From: pul@milton.u.washington.edu ()
Subject: Abortion in the New Age movement?
Followup-To: talk.religion.newage
Summary: Channel the fetus and ask it what it thinks!
Keywords: abortion
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 21:51:48 GMT


I remember once reading, when the abortion controversy was a hot topic
in the news, an interview with a Bhuddist lady and her views on the
issue. She made the statement which amounted to, that the pro-choice
position takes the welfare of the mother into account but not the
baby, and that the pro-life position takes the welfare of the baby
into account but not the mother. The proper way of course is to have
true concern for all involved, and take action based on this.

A whole extra dimension is added to the abortion question when one
takes so called New Age or metaphysical views into account. (Hence the
odd combination of the two groups I'm posting this message to - is
this an unusual cross posting or what? :) For those of you in
talk.abortion, I have to point out that in metaphysical circles, the
following principles are taken to be true: an eternal soul that lives
forever, reincarnation in past and future lifetimes, desire for
spiritual growth, the law of karma (i.e. every cause has its effect,
as you sow, so do you reap), and the reality of channeling -
communication between humans and those in the spirit world being
possible. Proving or validating any of these precepts is not the
subject of this article, but I do think those who are heavily involved
in the abortion debate might find these concepts to be of interest, or
at least different from that they are used to! (Hit 'n' now if you
don't like metaphysics.) For those in talk.religion.newage, these
topics shouldn't be out of the ordinary, but I do give my apologies in
advance and take full responsibility if what I hope to be an
interesting thread turns into a flame war!

In a local New Age newspaper, the abortion controversy recently flared
up for a few months in articles and letters to the editor. The
(metaphysical) arguments presented for each side, however, were a bit
different from the normal ones.

Much of the gist of the pro-life arguments were of that one should not
interfere with the karmic process of the incoming soul. In other
words, someone planning an incarnation, must go through the difficulty
of choosing a set of parents to be born to, finding an appropriate
astrological configuration to have as a natal chart, and so on.
Aborting this soul would be a set back, and would deny it the
opportunity for its incarnation, and delay its next chance for
physical existence a long while. Also, one could gain bad karma for
aborting this fetus, since they are terminating the physical life of
the soul, even though it be at the very beginnings of it. For example,
they could karmically set themself up to be aborted *themselves* at
the beginning of their own next life!

The pro-choice position takes the same metaphysical concepts, and
generates a completely different view. Since a soul is immortal, one
can never truly "kill" it, and since there is reincarnation, one can
never be permanently denied a physical life. As for karma, if a fetus
gets aborted, wouldn't it then be *its* karma, i.e. nobody gets
aborted if it's not in their karma. Therefore, what is wrong with
having an abortion? Of course discussing karma in this context gets a
little abstract if one takes these lines much further, with the
concepts of fate, free-will, the oneness and connection between all
things, and so on being introduced.

In a different article in the same metaphysical newspaper, one lady
seems to have come up with an effective solution to reconcile the
differing views, which insures the happiness of all involved. She
offers a service where she and the prospective mother channel and
communicate with the soul of the fetus, its immortal soul of course
meaning that behind each baby there is an intelligent spiritual being.
The mother communicates to the soul of the fetus that she does not
wish to have the baby, that she is not presently prepared to take care
of it right, and so on. The incoming soul usually agrees to willingly
leave the mother (except for a few special cases, e.g. the baby is
destined to be the next president) and thus a technical abortion is
unnecessary. In fact, in most cases, the spirit will leave the fetus
on its own, and the mother will miscarriage. In a few cases though, a
clinical "abortion" is necessary to help the spirit make a clean break
from the physical world. As for karma of the situation, the karma
seems to be in the consultation itself, i.e. the soul of the fetus
desired to help the woman learn more about herself; often the spirit
discusses with the mother the issues behind why she became pregnant in
the first place. Sometimes it turns out that the mother had her own
"inner child self" denied and desires to have a baby so it can
experience what she wasn't able to, and they then discuss why such a
relation wouldn't be good for the spirit or for her, and the spirit
helps her in the healing process.

Thus both the welfare of the mother and baby are taken into account
before action is taken, and the abortion controversy has been
eliminated in the above case. The only precondition for this, of
course, are the validity of the metaphysical concepts, but that is
another subject. Follow ups to the appropriate newsgroups.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
|      Walter D. "Cruiser1" Pullen     -     pul@milton.u.washington.edu      |
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
|   "Who am I, What am I?  As I am, I am not.  But as we are, I AM.  And to   |
-   you my creation, My Perfect Love is your Perfect Freedom. And I will be   -
|   with you forever and ever, until the End, and then forever more." - GOD   |
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Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage,alt.alien.visitors,sci.skeptic