely deleted.

Question: There are people who don't believe in the subconscious and everything but they do have bad dreams or good dreams. And they say, We never had such dreams. And they're really not close to the Universal Mind.

Maitreya: Well that is why they had that dream, because they are not close to the Universal Mind. You answered your own question.

Question: See, they never had such a dream -- When you speak to them about dreams they say that they don't dream.

Comment: Some people do not know that they dream, but they do dream. Their subconscious is full of so many things that they're not even willing to look and see that they dream.

Maitreya: We're talking about a minority here. We're talking about people who really want to know themselves -- subconscious and unconscious mind. There are probably 99.99% of the people who have no idea why these things happen to them, you see? According to the studies, there is not a person who doesn't dream. But if you ask them if they remember their dreams, they don't. They probably remember l% of what they dream.

They dream but they are not aware of their subconscious mind, so they don't know that the dreams exist. Just like a radio and a radio station. The radio station is sending a message. If your radio is not at the same frequency, what happens? You never pick up that station.

Just like, God is always there, giving you messages about you, your life and what you should be doing. If you're not at the same frequency as God's messages, you never pick them up. So it is not really the problem of the messenger, it's the problem of the receiver that's not picking it up.

The station is sending this message all the time, "Do this." And the receiver is not picking it up, "Do this." The receiver is not picking it up, "Do this." The receiver is not picking it up... So really, the messenger is sending the message all the time, it is the receiver which is not picking it up.

You've got the book. You've got the teaching. We've sent it out. Not everybody responded. Why? Because their receivers were busy with other things. You know, we came here and said, Let's bring unity to humanity and bring all the religions as One. Why didn't they answer? Because they say, I have to go to my field, I have my own matters to attend to. I have this work to do. I have that work to do. I have to travel around the world, etc.

See what they are saying is, our receivers are not picking up your message. So that is exactly the same thing as dreaming. The dream is coming to those people. All the answers you need are already there, given to you. They are transmitted to you, yet you are busy with other things in life. Your attention is not in your unconscious mind with God, so you are not receiving.

Actually, the other day I was doing some work with the computer modem -- getting in touch with other computers and bulletin boards. One of the things in the computer and in the transmitting of the information is, the modem sends the message.

Every time the other computer sends a message to this computer, it examines it to see if it's correct. If it's not correct it sends a message to the sender -- I didn't receive the message right, so send it again. So it sends the message again.

Well if the computer is busy doing other things, it sends the message, I'm busy right now, wait, I can't receive any message. It's just exactly like your body and your consciousness is one station and God is another station. As long as you and He are on the same level, you are not busy, your mind is not busy doing other things, you are sending a message to the Universal Mind, Send more messages. I'm here, I'm ready for it. I'll receive it.

If you're busy with life -- so engrossed in mundanity -- you're sending a message, Don't send any message, I'm busy now. I don't want to receive a higher level of understanding, I'm busy in the lower level with things to do.

It's just exactly what happened to me. When I started the Mission, I had such wonderful things coming to me that Sarah and another gentlemen, who was with us, wanted to record every word that I said. And then, we got so mundane that things started happening, I had to get to the real day-to-day life.

After awhile, I wasn't receiving anything. I realized what I was doing. My modem was sending a message, Don't send any higher messages, I'm busy right now with mundanity. Now I'm getting out of mundanity again and I'm sending the signal to Universal Mind, Send more higher things.

Of course, this also explains and fulfills the prophecy that there will be seven years of confusion, that Christ and his disciples will be caught up in the clouds (confusion) for seven years. The seven year period is almost over and the clearing is returning slowly.