127. Soul’s Purpose: 4 Ways To Find Meaning In Reincarnation

What progress means for every soul is very,

Very different.

Clearly,

People in our world are born in situations that they do not choose.

Their soul chooses,

But that therefore force them to some degree in one direction.

And therefore,

Where their soul ends up at the end of their life is not the same place where my soul needs to end up.

But it certainly needs to be better than what they were born.

It's the movement.

It's how much progress.

Exactly.

Welcome to the Spiritually Hungry Podcast.

Again.

Well,

Michael is saying that because we are doing something special today.

And I've never done this before.

Dedicating our entire episode to answering your questions.

Episodes 124 and 126 were all about reincarnation and no other topic on any episode has garnered this much attention or received this many questions.

So they were actually really quite thoughtful and intriguing.

So that's why we are going to spend some time doing that today.

Yeah.

By the way,

Were you surprised by the response?

No,

I don't think so.

I mean,

That is much more than than others.

The amount of questions and comments that we got.

I think it's a topic that is so both important and intriguing to so many people.

And I do want to thank and applaud our listeners for being so engaged.

And we hope that your engagement continues and questions and stories and comments always,

Always welcome.

Well,

Funnily enough,

My mom just was here this past week in visiting California,

And I mentioned on one of the podcasts on one of the episodes on reincarnation about how the first spiritual books,

The two first spiritual books I ever read were on reincarnation.

And it wasn't because I was actually curious about it.

Just when I found Kabbalah,

It was also very familiar that my father and my teacher,

Your father.

These were the two books that were given.

So there are wheels of the soul and many lives,

Many masters.

So this weekend I had two copies for whatever reason on our bookshelf.

And I don't know where that second one came from and my mom's on an avid reader by any means.

But she picked up the book and she she's looked at this like 30 years ago.

And it's funny because when she picks up this week and she couldn't put it down and she read on the whole flight back,

She finished the book in two days.

She's never done that in her life.

And she said that when she saw the book the first time and she was in her early 40s or yes,

She was so busy in life,

Right,

Raising her kids,

Working like,

Oh,

It's a nice idea,

But I don't really.

OK,

And now at the stage she's at in her life,

She's reading it as if it has all the answers to why she's at where she's at or what she's looking for.

It's giving her a lot of solace,

Which I think is interesting.

And I think that reincarnation is such a powerful understanding because it it can help us make sense of things that really just don't make sense if you just take them at face value,

Especially the more painful parts of life.

Absolutely.

And I what one of the understandings that I hope we were able to really give over to our listeners last two episodes on this is that I find it to be very practical.

It really should inform our daily lives.

And by this is true of all wisdom.

If it's not informing your daily life,

Which is something you study,

I'm not sure how much value it has.

All spiritual study,

Any study for as far as I'm concerned,

Almost any important study should be studied that actually affects and changes the way you live your life.

And for me,

Reincarnation is one of those lines of teaching that really does for me change the way I look at life and also the way I live my life.

One thousand percent.

So let's get into the questions.

So this is from a woman named Laura.

So my question is,

If someone appears to have a very difficult life,

For example,

Born with a horrible illness or into a life of extreme abuse,

Are we to assume they made egregious mistakes in one of their past lives?

OK,

We talked about this.

Remember,

I was trying to unpack it a bit because it and you pushed back.

But I'm so happy that Laura has brought this up again.

So thank you,

Laura,

For your question.

And I'd like to address another idea before I actually get to the question.

I think it's so important.

And actually,

I'm going to say two things before I answer the question.

First,

As it relates to any understanding,

I can talk about this for a long time and I won't because we want to focus on reincarnation,

But one of the most fundamental truths about any attainment of wisdom is that you understand how little you actually do understand.

The more you study,

The more wisdom you gain,

The more vast you realize truth is.

Well,

It's not just wisdom,

Right?

I mean,

It's really anything in life.

If you think that you are seeing all of anything,

Right?

If you think that you're not really realizing you're living in an illusionary world and everything that we take so seriously,

Even the things that seem like,

You know,

This table,

You and I sitting here,

That we can hear everything that's happening is ridiculous,

Right?

So,

In fact,

You know,

Nothing we know is the entirety of anything.

Exactly,

Exactly.

And what that means is that it really gives you a great humility in both the way you view the world and also anything that you impart,

Any questions that you answer.

And hopefully in an openness to being able to receive more information.

And I always say this,

But I am always very concerned about people who have wisdom,

Who believe that they have attained all or most of what there is to attain.

If you really have wisdom,

Then you have gained the humility that comes with that.

What's funny,

As you get older,

Hopefully if you're doing it kind of right,

You realize you don't know that much and you become the more quiet one in the room.

Right.

By the way,

I think the point is to be clear.

You have a tremendous amount of wisdom,

Hopefully,

A tremendous amount of wisdom,

But compared to the totality of wisdom,

Compared to the totality of truth,

You have only a fragment.

So even as I've been studying reincarnation for over 40 years and they do speak about in these traditions and books of wisdom to answer this question,

I have to say that,

Oh,

With the caveat that,

You know,

We don't have all the answers,

We don't have the entire view,

We have certainly thousands of years of wisdom that has been imparted,

That we believe it's our responsibility to share.

But it doesn't answer all questions in their totality.

Which leads to the second thing.

You say nothing's black and white.

Well,

It's not just black and white.

It's just like it's wrong to say,

Oh,

This happened because of this.

We can never be certain.

Because why?

The first reason is because our wisdom is always just a piece of wisdom,

Not the totality of it,

Number one.

And number two,

Which I think is a very important understanding,

And that is that for everything that happens,

There are thousands upon thousands of reasons.

And by the way,

I think this is an important,

Again,

I don't want to get too off topic,

But,

You know,

Even in our own lives,

Right,

We always try to make sense of things.

Why did this happen?

Usually the bad things,

Right?

We don't often question the good things,

Right?

But often the bad things,

The small bad,

Why did this have to happen to me?

Why is this happening to me?

Why did this happen to me?

And while I think at times that can be helpful,

And hopefully if you have a spiritual view that expands your arsenal of answers to that question,

But the reality is,

And this goes back to the humility,

I know that I will never completely understand the reasons why all the good things happen to me and nor the totality of why the challenging things happen to me.

I know they all have a reason.

And at times I'm able,

And we often,

Me and you often have these conversations.

Oh,

We're so happy that this,

What would seem to have been in the past,

Really challenging thing happened.

Oh,

Look how much we grew from it.

But we're not silly enough to think,

Oh,

That was the only reason why it happened.

There were thousands and thousands of other reasons.

One of the great Italian Kabbalists,

Rav Moshe Khaim Tzaddu,

Said this,

And it's a very fundamental,

Again,

Fundamental view of life.

Everything that happens has not a reason,

But literally thousands upon thousands of reasons.

And let's unpack that a little bit.

So let's use an example.

So let's assume you're walking down the street and somebody grabs your wallet.

OK,

Why did this happen to you?

Well,

What if I told you with certainty that I knew this?

Right.

I don't.

Right.

But if I knew,

Oh,

God came down to you and said,

Listen,

Last incarnation,

You owed him a thousand dollars.

Your wallet had a thousand dollars.

He grabbed a thousand dollars.

Right.

Now your wallet is a repayment for what you owed him last incarnation.

That is but one of the reasons that it happened.

A second reason,

God will tell you,

Is because you were having a little bit of ego today and you needed that thing to happen to wake you up.

Number three,

Yesterday.

Or something bad,

Something else has happened,

A health issue.

But then the pain of physical loss was.

But it wouldn't be.

My point is,

You're not saying that it's all of those reasons.

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Yes.

Oh,

That's my point.

That's exactly what I'm saying.

So explain that,

That that it's all of those.

So it's not so good because we tend to think this is one.

Yeah.

And I also want to know,

It's that one thing.

OK,

I got that.

But then when we start to think,

Oh,

My God,

There's a thousand reasons.

And we start to think,

Well,

Are we really that flawed?

Not for right.

I know.

But I'm I'm telling you,

I'm speaking for our listeners.

So so again,

I guess that's what it sounds like.

I mean,

Could I why do I do a thousand lessons,

Not a thousand lessons?

You're.

Your soul needs a million things to happen to it,

Some of them conscious of them unconscious,

Right,

So you study.

That's one that's one thing you do for your soul.

You go through challenges that make you stronger.

That's another thing for your soul.

So so your life or your soul's progression is made up of millions and millions of pieces,

Parts.

Right.

And every one action that occurs isn't happening,

Even for its obvious reasons,

There are thousands upon thousands of other reasons why it's happening for good,

For good now,

For benefit,

Right,

So maybe it's a cleansing a little bit.

Benefit is different than for good.

But yes,

But they're both the same.

Yes,

Yes,

I know.

So,

OK.

So if you look back at that man with the wallet.

So one was he stole.

So it's a payback,

It's a cleansing.

And so you wipe that slate clean.

Another was that there was supposed to be a health issue also to teach a different lesson.

And a physical thing was stolen instead of a something negative happening to it.

Right.

Or and again,

I gave a third exam,

Third reason,

Right,

If I'm God,

Because you were not really having a big ego that day and you did a little bit of a of a snapback three again,

Me,

If I were God,

I would go on,

Give you another thousand reasons why that had to happen to you.

And it's a very important understanding.

And it's also a very important way to view life.

Because if you understand that,

First of all,

Nothing is coincidental.

But that's not enough.

Right.

And that everything has a reason.

That's not enough.

Everything has many,

Many,

Many,

Many reasons.

To try to understand all of them is silly.

You could try to understand one of them,

Two of them.

You can look back and say,

Oh,

I understand one.

Like just like we said before,

That you will never attain complete wisdom.

You will have a lot of wisdom.

You will understand one thing or two things or three things or a thousand things or a million things.

You'll never understand endless things.

Right.

Same with everything that happens in our life.

Everything that happens is purposeful and multifaceted reasons.

Right.

But in that one action that has many benefits,

It's not just about something necessarily in a past incarnation.

Like you said,

It could be about the ego today.

So that one bad,

I'm using quotations,

Thing that happened can cover,

Check many different boxes,

All for the benefit of your soul.

And and even if they're unrelated.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

They all and that's when you start viewing life in this way,

You realize it's a beautiful,

Perfect system where everything that is happening,

The whole world is revolving around me.

So everywhere I go,

Everything that happens to me,

Thousands and thousands of reasons,

Past,

Present and future reasons why this has to happen to me today,

In this second,

In the next second,

In the next second.

So,

Right.

And I do want to,

Again,

Even though this isn't exactly the topic,

But I think it really changes the way we view life.

It gives much deeper,

Multilayered purpose to everything that happens.

Not just one purpose.

Right.

Not just a purpose,

But thousands upon thousands.

Right.

So,

Right.

That's clear.

Right.

OK.

But I think it is very,

Very.

And this,

By the way,

I think that's the the the the underpinnings of everything and every other answer that we give.

So that means when a person goes third day,

I mean,

This happened to me this morning and,

You know,

Whatever,

There's that,

You know,

A negative experience.

And,

You know,

My first thing,

And this is because I've been studying for so many years,

Is this doesn't make sense according to any of my five senses that are so limited.

It's not pleasant.

It's uncomfortable.

But I know it's it has a purpose and it's for my greatest good.

And it's not even something I'm telling myself.

I fully,

Fully breathe that in and live that.

And therefore,

It doesn't affect me in the way that it might affect somebody else because I am already fast forwarding to the benefit of it.

Right.

But if I would add,

The only thing I would add to your mantra is.

I would say purposes,

Right,

Because it's.

Yes,

That's what you've added now.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I think that's a really important clarification.

Yeah.

So now,

Based on those two things,

Right.

To Laura's question,

I can give and not me,

Right.

I would I wouldn't be so bold as to answer such questions.

But based on the thousands of years of wisdom of which I studied,

The answer is.

If a person comes into this world with a challenge,

It can have many,

Many reasons,

I'll give one example of which the Kabbalists write about at Lend.

We have a child with Down syndrome,

And what that means is that he is different.

He is.

He is different in the way he interacts,

In the way he lives his life.

And and although we have great certainty that his life will be both full,

Meaningful,

We have a desire and he has great desire to get married and so on and so forth.

It is different than other children.

His journey in his life.

Yes.

And me,

My father had many conversations around this.

My father made it clear.

And again,

The Kabbalists have written this for thousands of years.

Souls,

Especially souls,

Because he's not in pain.

He's not in any physical pain.

He doesn't really fully have free will.

I mean,

Exactly.

So it's a different I mean,

We should explain that.

But his his desires are so pure.

His desires really are just to share and to love.

But it doesn't mean he never misbehaves,

But yes,

He's an Aries,

For those of you who know what that means.

So,

Yes,

But there are times where he's stubborn and so on.

But you're right.

Exactly.

It doesn't come from his his what we would call in Kabbalistic terms,

Negative inclination is much less than other typical kids,

Even our other kids.

So all that to say that his soul actually is a higher soul.

My father actually even told me who he believed that that Josh's soul was in a previous lifetime.

And therefore he comes into this world in a way that limits the amount of negative actions he can do.

And that is not a negative thing.

That's actually an indication of a very elevated soul that came into this world to maybe fix one or two.

Who knows?

Right.

Because we don't know all the answers to fix a small,

What we would call a small correction.

But the guardrails,

Like,

You know,

When you go bowling and they put those guardrails up so that you can't,

You know,

Throw a gutter ball,

Are higher for him than for the rest of us.

And there are many souls like that.

And we've met many souls like that who come into this world with what the world might view as limitations,

We view as really a more perfect protection around his soul or their souls.

So as to allow them to correct whatever they need to correct,

But not to not to enable that soul to create any for any great damage.

So and also to and.

He chose our family for many reasons and we are his parents for many reasons,

And that also is explained for us through reincarnation.

Right.

Exactly.

There's no question.

Yeah.

I mean,

Like when we speak about this,

Often we feel very blessed that the Creator and Josh chose for us to be his parents and for him to come into our family,

The blessings he's brought to all of our family,

All of ourselves and our children has been innumerable.

So this is the point,

Right?

So the point is,

So it is definitely not right to say that a soul such as Josh's came to this world in the form that he came,

In this case having Down syndrome because of anything negative,

As a matter of fact,

It's an indication of a high soul coming into this world to make a couple of probably minor corrections to perfect his soul.

And I want to take a step back because.

Well,

We don't view him as being in pain,

I think.

Exactly.

The question was,

Right.

I think if you imagine a child that has an illness,

The idea is they're suffering.

Right.

And that's OK.

So but I wanted I wanted to give Josh's example just to the point that there are many possibilities.

Right.

So even by the way,

So just to be clear,

Even though what I share with Josh,

I believe in strongly and it's based on thousands of years of wisdom.

I know that's only one part of the reason if we don't see it so much more,

That so many more reasons that we don't even know yet now to address those who are either born into.

And by the way,

This is not different than somebody who experiences pain,

Right?

There are many people who are not born with with debilitating illnesses and painful situations that suffer in life.

And yes,

Of course.

There is a great body of wisdom that tells us,

Yes,

If a soul comes into this world,

Even if it's experiencing pain,

It is for the purpose of correction.

But I caveat that one of the things that we have to always be careful of is not to project our judgment or even our understanding or even our spiritual understandings on anybody else.

So if I'm always very wary of explaining or trying to explain or understand why somebody else is experiencing pain,

But I can tell you that when I go through a pain or my view on it,

Even for somebody born into a body that seems to be causing them pain,

That absolutely it is because of a previous incarnation,

Not necessarily because he did something negative in a previous incarnation.

Maybe there's a famous story from the great Kabbalist of Baal Shem Tov.

Two parents came to him who just lost a two year old child.

And they asked him,

Of course,

In great pain,

Why did this happen to us?

And he goes into he went into a lengthy explanation and he explained that that soul was a pure soul that had almost nothing to correct and all that needed for its correction is for two years to be a pure soul in a pure body and then it was ready to leave.

So again,

It's very painful for the parents.

Of course,

Of course,

Of course,

Of course.

And none of this is again projecting outwards as anybody else,

Because this is to each one of us individually.

But so to answer the question.

Is it possible that a soul comes into a body and experiences pain,

Even a painful existence to some degree,

Because it has something to cleanse from previous incarnation?

Yes.

Is it possible that it was a very elevated soul?

More likely,

By the way,

That it was a very elevated soul.

And the situation that it came into is one that limits its ability to do,

To fall in any way.

And yes,

That painful cleansing is often for itself.

By the way,

It could be for its for its relatives.

It could be for the world sometimes.

That is the understanding that people,

There are great souls that experience pain and that is for the world.

All these are possible views of why one thing happens or another,

And it's never black and white.

So my point,

Just to be clear,

One cannot say,

Oh,

This person and this always bothers me when you hear somebody say,

Oh,

This person is going through that challenge because they did X,

Y or Z.

Yes.

Right.

A person should and could look inside and say,

Oh,

Why is this happening to me?

Why am I going through this?

You can see what you can learn from it,

How you can change and grow for sure,

But it's not a punishment.

Exactly.

Shortly after my father passed,

This woman who she calls herself,

Not the feather.

What's her name?

Indian woman?

Eagle.

The Eagle woman.

She calls herself the Eagle woman and she's Native American.

And she was friends with Karen,

Your mother.

And for whatever reason,

I thought about her in the morning and I texted her,

Which I never was in contact with her,

Hardly.

She was really intrigued with Abigail at the time.

And she said,

Oh,

I,

I dreamt of you last night.

I think that maybe we should get together for coffee or I would love to do session on you.

Because I never really looked for that kind of thing.

And it's like,

Well,

Yeah,

I said,

OK,

Sure,

I'm open.

And anyway,

Long story short,

It was pretty amazing because when I walked in,

We had just come back from Mexico City for weddings a year ago,

Actually.

And my stomach was a mess.

And I don't know what I don't know what happened.

But anyway,

I lay down and she puts her hands over your body to where she feels that it needs energy and she puts her hands over my stomach and touching my stomach just over my stomach and she feels what I feel in her body.

And she's like,

Oh,

My God,

Your stomach.

And I'm telling you,

When I got up from that table an hour later,

I had no symptoms at all,

Like at all.

I thought I'd feel a little bit better.

But anyway,

Besides that,

She went into this whole thing with my father.

It was such a powerful story because she whenever I think about my father now,

I think about him at his prime.

That's just the image I have in my mind.

And it's not even something I'm purposely doing.

It's just it's funny as you mentioned.

It's funny,

As you mentioned,

I think about my mom and my dad,

Who both are not physically in this world,

Is that right after they passed,

I had a lot of memories of the times that they were ill.

Now,

Like you said,

Every time I think of it,

My mind doesn't even go there.

Yeah,

Right.

Which is why where I'm leading to.

It's funny.

It's all connected.

So I remember him around age thirty five,

Forty.

And I remember I was about three years old and he would carry me and just felt so small and safe in his arms anyway,

She said.

And she starts to describe and I didn't tell her any of this,

But she describes what I'm seeing,

The suit he's wearing,

What he looks like,

How he's walking,

Like the vision that I have for him.

And then she said,

Who in your family would eat popsicles all the time?

I'm tasting cherry and cherry popsicles.

And I lived on those every summer.

I would have like two,

Three popsicles a day and she could taste it.

Right.

And I was like,

Oh,

That's me.

And she's like,

Oh,

He has a message for you.

And she knew that my fear,

I still had some fear attached to how he left the world and how sick he was in the last eight years and the cognitive decline.

And she said,

You know,

He wants you to know that he's OK.

He's not sick right now.

She could see his soul and that when he comes back,

They knew he was going to come right back.

He would go first in line to come back.

He loved life and he didn't feel that he had finished what he wanted to at all.

So when he comes back,

He's not going to bring the illness with him.

And she said,

And this is what she but it resonated with me.

She said that sometimes people come back with the illness and they choose to do that because they know that's going to help them correct what they need to correct.

So for me,

That was really that was really rang true and really powerful.

Another question.

One more question.

Well,

I'm going to do two more,

But this one's for you specifically because it's you said this and I also at the time,

Remember,

Tried to unpack it.

And you're like,

Yeah,

Also.

But so you said we reincarnate three times.

Can you please explain a bit more what happens after that if we don't do our full correction?

And are we supposed to correct 100 percent if that's even possible?

What if we correct 80 percent?

What happens then?

Right.

So to be clear,

The idea is that in every incarnation you have to correct something.

And when the Kabbalists say that if a person goes through reincarnations,

Then the soul has to go through a deep cleansing in the upper worlds,

Because that means they go through reincarnation,

Zero,

Zero.

OK,

Well,

That's rare.

I mean,

Well,

I mean,

Let's talk about that for a second.

I don't know.

Who knows what the zero?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It's definitely not it's definitely not zero.

Right.

I don't know what the percentage is.

You're saying three incarnations,

Zero correction.

Then the soul has to go through a different meaning.

It goes down.

Well,

It goes through it goes to a cleansing so that it's a it's a to be clear that this is not physical pain.

Right.

This is a soul pain.

But yes,

Because something has to shift in order to to wake it up.

It's clearly has gone to sleep.

I imagine it feels like mental and physical pain,

But worse.

I mean,

Well,

But the point is,

Again,

So there's only there's three incarnations within which the the soul,

The individual has done zero correction.

Number one,

Unlikely.

Right.

Like you said,

Unlike any any one of us has already corrected something.

And the other part of the question was,

Is it possible to do 100 percent?

Yes,

We're we're actually actually.

Well,

I guess what she's asking is how many I was talking about percentages.

Right.

Can we get to 100 percent?

How many actually do get to 100 percent?

Well,

Just to be so.

Actually,

The numbers you need to be 100 percent to never come back in or is 80 percent is enough.

OK,

So that's actually we actually the way it works is that once you do 80 percent,

The light and says the light of the creator finishes the job for us.

We do.

It's not our job to finish it.

It is our job to get close enough or far enough in our correction.

There's actually a phrase that's used.

It says the work is not for you to finish,

But you are not free to to not do it.

So so it's that balance of pushing ourselves as much as possible to grow,

To change,

To to elevate our soul through our work in this world.

And then once we get to 80 percent,

It could be one incarnation,

Most likely not.

But in a couple of incarnations,

Then the light of the creator completes the job for us.

And I'm not sure if we touched upon this in the previous incarnation,

The previous episode.

But that that well,

Let's assume just use numbers.

Let's assume I've corrected in this incarnation and in previous incarnation,

You know,

50 percent.

Right.

So I come back down this world with only the last,

Let's say,

20 percent.

The 30 percent is banked for me in the supernal world.

It's it's a it's a it's a sort of a part that's not a part of my expression of my soul in this world.

So you're only expressing 20 percent,

A small percentage of what I've corrected.

So that goes back to the bank,

Right?

That stays sort of in the realm of the soul.

So in a lifetime,

Somebody,

Let's say,

Corrected 50 percent,

Right?

When he or she comes back,

They bring a small percentage that you can't damage.

You can't damage that part.

And that's why each one of us and that's again,

It's a little bit deeper than this,

But that we are much bigger than what we express ourselves as in this world.

And there are actually ways to tap in to that much greater perfected part of us that's not a part of this soul in this body,

But that is a part of the greater soul that I am.

Is that clear?

Ish,

Because it's hard,

It's very abstract,

Right?

All right,

RJ had many,

Many,

Many questions and a big part of it.

Why are we held accountable for things we can't remember and life and life conditions we don't choose that inevitably influence our behavior for better or worse?

If you're born into a family of criminals,

You inevitably become a criminal yourself.

Well,

I would argue that.

But further,

We aren't born understanding knowledge about cause and effect.

How then can you choose to do better if you don't know better?

And how much free will do we really,

In fact,

Have?

That's so many,

Many questions.

That was well,

That was there were 15 here.

So so I'll say a few things.

First of all.

Of course,

We know many,

There are many righteous people that came from families that were the darkest.

So it's not an absolute.

The point is,

Well,

The first thing I was going to say is that,

Of course,

We should be held accountable for what we've done,

Even if we don't remember it.

I mean,

Imagine I,

You know,

I hurt somebody today.

And I go to sleep and I forget about it tomorrow.

Of course,

I still I'm still responsible for the hurt that I did.

And the fact that I did it in a previous incarnation is not much different than the fact that I did it three years ago and I forgot about it.

So it's me,

It's me,

It's who I am.

But then the question about free will and being born into,

For example,

He gives a family of criminals is a very interesting one.

And again,

I touch upon it in two ways.

One,

That every person has a different life path.

So let's say the soul,

The person born into a criminal family and seemingly clearly less free will not to get into that life.

Maybe their soul's correction was to be a little bit less terrible than the rest of his family.

So there is no absolute.

Meaning that would wake him up somehow.

I mean,

Why be a little less terrible than his family?

Maybe that's his soul.

Again,

Let's assume let's assume a person's a soul,

A new we'll call it a lower soul for lack of a better word.

Right.

And again,

Just not necessarily this is the case,

For example.

Are you almost a newer soul?

You're saying because people always talk,

Oh,

You're an old soul.

You're a young soul.

So young souls.

Young souls haven't been around that often.

And why is that?

Because there are some souls that are new.

Well,

Let's talk about that for a second.

I know I'm taking us on a completely different tangent.

Yes.

But I think it's an interesting question.

So there's,

As we spoke in one of the episodes.

The roots of soul.

There's different parts of the soul.

There's one great soul.

Right.

And as children are born.

And there's the head and there's the hand.

And as children are born,

Their souls were from the beginning of time of humanity,

Their souls were coming out of that store of souls.

Now,

That store might not have been completely depleted.

And certainly in the beginning of humanity,

There were young souls.

Young souls,

Right,

Haven't gone through learning,

Learning.

I mean,

Not just,

You know,

Sort of learning from books,

But life learning over time,

Over incarnations.

Older souls have.

Right.

So.

So.

Right.

And that's over time.

There is an understanding that at a certain point,

Maybe we've passed it.

There are no more new souls.

Old souls have already been around and come in different incarnations.

But there is no absolute way that a person needs to behave.

He just needs to be better.

So certainly even a child who was born into a family of criminals and therefore he didn't choose to at age 16 start,

You know,

Stealing.

He has enough soul force to maybe steal a little bit less.

Maybe he will completely enter a home.

Maybe he won't.

So the what progress means for every soul is very,

Very different.

Clearly,

People in our world are born into situations that they do not choose,

Their soul chooses,

But that therefore force them to some degree in one direction.

And therefore,

Where their soul ends up at the end of their life is not the same place where my soul needs to end up.

Right.

But it certainly needs to be better than what they were born.

It's the movement.

It's how much.

Exactly.

And therefore,

Again,

How much progress and how great the progress is.

But the amount of right,

The amount of change.

Right.

So the point,

Again,

Is to make it very extreme.

If his family,

If his parents,

His dad and brothers,

You know,

Steal,

Stole from a thousand people,

His correction might be that he said,

You know,

These I'll only steal from 900 people.

These these these last 100 people I won't steal from.

Or he stole and then he stopped or he went.

Exactly.

Progress.

Learning.

Every soul has free will to make progress.

Not every soul has a free will to become me or you or anybody else for that matter.

And that's not even the point.

The point is to learn,

To learn something,

To progress in some way.

And maybe they'll have to come back again and progress even further.

But there's no coincidence about where each soul is born,

Either because of a situation or what they did in a previous incarnation or because of the state of their soul.

And when you start again,

For example,

You know,

We often speak to people who have,

You know,

Sometimes have gone through physical,

Verbal abuse from their parents.

And clearly that's wrong,

Right?

To be clear.

But but why did the spiritual understanding is why did my soul need to go through that?

And again,

This is a very personal but necessary process where where the evolution for that soul is to say,

OK,

I came into a situation that was not of my doing.

My soul chose it,

Though,

For a reason.

Well,

It's interesting,

I met with somebody this week and his mother was a drug addict,

Like crazy.

He's an older brother and I won't go into his father,

Whatever.

But the mother,

Like he found her slumped over when he got home from school,

Sometimes on the floor,

Slurring her words.

And at this stage of his life,

He's in his 50s,

The mother's in her 80s.

And judges are so harshly.

And maybe that like he's with the conversation,

He's like,

You know,

Maybe that's why she was my mother.

So the harsh judgment that I carry in this world,

Say she's giving me the opportunity to change that to mercy.

And of course,

It doesn't it's not right.

And nobody deserves that.

And the little boy that he was and how scary that was,

None of that's right.

Right.

But we just don't know.

And it's interesting,

As you were talking,

I just watched a movie.

It's it's a true story.

Kevin Bacon plays the main character and he's a prisoner in Alcatraz.

It's called Murder in the First.

It's a true story.

The character's Henry something you guys can Google it,

But I watched it kind of by accident.

But what was so and I had this question,

Finally,

If I wasn't I mean,

I started thinking about reincarnation.

I guess I put that into everything.

But he at 17,

He stole five dollars because he was an orphan and he was taking care of his 13 year old sister and he went to this drugstore asking for a job.

They wouldn't hire him.

And he was so desperate.

He took five dollars out of the cash register.

They ran after him.

He goes to Alcatraz for 10 years for that.

Crazy.

OK,

Then true story,

True story.

He tries to maybe it wasn't 10 years at the time,

Maybe it was three.

Anyway,

It was I think it was 10.

But into a sentence,

It didn't see the whole thing through.

Tries to escape.

Remember the famous story with two other convicts?

They get caught and he gets blamed as being the one who thought it all up.

He gets put in solitary confinement.

The law was at the time that the maximum that you could be in solitary.

And it was called the Dungeons.

It was like a black cave,

Five by five.

He couldn't even stand up straight.

He became hunchback.

The most that a person could be there.

Guess how long that was.

How many days?

A day?

24 hours.

19 days,

Which seems crazy.

Dark,

Wet.

He was naked,

Food thrown to him.

They beat him up.

You know how long he was there?

Yes.

Three years.

Three and a half years.

Three and a half years.

And he didn't lose his mind.

Many people did that went through that same situation.

There was like 28 people.

But anyway,

Then he gets out.

I hope I'm not reading the story.

But anyway,

He gets out and he's he's never heard noise in three and a half years.

So he put him straight into general population.

He's at lunch.

Somebody says,

You better eat.

You're going to go back in the hole because that's what they did.

All of a sudden he runs after that person and stabs him with a spoon,

Kills him.

So now he's now he's on trial for murder.

And they want to give him the gas.

OK.

It's like the worst story.

He never had sex in his life.

Like he's never lived a life and he was actually a good person.

He was never a murderer.

The whole argument was Alcatraz made him a murderer.

And after this,

They changed all kinds of laws.

And this never happened again.

So you look at a life like that.

You couldn't possibly understand.

You couldn't possibly all you see is just pain and suffering.

But I mean,

It's an extreme story.

It's a true story.

But that's like,

I guess we're not meant to know.

We're never going to know all of the reasons or even maybe any of the reasons of why certain things happen.

But if we understand that everything does have a purpose and it is ultimately for the benefit of our soul's correction,

Which,

Again,

We can't understand from the physical perspective or physical body that I help,

I think it helps us make sense of life and navigate better.

Absolutely.

I know it does for me.

Yeah,

For me,

Too.

There's so many more questions.

Yes,

Yes.

Do you want to share a story?

A story?

You mean a letter?

A letter.

Yes.

Mike,

I've been telling you stories.

OK,

So this is from Giselle.

Hi,

Dear,

Monica and Michael.

One of the things that I consider now part of my spiritual tasks is listening to your podcast.

And the very first I not only enjoy you and the wisdom you share so kindly and lightly very much,

But it seems that every time I receive more and more answers to guide me,

I want to share a brief anecdote about reincarnation,

Speaking of reincarnation to my daughter,

Who helped me deal with her fears of death and of losing me when she was five years old,

I told her that that we are linked forever.

To make the story short,

On her way back from school,

She started again asking how she was going to recognize me in our next life together,

If our bodies would be different.

So I tried to explain to her that my answer was that we would recognize each other with our hearts and our energy.

And I added that we were not really a part at all.

Maybe we're just we were united and only felt like we were apart,

Like flames in the same fire.

So I heard her little voice coming from the back of the car,

Exclaiming,

Mommy,

That's so interesting.

Are you telling me,

Therefore,

That all that I see is merely an illusion?

Why I'm dressed like Carla Maria?

That's her name.

She's I should be dressed like God.

Can you please ask?

She's a teacher,

Ask your spiritual teacher,

How does God dress?

So I left it at that.

But I was amazed about how innocent,

How an innocent child can grasp such an intangible topic with our heart.

Reincarnation has been indeed a mysterious certainty for me since I became a believer of a higher force in my 30s,

Even if I still don't understand it with my reason.

When I met my present husband 24 years ago in a little village in India that first night,

I knew and heard a voice within telling me this was a renewal of our relationship,

Another encounter.

And he and I are clearly opposites in all aspects,

Except the sharing of a spiritual desire to be better ourselves,

Each in a different personal way.

But we feel that we've been clearly complimentary for our connections.

He is my kite.

I am his anchor.

He teaches me to fly lighter.

I sort of keep him on track.

So when Michael explained how a spark can split into two and if we're lucky enough to find each other,

We can complete our unity again,

Correct it.

I really felt blessed because it has certainly not been easy to learn to accept each other with love,

With our failures and faults.

I feel very deeply thankful to you for inspiring me over and over blessings to you both,

Giselle.

Thank you so much,

Giselle,

For sharing that very beautiful story,

Both with your child and with your husband.

And a reminder to all of our listeners to continue to share this podcast with everybody,

You know,

On Apple podcast,

Give it five star reviews and continue to send your stories,

Questions,

Comments,

Topics to Monica and Michael at Kabbalah dot com.

Monica and Michael Kabbalah dot com.

Your stories and questions,

As we've just shown in this episode,

Inspire us and give us a great desire to continue to record this podcast.

And as always,

We hope you enjoyed listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Stay spiritually angry.