hydrolad said:
As a sidenote here, I have believed for a very long time (at least in this lifetime) that a crucial part of us survives the physical death we all have to go through, for the body is just a carrier for the soul.
I already mentioned the following information in this forum but I guess I can repeat it. It's about the ancient Egyptians' "Division Of The Self". They had more sub divisions than just body, mind, and spirit.
In her book Initiation Elisabeth Haich tells how after she died physically some part of her spirit was still attached to her mummy. She was traveling along with her mummy during her funeral.
This may be why for example when an evil pharaoh came into power they would vandalize the statues of their predecessors. They may have believed that some part of the previous pharaohs could come into their statues. And they were probably correct.
I recommend that book. It's on my short list of all time great books about mystical subjects and it is relevant to reincarnation. That book is related to the mysterious Egyptian initiation rites.
Here's another good one:
Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's Library of Mystical Classics) [Paperback] Earlyne Chaney (Author)
The initiation process was used to cause people to reach very high levels of spiritual evolution. There were different levels of initiation. The subject of initiation comes up in books about philosophy and mystical subjects. Initiation rites were performed not only in Egypt but other places like Mexico.
Apparently Elisabeth Haich and Earlyne Chaney were able to remember their past lives in Egypt in vivid detail as a result of experiencing the initiation rites.
Earlyne said the goddess Isis gave her an important mission to fulfill when she had a vision of her initiation inside the Great Pyramid in the 20th century.
However something went horribly wrong when Earlyne tried to fulfill this mission. I have read some of her other books which I don't necessarily recommend.
Isis and those others are real as the Egyptians correctly believed. Isis is her Greek name. Her name is Aset in Egyptian mythology.
Zeus is also found in the Egyptian religion as is Horus / Apollo.
That crackpot book The Da Vinci Code did say something interesting about Da Vinci. The name 'Mona Lisa' is the backward spelling of two Egyptian gods that represent male and female sexuality.
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I just finished this book which verified what I had heard that the ancient Egyptians identified more than just body, mind, and spirit as making up an individual:
Egyptian Heritage: Based on the Edgar Cayce Readings
That book is actually a more concise summary of Edgar Cayce's statements concerning the origins of the Egyptian civilization:
Edgar Cayce's Egypt: Psychic Revelations on the Most Fascinating Civilization Ever Known
The author, Mark Lehner, was referring to a book by E. A. Wallis Budge about The Egyptian Book Of The Dead which contains their 'Divisions Of The Self' that I am listing below.
Divisions Of The Self
a. Khat - the physical body of man considered as a whole
b. Ab - the heart, the source of life, good and evil, and the conscience.
c. Ka - translated "double". an ethereal alter ego which could leave the body in the tomb and inhabit any statue of the deceased. this life form could also enjoy life with the gods in Heaven.
d. Ba - the heart-soul, which could assume material and non material forms. it enjoyed eternal existence, and could unite with or leave the body at will. it was for the Ka and Ba that food offerings were left in the tomb.
e. Khaibit - associated with the Ba. "the shadow" could also leave the body at will and travel wherever it pleased.
f. Sekhem - "vital force" or "life force" of the individual. it is believed to dwell in heaven with the Khu. it is a term that translators are hard put to define.
g. Khu - the spirit-soul, the immortal part of man which went to heaven as soon as the body died.
h. Sahu - the lasting, incorruptible spirit-body, which incorporated all the ethereal elements of man within it.
i. Ren - the name of a man, believed to dwell in Heaven. the Egyptians were very careful to preserve their names because they believed that one existed only as long as his name was preserved.
According to Budge, "the whole man consisted of a natural body, a Spirit-body, a heart, a double, a Heart-soul, a shadow, a Spirit-soul, and a name. All these were, however, bound together inseparably, and the welfare of any single one of them concerned the welfare of all."
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