Reincarnation is a natural rather than supernatural phenomenon. The proof lies in Nature who teaches us about the life/death/life pattern through her seasonal cycles felt by all creatures. This cyclic nature of the universe is also the feminine, creative energy that flows through all things and is the place where all things are born from and eventually return.

The sole purpose of the human-animal existence is to know the Divine, or God, so that one will recognize him/her/it/unnamable when they die. For those who have not yet established a relationship with the Divine, rebirth occurs in order to provide another opportunity to forge this all-important bond. One will remain on The Wheel of Life until they are able to gain knowledge- gnosis- of God.

The Soul Life and the Divine
In order to establish a relationship with the Divine one must learn how to live from the soul. Because the soul is a numinous, mystical presence, words cannot truly describe or define it. Simply put, the soul is the life energy within ALL creatures that connects us to one another and the Divine. The Divine, then, is the ALL-SOUL who is mother/father/lover/killer/destroyer/friend/enemy - the ALL.

When one is living from the soul, life takes on meaning and events, good and bad, gain purpose. A person becomes aware of his/her surroundings in a different manner. They become awakened to the compassion and suffering of others and open their hearts to risk, chance, opportunity and love. Nature becomes an awe-inspiring teacher and animals become brethren and kindred spirits. Fear takes a back seat to hope, faith and trust. Intuition becomes the mother of logic and one begins to listen to the inner-voice without doubt. Our soul is what lives beyond our physical body and ego. When one lives through the soul, one is communing with the Divine.

The Bardo Planes
According to the Tibetan Buddhists there are seven stages between life and death called the Bardo planes. Because Tibetan Buddhist shaman priests, they visit the other world and allow death to be their teacher. Ancestors have taught them that our spiritual knowledge or more importantly, lack of it, determines whether or not we reincarnate. The first stage after death is seeing a great light (as described in almost all cultures) which is formless, without name or identity- as we know it. This light is the Divine and if one has had a direct relationship with him/her/it/unnamable while living, they will recognize it and go to it, thereby getting off the Wheel of Life. However, 99% of people don't go to the light because the - in the psychological sense of personality - does not want to let go of the Self- the united conscious and unconscious. The ego is the most desperate, clinging part of the human psyche and one must learn how to let it go during life so that they may do so in death.

If one does not go to the Divine light, according to the Tibetans, one descends to the second stage where one meets their God. Here God is defined as the illusory mask covering the Divine such as Jesus, Buddha, Yahweh, Allah, etc. If one goes to their God, they must descend to the third step and possibly beyond; however, if one returns to the light, they ascend off the Wheel.

The Bardo planes have five more descending steps. If one does not chose the light by the fourth step they must begin facing their demons; those psychoses or neuroses found within the unconscious that come to life. If one is able to turn these around into their positive counterparts, ex. rage to joy, then they may ascend. However, if they cannot, they run the risk of being a "hungry ghost" - one who wanders in a state of limbo, clinging to the superficial, material world. These people are both haunted and haunting.

Without going into the great detail of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, those who are unable to ascend will come back into the world born to parents they choose. This belief may have roots in the idea that the soul is here for its own joy. Each of us has a predestined purpose and the parents we chose help to play this out. When one thinks of a tragic childhood and doesn't understand why someone would choose sadness, it is important to remember that again, sadness is one of the most powerful shapeshifting and transforming tools preceding Grace.

Past Lives
When people discuss past lives, they are not describing reincarnation. Because the ego is what dies when we pass our memories, personality and social identity go with it. If one is to experience something of a past life, it would be in a heart-felt, inexplicable connection to a particular culture, place, person, event, etc. caused by what Carl Jung refers to as the collective unconscious. However, there would be no memory of specifics because in death, the ego no longer exists to store memory.

What we are doing in this life is what we've always done throughout time. The Divine is teaching us about itself by having our mission repeated and replayed in accordance with the times. In order to end this repetition, we must learn to live from the soul and allow the Divine to speak to and through us. This is why it is so important to do the inner-psychic work and to nurture the soul in order to truly understand the Self.

Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
In lieu of past lives and the ego what is carried within our souls are archetypes housed in the collective unconscious. The term archetype was coined by Carl Jung to describe universal symbols expressed creatively in art, poetry, mythology, and dreams in any act that comes from the soul. These symbols share specific spiritual and psychological significance that point to stages on the soul's journey through life. Examples include the circle and spiral, both of which communicate the lesson of the soul leaving home only to return. Each can also be traced genetically: the circle to the shape of the Earth and the spiral to the DNA double helix.

The collective unconscious is the vehicle used by the Divine to communicate with all humankind about the purpose, meaning and role of the universe. The collective unconscious acts as a web connecting us all together and uses archetypes as language building blocks for communication. Our connections, in turn, lead to Jung's synchronicty which is a term he used to describe meaningful coincidences that exist outside normal experience. They are extra-ordinary events linking living beings across time and space. For example, Jean Shinoda Bolen quotes in her talk Synchronicity and the Tao: Mysticism, Metaphor, Morphic Fields one of Jung's stories:

I was walking in the woods with a woman who was telling me her most significant dream. In the dream, she was in her old family home that had a large spiral staircase. In the dream, she was at the foot of the stairs watching a ghostly fox move slowly down the stairs towards her." Jung said, "At that moment a real fox stepped out of the woods and, for a time, walked ahead of us." Bolen adds, "When a real fox entered the scene, the dream image materialized. Coincidences like this are eerie. Dream and waking life overlap; it is an uncanny moment of synchronicity.