Journey of the Soul

Introduction and Overview

Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

Welcome to this free Journey of the Soul course based upon our book, Cosmic Cradle, Souls Waiting in the Wings for Birth. You will learn about the story of who you were before you came into your mother's womb.

Every year millions of souls in human bodies are preparing for their disappearance from this physical world. Our disappearance, however, is just part of the soul's journey. Every year millions of souls are also preparing for their appearance on Earth.

These lessons explore our journey in the light of great spiritual truths as well as experiences of contemporary people. We will find parallel ideas from Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Sufism, Judaism, Jewish Kabballah, Native American Tradition, Australian Aborigine Tradition, Greek/Roman Philosophers, and Western mystics.

Western material science has generally stifled interest in the preexistence of the soul and survival of consciousness beyond the present body.

Yet throughout history and across diverse cultures, great thinkers have affirmed the immortal consciousness of the soul, karma, and the science of incoming and departing souls. This course is an intellectual study, which complements our exploration via direct experience of the soul in meditation. We will find an underlying unity of key concepts at the core of diverse cultural perspectives.

The following topics are covered in nine lessons using this cross-cultural approach. You can download each lesson along with any accompanying documents:

Lesson 1

What is the Soul, which never dies? Exploring Multi-Cultural Perspectives by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

1.9mb

Lesson 2

A New Paradigm: Children Choosing Birth and Parents: Contemporary Preconception Communications by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

1.6mb

Who decides your birth, parents, etc? Did you choose your life before taking birth? Is there contemporary evidence of souls choosing birth and parents?

Very Early Parenting Starts Before Conception by David Chamberlain, Ph.D.

65k

If early parenting is what takes place from conception to birth, then very early parenting begins before conception! This is daring new territory to explore.

Freedom and Flexibility by Elisabeth Hallett

23k

Do our children exist before conception? And if they do, what are the patterns that bring us together as parent and child? Many stories of pre-birth communication support the view that our children are predestined to be with us.

Purposeful Contact: The Mysterious Power of Our Children-to-be by Elisabeth Hallett

32k

Where does the parent-and-child bond begin? Isn't it time to look further back for the beginning of the connection with our children -- and the beginning of their power in our lives?

"I asked if you could be my Mommy" by Harold Widdison, Ph.D.

22k

"Mommy, I asked Jesus if you could be my mommy."

Twins, 21 Months Apart by Sarah Hinze

32k

Lesson 3

Souls choosing birth/parents: Australian Aborigines. Procreation according to the Australian Aborigines by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

251k

Did you choose your life before taking birth? Is there evidence of souls choosing birth and parents among Australian Aborigines?

Pure Ecologists: Pitjandjara by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

127k

They are not, like ourselves, "lords of the creation," but a part of creation itself. The great "Dream Time" progenitors of the animals, the birds and the plants, are also the progenitors of the people; the same mysterious life essence which vitalizes all living things also provides the Aborigines with vitality. The natives are an integral part of life around them, no greater and no less than any of its components. It was an unforgettable experience to have lived among a people whose laws were so kindly and well-balanced that there is no need of warfare to maintain social equilibrium.

Modern Culture influences on the Aborigines by Andreas Lommel, Ph.D.

247k

As a member of the Frobenius Expedition sent to Australia in 1938, Lommel had the opportunity to collect data about the influence of modern culture on the life of the aborigines.

Australian Aborigine Sensitivity by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

911k

They say we have been here for 60,000 years, but it is much longer We have lived and kept the Earth as it was on the First Day. All other peoples of the world came from us.

Lesson 4

Higher States of Consciousness, Part I;
Gifted Memory and Conscious Birth: Contemporary Interviews by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

894k

What is relationship between higher consciousness and conscious birth? People at the top of the memory scale recall gifted memory - "memory of events occurring prior to being in a physical body and developing a physical brain for information storage."

Lesson 5

Higher States of Consciousness, Part II;
Cross Cultural Accounts of Gifted Memory and Conscious Birth by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

724k

What is relationship between higher consciousness and conscious birth according to cross-cultural accounts and great spiritual teachings? Plato, Yogananda, Buddha, etc.

Rev. Heckewelder, Initiation, 1876.

30k

In this document from the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Reverend Heckewelder "pooh poohs" a Native American shaman's memories of being in the womb.

Lesson 6

Religious and Philosophical Perspectives on Karma by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

2.8mb

How do different spiritual traditions, such as Vedic, Buddhist, Western, and Indigenous peoples, explain how we choose our life plan? For example, Swami Sivananda explains, "That portion of the sanchita karma which influences human life in the present incarnation is prarabdha. It is ripe for reaping. It cannot be avoided or changed. It is only exhausted by being experienced. You pay your past debts. Prarabdha karma is that which has begun and is actually bearing fruit. It is selected out of the mass of the sanchita karma."

Angie Fenimore's Near-Death Experience

86k

Sandra Rogers' Near-Death Experience

82k

Dr. Frank Oski's Angel Encounter

29k

Lesson 7

The Great Journey: Religious and Traditional Perspectives on Reincarnation by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

784k

• Where do souls sojourn between one incarnation and the next?
• What determines where our soul will go after death?

Lokas or Planes, p. 84 - 124 in What Becomes of the Soul After Death by Swami Sivananda.

601k

Lesson 8

Parallels between Pre-Conception States and Near Death Experiences: Ancient and Contemporary Accounts by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

4.9mb

In lesson 8, we compare the Pre-Life Experience to the Near Death Experience (NDE). Investigation into the soul's pre-existent state and NDE research reveal 3 interesting parallels.

Lesson 9

Death and Enlightenment. The Supreme Graduation by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

477k

How we depart from the body is connected to how we have lived, more consciously or less consciously. In essence, the quality and consciousness by which we live through thousands and thousands of choices (good and bad) made every year will impact the quality and consciousness at the time of our transition. Perhaps we need to view death as a graduation that we study and prepare for rather than an ending.

Divinizing the Human Body by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

594k

Accounts of how the Great Ones experience Conscious Death via Divinizing the Human Body, Jiva Samadhi, Light Bodies.

Sri Agastya, the first siddha and guru of many siddhas, lived for 5000 years. He made contributions to Medicine and astrology - especially Nadi astrology. He taught Kriya Yoga techniques of divinizing the cells of the human body which can be classified into three categories.

1. Rendering physical body deathless for centuries.
2. Enabling physical body to disappear and resurrect in a glow of light into a subtler vibrational field,
3. Enabling physical body to be placed in a tomb in jiva samadhi at will, in a state of suspended animation, where blood circulation and breathing have stopped but a luminous pranic energy keeps bodycells alive, with possibility of dematerializing body in tomb and materializing it outside in a different locality and living out an extended span of life for several years.

Swami Ramalingam's Disappearance by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

261k

Swami Ramalingam attained divinization of his physical body in 1874, when he withdrew into a room, which he used for mystic meditation (Samadhi). He locked himself in and advised followers not to open it. He said that even if they did open it, they would find nothing.

Sri Gangadharan Swamy experienced a vivid meditation vision of the dematerialization of Swami Ramalingam's deathless luminous body 104 years after Swami Ramalingam disappeared.

Conscious Death and Rainbow Bodies by Elizabeth Carman, Ph.D.

800k

How do enlightened masters experience Conscious Death? The most beneficial inner experiences can occur at death according to Tibetan Buddhists. That is when someone can use death to gain spiritual realization. For example, Milarepa (1052-1135), S. Namgyal, Karma Gyurmed (1794-1851), Dharma Sun of Sutra and Tantra (1854- 1906), Mahasiddha Karma, Chagmed Rinpoche (1613-1678), Khenpo A-chos, etc.