Theos-Talk Archives (August 1994 Message tl00107)

Paul,

PJ> My explanation for this is that in my most recent life I was
> French and lived through the occupation.  But this flies in the
> face of HPB's preachments about 1500 year intervals between
> lives (which in itself doesn't bother me) and falls into the
> category of unhealthy ways of thinking.  I mean, to excuse your
> personal weirdness as being caused by imagined past lives is a
> pretty dangerous road to follow far.  During a year or so in 91
> when I recorded dreams there were lots about going back to
> France but none that I recall on other places repeatedly.

     My understanding of the original theosophical teachings
concerning periods between incarnations is that under "normal"
circumstances, a person spends about 100 years out of physical
incarnation for every year in incarnation.  The Mahatmas
mentioned that the world average life span in the 1880's was
about 15 years, therefore we get the 1500 years figure (15 X
100).  If you consider the number of people who die in childhood
from disease, starvation, infanticide, war, etc., the 15 year
average is not only credible, but probably hasn't much improved
in the last 100 years.  Remember, the Western Europe first world
countries (which also have poverty etc.) make up hardly 10% of
the population on this planet.
     Now further explanations in the Mahatma Letters reveal a lot
of exceptions to this 100 years to 1 ratio.  Among them are
suicide, murder, death in warfare, and accidental death (e.g.
being run over by a car).  Death through the above circumstances,
and others, changes the ratio dramatically, and a person can be
back in a very short time--even almost immediately.
     My own belief is (which I think is very consistent with HPB
and Mahatma teachings) is that the world is full of people who
died in the last two world wars, and other wars too.
     For whatever it is worth to you, I believe (for reasons that
wouldn't be productive to go into now) that I was also killed in
warfare.  But not only in my last, but over several successive
lifetimes, and because of that, my past periods between
incarnations have all been very short.

PJ> What does anyone think?  Should I try to heal this past
> whatever-it-is or just drop the subject?

     I think that the more that we can face and understand about
ourselves, the better off we are.

     To everyone who has written in saying that ethics doesn't
belong in theosophy etc.:

     Now that I have gotten over my initial shock concerning some
of these responses--allow me to make an observation or two of my
own.
     One of the big attractions of theosophy in the early days of
the T.S. was the fact that it offered an ethical code that was
not attached to any religion.  I'm frankly very disturbed to find
so many responses from members of the T.S., who now want to
reject ethics.  I see this as more evidence of the further
eroding of what theosophy once was--though I'm sure some of you
will respond that it is an improvement.
     Some of you historians might recall that Damodar wrote
against the promulgation of theosophical teachings until people
were first taught ethics.  Considering the present circumstances,
I'm beginning to really regret that his suggestion was not
carried out.  Ethics, like everything else, has to be learned.
We aren't born with this knowledge, nor do we passively learn
very much about it through living our day to day lives.
     For the benefit of those who don't believe that ethics was
ever a part of theosophy, please consider the following passage:

     He who does not practice altruism; he who is not prepared to
     share his last morsel with a weaker or poorer than himself;
     he who neglects to help his brother man, or whatever race,
     nation, or creed, whenever and wherever he meets suffering,
     and who turns a deaf ear to the cry of human misery; he who
     hears an innocent person slandered, whether a brother
     theosophist or not, and does not undertake his defence as
     he would undertake his own--is no theosophist (CW: VIII,
     171)

Peace,

Jerry Hejka-Ekins