It is difficult to tell a newly-injured person trying to cope with physical disablement that he or she has an opportunity to advance at a faster rate than those of us with healthy bodies and minds. This knowledge must come through self-discovery. The case histories of my clients convince me that the effort necessary to overcome a body impediment does accelerate advancement. Those of us whom society deems less-than-perfect suffer discrimination which makes the burden even heavier. Overcoming the obstacles of physical ailments and hurt makes us stronger for the ordeal.
Our bodies are an important part of the trial we set for ourselves in life. The freedom of choice we have with these bodies is based far more on psychological elements than from the estimated 100,000 genes inherited by each human being. However, I want to show in the opening case of this chapter why souls want certain bodies based largely on physical reasons without heavy psychological implications. The case exhibits the planning involved in the decision of a soul to be in contrasting physical bodies in different lives. After this case, we will examine why souls choose their bodies for other reasons.
Case 26 was a tall, well-proportioned woman who enjoyed participating in sports despite being bothered all her life with recurring leg pains. During her preliminary interview, I learned the pain was a dull ache in both legs, about midway down the thighbones. Over a period of years she had been to a number of doctors who could find no medical evidence of anything wrong with her legs. Clearly, she was worn down and willing to try anything for relief.
When I heard the doctors had concluded her discomfort was probably psychosomatic, I suspected the origin of this woman's pain might lie in a past life. Before going to the source of her problem, I decided to take my client through a couple of past lives to ascertain her motivations for body choices. When I asked her to tell me about a life in which she was the happiest with a human body she told of being in the body of a Viking called Leth around 800 AD. She said Leth was "a child of nature" who traveled by the Baltic Sea route into western Russia.
Leth was described as wearing a long, fur-lined cloak and soft, form-fitting animal skin pants with roped-up boots and a cap wrapped with metal. He carried an ax and a heavy, broad-bladed sword which he wielded easily in battle. My subject was intrigued by the picture in her mind of again being inside this magnificently proportioned warrior with "dirty strands of reddish-blond hair spilling over my shoulders." Standing well over six feet tall, he must have been a giant of his time, with enormous strength, a huge chest, and powerful limbs. A man of great endurance, Leth navigated with other Norsemen over long distances, sailing up rivers and hiking through thick, virgin forests, pillaging settlements along the way. Leth was killed during a raid while looting a village.
Case 26
Dr. N: What was most important to you about this life you have just recalled as Leth the Viking?
S: To experience that magnificent body and the feeling of raw physical power. I have never had another body like that one in all my existences on Earth. I was fearless because my body did not react to pain even when wounded. In every respect it was flawless. I never got sick.
Dr. N: Was Leth ever mentally troubled by anything? Was there any emotional sensitivity for you in this life?
S: (bursts out laughing) Are you kidding? Never! I lived only for each day. My concerns were not getting enough fighting, plunder, food, drink, and sex. All my feelings were channeled into physical pursuits. What a body!
Dr. N: All right, let's analyze your decision to choose this great body in advance of Leth's life. At the time you made your choice in the spirit world did you request this body of good genetic stock or did your guide simply make the selection for you?
S: Counselors don't do that.
Dr. N: Then explain to me how this body came to be chosen by you.
S: I wanted one of the best physical specimens on Earth at the time and Leth was offered to me as a possibility.
Dr. N: You had only one choice?
S: No, I had two choices of people living in this time.
Dr. N: What if you didn't like any of the body choices presented to you for occupation in that time segment?
S: (thoughtfully) The alternatives of my choices always seem to match what I want to experience in my lives.
Dr. N: Do you have the sense the counselors know in advance which body selections are exactly right for you, or are they so harried it's just an indiscriminate grab bag of body choices?
S: Nothing here is careless. The counselors arrange everything.
Dr. N: I have wondered if the counselors might get mixed up once in a while. With all the new babies born could they ever assign two souls to one baby, or leave a baby without a soul for a while?
S: (laughing) We aren't in an assembly line. I told you they know what they are doing. They don't make mistakes like that.
Dr. N: I believe you. Now, as to your choices, I am curious if two bodies were sufficient for your examination in the place of life selection.
S: We don't need a lot of choices for lives once the counselors get their heads together about our desires. I already had some idea of the right body size and shape and the sex I wanted before being exposed to my two choices.
Dr. N: What was the body choice you rejected in favor of Leth?
S: (pause) That of a soldier from Rome ... also with the strong body I wanted in that lifetime.
Dr. N: What was wrong with being an Italian soldier?
S: I didn't want ... control over me by the state (subject shakes head from side to side) ... too restrictive ...
Dr. N: As I remember, by the ninth century much of Europe had fallen under the authority of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire.
S: That was the trouble with the soldier's life. As a Viking I answered to nobody. I was free. I could move around with my band of invaders in the wilderness without any governmental control.
Dr. N: Then freedom was also an issue in your choice?
S: Absolutely. The freedom of movement ... the fury of battle ... the use of my strength and uninhibited action. Life at sea and in the forests was robust and constant. I know the life was cruel, too, but it was a brutal time. I was no better or worse than the rest.
Dr. N: But what about other considerations, such as personality?
S: Nothing bothered me as long as I was able to physically express myself to the fullest.
Dr. N: Did you have a mate-children?
S: (shrugs) Too restrictive. I was on the move. I possessed many women-some willing-others not-and this pleasure added to my expression of physical power. I didn't want to be tied down in any way.
Dr. N: So, the body of Leth was your preference as a pure physical extension of sensual feeling?
S: Yes, I wanted to experience all body senses to the fullest, nothing more.
I felt my subject was now ready to go to work on her current problem. After bringing her out of superconscious into a subconscious state, I asked her to go directly to a life which may have involved leg pain.
Almost at once the woman dropped into her most recent past life and became a six-year-old girl named Ashley living in New England in the year 1871. Ashley was riding in a fully loaded, horse-drawn carriage when suddenly she opened the door and tumbled out under the vehicle. When she hit the cobblestone street, one of the heavy rear carriage wheels rolled over her legs at the same point above both knees, crushing the bones. My subject reexperienced a sharp pain in her legs while describing the fall.