Expert: Stephen Sakellarios - 9/10/2006

Question
Hi there,

Im a bit confused about something.  I went to a psychic development course which deals with mediumship a few years ago.  I went to the teacher herself once for a reading, she supposedly acted as a medium and my dead grandmother showed up and talked to her.
She also told me a tiny bit about my past life saying that i lived in Palestine and that my guide is actually a jewish man so he mightve been my husband in a past life or something.

Furthermore she let me borrow a book about reincarnation as she believes in it strongly.

Im confused about how come my grandmother's spirit and other spirits could possibly be around if they were supposeded to have been reincarnated by now?  my grandma died 15 years ago!  she hasnt been reincarnated yet?  How do mediums communicate with dead spirits if there is reincarnation?

How could my personal spiritual guide possibly be a man from a past life...have i been reincarnated and he hasnt? all of this just doesnt make any sense! i lost touch with that teacher of mine or else i wouldve asked her


Answer
Dear Nada,

Putting together everything I've read, from various sources, it's my understanding that the length of time between incarnations can vary quite a bit. It may also be decreasing somewhat in our modern age, as everything in general seems to be speeding up now. An average length of time appears to be, what, less than 100 years; but it can be hundreds of years, or it can be within a year. There are a few known factors that influence the length of time, or at least some clues (because the science of reincarnation study is in its early stages still). In cases of sudden, accidental death, for example, it is said that a person may reincarnate more quickly than usual. On the other hand, one could speculate that a person who has left human kind a great accomplishment or legacy of some kind; or a person who wishes to delve deeply into some field of knowledge on the other side so as to make that kind of contribution, may be allowed to stay there longer.

So even according to this very rough time table, most people probably would not reincarnate within 15 years. Some people apparently do, but it would not be at all unuusal for your grandmother to still be on the other side.

Given these variations, it would also not be unusual for you to have reincarnated, while a former spouse has not. It would also not be unusual, according to my reading on the subject, for that spouse to be guiding, assisting, or keeping an eye out for you from the other side while you are incarnate. "Guide" is a general term, and I think if used in a loose sense it would be appropriate. People don't become saints just because of having crossed over, so calling a past-life husband a "spiritual guide" doesn't (or shouldn't) imply that he has necessarily become qualified to be a religious or spiritual figure! But in the sense that such a person may watch out for you from the other side, and be in a position to understand a bit more than we do here, yes, I believe that people we have been closely connected with in past lives can act as "spirit guides."

All of which is to say, that everything the course leader taught you, as you've related it here, is plausible and within the accepted understanding of reincarnation and mediumship, according to my study of it.

Incidentally, it is so hard for us as a culture to bring our language out of the realm of materialism. You do not have a "dead grandmother." Here's the conceptual problem. Have you ever seen a cicada shell still clinging to the bark of a  pine tree? If not, a cicada is a rather odd-looking bug that makes a loud sound, like a cricket but more piercing. It moults and leaves its skin--a perfect outer replica of itself--still hanging onto the bark.

If I was to show you one of these, and tell you it was a dead cicada, what would you tell me? You would say, no, that's not correct, it's not a dead cicada, it's the shell that a live cicada left on the tree when it moulted.

This is *precisely* the case with death, except that what has happened in the moulting process is that the subtle body--a body made of energy and light which, during physical incarnation, is what enlivens the physical body and is intermingled with it--has separated from the physical body. So when your grandmother's physical body is laid out in the coffin, that is exactly like seeing the cicada shell on the pine tree bark. Your grandmother, in her subtle body, would very likely be sitting there next to that casket (or, perhaps, floating near the ceiling looking down), vibrant, fresh, feeling and looking young and healthy and light and energized and free, but unable to communicate with you. The more I look into this, the more I realize that there is no death in the sense that we, in the materialistic West, are taught to think of it. At a certain stage it is necessary for ignorant people to believe in death, because they must take their lessons on earth seriously. But we are moving into a phase on earth when it is time to shed this idea, and it is coming, slowly, but perhaps more rapidly than people realize.

Best,
Stephen S.