5th July 2009

Some further musings on the subject of reincarnation. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the process of reincarnation is one of the most important underlying concepts of the Unified Terran Community setting. When I was researching the subject, to help me decide how I wanted it to work in the alternate reality of the stories. I was surprised at the prevalence of the idea in real world religions, both contemporary and ancient. It’s important to point out that my research was not exhaustive, I wasn’t particularly keen to imitate a specific religions interpretation of reincarnation, I was more interested to see a few different examples. From what I was able to gather there are, broadly speaking, two versions of the concept. In one paradigm, it is the rebirth of a human soul into another human body. In the second paradigm, the process of reincarnation is not restricted to incarnation into human form, souls can be reborn in animal bodies. Within these two very broad categories, there are numerous subtle variations which combine to ensure that there is no consensus view on exactly how the process works. The lack of consensus wasn’t surprising but was quite handy from the point of view of seeing different takes on the subject. I also didn’t want to endorse any one religions interpretation of the subject. You can’t please everyone, with such disparate views on the concept, so I opted not to please anyone. Generally speaking, though, I followed the idea of reincarnation being restricted to human to human transfer.

The Mystery Religions of Ancient Greece were the inspiration for the terminology that the members of the Community use to describe their incarnation technology. Areas such as India and the Orient are of course famous for the incorporation of reincarnation into their beliefs, but it was, and is, present in some form in every culture. The ancient religion of the Egyptians, which seems to be the ancestor of many other belief systems, had a strong emphasis on reincarnation. J.J. Dewey postulates that the belief was part of early Christian teachings, but was removed as church leaders felt it was incompatible with their doctrines.The Church of Scientology also features reincarnation as a central belief, although their take on it has human kind as being extra terrestrial in origin (or at least that’s my understanding of it…)

A process related to the concept of reincarnation is past life regression, by means of hypnosis. One of the most recurring features associated with this, is the considerable historical inaccuracy associated with the memories. This has led many to the conclusion that the memories recovered through the hypnotic technique are not true memories, but creations of the subconscious after receiving a suggestion to recall memories from before the subjects birth. This got me thinking as well, what if it were possible to prove such memories were real? This would be a fundamental change to our reality and how we perceive each other. Then I began to consider the possibilities of the complete restoration of the memories from any past incarnation. The vast increase of collective wisdom, would have a staggering impact on our society, techniques and theories from the ancient world which we have never been able to duplicate or fully grasp would become accessible once more. Marry this with our modern day technological advances and vast cultural leaps could be made.

Which leads me conveniently to a small advance notice, the third part of the main UTC story arc, with a working title of ‘The High Watchtower’ is underway and will be posted in due course. I’m also working on another Travellers Tales instalment, which should be finished around the same time or possibly a bit earlier. For those who simply can’t wait, there will be a background article very soon which will have a few clues as to the next story. I’ll bid you farewell, for now, and hope to see you again soon!

unifiedterrancommunity@gmail.com