Jan Engels-Smith promotes self-healing, empowerment, better communities, a healthy world and conducts workshops in shamanism & journeying. Her book, Becoming Yourself is at http://www.LightSong.net . Jan's a Licensed Counselor. She's done over 2,000 soul retrievals. She is the founder of LightSong School of Shamanic Studies, a Chemical Dependency Specialist, and Marriage Therapist. She is a water-pourer for sweat lodge, a minister, a Reiki Master.
Choice
Choice, or free will, refers to how you choose to relate to your life's conditions. You can always choose your reaction to any given circumstance, which means that variables can change instantaneously with each choice. Your choices have direct impact on both your physical life and on the growth of your soul.
Each lifetime will grant you a different perspective and facilitate new awareness. Each will provide physical experience for the soul. You may spend several lifetimes experiencing the hardships of life without any inclination to seek God or enlightenment; however, there will come a time when the soul asks you to wake up, to pay attention, and to look at the big picture of life. Questions like, "What is the purpose of life?" "Who am I?" and "What is God?" will arise in you. You will begin to search for answers. This may take many lifetimes and numerous answers, each with a variation of experience and exposure. In the end, every soul will reach enlightenment because every soul is a reflection of God.
You may wonder why anybody would choose negative life experiences like sexual molestation, alcoholism, or being born into warring or starving countries; however, each life has a divine plan with necessary experiences for the soul. All life experience adds to personal growth. No life is a waste; there are no mistakes. No lifetime is judged to be better than another because each is a chosen experience toward enlightenment.
A soul might choose to experience prejudice. You may have chosen to be a slave during the 1700's in the United States as one dimension of the experience of prejudice. Since the soul is seeking to know all dimensions, you may then have chosen a lifetime as a slave owner, and then as a Ku Klux Klan member, then a parent who lost a child to the Klan, then a person of interracial marriage, and then a parent of someone who chose to marry interracially. Every conceivable perspective of prejudice could be experienced. The lessons in each of these lifetimes become a part of the unfolding process of the soul.
You may currently be experiencing a lifetime with alcoholismas the parent of an alcoholic, or the child, or the spouse, or the counselor, or as the alcoholic who dies from liver failure, or the alcoholic who survives and becomes reformed. Whatever perspective you are living is part of the divine plan for you to experience and learn from.
Nothing is experienced singly; everything is interwoven with others who constitute your lifetime experience. Once you, as a soul, make the choice to experience a particular concept, other souls help you play out these experiences. They are often referred to as your "spirit family." We tend to experience life on earth with a particular group of souls, changing parts, or scripts, with each lifetime. You will find numerous links and interconnections with your family or circle of friends when you start to explore other lifetimes. It can be fun and healing. Behaviors, attitudes, and trauma can be understood more completely from the deeper historical perspective.
Here is an example: I was told a great true story the other day about a woman who was researching her genealogy. She traced her family line back to the era of the Civil War when her family served as slaves. She reached an impasse in her project, and was directed to a genealogy specialist. She and the specialist became great friends as they explored different aspects of her family's history. They developed a special bond and were both glad their lives had come together. As their investigation continued, they discovered that they shared a common history. The genealogist's ancestral family members were plantation owners during the Civil War, and, in fact, were the plantation owners where this woman's ancestral family served as slaves!
Coincidence you say? Hardly.
Many times, in the process of a soul retrieval, I will journey to a client's past life experience. A healing can be done in this past life reality that will actually affect my client's current lifea phenomenon that underscores that time is relative. The spirits have repeatedly told me that time is not linear but holographic, meaning that all things happen at the same moment but in different realities. This makes shamanic journeying for soul retrievals, or visiting different lifetimes, possible. The person doing the journey travels into that particular time dimension. The ability to cross into other dimensions means we can relive or view a past event and find healing in what we thought no longer existed. We can remember a future before it is present.
- Related Articles
- Related Q&A
- Soul Retrieval
- Soul Retrieval - Traditional Ways to Restore our Life Force
- Shamanic Healing and Soul Retrieval - Part 5
- Shamanic Healing and Soul Retrieval - Part 4
- Shamanic Healing and Soul Retrieval - Two Year Practitioner Training
- Shamanic Healing and Soul Retrieval - Part 1
- Shamanic Healing and Soul Retrieval
- Shamanic Healing and Soul Retrieval - Part 2




Improve Your Social Skills With These 3 Top Tips
By: Bruce Dillon | 31/12/2009Your social skills can sometimes let you down when you most want to appear suave and sophisticated..or at least not a bumbling fool. These 3 simple tips will help you improve your social skills within days..and if you are not winning friends and influencing people, at least you won't be making a mess of things.
"Figuring It Out" Formula For Failure
By: TB Wright | 31/12/2009When we try to "figure out" what cannot be figured out, we waste our energy doing what cannot be done. How can we realign our energy toward our success? Find out how!
Is my ex over me should i just move on
By: maria | 31/12/2009I've found that a lot of individuals, breakups are the worst of all nightmares. You normally you can not sleep, eat, rest and relax because every time you think about something, it triggers memories of your past lover. To get over your ex is never easy for many individuals. It takes decision and willpower to overcome your emotions and live through it each day. If you require to know how to get over an ex, then this information will for sure service you to stress on moving on with your life.
Why the Power in Positive Thinking is Not Enough to Power Your Dreams
By: Laurie J. Brenner | 31/12/2009There is no power in positive thinking alone, not even when you support it with positive affirmations
5 Steps to Take Back Your Personal Power, Reclaim Your Life, and Start the New Year Right!
By: Laurie J. Brenner | 31/12/2009Follow these five easy steps, take back your personal power and start the new year right!
How to get over my ex boyfriend
By: maria | 31/12/2009For many individuals, breakups are the worst of all nightmares. Usually you can not catch some Z's, eat, rest and relax because every time you think about something, it reminds you of your past lover. To get over your ex is never simple for most individuals. It needs determination and willpower to overpower your emotions and get through it every day. If you want to know how to get over an ex, then this report will surely help you to stress on advancing with your life.
Does Healing With Energy Really Work?
By: Laurie J. Brenner | 31/12/2009Everything is energy, absolutely everything -- so why now heal yourself emotionally, spiritually, physically with that energy?
Universal Laws of Energy and Change - Part 2
By: Jan Engels Smith | 21/04/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the second of two articles on energy and change, discussing intention and action and how energy affects all of these aspects.
Universal Laws of Energy and Change - Part 1
By: Jan Engels Smith | 17/04/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the first of two articles on energy and change, discussing intention and action and how energy affects all of these aspects.
Life Experiences - Choice - Karma - Unconditional Love - Part 5
By: Jan Engels Smith | 16/04/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the fifth and final in a series of articles on the connection between life experiences, choice, karma, and unconditional love.
Life Experiences - Choice - Karma - Unconditional Love - Part 4
By: Jan Engels Smith | 12/02/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the fourth in a series of articles on the connection between life experiences, choice, karma, and unconditional love.
What Does "get Out of the Box" Mean?
By: Jan Engels Smith | 11/02/2008 | Self ImprovementThis article is about methods of getting out of the box, or expanding awareness so that you can make changes in your life.
Life Experiences - Choice - Karma - Unconditional Love - Part 3
By: Jan Engels Smith | 10/02/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the third in a series of articles on the connection between life experiences, choice, karma, and unconditional love.
Life Experiences - Choice - Karma - Unconditional Love - Part 2
By: Jan Engels Smith | 09/02/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the second in a series of articles on the connection between life experiences, choice, karma, and unconditional love.
Life Experiences - Choice - Karma - Unconditional Love - Part 1
By: Jan Engels Smith | 09/02/2008 | Self ImprovementThis is the first in a series of articles on the connection between life experiences, choice, karma, and unconditional love.