There is a popular philosophy among people who explore spirituality which is often discussed by Sylvia Brown and which appears in her written work that describes a spiritual contract we enter into when we begin our various incarnations. In that contract we agree to accept and experience everything which will happen to us in our lives.
This concept of a spiritual contract gets very complex because in one sense it suggests that all the events of our lives are pre-ordained. But a belief in predestination can sometimes be a crippling thing if we choose to disown our responsibility to make choices in our life based on a belief that everything is pre-ordained and therefore we are powerless to change anything.
The concept of fate or predestination seems to fly in the face of the concept of free will. How can we have both? Our free will is a fundamental belief regarding our existence, a tenet so vital and empowering that it seems impossible to reconcile it with the concept of destiny.
Without free will there would be no purpose for our lives, and while many people may feel that it is true that our lives have no purpose, the majority of people believe their lives do have a purpose even if they are uncertain about what their own specific purpose in life may be. So if we do have free will and our lives are purposeful, what happens to the concept of fate?
The concept of fate, destiny or predestination is predicated upon an immature understanding about the nature of reality. Our understanding of space-time and the universe we live in has evolved over time and it is important to understand that this understanding is still evolving. Time only appears to be a linear track moving from the past to the future. That appearance is a limitation of our perceptual and cognitive skills. As our understanding of reality matures we may begin to understand some of the deeper aspects of space-time and we may discover that our universe is not alone and that our universe actually exists as a member of an infinite set of universes described as parallel universes or alternate realities.
If we think of fate as the result of what has happened to us in the past, rather than as a pre-ordained condition that our lives will inevitably meet, then we may see that in an infinite number of alternate universes we have an infinite number of fates, all different from one another to some greater or lesser degree. The concept of a contract which details the events of our lives in each incarnation then seems unlikely because it would have to include an infinite set of events to encompass every possible outcome of our lives.
This does not mean that there is no contract; instead it suggests that the contract we make must be vastly simpler to encompass such enormous complexity. The contract remains the same as it was initially stated; we agree to accept and experience everything which will happen to us in our lives. Only the context in which we consider this contract has changed; we are no longer agreeing to any specific things which may happen in any given instance of one of our many lives, we are instead agreeing to accept and experience everything no matter what those experiences may be.
We can agree to this without qualms because that part of us which makes this agreement is eternal and can never be harmed. So we know that regardless of what happens in our various incarnations we will always exist in an inviolable state beyond reach of any harm that may befall us in any of our lives. Ultimately no harm can ever come to us and all of the actors, regardless of their roles in the dramas of each of our lives, are our friends and family in the larger sense of the spiritual world from which our incarnations are initiated.
Murder, maiming and rape are some extreme examples of the types of experiences which might be considered harmful to those who are considered the victims, however, these only do harm in a limited sense. The bodies and spirits we have in each incarnation are just a tiny infinitesimal part of our entire infinite being in the context of our lives in the spirit world. These terrible things only appear to be harmful in the limited context of this world and these different forms of harm appear to serve a purpose to provide a life lesson or balance our karma.
It is important to remember that the universe is infinite in scope and we ourselves reflect this infinite nature for we are, in each of our incarnations, also infinite. For every situation in which we find ourselves in conflict two or more resolutions occur so that each party in a conflict gets whatever they may need or want. The universe accommodates the resolutions of our conflicts by cloning itself; in one universe we get our way while in another universe the party we are in conflict with gets their way, in this manner no matter how many different ways a conflict may be resolved, all of the possible resolutions are realized, each in its own alternate reality or parallel universe. Pretty nifty eh?
Thanks to the infinite nature of reality all of the people who died in 911 are still carrying on their lives in alternate universes and are still living with their families and friends. Only an infinitesimal part of themselves accepted the role of a ‘victim’ and died in that event in this universe. It may seem hard on the families and friends of those who died here, but that is only true in the limited context of this universe. In alternate worlds they still have there loved one with them and their lives go on unmarred by the tragedy we have experienced in this world. The friends and family, like the ‘victims’ have agreed to accept and experience this tragedy, and they have agreed to it because in the context of their spiritual lives they know it is only a small thing of no consequence to themselves in the greater scheme of things. They have experienced this tragedy in one aspect of one incarnation, but with infinite aspects to each incarnation they continue to experience their lives in different contexts where the tragedy did not impact them personally and may even never have occurred at all.
Ultimately, no one is really a victim in the sense that everyone has agreed to accept all the experiences of their lives whatever those experiences may be. Legally in the laws limited to this world certain classes of felonies relate to particular classes of victims and many people choose to see themselves as victims of their circumstances rather than take responsibility for their situations to address whatever is wrong and to fix it. We may choose to see these people as victims in the context of this world but their spirits, like our own spirits are the architects of all of their experiences.
And herein is the crux of the matter as related to what we experience in this world. We are indeed the creators of all of our experiences. Nothing happens to us except those events which we ourselves cause or allow to be caused in our lives. We are in control of all of the events in our life and we may choose what we wish experience. So a person who has experienced something we may consider to be terrible has chosen that experience and brought it upon themselves. They may not be consciously aware of having made such a choice; their choice may have been a non-conscious choice made in a subconscious, unconscious or superconscious part of their minds. Quantum physics has demonstrated our minds have a direct influence upon the quantum events which are the bedrock foundation of our physical world. We are in control of all of our experiences and it behooves us to learn how to consciously direct the worldly manifestations of our desires free of any inner conflicts.
A person bemired by inner conflict is incapable of manifesting a satisfactory world for themselves. The consequences of this are that they will have many unsatisfactory, unpleasant or harmful experiences as their inner conflict warps their will in ways that fail to serve them as well as they might be served if their will were not interfered with by their inner turmoil. The only good thing that may come of these experiences is that each unsatisfactory experience, if reflected upon, can be linked back to some part inside of us where there is a conflict. By tracing back the cause and effect relationship between our inner turmoil and that turmoil’s outer manifestations in the world we can learn where within ourselves we need to heal in order to grow happier and healthier and manifest a world that is full of experiences in harmony with our best hopes and expectations.
By clearing ourselves of inner turmoil and establishing peace within our hearts and minds we become the conscious and conscientious masters of everything we experience.
It is up to us to learn this for ourselves. Many people may point the way for us but we are the only ones who can set forth upon our private spiritual journeys of self discovery and self empowerment, no one else can take our steps for us.
Until then, if we perceive ourselves as victims it behooves us to remember that we are the only ones who can victimize ourselves and that it is our own ignorance and failure to learn our life lessons which cause us to feel victimized. Ultimately, there are no victims.