Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 2, Issue 9, 1 March 2018 | Page 24

Karma is not seen as punishment but rather as the fate we
create for ourselves as a result of our actions in this and previous
lives. We are not meant to suffer because of our misdeeds but to
learn from them and integrate what we have learned into our
current life.
Evolution of the soul comes about through choice - making
choices big and small, and experiencing the Karmic effects of each
choice. A soul evolves most effectively by facing and making
choices as a separate individual, a distinct physical form. To do so,
the soul incarnates - that is, the soul fuses with a human body for a
whole lifetime, from birth to death.
The soul undergoes the full range of meaningful human
experiences and choices by reincarnating. One human lifetime is
not enough to experience the whole gamut of life circumstances
and to make all choices. For example, the soul needs to
experience life as both male and female; as both victim and
perpetrator; as both student and teacher. Hence, the soul re-
incarnates many times over in order to experience the full
spectrum of life. Being human again and again with a different
body (and different life circumstances) each time enables the soul
to experience the full range of possible perspectives and
relationships and all the lessons that these entail. Through many
different human experiences, the soul gradually becomes more
self-aware, gradually discovers more of its true capabilities and
gradually learns how to overcome the illusory limitations of being
physical.
Generally, the soul learns best through a “compare and contrast”
process, not through blind repetition. Hence, any given lifetime
may be completely different in some way from the last one. From
the soul’s point of view, there is little value in repeating the same
kind of life again and again (unless, that is, there is a specific
lesson within that life which has yet to be learned - in which case,
the movie Groundhog Day would be an excellent metaphor).
Each human lifetime is an opportunity to learn specific lessons.
One lifetime, for example, might focus on learning greater self-
responsibility while the next might focus on being more empathetic
to others. If in one lifetime the soul experiences being a wealthy
individual who wields power over others, for instance, it would then
be of value to contrast that with the experience of living in poverty
and powerlessness. The soul has no preference for one side of the