2. Karma and Reincarnation – 6 to 10 – Lesson 2
Karmic Truths, Part 2 for Ages 6 to 10
Overview of Lesson - Pages 33-61
- We have all lived many times.
- Each of us has special a gift of talents and skills to give to mankind.
- Our souls remember why we were born even if our minds forget.
- We are supposed to grow up spiritually by overcoming challenges of our karma.
- Karma can be both good and bad.
- Bad karma can be problems we face.
- Good karma can be talent and opportunity.
SUGGESTED MUSIC: You can use any well-known classical, soothing pieces that you and your child enjoy.
BOOK SECTIONS: Chapter 1, Part 2 Karma and Reincarnation by Elizabeth Clare Prophet
MATERIALS:
- Paper dolls: Available on the Internet or in most bookstores.
- A wire coat hanger and two white beads – one small and the other about 10 times as large.
- Colored pencils, crayons or paint or modeling clay
LESSON: A Little Child Remembers
a Past Life
One day a little girl (we will call her Emma) almost three years old saw a picture on the wall. It was a picture of her great-great-grandmother, Gertrude. She stared at it. Her face took on a puzzled look as she looked up at her mother and asked, “Is that me?”
The next day Emma was at a family picnic, playing peek-a-boo with her great-great uncle, the son of Gertrude. Suddenly she stopped and looked at him. “Am I your mother?” No one knew what to say to her, so they laughed.
Later that evening the family was watching some slides of the family many years ago. There was a picture of Emma’s mama when she was a little girl, standing next to her great-grandmother, Gertrude, who was sitting down. Emma shouted, “Mama, that’s me!
Emma’s mother said, “No, darling, that’s me when I was a little girl.”
Emma insisted, “No mama, the one sitting down!”
A very few days later, Emma was coloring. Suddenly she looked at her mother and said, “Mama, my name is Gertie, call me Gertie.” (Gertie was the nickname for her great-great-grandmother Gertrude.)
What do you suppose might have happened? (Pause and let child reflect and respond) Emma was remembering another life that she had before she was Emma.
Reincarnation
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, spiritual teacher, writer and mother of five children tells a similar story. It all happened one day when she was four years old, playing in her sandbox.
Elizabeth remembers a life in Egypt
Elizabeth was four years old. Her daddy had built a sandbox for her. She was sitting in the sand, feeling the sun on her back, watching the sand run between her fingers. All of the sudden she was not in her sandbox any more! She saw herself playing in the sand, splashing in the water along the Nile River in Egypt. Her mother in that life was watching from near-by. She knew exactly where she was. Her parents in this life had put a map of the world on her bedroom wall and little Elizabeth loved looking at it and learning the names of places. She knew she was in Egypt!
Then, all of the sudden she was back home in her own backyard. She was not frightened. She did not feel dazed or dizzy. She ran in to ask her mother about what had just happened. Her mother sat little Elizabeth down and looked at her and said, “You have remembered a past life.” Elizabeth was never the same. Now she knew there was more of her than just the little girl in her sandbox.
Our body is a coat we wear
Her mother taught her more about this idea of past lives. She explained, “Our body is like a coat we wear. It gets worn out before we finish what we have to do. So God gives us a new mommy and a new daddy and we are born again so we can finish the work God sent us to do and finally return home of light in heaven. Even though we get a new body we still have the same soul. And our soul remembers the past even though our mind may not.”
Elizabeth felt like she has always known these things. She told her mother, “Mommy, I know I have lived forever.”
Have you ever had a memory of a past life?
(Pause and let child respond)
Even if you have not had a memory of a past life, you may
have seen someone or some place that seemed familiar.
God blesses us by making sure we do not remember too much
— one life at a time is enough for us to think about!
Activity 1: Paper Dolls
There are paper dolls available from many different time periods for both girls and boys.
Allow your child to review them and pick what looks interesting.
It may prompt some past life memories that are ready to come to the surface of the mind.
(Note: Let past life records come up when and if they will. It is never something to be forced.)
LESSON: Growing Up Spiritually
We all know about growing up and becoming bigger every year. But we also grow up spiritually. When you were first created you knew you were from God and you were to fulfill the mission God gave you.
Over many lifetimes, our souls forgot why we had been born. When we forgot, we began making choices that were not God’s way at all. We may have made negative karma and now part of growing up spiritually is being willing to pay back life for the wrong things we said and did.
Maybe you have seen the movie “Groundhog Day.” A man who is a news announcer gets stuck in the same day, over and over again. Every morning he wakes up and it is the very same day. When he finally stops acting full of himself and starts acting in a loving way, he is finally free to start a new day.
The tests of our soul can be like that. Sometimes we have the same problem over and over again. We have to find more love to overcome our negative ways of acting. When we finally find a new way of meeting the same problem, we won’t have it any more.
Edgar Cayce is a man who loved God. He began to receive information about peoples’ past lives while he was finding out how to heal them from sicknesses. He discovered that many things wrong with us now are a direct result of things we did in other lives. Karma is very exact, and teaches us the lessons our soul needs.
Stories of How Karma Teaches Lessons
- One young man had anemia. (This means his blood does not have enough red blood cells and he felt very weak.) Cayce explained that he had been a man in power in Peru long ago and he was responsible for much blood shed. Because of this he had problems with his own blood.
- Another man had digestive problems. Hew could only eat a few simple foods. Cayce told him that long ago in France, at the court of Louis XIII, he had been a glutton. So now he could not eat so many rich things.
- A deaf man was told that he had been a nobleman during the French revolution and had refused to hear the cries of the people.
- A young woman who was overweight was a beautiful athlete in Roman times. She ridiculed those who were less beautiful and athletic than she. So now, she had to see how it felt to have other people mock the way she looked.
- A Hollywood movie producer had polio as a child and still walked with a limp. Cayce told him that in Roman times he had been a soldier and jeered at people who were afraid. He told him that having an imperfect body this time was to awaken his inner self and to develop his spiritual side, not his physical beauty and strength.
- Another man had a very serious disease called multiple sclerosis. It crippled him and he would not live very long. The man was very angry and bitter and did not trust God. Cayce explained that it was better that God not heal him unless he changed his feelings and thinking. Otherwise he would use his healed body to do more selfish things.
You can see from these stories that karma is very precise and exact. When we misuse God’s energy is a certain way, that exact thing will come upon us some time later — not to punish us, but so that we can learn to do better and to have compassion for people. In the Bible we learn about the law of karma in the teaching, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
Stories of Good Lessons
The things you are good at in this life are signs of your good karma.
Here are a few examples of good karma.
Roman Legionnaire
1. General George Patton
A great American general and World War II hero, George Patton, wanted to be a soldier from the time he was a little boy. He became a great and powerful soldier. He remembered being a successful warrior in several earlier lifetimes; in Troy with Caesar’s Roman legions and with the Scottish Highlanders. When he went to places he had been in those lives, he knew exactly where to go. Having been there before, these places felt familiar.
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Acropolis
2. Risë Stevens
An opera singer name Risë Stevens was performing in Athens, Greece at the Acropolis.
Suddenly she felt she was in ancient Greece, mentally and physically she felt she was living another life where she had performed on this exact same stage. When she was finished singing, she fainted on the stage.
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Mozart
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A little boy by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began writing and performing his music at age three. We learned about him in our last lesson. How else could he have developed such skill except through former lives?
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Blind Pianist
4. Tom Wiggins
A little boy named Tom Wiggins was the son of slaves in Georgia. He was born blind. His ears however, were just fine. If he heard a song once, he could play it perfectly on the piano. At age eight he began playing concerts and would play anything anyone played first for him to hear. Sometimes he would actually stand up and play the piano with his hands behind his back! He clearly was performing with the skill he had developed in previous lives.
Karma Is the Law of Cause and Effect
The truth of karma is that is a simple law of cause and effect.
Henry Ford, the man who made the first cars
for the general population and the founder
of the Ford Motor Company
was considered by many to be a genius.
Here is what he said about it.
“Genius is experience.
Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent,
but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives.”
Why do we have many lives?
(Pause and let child respond)
When you were first created,
God gave you a special gift,
something you could
contribute to the world
throughout your many
lifetimes. If you do not give
that gift, the world will never
be complete! Did you ever
realize that you mattered so
much? Did you know that
your family, your town, your
country and even our world
needs what you have to give?
That is an awesome thought.
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You special gift
matters to the
whole world.
Do you have any ideas what your special gift may be?
(Pause and let child respond)
Activity 2: Drawing or Painting
Imagine yourself as an adult.
Draw yourself giving the greatest gift
of loving service you can imagine.
Or make something in clay that show or
symbolizes the service you desire to perform.
Activity 3: Karma Wheel
An interesting thing about karma is that when you send energy out into the universe through your thoughts, words and deeds, it is multiplied before it comes back to you.
For this activity you need two white beads, a small bead and a larger bead (about 10x the size of the first bead) and a coat hanger or other piece of heavy wire.
Bend the wire into a circle. Put the two beads on the wire and twist it shut. Hold the wire circle in front of your heart. Push the small bead up and around the circle. When you bring it back to your body, push the larger bead around.
The first white bead represents good a thought, feeling or action that you send out to the universe. The second bead represents what returns to you.
Activity 4: Using your imagination
Make up a story that shows how karma works.
Make a drawing or a diorama to illustrate it
or make up a play about your story that you
and some friends can act out.
Review of Main Points
- We have all lived many times.
- Each of us has a special gift of talents and skills to give to mankind.
- Our souls remember why we were born even if our minds forget.
- We are supposed to grow up spiritually by overcoming challenges of our karma.
- Karma can be both good and bad.
- Bad karma can be problems we face.
- Good karma can be talent and opportunity.