Harold Klemp - Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel

Past Lives,
Dreams, and
Soul Travel

Also by Harold Klemp

The Art of Spiritual Dreaming

Ask the Master, Books 1 and 2

Autobiography of a Modern Prophet

Child in the Wilderness

A Cosmic Sea of Words: The ECKANKAR Lexicon

The Language of Love

The Living Word, Books 1 and 2

LoveThe Keystone of Life

A Modern Prophet Answers Your Key Questions about Life

Soul Travelers of the Far Country

The Spiritual Exercises of ECK

The Spiritual Laws of Life

The Temple of ECK

The Wind of Change

Your Road Map to the ECK Teachings: ECKANKAR Study Guide

Youth Ask a Modern Prophet about Life, Love, and God

The Mahanta Transcripts Series

Journey of Soul, Book 1

How to Find God, Book 2

The Secret Teachings, Book 3

The Golden Heart, Book 4

Cloak of Consciousness, Book 5

Unlocking the Puzzle Box, Book 6

The Eternal Dreamer, Book 7

The Dream Master, Book 8

We Come as Eagles, Book 9

The Drumbeat of Time, Book 10

What Is Spiritual Freedom? Book 11

How the Inner Master Works, Book 12

The Slow Burning Love of God, Book 13

The Secret of Love, Book 14

Our Spiritual Wake-Up Calls, Book 15

How to Survive Spiritually in Our Times, Book 16

Stories to Help You See God in Your Life

The Book of ECK Parables, Volume 1

The Book of ECK Parables, Volume 2

The Book of ECK Parables, Volume 3

Stories to Help You See God in Your Life, ECK Parables, Book 4

This book has been authored by and published under the supervision of the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master, Sri Harold Klemp. It is the Word of ECK.

Past Lives,
Dreams, and
Soul Travel

Harold Klemp

ECKANKAR
Minneapolis

Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel

Copyright 2003 ECKANKAR

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Eckankar.

The terms ECKANKAR, ECK, EK, MAHANTA, SOUL TRAVEL, and VAIRAGI, among others, are trademarks of ECKANKAR, P.O. Box 27300, Minneapolis, MN 55427 U.S.A.

Printed in U.S.A.

Compiled by Mary Carroll Moore

Edited by Joan Klemp and Anthony Moore

Text illustrations by Rebecca Lorio

Cover illustration by Merrill Peterson

Cover design by Doug Munson

Second Printing2004

E-pub Edition 2012 ECKANKAR

eISBN: 978-1-57043-370-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Klemp, Harold.

Past lives, dreams, and soul travel / Harold Klemp.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 1-57043-182-5 (alk. paper)

1. Eckankar (Organization) 2. Reincarnation. 3. Dreams. 4. Astral projection. I. Title.

BP605.E3 K56465 2003
299.93dc21

2002029954

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

A certain belief was drummed into me as a boy about life after death. It was the idea that at death Soul sleeps until the final day of judgment, that death marks a time of complete unconsciousness. But this notion rang like a wooden sleigh bell.

To me, such a state of death afforded the horrors of a nightmare.

I grew up on a farm. Family life meant raising and caring for horses, cattle, hogs, chickens, cats, and a couple of dogs, as well as planting crops to feed them and us. But just as important, our family felt a pull toward our church on Sundays for spiritual food. Church was at once a religious and a social center. Of course, all came to worship God, but the days spice was the after-worship visit with neighbors outside the church doors.

Men weighed in on land, cattle, crops, or local issues. Women scarfed up tidbits about family, health, cooking, or their kids at school. Boys kidded each other, while girls shared their own brand of concerns or silliness.

However, few discussed religion. The church service was over.

Nearly everyone in church was part of some bigger family circle. It was natural, then, that everyone knew everyone else, so a church service was a reunion of friends and relatives.

During those years, Grandpa and Grandma often lived on the family farm with one of their adult children. The grandparents, wise and beloved elders, helped care for the grandchildren, did light chores, but still rode herd on their grown children. In time, of course, the old ones would pass on one by one. The day of such a ones funeral was like a Sunday in that farmers did the bare morning and evening chores, milking cows and cleaning the barn.

A Souls passing was thus a day of worship, yet one of sadness too.

Children were on hand the days or weeks before a grandparents passing. The process of dying had not yet become sanitized and hidden away as it is today, when the sick and elderly go to age and die away from home. The fact of dying happened right before our eyes. We saw death on many occasions.

While death meant the loss of someone near and dear to us, it was not the mysterious vanishing of an elder seen but once or twice a year on some festive occasion.

More than that, a rural child watched parents and neighbors prepare for the funeral. He overheard them on the phone. They called each other to express sorrow, offer consolation, and perhaps give a gentle commentary about the good character of the departedwhether true or not.

The final good-byes came at church. Whole families, from baby to most feeble elder, attended the funeral service if health and weather allowed. Our congregation first listened to the pastor give the funeral blessings. Then, the entire assembly filed out to the cemetery by the church where the coffins vault sank into a dark, gloomy hole and the piles of fresh earth were tidied over with green ground cloths. We boys stayed to watch four assigned farmers shovel the grave shut. Last, we raced to the church basement for a hearty meal of fellowship prepared by the Ladies Aid Society.

It was at such country funerals that doubts sprang to mind about the sleep state of an individual at death. Everyone in church made the assumption that the human body and Soul body were one and the same.

Years later, I learned of other thoughts on the matter. Eckankar taught the fact of Souls ability to leave the body in full consciousness at time of death.

Yes, the church held to its dark philosophy. The physical body, it said, would decay and serve as worm food, but on the Last Day a more glorious body would rise from the grave. That would mark Souls victory over death.

But these tenets lent me little peace of mind.

What kid wouldnt have traded an eyetooth for a ringside seat at the cemetery on that last, great day? What a chance to catch the spectacle of a lifetime. Graves opening, and seeing all those people helping each other out of the ground? A splendid show. (Better than a county fair!)

Yet for all the promise of excitement, an ominous cloud threw its shadow over this one-of-a-kind presentation. What were the odds of this spectacle taking place in my lifetime? A million to one? No, a trillion. That left a most unhappy prospect. Would I be another of the billions and billions of unlucky Souls trapped in a dark prison hole for a thousand or ten thousand years? Not a bright and cheery picture for a kid with claustrophobia.