“All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons [and daughters] of earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”—Chief Seattle

There is no doubt that each member of creation links into a network that in turn interweaves systems that interconnect grander patterns. From the tiniest microbe to the complex universe, everything is joined and actively works to maintain the integrity of its wholeness.

Here are some examples of visible connections:

• Pesky ants were destroyed by city planners in Southern California, and months later there were no butterflies.
• Dust blowing in from the Sahara nourishes the rainforests of the Amazon. Without the dust, the rainforests suffer.
• A tourist concessionaire set up shop in a cave near a forest of saguaro trees in Arizona. The cave turned out to be a roosting place for Sanborn bats, which crosspollinate saguaros; ridding the cave of the bats disrupted the pollination pattern for hundreds of miles around. This jeopardized future saguaro growth and reduced their numbers by 75 percent.

Following are some examples of invisible connections:

• A field of crops not in proper nutritional balance will emit a sound, much like crying, which will attract to it the very insects, bacteria, and substances needed for its restoration or destruction.
• A human being not in proper balance physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually will subconsciously set up a vibrational “signal” which will attract to him or her the very diseases, accidents, or incidents necessary for that individual’s redirection, rebirth, or death.

Nothing is hidden, only ignored. Violence, death, the rise of cultures and climates, our individual trials and accomplishments and heartaches, begin to take on different characteristics once we shift the level of our focus. What we see and experience depends entirely on the angle with which it is viewed for definition. To put it another way, where we stand determines what we see. Only our attitudes, our beliefs, block us from recognizing the makeup of the world as it exists.

We cannot choose a course of action or even engage in a given activity without the “ripples” of what we’re doing affecting people and places and systems and things within or beyond our field of awareness. We hold the power to effect change—each one of us do—and to a much greater extent than we choose to realize.

Our greater self holds the curriculum that our lesser self seeks to apply. It’s all the same self. The only difference between the two is one of vibration. As an individual, we can ignore the realms of spirit and cast aside any notion of a soul or higher self, and identify only with our ego and what we witness in the physical world around us. Or we can awaken to the reality that there is something greater than the ego self, something better, and much more beyond that.

We Can't Control Everything, But We Can Learn From It All

It has often been said that we create our own reality as individuals. In the sense that we have the power of invention and choice, this is true. But we can and do make mistakes, have accidents, slip up, deviate, or detour away from our goals and dreams. Since this occurs, why do our spiritual leaders insist that there are no accidents and that everything is known ahead of time? This claim runs counter to our gift of free will.

What I witnessed revealed to me that we cannot control everything that happens to us in life. Other forces intervene. But we can control our responses. We can use each incident that occurs to our advantage. Whether or not it’s part of our life path, we can learn from it. We can benefit. Never is there a moment when all is lost, not even when conditions appear otherwise.

We can choose again. The trick is to learn how to choose wisely. The way I deal with this is to surrender my will to God’s will, to that purpose of larger import than my own. This act allows the lesser and the greater to merge. When I remember to do this, my life “flows” in a steady stream of miracles, large and small.

The right to choose does not guarantee protection or outcomes. But it does enable us to adjust to ever-changing landscapes consciously and thoughtfully. Accidents that intrude upon our life and mistakes that set us back or complicate issues are possible to overturn when we accept the responsibility we have in the decision-making process. Not to choose is still a choice.

Working Together for the Good of the Whole

The claim that “there are no accidents,” that we alone create our reality, falls into place once we realize that because of free will we can reshape, readjust, and realign more than we think—as an individual and as a soul. Details can alter, outcomes can change, but the end result is always “on course,” as all things sooner or later work together for the good of the whole—whether or not we made it happen.

Have you ever studied the chaos theory in mathematics? Briefly put, it shows how new order emerges from disorder; how no matter the extent of devastation or destruction that occurs, the various systems involved automatically mutate in ways that transform and transfigure one whole into another one as if “orchestrated.” There is rhythm, grace, and beauty in whatever seems chaotic: a progressive orderliness that interweaves what appear to be “random” events.

I have recognized this phenomenon, this miracle, in the lives of people and businesses and nations and landscape expanses. Regardless of the situation, be it positive or negative, energy out of balance with itself will build up to where a “tipping point” is reached, to where circumstances get “top heavy” from the “weight” of intense pressure and stress. When this happens the situation topples over or shifts form.

The law of chaos guarantees this. It is what led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to every tyranny that ever existed, to every paradise ever built, and to every economy that ignored the growing needs of its people. Energy seeks its own balance. If something blocks this movement, something else will come along to remove the block.

Growth Events Come In All Shapes And Sizes

In the human family, I call these “block removers” growth events. They can be negative or positive or both; they repeat if we miss one, or they can be a series, one right after another. Some examples of growth events are: losing when we were certain we would win, or winning when we were certain we would lose; forced to slow down when we wanted to go faster, or forced to speed up when we wanted to go slow; suffering when we wanted to prosper, or prospering when we were unprepared or even unwilling. A growth event is any kind of sudden, unexpected twist in life that twirls you around and changes your attitudes and stretches your mind.

Growth events give us an opportunity to face our inner selves and “clean house,” to glimpse the collective mind and higher realities, to expand past that which limits, to discover the impossible, and experience the so-called “paranormal” (that something “extra” beyond what is typical).

The soul experiences growth events, too. I call them learning cycles. This is what I learned about the learning cycles of the soul: These cycles evolve around an overall theme and are planned according to whatever is necessary to carry out and fulfill the theme.

For instance, if the soul wanted to explore the nature of courage, it would plan various incidents and opportunities that would enable it as an individual of flesh and bone to embark upon such explorations. Time would not matter, since time has a different meaning to a soul than it does to a human personality.

These thematic soul cycles can be fulfilled in one lifetime, cover a series of lifetimes, or happen in different or multiple forms of existence on other levels besides that of the earth plane. Results depend on how the soul develops along the way, what it learns.

Souls can unite in groups for the initiation and carry through of a common purpose, mission, or goal. Tremendous amounts of focused energy are produced and released when souls do this, enough to influence sweeping changes in society or cause major alterations in the world at large.

Commitments like this often involve souls who choose to be born into bodies in the earth plane during the same time-frame. This enables them to either be part of each other’s lives or interact with each other in significant ways that will affect the larger human condition; for example, signers of the Declaration of Independence, all men in their twenties and thirties, whose courage and intelligence made a nation out of diverse parts, and families, like the Kennedys, who, aside from being a tightly knit bunch prone to personal foibles, sponsored service-oriented projects that benefited millions.

Moving Mountains Together

Groups of committed souls can “move mountains” in what they can accomplish. Those I’ve recognized in my research and in the spirit journeys I have taken created pivot points, major junctures, in human and planetary activity for the working-out of a greater plan. Death on a massive scale sometimes followed their efforts (i.e., the sinking of the Titanic; the Holocaust; September 11, 2001, when planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon).

The reasons why have not always been mine to know, but, since my own death experiences, I have at least been able to access the inner planes of the spirit realms where the detachment necessary to appreciate the larger view is possible to attain. How I would define the “inner planes” is that dimension, that space, that resonance, wherein resides the untarnished soul (our Higher Self) and the grandness of God’s wisdom.

From the inner planes, I have witnessed that when the soul or forces greater than the soul intervene in a person’s life or in the spread of history, a “field effect” takes place. Science uses the term “fields” to indicate domains of influence, that which holds together in an imposed order.

A practical way to demonstrate this is to scatter iron filings on a piece of paper, then hold a magnet underneath the paper. The filings will all converge in a pattern that reflects the magnet’s field array. Human consciousness is no different. If collective thought fields (often termed “mass mind” or “the preference/desire of the majority”) are threatened, overstressed, or deeply affected by a change in the structure that supports their stability, they will respond as the iron filings did.

Again, a magnet will pull scattered metal filings together in a manner that matches its drawing power. Similarly, an event of great impact will unite a broad span of people, events such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the moon landing, unusually tragic deaths, and the Civil Rights Movement. This “pulling together” activity creates field effects. These fields are shaped over time by the accumulated clustering (pulling together) of emotions, feelings, thoughts, and desires.

* Subtitles by InnerSelf.
©2004, 2013 by P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D.
Reprinted with permission. All Rights Reserved.
Publisher: A.R.E. Press.

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We Live Forever: The Real Truth About Death
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About the Author

Dr. Atwater is an internationally known researcher of near-death experiences and a near death survivor, as well as a prayer chaplain, spiritual counselor, and visionary. She is the author of numerous books including: "Future Memory" and "Beyond the Indigo Children: The New Children and the Coming of the Fifth World". Visit her website at: www.pmhatwater.com

Watch a video with PMH Atwater: About Personal Near-Death Experiences