"ANOTHER BASIC URGE of any spirit is to create life, or actually just more organisms of its own kind," he continued once he had settled back down by the fire. "The reasons being firstly, to ensure that there will be enough organisms around for spirits of its own level to attach themselves to, and to ensure that there will be an organism available for its own future experiences. But more important is the fact that by itself, alone, like one particle of matter, it cannot exist. That's why it has an urge to create life, to ensure for itself the experience of life to the fullest. This basic instinct to create life manifests itself in the sexual drive to reproduce, which is nothing else but to ensure spiritual survival. Sex has become more than that - it could be the primitive instinct, an act of true love, plain lust or something in-between, depending on the situation.

"However, there is more to life after life, life before life and life between life than you've cared to think about." He knew how to entice my curiosity but I decided not to ask what he meant. In time he was going to tell me anyway because I had realized that he realized that I knew that he knew exactly what I wanted to know... Something to that effect. Fully aware by then that he sensed my thoughts, it didn't concern me in the least.

"The higher the level of existence of a spirit, the more complex its life-events become. Experiencing all sorts of emotions becomes important. It eventually acquires the capability to distinguish between good and evil, which throws a spanner into the works. But apart from anything else, the spirit is now obsessed with emotions and will try them all: love, fear, anger, hate, happiness, misery, boredom, excitement, you name it. In fact, it will seek out and bring upon itself emotions not yet experienced."

"Are you telling me that a spirit has more than one life, and that it experiences or learns something in each before getting another go at it? What for? Is it like - " He held up his hand.

"Eheh, but one thing at a time. Reincarnation has always been a subject of controversy. It would seem, though, that it is a natural part of life, which ancient peoples knew about and modern man finds more and more evidence of. The mere fact that around 70% of all people believe in life after death, suggests it is widely desired," he stated.

"More factual proof is the now rather common practice of freeing patients from neurotic disorders through a process called hypnotic regression. This technique became popular because it works. At first, psychiatrists and hypnotists alike were able to take subjects back into the past to where some traumatic experience during childhood may have caused a particular phobia or mental problem. Knowledge of that incident and its cause had the remarkable effect of ridding the incumbent of his fear or disorder, mentally and often physically. This is also known as psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud. It was however soon discovered that under hypnosis, subjects could be taken back to many previous lives. This fact caused various psychiatrists, after thousands of case studies, to agree that:

Once guided to another lifetime, the hypnotic subject assumes a different personality and acknowledges a different body while being aware of sharing with this other self the same basic identity. Change of sex and race is commonplace. The past-life personality can be directed to any point between its birth and death and will often discuss freely the experiences of that lifetime in a voice that reflects its age, gender, culture, language, character and placement in historical time. When the store of emotionally significant memories from that life is exhausted, the person in trance then summons up another offshoot of the core identity - another unique personality grappling with a completely different existence.

I had to get something off my chest: "Teecha, where the hell do you come from and how do you know all this? You're not from here, are you? No, don't bother, forget that. Why are you here?"

He remained as unperturbed as before: "I've already told you where I come from and that I'll be whoever you want me to be. And just for the record, especially to racists, male chauvinists and feminists, note that 'change of sex and race is commonplace'."

I felt like sticking out my tongue but managed to imitate his 'Tchi... tchi...' thinking: "And so, I hear, is change of species, old man." He stared at the fire for a long time. When he resumed talking, I wasn't too sure about his sense of humor:

"It isn't funny Ace, unless you expect yourself to return as a sabretooth barking turkey the next time around. You have many scriptures telling you what reincarnation means, like the Bardo Thodol, better known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, dated 800 years before Christ. There is the Brihadaranayaka Upanishad from India and the Egyptian Book of the Dead - its original title being Bring Forth in Light - which dates 1300 years before Christ. And there is the Katha Upanishad of India, from 700 years later. To quote from the latter:

The Self does not die when the body dies. Concealed in the heart of all beings lies the 'atma', the Spirit, the Self; smaller than the smallest atom, greater than the greatest spaces.

"By the way Ace," he added suddenly, "did man discover the atom in this age?" His question must have been rhetorical so I didn't answer.

"Rebirth is the underlying doctrine of most religions," he continued, "whether taught that there is only one spiritual life hereafter or many more to come. If you believe in reincarnation or resurrection, in other words in another life after death, there may just as well be many such lives, especially if you consider that eternity has time to spare.

"Scientific and psychoanalytic investigations, apart from the scriptures, suggest that a spirit has more than one life. The state of existence between death and a spirit's next physical life, is described in The Tibetan Book of the Dead as the Bardo."

The kettle was singing away and I got up to make coffee. Teecha picked up his pipe, stretched his legs and walked a few meters to the perimeter of the firelight where he started playing it. Facing the darkness his body slowly danced to the rhythm of a song unknown to me, which sent weird tunes into the night. That strange, disturbing feeling of déjà vu, realizing that you are at a place you know very well but physically couldn't have been there before, was very strong. I was positive I had seen Teecha standing just like that, playing his pipe, sometime before... No, it must have been then and there - the scene was too familiar. I kept on listening. When he paused again, I shoved my emotions aside and called him for coffee. I realized with surprise that I had made it without being aware of doing so; tasting it for sugar, I handed him a mug.

"Teecha, you seem to be sure of a spiritual life and it certainly sounds feasible from all those facts. But even if it is so, for what reasons then - why can't we just live one life and get done with it?"

There was a long noisy sip and then he clicked his tongue. "I mentioned that a spirit at human level wants and needs to experience all possible emotions and to gain spiritual growth. It is unlikely to achieve all of that in a lifetime of 70 to 80 years, should you be lucky to survive that long. This in itself suggests that you'll need more time - probably a few lifetimes. When a spirit reaches the human level of existence, together with his newfound knowledge of good and evil, it conducts experiments and plays games and wins some and loses some. As part of its spiritual adventures it has multiple choices. As it becomes proficient at the game it sees a few moves ahead, like a good chess player does. But in this case the opponent is Life, always with a few surprises up her sleeve..."

"There are rules and tactics to all games and to become a 'pro' requires some coaching. For advice on how to live, it associates with spirits at its own or higher levels through many life events, to acquire the necessary experience and knowledge. It needs other spirits to teach it - or rather to show it - what in fact it already knows: All of you know more than you think you do, you merely need to accept and to understand what you already know."

"At humans' level, association with other spirits shows itself in many ways, like society and norms, culture, religion, family and sport. It also shows in the choice of a mate, friends and work environment. You say people are spiritually attracted, there is a bond between them or that they are 'soul mates'. All this means is that most spirits need other spirits to help them along. Somehow you always find them.

"What's more, at human levels of consciousness, some spirits realize their spiritual existence and try to gain experiences not related to their present physical forms. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 21, you are free to 'Test everything and to hold on to the good', aren't you Ace?"

"Yes, I suppose so. Now correct me if I'm wrong: to experience and understand everything there is will probably take a little longer than eternity, unless like you say, we have some guidance. And provided we live more than once, to experience death and other states of consciousness too. It all seems a bit complicated to me - will we ever get there?"

Teecha looked pleased for a change. "Apart from the spirit's awareness of its own self, there are other types of consciousness. One of these is termed collective consciousness - every living thing is conscious of other spirits around it, whether they exist in a material form or not, whether they be good or evil or whether they are primitive or highly intelligent. We are aware of one another, and dependant on each other. The mere fact that you are aware of material spirits around you right now - like the nightjar who just called, or that chirping cricket - is proof of this.

"The fact that you may not be able to perceive immaterial spiritual beings with your normal senses, or that you have not yet proved the existence of extraterrestrials, is no reason to deny their being. Most of you know about them subconsciously, which on occasion turns your skin into gooseflesh or makes the hair in the back of your neck stand on end.

"Another type is super-consciousness or universal consciousness. Many philosophers have discussed the subject and most religions suggest such a state of complete awareness in the afterlife.

"As it says in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

"During investigations on regression to past lives, it was found that incumbents often experienced a state of awareness they could hardly describe in words afterwards. This was so extraordinary that it was termed Metaconsciousness:

A supremely paradoxical state of memory awareness in which the percipient loses all sense of personal identity by merging into existence itself, only to become more intensely self-aware than ever.

To experience metaconsciousness is to reach beyond three-dimensional reality to learn one's reason for being...

"This awareness is the reason why man dreams about becoming, and strives to become, like the Ultimate Spirit. Your religions furnish you with the Dos and Don'ts of how to achieve it and some of you perceive that final stage to be heaven. If heaven with its pearly gates or hell with the devil's fork were all there is to life, what could be more boring? Ace, deep inside you know as well as I do that there is much, much more - if only you would tune in to the all encompassing life force, if you unchain yourself from useless and rotten beliefs, if you overcome your fears and explore new ideas and horizons. If you'd only realize that:

We are all there for each other, dependant on one another and all a part of one great organism, ONE Spirit."

© 2008, Uys Lafra, All Rights Reserved

Excerpted from the book, The San Piper: Encounter With An Otherworldly Bushman © 2008 by Uys Lafra. Printed with permission from O Books, Winchester, UK. Click on the thumbnail below to learn more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Uys Lafra has spent his life in the computer industry in South Africa. Bewteen 1989 and 1992 he took a sabbatical and ran safaris in Namibia and Botswana, where he met ‘Teecha’ the Bushman, featured on the cover.