Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Welcome to Lessons from The Helpful Dead, where you learn that the world is not what it seems, and you are much more than you think you are. Here you'll learn about positive and reassuring messages from supposedly dead people whose main purpose is to help us find out what happens after we die, why we're here, how we got here, where we're going, and discover that you are really a powerful, eternal spirit. I'm Dan McInerney. Today we'll discuss how the big picture perspective can bring peace of mind to some people who are facing particular challenges in life today. First, it's important for me to point out that the big picture perspective does not give you the answers to everything. That's because it's a perspective for our human intellects, um, and which by the very nature are very limited and focused narrowly. It's not designed to have all the answers about all the other worlds in which we exist.
Speaker 1 00:01:10 It's designed to help us cope in this one. The big picture perspective tells us that there's much more to reality than we ever dreamt of that there's an unimaginably huge complex conglomeration of universes out there beyond our tiny little corner. And what we've got is a very general map of a few of the main roads leading to some of the nearest universes. So we've got a lot of exploring it to do, a lot of finding out the finding, experiencing and understanding yet ahead of us, and an infinite number of questions yet to be asked. So how can it have all the answers? It can't, but it can give you peace of mind about many things right here and now, and we'll take a look at a few of the things that, uh, bother some people and how the big picture perspective might help. First, for those of you who've adopted a child, you know, few things are as positive as adoption.
Speaker 1 00:02:07 Isn't it wonderful that so many humans know they were truly wanted, so much so that other humans went to great expense and effort to get the right to raise them. But there's a lingering doubt on the part of some about the relationship between adoptive parents and their children. Is it really as good as the relationship between, uh, so-called physical body parents and their children wasn't the child meant to be with its so-called natural mother, and some adopted children may wonder throughout their life why they were given up for adoption, perhaps devoting a lot of emotion to thinking about what life might have been like had they been kept by their birth parents? Well, the big picture perspective provides a lot of reassurance for any adopted child or adoptive parent. It tells us that the entity coming into a body can see the general lines of probability ahead for that body before it decides to take up permanent resonance.
Speaker 1 00:03:08 This means that the entity could certainly see the strong probability that it would be adopted by a particular set of parents. Here's how it works. The entity wishes to have a relationship in that lifetime with those adoptive parents. It understands that the available physical vehicle is the birth mother, so it chooses to be born to her knowing it would very quickly be transferred to the adoptive parents. So the intent was to have a lifetime relationship with the adoptive parents, not with the birth mother. And the intent is realized with adoption. Now, this is not to deny the consciousness of the body itself. With so many heart transplants, we have ample evidence that personality traits can be transferred through just a body part, let alone an entire body. A conservative, conservative, older woman, for example, she developed the beer drinking and gambling traits that were part of the personality of the young man whose heart she received.
Speaker 1 00:04:13 Certainly many physical and some emotional and intellectual traits are handed down via cell consciousness and the physical body's d n a in terms of the eternal spirit, however, and the choices it makes as to who it will share a particular lifetime with. Be assured, the spirit of the adopted child has wound up precisely where it intended to. All right. The next subject, uh, I'll address is, uh, for anyone whose uh, child is born with a birth defect. A woman I knew, uh, many years ago was a thalidomide baby, born without legs. She was pretty and highly successful in business. But why you may ask if we know ahead of time before we enter the physical body around the time of birth, would any spirit choose such a body as its vehicle for expression? From the big picture perspective, the answer is because it suited that particular spirit's purpose for incarnating into this probability.
Speaker 1 00:05:21 At this time, at a meeting of medical and educational professionals, which I, I was, uh, privileged to observe many years ago, a woman who works with brain damaged children described the case of a boy. Then in his teens with whom she'd been working for a number of years, not quite autistic, he was by any standard measure, almost completely cut off communicatively from the rest of the world. Now, this woman asked the 20 or so people in the room to tune in to the spirit in this body and asked what message it might have for them, especially as to its purposes in this life. It was interesting to listen as each person told what they had picked up impressively, they had all gotten parts of the following overall message. In essence, that message said, do not think you know what is best for me. Listen to what I want.
Speaker 1 00:06:19 It is because I am a far ranging entity who chooses to experience extremes in the larger universe, that many souls of less adventurous nature would avoid, that I have the courage and ability to come into a body such as this. Because I communicate in other realms with such vigor and intensity, it's far more feasible for me to en endure an existence in which I cannot communicate at all than it would be for many. In some instances, a spirit will enter a body and play a role like this in order to teach an entire family a lesson it needs or wants to learn. It sets up interactions that will benefit the sole growth of all family members. In other instances, this kind of life is experienced for personal reasons, which may range from adventure to curiosity, to balancing the experience of other aspects of the self.
Speaker 1 00:07:18 All right now, uh, for those of you who suffer from serious birth defects, and for any parents who may harbor any misplaced guilt or may have experienced a lot of anguish, the big picture perspective reminds us that the big you in this case was well aware of future probabilities when it chose to enter around the time of birth and had good reasons for its own, of its own, rather for enduring such an existence. It also recognizes that the entity who comes into such a challenging situation is more courageous and bold than the average soul willing to take on tougher challenges and equipped to do so. At the soul level, you might compare them to the mountain climbers, polar explorers, the adventurers and extreme sports athletes among us living. They have their reasons, and some of those re reasons may be to give us a chance to react and learn from their experience in a way that's best for our purposes.
Speaker 1 00:08:21 From the big picture perspective, then even birth defects can be understood as having their purpose in the overall scheme of things and suiting the individual purposes of individual souls. Like any other apparent misfortune, a birth defect also gives some souls a chance to know the experience of providing help and support to another soul who has chosen an e especially difficult role and sorely needs that help in our here and now illusion. Along somewhat related lines, I'll also address those who might have had a child who died young. Now, many of the observations about children with birth defects could be made about children who were born perfectly healthy, perhaps with many specially positive qualities in terms of their intellect, artistic talents, athletic prowess, personality, and even spiritual insights. And who then, for one reason or another, die at an early age? Well, the, the big picture perspective would have you recognize that they may be special spirits who came in for a short time to be stoke blessings on us in the human time space, illusion, perhaps serving as a model for us to learn from or be nourished by, uh, only to leave according to plan.
Speaker 1 00:09:46 And that plan could be accident, disease, war, or whatever. When that primary purpose was accomplished, they never had any intention to stay longer and indeed may have had other more pressing matters to tend to in other parts of the universe. Now turning to another issue, the battle of the, uh, sexes. It seems to be affecting quite a number of people these days. The big picture perspective makes you realize that the polarization of women against men is not natural, and that those who strike a militant stance are focusing in the wrong direction. Since all of us have both fe male and female qualities, it makes sense instead to try to strive for balance for harmony between the sexes and for acting in a manner that reinforces for the opposite sex, all of the beautiful things about their femininity or masculinity. It's understandable that women needed to bring things into better balance in the United States in the past century, and it's obvious that the imbalance is much greater in many other parts of the world.
Speaker 1 00:10:58 However, when fighting a battle, it's too easy to become attached to an extreme emotional position, which tends to see the other sex as an enemy. Now, that type of mindset tends to make people react to other people as a member of a group rather than as individuals. It diminishes their ability to encounter any other human being with a loving acceptance and a sincere desire to touch their life in a positive way. That's not good for growth. It's not good for enrichment of their eternal spirit. So if you were someone you know is caught up in the battle of the sexes, withdrawn gently by starting to focus on the similarities, not the differences, and on the goodness of the qualities of the other sex, not on what in your opinion needs changing, you'll get the changes you want probably a lot more quickly with a lot less of the soul stunting stress that always occurs when a person puts intense energies into being against something.
Speaker 1 00:12:01 Remember, with the understanding of the big picture, we know there are not opposites, but rather merging tendencies. We all know that we get what we concentrate upon, and that can be harmony or it can be strife. The choice is yours. The last subject I'll address today is, uh, the matter of if you think you can't be good and have wealth also. Right. A lot of people think that, well, the big picture perspective resolves this seeming dilemma. It recognizes, of course, that the big scoreboard keeps a tally on emotions and feelings not on possessions gathered. You want beautiful, satisfied feelings be of service to others. It's no secret want to attract a lot of people who are trying to cheat you, defame you or scheme behind your back for your downfall. Very simple. Make the pursuit of riches your primary goal in life to the exclusion of other values.
Speaker 1 00:13:01 In the big picture though, you are also aware of the elusory nature of our reality and our connection to every living thing. So if we really take it to heart, the majority of us would want to share more often the positive parts of the illusion with those who are part of us just for the self satisfaction it brings. Does this mean we need to renounce our pleasures and give all our money to the poor? No. As we're set up right now, we need money to survive and we need capital formation to support the startup and growth of businesses that will provide employment to more and more people. Most of us have no financial safety net that would take us past a year or two of unemployment or disability. So we need some savings, but with without a safety net, we don't have to proceed on the so-called scarcity basis.
Speaker 1 00:13:57 We can recognize the truth, that we can continually create more abundance so that there will be more and more to share. It doesn't have to be being of service to others versus the good life. It can be being of service to others and the good life. We can have it both ways. There's nothing wrong with abundance. It's a positive and to be welcomed. The danger in terms of making soul progress is that it's easy to become addicted to that particular illusion, to the point where we disregard other basic values. On the other hand, if you manage to handle abundance in a way that brings pleasure to you and a lot of others, if you can amplify it and spread it around with joy as you'd spread positive energy and good cheer at a party, why you've probably done all right for yourself on a lot of scoreboards, it seems to me that a lot of, uh, 20th and 21st century entrepreneurs have done just that.
Speaker 1 00:15:00 So with the big picture, you can welcome abundance and not feel guilty about it. You can use it compassionately, wisely, and imaginatively to help yourself and as many other people as you possibly can. Giving it away directly is only one of the compassionate ways to use your abundance. You can decide for yourself when and if your ratio of stored up treasures to quote charitable giving gets out of balance. It's easy to restore the balance by giving more or doing more. Well, that, uh, concludes today's session and in the next session we'll address, uh, some other issues that concern, uh, quite a few people and how the big picture perspective can help bring peace of mind there. Again, I'm Dan McIn, bringing you lessons from the helpful Dead.
