by Elizabeth Egan
“For truly we are all Angels temporarily hiding as humans.”—Dr. Brian Weiss
Right now, we are experiencing a great shift in consciousness. We are partaking in a movement of great spiritual significance. We are the teachers and the learners. We are the light bearers and those struggling in the dark to see. We are spiritual beings who have taken on the great honor and challenge of becoming earthly for the sake of personal, collective, and global transformation and healing. We are awakening from the ancient notion that we are limited and small, confined to our genetics, our fate, and our faults.
Literature often captures the phases of our humanity, and I cannot help but notice a shift toward writing to understand the nature of our soul. Whether the books focus directly on the soul, near death experiences or even after death experiences, they all seem to all tell the same story, and come back with the same lesson:
We are not even vaguely aware of our expansive magnificence.
Could it be that through these stories, and the brave souls who have shared their experiences, we are being led to remember the depths of who we are truly are? I believe this is so.
I first came to realize that there is more to the story of who we are after reading the very well known book, Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss. I came upon Dr. Weiss quite by accident, (although, are there really accidents in this Universe?). That day, I drove over two hours to a conference to see a medium. It was my first “New Age” event, and a baptism of sorts into the world of the spiritual. Dr. Weiss opened the workshop, and since I had no background of him and his work, I was fascinated. Perhaps that is what made that day so powerfully changing for me. To be immersed in the presence of such peaceful, gentle energy changed me more than I could realize that day. Later, while reading his book, I could hear his gentle voice recounting the story of his transformation from a clinical, scientifically minded psychologist, to one of the greatest and well-known spiritual leaders and past life regression experts of all time. His story and his presence radiated with such truth that I could not help but believe his message completely and spontaneously.
From then on, I believed that we are all more than what is at the forefront of our consciousness. We have walked the human journey many times before, and have returned to the infinite nature of our souls between lifetimes. Who we are is immeasurably complex.
It is has been a mystery and an adventure to discover slowly who I am and who I have always been. I wonder sometimes what my soul was thinking when it decided to take on my present incarnation. I wonder about the process of choosing my parents, siblings, friends, gifts, talents, heartbreaks, struggles, and loves. I imagine from that perspective all made perfect sense. I think about every human being on this planet, especially my children and my students, and I wonder, who are they…truly? Who were they? I wonder what mission their soul carries and the sacred promises they harbor. I feel a sense of gratitude in knowing that, ultimately, we grace each other with an interlocking cosmic contract.
After reading Many Lives, Many Masters, I realized that being aware of the unlimited nature of who we are, and choosing to look at everyone we meet through this paradigm, has the power to change our entire way of being in the world. It softens our judgment of ourselves and others, and guides us along the path to compassion and unconditional love.
“To see and appreciate the soul of others with whom you are in a relationship is a higher state of awareness. To see only their outer characteristics provides a limited and incomplete perspective. Their current personality, just like their current physical body, is a temporary manifestation. They have had many bodies and many personalities but only one enduring soul, only one continuous spiritual essence. See this essence and you will see the real person.”
—Dr. Brian Weiss
A second book I feel offered invaluable insight into the nature of our existence was Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani. This was also a bestseller; you may have even seen her on public television with Dr. Wayne Dyer. In her book, Anita recounts a life of people pleasing, which led to the detriment of her own spirit, and her eventual development of cancer. Before long, Anita finds herself in the hospital in critical condition. As her body begins to shut down, one system at a time, she begins to span heaven’s threshold. It is here she realizes the infinite expansiveness of her soul:
“I continued to sense myself expanding further and further outward, drawing away from my physical surroundings. It was a though I were no longer restricted by the confines of space and time, and continued to spread myself out to occupy a greater expanse of consciousness. I felt a sense of freedom and liberation that I’d never experienced in my physical life before.”
“My soul was finally realizing its true magnificence! And in doing so, it was expanding beyond y body and this physical world. It extended further and further outward until it encompassed not only this existence, but continued to expand into another realm that was beyond this time and space, and at the same time included it.”—Anita Moorjani
Anita experiences tremendous understanding during her NDE, and reluctantly she agrees to go back to her life and share her story with the world. Upon doing so, she is completely healed and returned to a healthy body, that only one day before was riddled with cancer. What does this teach us about health, healing, and the power of miracles?
The lessons and understanding I gained from this book were immeasurable. Not the least obvious—the confirmation that our soul is uncontainable and, somehow at the end of our life, we merge with the great wisdom and energy of our truest nature. But more so, how imperative it is to to honor your soul. This is nonnegotiable, and yet it is difficult. Through Anita’s experiences, I have learned that if you do not honor your soul, you are sacrificing your sanctity. People can make you feel small here on earth. This is a world that is run by the illusion of hierarchy. Too often we worry about what everyone around us thinks or wants of us. We can easily sell out to the dominating requests and opinions of others, especially those closest to us. Before we know it, we have become crippled by expectations that are not in vibration with our truth. However, when we realize our unlimited nature, we stand up to domination, claim our truth, and begin to live fearlessly!
Dr. Brian Weiss and Anita Moorjani both came upon the secrets of our truest nature through tremendous experiences. Ultimately, it became their soul’s gift to share their findings with the world. I believe it is our gift to learn from the wisdom of great teachers such as them and begin to reshape the way we view the sanctity of our life and the lives of all those around us.
The blessing here is that we need not experience a NDE in order to reclaim our power and live every day of our lives in fearless pursuit of our dreams. We must learn to honor the wisdom our own soul brings forth, the gifts and talents our soul is contracted to share, and to live in the fullest expression of love and happiness possible. Then we shall find the purest expression of what it means to be a spiritual being living beyond human limits.
Elizabeth Egan is a 6th grade science teacher, Reiki Master, and spiritual singer-song writer with a passion for learning and teaching about the infinite nature and wisdom of the soul. She has spent her life singing in spiritual settings, and last spring released her first album, INSPIRED, in which most of the songs were self-composed. You are welcome to visit Elizabeth’s blog for inspiration, thoughts, prayers and meditations any time at www.spiritlightandlife.wordpress.com.