Reality although often perceived through the lens of belief is nonetheless far more vast than most of us can fathom. The existence of life after death and reincarnation are but two phenomena that beg the question as to how incalculable the universe truly is.
It’s been through my own occasional experiences that have called into question for me, the very nature of reality – its scale and scope; its unbounded and wondrous nature. And the more I experience and contemplate the very essence of these experiences, the more I am convinced that the universe aims to reveal its magnanimous ways to each of us – through synchronicity!
Within this context, I’ve written about one of those, shall we say “incalculable” experiences; my own personal account having to do with the possible reincarnation of my Persian cat Paws, now called “Clover Paws.” This experience was and is (as it continues to unfold) a most intriguing confluence of events that began perhaps years before the inevitability of the reincarnation was to occur.
The post script to this encounter, upon reflection is rather telling, unfolding through a series of synchronicities.
Shortly after my article, The Phenomenon of Animal Reincarnation was published in December of 2012, I was asked to speak at a conference on animals in the afterlife and present my own personal account as well as the research that I’d done into the phenomenon. Subsequent to that, I spoke about the subject on the 30 Odd Minutes television program to discuss the research as well as my own reflections on what may be happening relative to the process of reincarnation. It was largely through these two channels that revealed some very curious phenomena that would not be recognized until recently.
The universe, it seems reveals its nature through synchronistic suggestion, recognized by the experiencer albeit in a very subjective manner. This has surely been the case for me.
I’d always felt my cat Paws to be somewhat of a messenger, a personal oracle of sorts. Even during the last days of his life, he’d displayed unusual tendencies which would peak my attention.
Just two or so weeks prior to his passing in 2012, while I was simultaneously preparing to visit Los Angeles to cover the Conscious Life Expo conference and interview past life regressionist, Dr. Bruce Goldberg, I had a most disturbing but intriguing encounter. I was sitting in our family room which is situated behind our kitchen. I could see Paws roughly twenty feet away in the kitchen from my vantage point in the family room. He had been standing next to his food and water bowl near the kitchen door, stationary. In an instant so quick, it would be impossible to measure, Paws appeared at my feet in the family room! Though quite difficult to fully explain, essentially Paws disappeared from the kitchen and re-appeared some twenty or so feet away with no apparent time having passed. I was dumb struck at this incongruity, probing for some logical explanation as to how this could be.
As a researcher into these areas of inquiry, although I am acquainted with such anomalies, when you are the one who sits right smack in the middle of the experience, it begins to take on an entirely different dimension. One goes from perceiving from an intellectual perspective to knowing from an experiential one!
We’ve heard of the “doppelganger” effect – a term stemming from German origin, roughly describing the witnessing of seeing a double image of an individual. It has been associated with the phenomenon of bi-location (seeing an individual in two places at once). In folklore, this occurrence would often portend danger or even death. This was the closest I’d come to having glimpsed such an occurrence!
Upon witnessing what appeared to be my cat, roughly in two places at once, coupled with my knowledge that he’d been quite ill, shortly after this happened, I’d wondered if this was an omen of the soon-to-be inevitable. Whether directly related or not, it would be only a few weeks later that he would succumb!
While in Los Angeles, oblivious to the idea that I’d return back home, never to see Paws again, I relayed this doppelganger-like story to Dr. Goldberg as we discussed various phenomena associated with animal reincarnation, the afterlife and past lives! Merely a few days after that discussion Paws died while I was still in California!
But the recognized synchronicities would just begin there.
Inclusive of our discussion although not included in my formal interview with him, he told me a story about his dog Karma and how he felt that this dog had been reincarnated twice, now culminating in whom he calls Karma III. Interestingly, although our planned interview was intended to focus on the process of conscious dying and out of body experiences (OBE’s) of humans, we’d veered off topic a bit and into the subject of animal reincarnation, including his own experience with Karma. In retrospect, I ponder whether this account was somehow a signal, though not recognized at the time, that my own pet would be reincarnated and returned to us nearly nine months later.
Fast forward to late October 2013 – the 24th to be exact. I’d been putting the final touches on my talk I would be presenting at the Animals in the Afterlife Conference and decided to use an image of Paws I’d taken in the late 90’s (circa 1998) – an adorable photo of him nestled in my bookcase in the apartment my husband and I shared at the time, in New Jersey. As I gazed at the photo which I’d looked at dozens of times previous, I had a realization never before occur to me. Nearly every book on the shelves he was cuddled next to intimated perhaps his inevitable return – answers to questions I was currently having about the reality of his reincarnation that couldn’t possibly have surfaced at a more apropos time. Book titles on my shelf appeared to tell the whole story: We Don’t Die, One With the Light, The Dead are Alive, Small Miracles, Reunions, Apparitions and the Survival of Death – all books I’d used in my research, boldly presented to me with Paws nestled right next to them. Why had I chosen that image for my presentation – out of possibly dozens? Why now? I’d had an epiphany, not possible to recognize until 15 years later. The universe was speaking, continuing to send me signals that “yes – your surmise is correct – reincarnation is real!” But the synchronicity didn’t just end there. As I glanced at the calendar before wrapping up my work on the presentation, I’d noticed the date: October 24, 2013. That date looked familiar to me – it was exactly one year to the day that I’d found him again – Clover Paws was discovered as I perused a cat breeder’s web site on October 24, 2012! Yet another wink and a nod that, “Yes, this is real. No need to question further!”
It is fascinating to reflect on our own behavior and how the left brain continues to work overtime – ask questions, be rational, realistic, logical and at times contemptuous, when the right brain (our intuitive side) aims to privy us to the very wonders that are right before us, simply waiting to be revealed through synchronicity. As long as I continued to question the possibility of such a phenomenon as reincarnation, the louder the synchronicities had to get!
A Messenger of Synchronicity
I’d been preparing another set of images to accompany my appearance on the television program 30 Odd Minutes, a paranormal show that covers a range of strange phenomena. I was asked to discuss my work into the subject of animal reincarnation. One of the images I’d chosen for the show would illustrate the idea of “walk in” or “soul transference” (the process by which two souls agree to trade places in order to accomplish a given objective). Although I didn’t have a chance to get into the subject on the show due to time constraints, the image that I’d prepared to present yielded yet another synchronicity having to do with my colleague, author Ann Bolinger McQuade and her personal account of her golden retriever Rusty, whom she feels to be thrice incarnated.
I’d originally created this image from a photograph and featured it to accompany my article, The Phenomenon of Animal Reincarnation, published on December 2, 2012. The photo, enhanced with graphics filters portrays three “ghostly” images of a golden retriever overlaid with a rainbow hue. At the time I created this image, I’d not yet known Ann (whom I interviewed on my show in August of 2013) Subsequent to our meeting through her being a guest on my show, we continued our discussions, comparing notes on our own personal experiences, including what we believed to be the reincarnation of our pets!
Ann agreed to allow me to tell her story for my animal reincarnation talk for the conference and so I’d used the golden retriever photo to illustrate the “walk in” phenomenon, something that she feels to have occurred during the reincarnation of Rusty, the third time. Still, it hadn’t occurred to me the fascinating synchronistic connection that was to be revealed later!
While gathering this image along with others for the television program, it all dawned on me. How was it that I had “arbitrarily” selected an image of a golden retriever back in December of 2012, and from that created an enhanced effect to illustrate the article’s subject matter that yielded three “phantom” images of this golden retriever, perfectly reflecting the story of Ann’s dog, Rusty who had incarnated three times? I hadn’t even known Ann at the time of creating this image, let alone know of her own animal reincarnation story. And yet, as if on cue, the synchronicity was inescapable. Could there have been some part of my awareness that knew I’d become acquainted with her, learn of her own animal reincarnation story and create an image to reflect its reality, albeit long before the story was to become consciously known to me? Moreover, did she need her own confirmation that her surmise that Rusty had indeed been reincarnated twice was correct? It seems the universe aimed to utilize me as a conduit to deliver this synchronistic message.
Are our notions of time incorrect?
Since this set of occurrences, I’ve contemplated not only the power of synchronicity, but how the universe operates in such a way as to negate the process we understand as linear time. No matter the framework, and our ability to recognize it as a synchronicity – sometimes a message though created at one point in time, will be revealed out of sequence, at another point in time – just to make that point for you!
The idea that time and space as we have come to understand it is merely a construct and not at its heart a natural phenomenon relative to its linear structure is now being discussed in wider academic circles. Although a most difficult concept to get ones head around, reality free of time or space constraints and the ability to even affect the past from the point of the present as mind bending as it is, may very well intimate the universe’s mystical and unlimited nature.
When I had that “aha moment” about Ann’s dog (the three incarnations of Rusty) and the image that would perfectly illustrate her story, although created out of sequence, I conveyed the story (and the image) to her. We both acknowledged how wondrous and mysterious the universe is and how our ability to speak to it may be just what is needed to begin to operate in sync with its infinite character rather than to oppose it!
As tempted as we are to explain away reality, if we keep exploring, keep watching, keep listening and be ready and willing to receive the amazing answers that the universe has to offer, experience will replace mere explanation and our true evolution will ultimately be within reach!
In my recent television appearance to discuss the phenomenon of animal reincarnation I was asked if my own experience with Paws and Clover Paws had altered or expanded my belief system about reincarnation. Candidly, I replied, “I’ve always had a sense that there is an aspect of the soul that can never be annihilated…But certainly whenever you go through something that’s experiential, this is more than just (as a journalist) doing the research. It causes you to want to question and explore more, and this experience was certainly impetus for me to do just that.”
Although loathed to say we have absolute proof of animal reincarnation and for that matter reincarnation in general, my own range of synchronicities have been an incredible example as to how the universe is always ready and willing to give stunning evidence into such a phenomenon. As humans we tend to look at quantifying a phenomenon by the ability to measure it. To quote alternative researcher and journalist Jim Marrs…
“Surely we’ve experienced love and we would not argue that love does not exist and yet it can’t be quantified. You can’t hold love under a microscope, you can’t weigh it on a scale and yet it’s there – it’s real. So what’s the big problem in understanding that there are things in this Universe that we might not be able to totally dissect and explain scientifically?”
Though largely subjective in scope, the phenomenon of animal reincarnation is just one more thread in the tapestry of infinity that shows just how truly marvelous the universe is!
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Alexis Brooks is an award-winning broadcast journalist, #1 best-selling author of Conscious Musings – Contemplations to Transform Life and Realize Potential and is the host of the popular Higher Journeys Radio program, presented in association with Conscious Life News. Visit Alexis on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!
