Article: “Pro-Love” and the Ensoulement Dilemma – Amy Shapiro (Is.10)

by Amy Shapiro, M.Ed.

Abortion is the focus of discussion, debate, and argumentations today perhaps as never before. It is an explosive emotional issue mired in a confusion of politics, theology, ethics, and traditions which, given contemporary attitudes and polemic polarizations, provokes more heat than light. For PLT practitioners, there are several special issues which Amy Shapiro raises for us to consider as she presents some new insights into this old and difficult dilemma.

As Past-Life Therapists, we can play a unique role in the healing process concerning pre- and post-abortion dilemmas. Using our navigational skills within the inner realms of spiritual frontiers, we can guide women to see that the Spirit of the unborn soul to whom they may deny entrance does not die, but goes on to where it may be more welcome…or may wait for that woman to become its mother when the timing is better for the family as a whole. By being facilitators to help women communicate with their “unborn” babies, we foster hope, understanding, and the kind of grace that enables a woman to move beyond pain and into a state of forgiveness, if need be, and peace. It is a great challenge for us as professionals in this important metaphysical realm, one that is enormously worthwhile for both the past-life therapist and client.

So complicated and subtle is the quest for understanding and healing, within the subject of abortion, that it literally tears apart our country, families, and consciences. The pain of both pre-abortion decision-making and post-abortion reconciliation cries out for new ways to integrate psychological and spiritual perspectives and meaning within this human life crisis.

Most women feel, and are, isolated in their spiritual and psychological trials regarding their decisions around abortion, and have no place to turn in their need to talk with someone who can work with them, on an inner plane, to create paths of understanding, healing, and love. The following thoughts and stories are offered as a hopeful source of new light on the subject of abortion, from the viewpoint of a past-life therapist. I thank the many women whose courage and honesty prompts me to write about the therapeutic journeys we’ve shared and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

One simple guide to life choices helps me through difficult moments of decision; that whatever we do will work out all right if we are loving and there is no intent to harm within our hearts. At times, the best course of action is the “lesser of two evils,” whereby causing the least damage is the most caring option. Caring that includes healthy self-love (not narcissism) preserves self-worth and self-respect. Given those values, I empathize with both those whose banner is “Pro-Life” as well as those whose banner is “Pro-Choice,” inasmuch as both act out of well-intended motivations. As a Past-Life Therapist, I respect the values of both points of view while applying and integrating a metaphysical perspective that can bridge the otherwise seemingly impossible gaps between both sides of this issue.

At the core of our struggle with the abortion question is the notion of fetal advocacy, of whether or not anyone other than a pregnant woman has the right to speak on behalf of the potential human being that gestates within her. Imagine, if you will, the idea of women dialoguing and negotiating with their own bodies, their own Spirits and especially, with the Spirits of yet-unborn souls who may have a vested interest in them as mothers, as a process by which to arrive at the most loving life choice; whether to birth or not to birth. We know from many between-life experiential reports that souls do, indeed, carryover from past lives a karmic connection to future-life parents, needing to be born through them for their soul’s evolution.

While this idea may seem to some to be radical and fantastic, if not simplistic, I find it a natural and effective therapeutic means toward helping women be at peace with whatever reproductive course they take. It is also an idea that Past-Life Therapists readily understand.

Inasmuch as these life choices are a matter of individual conscience, a “Pro-Love” point of view can unify us in the understanding that what is most responsibly loving for one woman, family or unborn soul, is not necessarily most responsibly loving for another. To arrive at this understanding is my purpose in working with women in this area. Using guided imagery, relaxation, and meditation techniques as tools to navigate the many levels of inner plane awareness that exist within the psychic realms, I have witnessed many healings and successful conflict resolutions in just one or two sessions.

The metaphysical aspects of abortion and the questions which surround the ensoulement dilemma are inextricably linked. In a society more capable of understanding the Spirit/Matter relationship, we would enter into loving dialogue with the inherently wise intelligence of our body’s cells, including the ovaries, ova, and sperm. Women would encourage their bodies either to conceive or to abstain from conception, with the introduction of sperm. Men would “steer” their sperm to penetrate or refrain from penetrating the ovum. In an ideal state of mind-body relatedness, a woman would “program” her uterus to prepare for implantation, if desired, or to miscarry an unwanted pregnancy.

While our society is far from such a broad state of sophisticated psycho-spiritual-biological performance, strides are being made in that direction. I worked with three women in their ninth months of pregnancy who were anxious about the prospects of Caesarian deliveries. They had little hope of a natural birth, as their fetuses were in tight breech positions. Each “requested” to the Spirit of the unborn that they turn the fetus around. Within three days of each of these inner dialogues each fetus turned around, to the doctors’ amazement, thus facilitating a healthy vaginal delivery.

In four other cases, during first trimesters of unwanted pregnancies, within three days of each woman’s having an inner dialogue with their own Spirit and that of the unborn child, a natural (“mentally induced”) miscarriage occurred without medical intervention or complications.

It is as conceivable that a soul might attach itself to its mother-to-be, or family-to-be, prior to birth, as it is that a soul might remain attached to those loved ones with whom s/he lived while in the flesh, once beyond the grave. Reports of Earth-bound souls or out-of-body Spirits hovering over those they care for are numerous. In my personal life, I experienced strong dream-like, or psychically sensed, awareness of two specific souls who were drawn to me to eventually become my two sons, years before either pregnancy. In both cases, I was deeply impressed by the exact character traits that proved to be those of my two very different sons. Several of my clients have shared similar experiences.

Less happily, a number of women, after undergoing an abortion, experience “visitations” from the unborn baby’s soul, receiving disturbing pleas or communications during sleep or at other times. These inner plane communications to a woman may continue for years subsequent to an abortion. Such instances are not fabricated for purposes of getting attention but are profoundly upsetting to these women. Whether one labels these occurrences as simply a woman’s guilty conscience haunting her, or an actual Spirit attached to her, is insignificant. What matters is that women who do choose abortion often need spiritual counseling as well as psychological and medical, to enable them to move forward in their lives, and to set both parties (or all parties, including the biological father) free.

Conversely, there are times when “not a soul’s there.” I have witnessed, through work with guided past-life regression, an instance where an individual was killed in a war in a prior incarnation, only to reincarnate a mere three weeks after leaving the previous body! This leads me to conclude that pregnant women may carry the fetal organism for an undetermined period of time right up to the moment of birth before a specific soul attaches to the fetus, mother and family.

Can a mother-to-be invoke the Spirit of a specific soul to be born through her? While this thought may seem astray of the subject of abortion, it is relevant to the discussion of the ensoulement dilemma and the question of whether or not a pregnant woman has authority over, and/or responsibility – if not obligation – to the incarnating soul. This question literally haunted two women who painfully came to terms with an answer that was right for them at the time. I will call them Teresa and Iris (not their real names).

Teresa and Iris became close friends during their young parenting years and had developed an uncanny psychic bond. Iris commonly found herself having prophetic dreams about Teresa, and Teresa seemed easily able to offer Iris helpful insights to whatever emotional or spiritual problems Iris developed. Using an Awareness Technique, (Swygard, 1975) they had even “seen” that they had known each other in a past lifetime, wherein the soul of then-Iris was mother to the soul of then-Teresa, who had been prematurely taken away from Iris as a child, and eventually left destitute as a pathetic street urchin. The recollection of this past-life imagery stirred profound feelings that resonated a great deal with their current life situation and patterns, in terms of issues of dependency, self-care, and independence.

As it happened, Teresa became deathly ill, to the shock of everyone who knew her, as she had always appeared to be quite robust. At the same time, Iris was in the last trimester of a pregnancy. The temptation was too great for Iris, who began praying that her dear friend would pass out of her current body in time to be reborn through her – Iris – as her mother, hoping for a second chance to rectify the injustice they suffered in their previous life.

In the midst of a delirium brought on by a high fever, Teresa “saw” her pregnant friend Iris holding a life-draining death-and-rebirth wish over her. Summoning whatever psychic reserves she could, Teresa managed to shield herself psychically from her friend’s “prayers.” Teresa did recover from her illness, after weeks of bed rest. When she felt strong enough, she talked with Iris about what had happened. Iris admitted to the wish, and together they worked to resolve and heal the old pain, guilt, and anguish of the separation they had known. Iris gave birth to a healthy baby, whose soul she had also seen during a past-life regression session. This soul had many purposes in choosing Iris as a mother, which Iris understood. This story illustrates the point that we do participate in the ensoulement process, whereby we connect with those souls whose destinies are linked with ours. However, few of us do so with any degree of conscious intent or purpose, let alone wisdom!

Could love be the bond that unties? One case involves what I refer to as an unviable family. A woman who had mothered two children by a first marriage had divorced and was in a second, also unhappy marriage. The couple had reached a crisis stage in the relationship, where a separation, and ultimately divorce, was inevitable. Finding herself pregnant was a situation that became a lead weight to her morale until she decided to abort. In a subsequent guided meditation session, she saw that the soul who might have entered into this splitting-up family truly appreciated being released from the commitment, since the once-potential family unit was no longer a viable one. Her abortion was seen on a soul plane as a gift of grace and mercy. This message of appreciation brought enormous peace of mind to my client, who was then able to achieve a fulfilling and productive life. She eventually found happiness in a more nurturing marital relationship. The third marriage was “charmed” although childless. Curiously, my client’s offspring are now grown and at parenting ages themselves. One is married and may very likely bring through the same soul who was released by my client earlier, in order to reconnect with her, as a beloved grandchild, in a more viable family unit.

Sometimes, invisible, deeply unconscious, family dynamics are at work in abortion cases, and can only be uncovered through a guided regression session. One woman saw during a past-life regression that she had been abandoned during pregnancy by her immature, irresponsible lover. She raised the baby without him. The anger and resentment felt by the mother and child toward him carried over to the present lifetime. Upon the lovers’ reunion this time around, the couple “accidentally” conceived again. Despite protests from the man that he wanted to marry her and raise their child together, the woman aborted the fetus, not trusting his reliability. Eventually they did marry and later gave birth to a child who both felt was the same soul connected with them earlier once his love and commitment had passed their test and was found to be steadfast and true.

Hard as it may be to imagine, some instances of abortion may actually represent an opportunity for soul growth and evolution, rather than its prevention. For some (certainly not all!) souls, abortion serves a spiritual purpose that eludes overt perception and is unrelated to the woman’s reasons for terminating pregnancy. Years of therapeutic work with women and men who have regressed into past lives and have followed their soul’s journey as they evolved toward their current life circumstances indicate that a significant amount of choice takes place on inner levels prior to each incarnation. Factors that weigh into the soul’s choices are culled from the “balance sheet” of prior lives, guiding each soul into whatever life situation most enhances his or her soul evolution (which does not relieve the “receiving” family from their responsibilities to do their best on behalf of the entering soul!)

In cases where an individual committed brutal, often impersonal acts of terrible violence in a prior life, (e.g., Vietnam, the Holocaust, etc.) a spiritual “remorse” prompts a search for some form of “retribution” or compensation by the soul to “balance the karma,” to purge the psyche of the weight of guilt carried over. During regressions, I have found that many souls, so burdened by memories of senselessly killing others in a prior lifetime, feel unworthy of having a “fresh start” in a healthy body. In such cases, souls may purposely attach themselves on the inner levels to a woman who rejects her pregnancy through abortion. Through the experience of identifying with the body of a fetus destined for abortion, the soul so burdened then feels “purged” and once again worthy of claiming a new body and returning to Earth life, incarnating successfully through the same or another mother when the time is right. I want to add a comment here to clarify my point of view about this idea of souls in need of a “purgative” experience. It is not my personal judgment that anyone need suffer in order to grow and evolve, nor at any point during these sessions did a client feel unloved by “God.” It was their self-judgment alone that condemned them to suffer.

Perhaps the best expression of a Pro-Love position comes from the words of a woman who wrote to me shortly after learning about my “inner plane” work with women who had abortions:

I remember a time when I could not obtain birth control because I was unmarried. I remember the doctor arranging an illegal abortion for me, because he assumed that being young, unmarried and poor, I would want one. Choice? Well, I knew in my soul he was wrong. With every fiber of my being I wanted this baby. I knew the situation seemed hopeless. I named her Melissa Jude. St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases. As you know, it is not possible for those who have not experienced “motherhood” to understand what it means to give life to another soul. It is frightening to have that sole responsibility, and thus comes my belief that the decision to give birth comes not only from the soul of the mother, but from the in-dependent soul of the child. I am reminded of a discussion I had with each of my pregnancies, a discussion without words, with the soul. In this discussion without words lies the answer. I hope for a day when a young couple can receive the compassion and humane understanding, that will enable the discussion without words to choose its course, unimpeded by hatred, anger, fear or pride.

Finally, a short but moving story from “out of the mouths of babes.” It stems from a conversation I had with a woman who shared this story about her own young child’s soul awareness. The child, pained at seeing the mother unhappy in her marriage, smiled and said, “You know, Mommy, I would have been born to you no matter who you married!”

 

References

Bonavoglia, A. The Choices We Made. NY: Random House, 1991.

Braun, E. A. and Gaudio, L. Living With Your Choice. NY: PureLight, Inc., 1990.

Charlton, H. Saints Alive. NY: Golden Quest, 1989.

Druyan, A. and Sagan, C. “Is It Possible To Be Pro-Life And Pro-Choice?”. Boston: Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, April 22, 1990.

Gilligan, C. In A Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Shapiro, A. “Pluto: Transformation and Rebirth”. NY: Horoscope Magazine, November, 1990.

Smith, A. R. “Abortion: Let The Baby Decide,” an interview with McGarey, Dr. Gladys, VA: Venture Inward Magazine, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., Jan/Feb, 1990.

Swygard, W. Awareness Techniques. Stowe, MA: Awareness Techniques Center, 1975.

 

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