By Michelle A. McLemore, CHTP, Rev.
In my early homemaking years my landscaping budget was meager; thus, I gravitated toward hot sun perennials. The faith that what I watered and loved would survive the bite of Michigan winters and the blistering dog days of August gave me something to look forward to…no matter how the rest of life was going. It was an investment I felt good about. It also implied the plants were hardy—full of grit. Respectable. With the return of spring, the norms we come to expect of each season provide a pattern for our physical lives. It is a similar cycle of continuity that nourishes hope for our spiritual existence as well.
Early civilizations created stories to explain these cycles. A Mesopotamian/Akkadian story (dating back to 2000-1500 BCE) tells of Tammuz, the spring God, and beloved of Ishtar, the goddess of love, fertility, and war. When Tammuz died, Ishtar went to the shadow realm to try to rescue him. With the grace of Allatu (goddess of underworld), the couple was allowed to return and bring back life and vegetation annually for part of the year. This resurrection explanation for the seasons became the template for many cultures. Greeks, Mayans, and most others told similar stories.
Resurrection of the characters in each of these stories allowed them to live again—even after having been in the land of the dead for some time. Despite the physical return allowed only for a few months each year, there was an acceptance that someone could be brought back from beyond to teach, demonstrate, love, produce, bless the living, and so on.
At the simplest level, resurrection is understood as coming back to life after death. At the simplest level, reincarnation is understood as coming back to life after death but in a different body or form. Both resurrection and reincarnation provide a path to purpose and enduring existence of soul consciousness.
RESURRECTION
Most monotheistic religions focus on a linear transition of the soul after death—the resurrection of spirit (and/or body) at the end of specific time on Earth to some other spiritual place of existence (heaven, purgatory, or hell). Other religions, spiritual philosophies, and channeled Beings focus on a soul elevating to the beyond with choice/responsibility to return to Earth or go elsewhere—including other planets or dimensions. Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, and teachers like Dolores Cannon, Karen Curry Parker, Lee Harris and the Zzzs, and Darryl Anka and Bashar (the higher being he channels) teach about each soul choosing their own responsibilities and roles before incarnating, as well as when re-incarnating for the sake of continuous education and refinement.
In many stories, resurrections were not limited to benefiting the earth for physical food and warmth, but for physical continuation and demonstration of truths and power. In the Hindu tradition, a princess named Savitri traveled to the entrance to the underworld to secure the return of her husband Satyavan. Through wise negotiating with the God Yamraj, the husband was returned intact to fulfill Savitri’s request for many children from her one and only love. The Greeks have similar retrieval stories of mortals released, or nearly so, from Hades as a type of resurrection.
For New Testament believers, there are three occurrences detailed in the books recorded circa 45-95 CE. In John Chapter 11, Lazareth falls ill and dies. He is cold four days when Jesus/Yeshua/Yehoshua/Joshua arrives at the tomb and commands, “Lazareth, come out.” This occurs after a brief dialogue with Lazareth’s sister Martha in which they review the belief that all followers will be spiritually resurrected in a different manner “at the last day” for an eternal life.
A second countering of physical death is in Acts 9:40. The apostle Peter brought a disciple named Tabitha back to life by praying on his knees and commanding her by name: “Tabitha, get up.”
The third—the biggie—is when Jesus returns to talking and walking on the third day after his death. Mary Magdalene eventually recognizes him standing in the tomb. Interestingly, when she attempts to embrace him, he cautions, “Don’t cling to me for I haven’t yet ascended to the father.” This mysterious verse is extremely important as Jesus’ resurrection is markedly different. He does not have the density he did prior to crucifixion. Over the next 40 days, he could choose to be of matter (and eat broiled fish and honeycomb as is mentioned in Luke 24:42-43), but also become non-matter which allowed him to bypass locked doors and travel great distances without walking, simply appearing on the road to Emmaus, to the disciples huddled in hiding, and later to 500 disciples according to First Corinthians 15:3-8.
This combination of physical and etheric resurrection is different than what occurred for Lazarus and Tabitha. Yet, it has some similarities to a story from the East. A Chinese diplomat named Songyun passed the elderly Bodhidharma walking in the opposite direction wearing only one shoe. In conversation, Bodhidharma said he was walking home from China to India. Regarding the missing shoe, Songyun was told to inquire with the monks in Shaolin. Upon arrival there, Songyun did inquire and was thrown in jail for lying about having seen Bodhidharma who had died years earlier. Because of the diplomat’s insistence, the monks opened the tomb and found Bodhidharma’s body was not there…only one shoe. Bilocation, or the appearance of someone in two different places is something, but a corpse reanimating and passing through stone walls like Jesus and Bodhidharma is another state entirely.
Some resurrection stories do tell of etheric-matter combo reconstitutions. Religious scholars, however, have disagreed for centuries on if what Jesus experienced is what the Apostle Paul describes for all followers in First Corinthians, Chapter 15:
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Will the physical bodies suddenly emerge from the graves and be healed—transported at their full weight into a spiritual realm, or will it be the spirit/body combo, able to maintain its semblance but be of light, energy, and something different to traverse gravity and dimension?
In Orthodox Judaism, physical and spiritual resurrection is also a core concept. The Shmona Esrei prayer is recited three times a day. God is referenced as the Mechayeh Meitim meaning the One who revives the dead. The Talmud (compiled between 200-400 CE) teaches Techiyat HaMeitim (revival of the dead)—in tractate Sanhedrin 90a-91a, Ketubot 111b, and Pesachim 68a. It is the belief that the righteous will be resurrected to a perfected world, giving hope to seeing dearly departed again in the “world to come.” It is the 13th Principle of Faith as codified by Maimonides. The soul cycle here similarly references an origin, a seeding, development, and a return beyond.
The school of Eliyahu taught, “The righteous whom the Holy One, Blessed be He, is destined to resurrect do not return to their dust as it is stated: ‘And it shall come to pass, that he who remains in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called Holy, anyone who is written unto life in Jerusalem.’” Isaiah 4:3 (of the Talmud/Old Testament compiled between 1000-100 BCE) also notes, “Just as the Holy One exists forever, so too will they exist forever.”
Ezekiel Chapter 37 tells of God transporting Ezekiel to the midst of bones in a valley. God commanded him to prophesize to the bones: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” The story proceeds as is foreshadowed.
Then Ezekiel is commanded to prophesize to the people of Israel with the same message in verses 11-14.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”
A literal interpretation suggests that in resurrecting the deceased, their bodies will be transformed through healing and rebuilding such as Ezekiel witnessed with the dry bones. The resurrected bodies will be infused for reanimation with God’s breath/spirit and they will live again in their “own land.” Still, just as Christians have “gray areas,” the Pharisees of the first century accepted the literal resurrection of the physical body while Sadducees denied it.
And what of the Nation of Islam from the same area? Muslims similarly believe in resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyamah). The Quran, meaning “the recitation,” (recorded 610-632 CE) includes specific verses saying that on the Day of Judgement, the physical body and soul will be reunited for accounting. Surah 36:12 states: “Verily We shall give life to the dead, and We record that which they send before and that which they leave behind, and of all things have We taken account in a clear Book (of evidence).” Surah 75: 3-4 details that reconstruction of bones and body will be complete and detailed even to “the tips of his fingers.”
Yet, is that the original body? In the Twelver Tradition of Shia Muslims, there is an interpretation that the resurrected will have “refined” bodies capable of withstanding the afterlife. This suggests, like some Christian and some Jewish interpretations, that there is a spiritual or energetic tweaking of one’s former vessel. Philosopher Ibn Sina suggests resurrection is a soul matter with a type of “Mitāli” (imaginal) body, not strictly material. Meanwhile, the mainstream Sunni Muslim view aligns with literal Christan and Jewish interpretations that the former decaying/decayed/dust body is reunited with the soul.
Other cultures’ stories tell of resurrections with different physical transformations. In Egyptian mythology (2400-2300 BCE), Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Set. Isis, the dedicated wife of Osiris, found all the limbs, reassembled, and thus revived Osiris. She established the procedure for mummification and how to prepare a body for eternal life. From then on, Osiris was known as God of the afterlife and resurrection.
For the Aztecs, a story dating between 900-1200 CE tells of the god Quetzalcoatl tricked by his jealous brother Tzcatlipoca into believing he had dishonored his priestly vows. Quetzalcoatl burned himself on a funeral pyre. Yet, because of his purification and selfless dedication, his heart rose into the sky becoming the morning star Venus, God of knowledge, the dawn, and light.
The state—or body—for eternal existence seems the main point of contrast in resurrection beliefs.
REINCARNATION
Belief in life after death is the first step. Resurrection to a judgement period is the next. Yet, believers in reincarnation see this juncture differently: life review after death is used for evaluating if a reincarnation state is needed and what the form or journey will be, rather than an external judge doling out eternal punishment or reward. Still, in both, there is a review and weighing of actions and the effects.
The birth, development, death, review, rebirth cycle is known as “samsara” and its origins point to India. Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Sikhism believe the cycle is driven by karma which is influenced by actions and violence (ahimsa) against others. The purpose is the refinement of one soul (jiva/atman) over lifetimes. The soul may reincarnate as plants, animals, humans, or even divine beings.
When one addresses all karmic responsibility, is no longer captive to worldly desires, and achieves wisdom of oneness of all, the reincarnation cycle is broken. The soul moves beyond suffering. In Buddhism, after death of the enlightened Buddha, this release occurs by the body and mind dissolving forever (Parinirvana). In Hinduism, when the reincarnation cycle is moved beyond, the soul unites with Brahman or Sat-Chit-Ananda—pure Being, consciousness, and bliss; the ultimate primordial reality which creates and sustains; the formless basis of all.
For Hindus, The Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Blessed One) clearly addresses the process in Chapter two. (The text dates to between 400 BCE and 400 CE.) The concept is also described in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (Great Wilderness Teachings) dating approximately to 700-500 BCE.
BG 2.13: «As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”
BG 2.27: «For one who has taken birth, death is certain, and for one who has died, birth is certain. Therefore, you should not grieve over the inevitable.”
BU 4:4:5: “As one’s desire is, so is one’s will. As the will is, so the deed. As the deed is, so the destiny.”
Living additional lives of suffering or reward based on the obsessions and choices of one’s prior life parallels the idea of hell or purgatory, punishment or refinement, found in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. However, belief in reincarnation does also appear in Judaism via the mystic study, Kabbalah.
In the Kabbalist concept of Gilgul Neshamot (cycle of souls/reincarnation) after dying, souls reincarnate in the physical world for missions providing a path to second (or more) chances to improve and help the greater good. Past mistakes may be fixed, missed commandments (mitzvot) practiced, scattered divine sparks released, or the perfection of the world assisted.
Rabbi Isaac Luria, also known as Ari, and his disciple Rabbi Chaim Vital teach the reintegration process as a focused, purposeful directive with collective divinity or perfection (Tikkun) as the ultimate aim. Mystic Isaac Luria in the 1500s CE, taught that the soul cycle process is a collective ongoing process in which different generations of souls continue the work of their predecessors—social activism and repairing inequalities in the world is part of that.
Circa 200 CE, the Mishnah (first compilation of Jewish oral traditions) suggests the cycle. It focused on legal measures like divorce law or business but evolved to any practice or actions that prevent social injustice and improve society overall. Chesed (helping the needy through loving-kindness), tzedakah (charity for those in need), and tzedek (justice for systemic change to create fairness) are all part of the expectations for the returning soul.
Interestingly, the “how” reincarnation occurs within the Kabbalistic view, teaches a soul may incarnate into people, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects. Also, a “new soul” can be accompanied and mentored by a previous soul to assist its spiritual journey.
Taoism was heavily influenced by Buddhism over the years and thus many followers also believe in reincarnation with some subtle differences in the how and why. Tao is “The Way” or “The Path”—the interface of all energy (Qi) and consciousness (Shen). The philosophy agrees with the Law of Conservation of Energy which says energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed from one state to another. Thus, in one’s physical death, energy must be continued, dispersed, or reshaped. The spirit (shen) and energy (qi) transform, either returning to the universe or re-manifesting based on previous life’s actions and accumulated energy. Life attachments may cause heavy energy which causes the lower soul (po) to return to earth reborn while the higher soul (hun) ascends to heaven. (A higher soul and lower incarnated soul is also a part of esoteric Christianity, metaphysical spiritualism, and some perspectives of Gnosticism and Kabbalism.) It is a natural cycle of life, death, and transformation.
With an understanding of metaphysics and energy dynamics, Taoism also explores multi-dimensionality. Lao Tzu is recorded in some texts as having appeared in different eras.
The discernment of life after death filtered into most branches of study. Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras of Samos (c.570-c.490 BCE) taught metempsychosis—the soul’s eternal transmigration/reincarnation.
Pythagoras founded a secret, arduous, religious order in the Greek city of Kroton which inducted both males and females. Followers’ beliefs were partially due to Pythagoras’ own strong memories (anamnesis) of prior incarnations as Aethalides, Euphorbus (a warrior), Hermotimus, and Pyrrhus (a fisherman) along with lives as animals and plants. According to Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius, once Pythagoras encountered a man beating a puppy. He had to intervene because he recognized the voice of a deceased friend in the puppy’s cries.
Plato would go on to expand Pythagoras’ ideas, clarifying that in reincarnation “deeds unrighteous” can be paid for which then allows someone to break out of the cycle and advance. In the 12 volumes of Laws, Plato delineates the beliefs of The Soul’s Migration (904BCE). He notes, souls are self-moving and given choice, are reshaped, and resettled in different parts of the cosmos based on their prior life’s decisions. Similar to karma, if they did good, they received an improved situation. If they did poorly, they were downgraded to humbly, try again.
The Brotherhood of Pythagoreanism was built on one man’s reincarnation memories and enthusiasm. There were probably many skeptics. Even today, adults who talk about having former life impressions are often doubted. However, the number of children who recall past lives are more difficult to dismiss.
Psychiatrists, spiritualists, and university departments are a few of many groups studying youths who claim past life memories. The phenomenon suggests consciousness isn’t limited to a physical vessel. The children often recall their former names, parents, homes, geographic locations, and traumatic deaths. Sometimes it is a random photo that suddenly triggers recall and sharing. In the case of Pythagoras, he recognized the shield he had used as a soldier. Its authenticity was later verified.
University of Virginia’s Ian Stevenson, psychiatrist, recorded thousands of children’s past life experiences with verified specific details. Building upon Stevenson’s work, Jim B. Tucker explored reports and interviewed families to verify or discount the stories in a book called Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children who Remember Past Lives.
The Case of James Leininger from the U.S. was one case study. At age two, the boy woke up screaming about an airplane crash on fire. This, and later details including the specific type of plane, another crash into the water that he could not get out of, and locations during war conflicts, all aligned with details from World War II and potentially his prior life as a pilot.
Ryan Hammons, of the U.S., was five when he began describing a prior life as a Hollywood agent to his mother. He recalled specifics about five former wives and dancing on Broadway. Research confirmed the details were connected to a Hollywood actor who died in 1964.
Another case involved Cameron Macaulay from Scotland. Starting at roughly two and a half years old, the boy insisted he wanted to return to his “other” family on a small island in Barra. He recalled the family name of Robertson and their home in detail—all verified.
Author Sara Yoheved Rigler gathered a different type of reincarnation memoir. In I’ve Been Here Before, young children born after 1945 experienced phobias, dreams, panic attacks, and terror-laden flashbacks of Holocaust-specific episodes they had no prior knowledge of nor exposure to.
In some prior life memory cases there have been birthmarks on the body correlating to prior injuries or death circumstances verified through research. Sylvia Browne, U.S. psychic, outlined this pattern in her book, Past Lives, Future Healing. She suggests that trauma can leave a physical mark on the body in the next lifetime. A birthmark or scar may indicate the spot of the fatal wound. The darker the mark the more recent the unhealed trauma. Examining one’s own scars or birthmarks as potentially housing prior life trauma could help heal current unexplained anxieties and phobias linked in the energetic body and soul.
Listening to children’s “memories” and preferences is part of Tibet’s long history. The Dali Lama is believed to be one Tibetan Buddhist master who consciously chooses reincarnation over multiple lifetimes. The current (14th) Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, continues a soul renewal cycle covering 600 years. He has also stated he will reincarnate to continue his work, possibly being born outside Tibet if in exile.
Senior monks and important officials search for signs in children born after the death of a Dalai Lama passes. It may be days or years before the next Dalai Lama is found and proven to be the reincarnated soul though recognition of previous belongings or knowledge. The 14th Dalai Lama correctly chose the drum and walking stick of the 13th Dalai Lama from among distractors. He was found at age two, four years after the former Dalai Lama had passed.
LIVING AND THE 5D EARTH
Our 24-hour cycle of rise, live, reflect, and sleep is part of the four seasons with rotating constellation views and shared “seasons” of life: birth, bloom, nurture, rest. The soul’s education parallels these in its origin. For now, we may question, how are we living? Are we living our purpose?
Psychologist Abraham Maslow created a model showing human progression of needs and development. His final revision outlines the individual’s soul’s possible elevation while still here on Earth. Safety, Love and Belonging, Self-esteem, Cognitive Growth, Aesthetic Appreciation, and Self Actualization all support the pinnacle of Self-Transcendence where altruism and spiritual fulfillment expand. Whereas self-actualization is the bringing to fruition individual potential by using one’s talents, achieving personal goals, and perfecting the self, self-transcendence is recognizing the self as part of the All—where meeting the needs of the many meets the needs of the self as well. Serving others, or a higher-than-ego calling, aligns all aspects of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual body/spirit needs. It is soul living, rather than body living.
The metaphysical community has been talking about the current shift occurring between 3D living and 5D existence. It is described as the splitting of the old system into two views. The 3D is for those who remain in the frequency of fear, self-protection and competition, separation, selfishness, and linear time states like past regret/blame or future anxiety. The 5D frequency is of harmony, unity and collaboration, solution-finding, unconditional love, fluid time reality and intuitive manifestation. With higher frequency emotions and intentions, the physical density of the body “matters” less and the light body predominantly influences the life state. Higher vibrational living attracts the like and repels the lower.
Early on, people speculated if raising the earth’s frequency, hitting critical mass of light workers and peacemakers would cause a type of rhapsody or parallel earth dimension during this consciousness evolution. The Schumann resonance has amplified. Solar activity has made historic records: 1 x-class solar flare in 2019 grew to 54 in 2024. Scientists have discovered light emissions within human cells while other studies have observed biophoton emissions within the brain. As the transition continues, it appears, at least for now, that the perishable body may not transition into an imperishable light body right away. Like everything, it is a process—a cycle of many small beginnings, choices, endings, and restarts. Still, in this present life, we have choice of how to live each next moment. Whatever we choose to think, say, or do, it will certainly create ripples across others, time, space, and our soul evolution.
Aequam servare mentem.
Michelle McLemore is a freelance writer, speaker, and energy practitioner. Her background as a psychology and writing teacher supports personalizing client self-care to create balance, vitality, and creative manifestations. Learn more at michellemclemore.com, facebook.com/MichelleMcLemoreHealingGuide, and mclemore.substack.com. Email questions or inquiries to energy@michellemclemore.com.
Read Related Articles:
At the simplest level, resurrection is understood as coming back to life after death. At the simplest level, reincarnation is understood as coming back to life after death but in a different body or form. Both resurrection and reincarnation provide a path to purpose and enduring existence of soul consciousness.