by Dana Howard

It was high noon, and the rugged desert canyon I loved so well had come alive with the out-breathing rays of the Universe. Kim, my adorable little black and white terrier, followed at my heels, for this spot on the desert was her special place, too. She seemed to sense the nature spirits, playful little people invisible to the sight of humans, but who danced and played on the desert sands, perhaps to the merry tunes of aerial music.

The dog stopped short, with an air of knowing I had come to recognize. Then followed the short, staccato barks and the frantic wagging of her little stub tail: Kim’s way of greeting the immortal Diane. She knew, even better than I did, those heaven-sent footsteps, for her dog instinct felt the love and devotion Diane brought with her.

These days, Kim was my ever-constant companion, for I was making up for lost time. A few years before, she had trudged off to “doggie-heaven” before her allotted time. She was my “little Bonnie” then, and her going away had made a wide gap in my heart. Now I felt sure she was back again . . . the same little ball of fur, devoted to me with every atom of her little being.

She wasn’t husky like other dogs, for it seemed to me traces of the devastating illness that had taken her away still remained. But the answer my heart gave could not be amiss. Bonnie had come back as “little Kim.” This secret I had cloistered as my very own until that day when “The Search For Bridey Murphy” brought the alien word “reincarnation” for the lips of millions.

No the concept of reincarnation, held inviolate through the years, dared to come out in the open and defend itself. Although it aroused the same scorn and ridicule, the same unbelief in many, it still awakened in others a questioning doubt.

“Greetings, earth’s children,” Diane ventured, her voice blending with the sunshine of the desert canyon. I perched myself on the smooth desert rock, for I felt this was going to be an extra special discourse, “Today, I shall tell you something of reincarnation, as you earthlings refer to the wheel of rebirth,” she said. “You have learned the story of life, not from the written word, the tablets and the scrolls . . . but from the Book of Remembrance. Long ago it was decreed that the mysteries should be concealed from the profane gaze of mortals. The rock-hewn sanctuaries were made the receptacles for immortal knowledge: knowledge which in part at least can be revealed only at the close of a cycle. As the children of earth learn one lesson well, they are permitted to pass to the next level of consciousness. As they correlate one type of experience with another, then each achievement can be turned to good account. The earthlings might press on and out of the customary spheres of living, new bridges across the wide chasms must be built. Only as one knows where one is going can one plan one’s life.”

Diane then went into a lengthy explanation of the meaning of life.

“Life follows a perfect pattern,” she said. “Each phase prepares its occupants for the next phase. The time between is for digestion and incubation. In a material sense, you might say, earthman wears many coats of many colors. Each worldly garment is designed to shield the delicate self inside. Yet, each life is a complete, self-lived drama . . . a conscious advance from life to life. At the same time, earthlings look upon it as a constant struggle for improvement, for earthlings know only the constancy of action in struggle. They do not know that struggle will cease when each individual leaves his mark on the tablets of life.

“Mind patterns are carried over to their ultimate fulfillment, if not in one life, then in another. Life evolves until there is a mutual relationship with the ‘other worlds’ and with other planets, for each is a link in a long, unbroken chain. Just as the tiny grains of sand eventually become the mighty rock, just so each life adds something to the potential, of ultimates, bringing earthlings ever closer to the rock of spiritual strength. If one life is dedicated to a way of specialization, the next is given to universalization. If one group, or collective life span, is given to specialization, the next cycle is one of universalization. Today your earth is coming out of its time of specialization. It will soon climb to the higher, universal rung, moving toward the Grand Universal Design. The same pattern carries over, for nothing of potency is ever lost. The seeds planted one day will become the tree and the fruit the next.

“Each life fits into a mosaic, like strings to a harp,” she went on. “Within the life stream now flowing on the earth there is ‘individual reincarnation’ and ‘collective reincarnation.’ The continuity of consciousness remains unbroken, for memories of one day are released in another. When the floodgates to the subconscious are opened, whether by means of catalytic practices, or spiritual dynamics, memory of the past can be tapped. With an understanding of how human dimension is increased, you will know also how channels of the mind, never before used, can be opened up to a full life flow. All things contribute to experience and expansion, to retardation or contraction. To go forward there must be progression in consciousness.”

I was thoughtful a moment, then asked the same question thousands of others were asking: “You mean the time has come for us to learn something about our past lives? That ‘The Search For Bridey Murphy’ was not a fluke happening?”

“Yes, there is a time of ripening for all things. When a forceful idea is released into the ethers, it is captured by sensitives, following which many unsuspected powers are evoked . . . one, the power of remembrance. The essence of experience is stored in reserve tanks, tanks that have been and can be opened. Time is not an adequate measuring rod between life and death, my daughter. Life is continuous. It goes on and on. When a ‘subjective sensitive’ taps this vast accumulation of knowledge . . . when great issues come forth . . . then the sensitive must send out the call, for it is a clarion call to action. It means important issues are at stake. ‘Bridey Murphy’ was an unwitting call, but a call nevertheless. In time of need, the conscious mind calls upon the subconscious. It is much easier to go forward when one knows what has gone before. Each life experience shifts the focus of meaning into still larger domains of understanding. The subconscious of man is linked with the subconscious of the Universe. All latent memories are stored there. One who is schooled in the methods of regression can take his subject back through not only the subconscious domain, but into the unconscious states as well. It will be many long years before earth beings fully understand this principle. A few will tread the pioneer path, but earthlings in the mass will be buffeted through suffering before they come to the realization that they have free will to control their own lives.”

“It is a wonderful thought,” I replied, “but I happen to be one of earth’s children, too. It sounds easy when you say it, but so very difficult when we try to do it.”

“To be sure, my daughter. The grooves of past living are deep. Earthlings are unconsciously rooted in the mire of their past lives. They must be lifted from the ruts and elevated to the higher dimensions.

“The masses are automatons,” she went on. “Unwittingly they hamper growth by clinging to debris that has lost its usefulness. While, in a measure they must be sustained by past action, if they still refuse to discard old patterns, all will suffer the penalty of fixation. Growth must move forward. To follow customary patterns is to place tradition’s rope tightly around one’s neck. Earthlings must learn to shift with the new panoramas, and the few possessed with oracular sensitivity must lead the way.”

I found myself trying to cram my own little mind with these shreds of greater knowledge. It was not an alien thought to me that we might have lived earth lives before we occupied our present house of clay. Was it not our mental blindness that caused tight bands of limitation to be drawn around our thinking?

Now we were too close to the problems of life to see our own way out. Teachers from the planes had come with the keys to the libraries of knowledge. They ‘would supply us with conscious realization of where we are going,’ and why. They would help us over the threshold to the next plane of life. And last, but by no means least, these exalted ones would help us to evolve new forms to replace our obsolete patterns. Once we became oriented in the new way, it would be an easy road ahead.

The desert’s iridescent tints seemed even more colorful now, for right here on this isolated spot, Diane had been generous with her wisdom. Much enlightenment on the “great deep of life” had been forthcoming. In the days ahead, other sensitives would come to this sacred spot of retirement, for I knew I was not the only privileged one.

And now another thought crowded in. Why do we not remember our past lives? Why did it require violent mental shock treatment to open up the gates of the past? Diane answered before my question had been fully formulated.

“The burden of memory would be too great, my daughter. To forget is earthman’s salvation. But he does not forget completely. He is forever unconsciously delving back into his past . . . mentally storing away his lifetime substance of life before making his exit. But earthman takes his pattern with him. He stores away his memory records for future reference. It is like debris in the attic left to gather the same kind of future dust.

“Memory records are associated with the subconscious mind. These memories can be brought over, life after life. From the depths of the subconscious the old pattern repeats itself again and again.”

“But doesn’t it serve a good purpose to know the trend of past lives?” I asked. “Could not knowing what has gone before be applied against the errors of the present existence?”

“Unless one has learned how to handle the controls of the present life existence, it would be even more difficult to handle the burden of lives that have passed. Earthman would become lost in time’s vast illusion, for as I have said so many times . . . one cannot go outside of LIFE. Life is continuous. The good is not lost. Wisdom is eternal. But earthman should be made to realize that he has a subconscious responsibility as well as a conscious liability. Changes take place in the subconscious. If the earthman could only realize this, he would be careful not to store his unwanted accumulations in his basement. He would know that the soul is housed in a body of clay that it might adequately express itself in a world of sense. Mastery over the subconscious,” she said, “is the hope of your planet.

“If earthman could realize that his outer fleshly form is but a transient thing . . . that the soul speeds on in an endless round of progress, then as he spans the years from childhood to maturity, he would attract psychically only that which he wishes to see become manifest. Each sojourn in a mortal house of clay is but a short interlude in the larger whole. One comes back into physical form refreshed and soul-cleansed. But one also has free choice to reject or accept the experiences that come to him. So you can see, my daughter, should past lives be lightly recalled, each life on earth (or on other planets for that matter) would be burdened with a heavy life’s mortgage. It might require many lives to wipe out one major error.”

“Now and then some do break through,” I countered, “or at least they think they do.”

“Yes, my daughter. The true sensitive can go through at will. But, as I have said, the subjective realms cannot be safely explored without secure anchorage. Sometimes, as in hypnotism where the organism is unduly stirred, regression is possible and memory-records stored in the subconscious come forth, but, by and large, Child of Earth, memory files serve the after-death state.

“Again let me say, reincarnation as it is taught in your mystery schools has proven to be more harmful than helpful. For example, a struggling soul likes to feel that in some past existence he has been someone of note. He wants to bask in a pseudo-greatness, believing he has a past. As a result he often becomes slothful, ready to sidestep the real issues with which he has been faced with in a present life.”

“Then why is it, one is born poor, another rich; one beautiful, another ugly? Are they not revealing patterns, brought over from a previous existence?” I asked.

“Rather than patterns brought over, they are the earth’s psychic patterns to which the ego vibrates. Life is in varying stages of evolution. Each being is in his own state of evolution. Form evolves as well as mind, hence that which might be ugly in one state of existence would be beautiful in another. The poverty suffered in one life would be reversed to riches in another. This is the way of evolution and the pattern is only changed at major cyclic intervals.

“Earthlings have not learned how to transmute poverty into riches, therefore earthman has been forced to travel slowly over the soul-deadened centuries. We Venusians transmute as we go along. We have learned to blend the elements one into the other. We draw our supply of plasma from Infinite Source. Earthman will one day likewise.

“Life can be either regressed or progressed,” she went on. “The same delicate threads that extend back along time’s pathway can be spun into the future. The threads of life are woven into the invisible patterns. This applies to individual life . . . to social units . . . to nations and even planetary life itself. Moreover, the pattern is created long in advance of manifestation in the worlds of so-called reality.

“Today, earth’s humanity is drawing close to a new pattern. Millions of earth beings have already psychically tapped this pattern. Change in the outer is transient, but the one life, the one substance, the one energy, is eternal.

“As earthman is influenced through the subconscious, so is the earth plane influenced by the ‘collective world consciousness.’ That is why we are extending our influence at this time. Bondage must be broken in the realms of the subconscious. The subconscious debris must be cleaned out; subconscious boundaries expanded. This means world thought must be extended to meet the rapidly growing space consciousness. I cannot repeat too often, it is no longer one earth but one universe. That which earthman wishes to see manifest in his life must first be created in the subsoil of universal consciousness.

“The Planet Venus is the next order of evolution. The life stream on earth today will one day inherit Planet Venus. Therefore, the Venusian seeds must be planted in advance.”

I had tried to dig up my own past. For to me it was like digging up old bones. But I was quiet a moment, trying to grasp all Diane had said. Finally I questioned: “Then there is real truth in the idea of reincarnation?”

“Yes, my daughter. Rebirth is hope. The destiny of your earth is dependent upon rebirth. Even the planets are reborn again and again. The cross of tradition must come down. Just as earthlings are beginning to regress into the past, in the same way, earthlings must find the means of progressing over the farthest horizons. When mass consciousness can be impregnated with this thought, new roadways into the unknown will be made.

“Earthman has a vague remembrance,” Diane went on, “not only of his own past, but he has a traditional link in memory with other worlds that have known existence; to continents that have passed from view. Memories of great earth catastrophes can be tapped by sensitives thousands of years removed from the scene of the disaster. Subconscious memory serves a constructive purpose if one is skilled in mental procedures. Such a one can better master the problems of one life if he has before him an accurate chart of other lives.

“Hypnosis aids in releasing the objective pattern so that memory can be recalled. But I cannot repeat too often, it could be disastrous to blindly tap the influences of the past. When earthlings are suddenly made aware they can go backward and forward at will, they find it an amusing game.

“The safest method is normal mental development. When one knows that the pattern built in one life is objectified in the next, he begins to create the pattern he wishes to see made manifest. Developed perception brings about universal realizations. Life follows a subjective plan. When this is selective, the life conforms to the created pattern. In such instances, past lives can usually be recalled. Flashes of a previous existence start in the formative years. They start with scenes from the past, strains of familiar melody . . . recollection of wounds that have not been healed. And now and then of loved ones still remembered. The mind can go back over the winding centuries, recalling not only individual incidents, but reminiscences of cosmic events.”

My own mind flashed back to a day years before while I was a guest at the traditional Paso del Norte Hotel in El Paso, Texas. Just emerging from my teens, I had never heard the word reincarnation, but there was something about a haunting voice I heard over the telephone that thrilled my very soul. It was like an echo of love that had never died. Many changes occurred in that brief moment, for I could scarcely speak above a whisper. Covering the receiver with one hand, I turned to a girl friend sitting beside me:

“My future husband,” I rasped hoarsely. “He . . . this man on the telephone. He is my future husband.”

The conversation lasted but a few moments, but I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror. It was scarlet. I let the phone drop to the floor and fell across the bed, exhausted. I could hear my girl friend’s voice, reiterating: “Are you ill, dear? Are you ill?” I finally pulled myself together, saying over and over, “I’ve just got to marry him.”

“Marry him?” my friend hurled, “are you crazy? Why you’ve never even met the fellow.”

The next day we met. Three weeks later we were married. There had been instant recognition, yet neither could recall having met before. For months following my marriage, I found myself retracing the steps of our short lives. It was apparent we had never been within hundreds of miles of each other in this life. While it proved to be a marriage carrying a holocaust of past memories, it was so intense and all-consuming that normal adjustment was impossible. And so, one cycle of experience came to an end, but perhaps another earth life experience will tell the whole story.

Diane brought me back to the realization that she was still with me.

“I must go now,” she said, “but before I depart I must make it clear to you that memory is linked up on the same milky network by means of plasmas. Replace these plasmas often, and you will keep memory alive.”

Diane had gone away once more. But she had left with me the thought that memory is deathless. That life is eternal.

Excerpt from Over The Threshold