Introduction | History | Organization | Grounds | Death, Reincarnation, and Karma | Courses | Traveling Spiritually | Counseling | Dreams | Visiting | Conclusion The Brotherhood of Light The Side Effects of Death The side effects of death are important to understand so the dying individual knows what to expect. In the process of death, the strands of identity, which are bound into the physical nervous system, are loosened, and karma is rearranged. Karma looks externally like bunches of fruit and it binds the soul to the body. It is, in a sense, the fruit of ones actions appearing as bright shining grapes and apples, or dark shredded coconuts, and shriveled grapes. Bright karma has been expressed in a positive way, and used in the service of spirituality and compassion. Dark, hard, dry, karma has been suppressed, but it still waits to be expressed weighing down the soul. Dried, wrinkled karma has been expressed, but it did not serve spiritual goals. As the soul is loosened from the confines of the body, the karma is rearranged, and there are pieces that fly apart. Emotions separate from ideas, memories separate from identity, impulse separates from rational thought. A strong soul unites these elements and rises from the body. A weak or cursed soul rises in pieces, and the side effect of this is that much of the life is lost. When the Greeks spoke of the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, they spoke metaphorically - one who drinks from those waters is one who swims from the body rather than flies. A soul in flight has what it needs, supported by the power of breath, the wind which links the spirit to the higher worlds. The weaker soul must struggle through the darkness and desire, weighed down by the karma, which has not been expressed, like rocks tied to the ankles of the soul. They draw the soul down to the dark, wet winds of rapid reincarnation, and the soul mindlessly falls into the waiting womb, and to a body bound for passion and rebirth. Conscious reincarnation is a much slower process. All the different aspects of life are balanced, and a body found which can best help the person along the spiritual path. It is something like a near-death life review - the karma rises so that the soul can perceive it. The soul may then choose to express it in positive ways, or to burn it in a life of self-sacrifice and renunciation. In such a life, the good die young, but their karma has been burned, and the future is bright of them. Back to the Death, Reincarnation, and Karma Page Introduction | History | Organization | Grounds | Death, Reincarnation, and Karma | Courses | Traveling Spiritually | Counseling | Dreams | Visiting | Conclusion Home Copyright © 2002,   J. Denosky,   All Rights Reserved