Cosmic Citizen

Personhood, Bodyhood, and the Right to Not Be Aborted

Part Eleven

The Original Transpersons: The "Breath of Life", Reincarnation, and the

Transmigration of Souls

In Part Ten of this series, we discussed the distinction between personhood and bodyhood and why we are not our bodies. It is axiomatic that we cannot be something we possess. The object possessed and the possessor of the object are always different and separate, as in "my hand", "my head", "my leg". This begs the question, Who is the "my"? That question is easily answered when it is understood that the body is merely a shell in which the life force, the eternal, individual, living, divine spark, dwells.

Unfortunately, there’s a near total absence of any concise information about what we call the soul, the spark of life within the body. It is a topic considered religious at a time when "religion" seems to have become a bad word. The subject is perceived as non-scientific—an emotional and sentimental arena of human activity. However, this topic has little to do with religion. The body exists. The temporary owner of the body dwells within it. These are undeniable facts. We can see the body and experience it via the five senses. We can also experience the life force within our own bodies. Although we cannot see the life-force within another person’s body, we can experience it by observing how it moves the body and by interacting with it, especially on the levels of mind, intellect, and ego. These facts are beyond religion.

Almost every aspect of our culture is geared towards entraining the population to accept the notion of bodyhood as paramount. To consolidate their power and control, politicians exaggerate our skin-deep racial differences and other social and religious disparities; multinational corporations spend billions to keep us captive to their body-oriented products; and healthcare providers exploit our bodies' vulnerabilities to improve their profit margins and raise their stock price. The current furor over gender dysphoria is probably the ultimate body-centric preoccupation.

From an important angle of vision, we are all transpersons. According to the ancient wisdom of Vedic India, by the time we discover ourselves to be in a human body, we have already transmigrated through many millions of body forms, from single-celled organisms to the higher mammalian species. A series of events and procedures, far more complex than surgery and the administration of artificial hormones, is responsible for our inter-body, inter-species transference. Today, the proponents and facilitators of transgenderism may be proud to take a young boy and "turn" him into a girl, or a girl into a boy. However, with his limited knowledge and skills, the modern "gender-affirming" surgeon can only mutilate, castrate, and neuter. His actions often result in a near-total loss of the vital ability to engage in the reproductive process.

The fact is that this reproductive, species-protective, transbody process has been going on forever, with infinitely more grace and elegance. It also has an untraceable history of dependability and predictability and is directly responsible for all of us being present on the earth at this time.

Although this concept may seem entirely farfetched, a little patient study and reflection will help us better understand how the life force, the living entity, is transferred into each new body. We will also understand why this natural, cosmic arrangement is so vital for living beings and for the preservation of all species of life.

For the past 1700 years, one literary work, The Holy Bible, written and compiled over the course of several centuries, beginning around the 1st century B.C., has had a profound influence on Western thinking. It has been a source of deep inspiration for national leaders, some of whom have helped shape and dictate the course of modern history. With its Mosaic law codes, its Old and New Testaments, and its many tribal, theocentric tales, it has served as a backdrop for English and American jurisprudence.

I am not necessarily a "believer" in the theology espoused by this narrative, nor do I recommend its theological conclusions as reliable spiritual truths. Nevertheless, I find it contains, as do other literary sources, many moral lessons, precepts, and instructions that are valuable for all thoughtful persons. This elaborate work is the autobiographical account of a small group of Middle-Eastern people, the Israelites, a remnant of whose tribes occupied the land of Palestine during the First Century A.D. and whom the Romans crushed during the siege of 70 A.D. The Biblical narrative is written exclusively by them, for them, and about them.

The Book of Genesis informs us that on the sixth day of the Biblical allegory of creation, Yhvh (who will become the tribal deity of the Israelites) took mud from the mythical Garden of Eden and fashioned a human-like doll, a man, out of it. Afterwards, he animated the lifeless man-doll by breathing into its nostrils. This air breathed into the man was described as "the breath of life," "ruach," normally translated, "spirit," in Hebrew.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7)

There’s a lot to unpack in this verse. Notice that "God formed a man." Man was the lifeless doll made from earth elements, a sculpted figure fashioned out of clay and, doubtless, water. To this day, our bodies are still made of earth, water, fire, and air. We can see from this description that the newly made man was not alive, being, in effect, only a man-nequin. He was not the real person, the life force, but only the outer coat. The lifeless, dust-doll became a "living being" only after the "ruach", the spirit, entered via the two breathing holes, the nostrils, animating it. To his new creation, Yhvh gave the fitting and uncomplicated, if unflattering, name, Adam, "red mud".

The "breath of life" was obviously completely different and separate from the body of the newly-minted man. Without this breath, the body would have remained lifeless. It was the energizing principle, the life-force, soul, or spiritual spark, that switched on the body’s support systems and functions. What Genesis 2:7 describes is not merely Yhvh’s hot breath flowing into Adam’s nostrils, entering his lungs, and triggering the breathing reflex. Someone had entered the lifeless, muddy doll, riding in or on the breath. The "breath of life" was the "breath with life" or the "breath carrying the life force," i.e., the eternal person. In other words, the lifeless, red-mud man-nequin was not the person or living being. That person was beyond the body.

From this narrative, we see that the new man-nequin body was equipped with all the necessary external features, including sex organs (Adam would later have children after "knowing" his wife), and internal organs as well. All systems and functions were healthy and intact, since the body had not suffered the ravages of accident, old age, or disease. The entering "ruach," or spirit, easily jumpstarted it and, from then on, continuously animated it. The word "Adam," which described only the red mud-body, was not the name of the "ruach" that had entered upon Yhvh’s breathing. That body was only the vessel, or shell, designed to contain the life force, spirit, or person.

One of the deficiencies in the Old Testament creation account is that it is only a thumbnail sketch of a subject that is vast and deep. Not enough is explained, and little evidence exists for the claims made. In addition, the entire Biblical narrative is exclusively earth- and Israelite-centric. Earth is presented as the sole preoccupation of "God" and the only inhabited planet in this vast and nearly limitless cosmos, filled with countless galaxies. Remarkably, for some believers in this narrative, the entire cosmic construction is a mere 6,000 years old!

On this lonely planet, one supposedly "chosen" group of people stands alone against all others, an exalted race, their bodies ontologically different from all others. Said another way, in the cosmos, only one habitable planet is to be found, and on that planet exist the Übermenschen, the sole "superior" group of human beings commandeering "God’s" attention.

Throughout the Biblical narrative, personhood is subordinated to bodyhood: a material kingdom, land, cattle, wives and children, etc. Modern believers in the Garden of Eden stories are unable to properly understand the true nature of the soul because of this unrelenting focus on the temporary, destructible body. They are confused into thinking that they are the man-nequin-like body that "began" in the womb.

Comprehending this singular truth, that we are not our material bodies but the powerful spiritual sparks within, has the power to change our world. At the very least, it would be sufficient to end the practice of abortion without the need for legislation, constitutional amendments, or threats to burn down courthouses or kill Supreme Court Justices. We would see that the body, at any stage of its development, belongs solely to the living spiritual spark, the person within it. No one has the right to interfere with it, steal or destroy it at their whim. Doing so implicates the perpetrator in the often vicious and unyielding laws of karma.

Undeniably, the Garden of Eden creation story, in which Adam’s body came to life after Yhvh breathed into its nostrils, has been imprinted indelibly upon the human psyche over the past two millennia. That the "man" was only the lifeless doll body soon to be occupied by the "breath of life", is a fact that seems to have been ignored and misunderstood. Still, today, for billions of people imprinted with this Edenic imagery, the person, or life force, has become conflated with the temporal, physical shell created out of mud. This belief is so ingrained as to be nearly impossible to eliminate, even when it no longer makes sense. Yet, although most people continue to mistake the eternal spiritual entity’s outward dress for him, it is apparent that the Bible itself makes a clear distinction between the body (Adam) and the ruach animating force that entered it. According to the story, one was made from mud, and the other was the breath of Yhvh.

As we’ve discussed, even an august body like the US Supreme Court cannot determine when life or personhood begins. (See Part Six.) Many believe that life begins at conception, although the legal rights and privileges of personhood are not conferred on the embryo until after birth. It is mistakenly believed that some national law is required to bestow upon the eternal, spiritual spark what he naturally possesses. He has never not been a person, even if his personhood, and his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not recognized in mundane law.

Another, but far more elaborate, description of this "breath of life" is found in the Sanskrit writings of ancient India, consisting of the Vedas and ancillary works. There, the word for "breath" is "prāṇa". Its function is to encase the eternally existing spiritual spark or person in a multi-layered air sack. Prāṇa allows this eternal spiritual spark to enter the egg or womb and have a physical body emulsify around her.

Sample of ancient Indian writings etched on palm leaf

Prāṇa is described as having ten branches, each with a specific name and function. For example, the primary five layers are named prāṇa, apāna, udāna, vyāna and samāna. Prāṇa is the air passing through the nostrils (hence, we see the Old Testament god breathing into Adam’s nostrils), while apāna is the air expelled via the rectum. Samāna is the air in the stomach, vital for digestion, which sometimes manifests as belching. Udāna passes through the throat, facilitating swallowing, and the air circulating throughout the body is called vyāna. The other 5 airs, nāga, kūrma, kṛkara, devadatta and dhanañjaya, facilitate the more subtle physical functions like yawning and opening the eyes, as well as bodily contractions, relaxation, and childbirth.

From within these 10 branches of air, we, the embodied souls, control the external functions of our physical body, like sitting, walking, eating, etc. However, we have minimal control over its internal functions. We may, for example, cut our hair and nails, but we cannot stop their growth or make hair grow back. How the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and other organs function is a mystery to us. We are driven by hunger and thirst, overcome by the need to sleep, and prodded by the desire for sex. We are also unable to resist the urge to evacuate our bladder or bowels. Is it really "my body, my choice", when we had little say in its creation and remain powerless to prevent its ultimate demise? Are we not merely borrowers of this powerful but fragile machine? Given the limited control we actually have over "our" body, perhaps it would be wise to display a little more humility and a lot less arrogance before the cosmic forces that have brought all this together, conveniently packaged for our temporary use.

The physical body is described as being composed of eight elements. Five are considered "gross matter": earth, water, fire, air, and ether, while three: mind, intellect, and ego, are considered "subtle matter". For our discussion, the distinction between gross and subtle matter is important to understand, and we might compare the situation of the embodied spiritual spark to a hand in a fleece-lined glove. The glove’s outer covering of leather or rubber would be the body, made of gross matter. The inner fleece lining would be the subtle body, while the hand manipulating the glove would be the person, soul, or living being. Just as the hand in the glove is distinct from both the outer covering and the lining, the person in the body is separate from the gross and subtle elements that cover him. In fact, the eternal person is beyond his physical body.

There are those who accept the proposition that they are not the body but conclude that they must, therefore, be the mind. However, this is also a misconception. Do we not refer to it as "my mind"? Who, then, is the possessor of the mind? Vedic cosmology identifies the possessor as the soul or person encased within his gross and subtle bodies. In the Bhagavad-gita, a poem of 700 verses found in the Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata, the hero, Arjuna, laments to his friend, Krishna, that to control the mind is more difficult than controlling the wind. It is indeed a powerful force that often dominates and controls its possessor, but it is not the existential person. As described above, it is only one of the three elements of the subtle body.

According to the cosmology of the Sanskrit Vedas, the soul, the living being, is even more subtle in essence, being composed not of gross or subtle matter but of spirit, with three distinguishing, non-material qualities: eternality, knowledge, and bliss (sat, cit, ānanda).

The embodied living entity, the soul, utilizes his material body and the subtle, but powerful chi of his mind, intellect, and ego to satisfy his desires through sensory contact with the pleasurable objects of material nature. There is, however, a time clock attached to this loaner body. Unseen and ignored, it counts down the body’s finite timeline, from its appearance at conception to the final stages of dwindling and death.

Vedic cosmology offers a fascinating description of the soul’s journey in the world of matter via the various bodies into which he incarnates. At any stage, the physical body may be destroyed by accident or disease, at which point the life force, wrapped in his multi-layered prāṇa, abandons the now lifeless body for another. At this point, the prāṇa will exit through the mouth or the anus. In the case of expert yogis, the prāṇa will be directed to exit through the soft spot at the top of the skull, known as the brahma-randhra.

One can understand the truth of the body’s inevitable demise through introspection and observation. For most, death is a fearful moment. In this regard, what our ancient forebears advised is that, before that moment arrives, we utilize the gift of this human form to explore our non-material attributes and to answer the existential questions that confront us. Who are we? Where did we come from? What is our purpose here? What happens to us at death? Etc. Without this elementary knowledge, do not all our material acquisitions and accomplishments resemble sand castles awaiting the rising tide?

Those among our ancestors who left written teachings did so for our benefit, for what they considered our highest good, and if we know where to find them, that knowledge can be easily accessed. In this regard, I’ve found the philosophical worldview of ancient India offers the most thoroughgoing insight into such topics as the soul, consciousness, and the material and spiritual spheres. More on this in a later work.

Consciousness is the obvious, dominant characteristic of the living being, the eternal person occupying the body. Even though we scarcely understand what consciousness is, we know that it is spread throughout our entire body. It is a consciousness so developed and mystical that even when one loses a limb due to accident or injury, the person may continue to experience pain in that area. This pain has been called phantom limb pain. The subtle form of the amputated limb is still present, unaffected by the surgeon’s saw.

According to the Vedic worldview, the subtle body, composed of mind, intellect, and ego, carries the impressions and memories accumulated from every moment we have spent in the material realm. At death, when we give up our gross body, we automatically withdraw our consciousness from it. Prāṇa, the enclosing layers of air, what the Bible calls the "breath of life", will carry us, the soul, along with our subtle body, to another incarnation determined by the karmic reactions of our previous desires, words, and deeds. Prāṇa carries us in, and prāṇa also carries us out.

This natural ability of the eternally existent living being to body hop, or migrate from one body to the next, should not be mistaken for something explainable by Darwinian thought. His ideas form the theological dogma, the cathecism, of what is essentially the Church of Evolution, to which all modern scientists must pledge allegiance and from which it is heretical to deviate. The Biblical, creationist exposition may not satisfy the enquiring, "scientific" mind, but Darwin’s theory still belongs in the shadows of religion. For one thing, neither he nor any of his ideological descendants have ever produced the required "missing links" that would conclusively prove his ideas to be factual. What we find instead are fully-developed species, completely adapted to and integrated into their specific environments. The absence of inter-species fauna should alert the serious investigator to the weakness of this long-cherished theory.

It doesn’t appear that we will find those missing links anytime soon. Paleontologists tend to shun the term, because it challenges their fragile, Darwinian thesis. How dare we demand to see hard evidence: living creatures undergoing inter-species transition? What one Smithsonian anthropologist would tell us is that:

Evolution is not a chain with links; it’s more like a tree with many branches.

Sure, but how does an ancestral tree prove evolution? Regardless, we should be able to see all kinds of creatures, including human beings, evolving before our very eyes. Darwin’s apologists also prefer the far more convenient (for them) phrase, "transitional fossils”, which means that those missing links can only be found in the fossil record. In other words, according to their own logic, evolution is something that happened eons ago. So, when did it stop happening, and why? It’s not taking place today, and those pesky, missing links? Well, they don’t exist, but look over here. We don’t know what these things are, but hey, let’s just call them “transitional fossils”.

Despite their ardent speculations on the origins of life, one that focuses exclusively on the effect rather than the cause, Darwin’s apologists can never explain what is perhaps the most important quality of living beings: consciousness.

In Vedic thought, there is evolution, but what evolves is consciousness, not the bodies. It is the elevation or degradation of one’s individual consciousness that determines what body type is obtained. The various bodily forms are already present and are not evolving into other bodies, as the theory of evolution states. Driven to procreate by the laws of nature and the imperative of perpetuating the species, the living beings within these bodies are mass producing other bodies in their quadrillions. Insects are mass-producing more insects; aquatics, more aquatics; birds, more birds; and humans, more humans. Into this global—nay, cosmic—warehouse of body types enters the divine spark, the person, shopping for a new body. Eventually, he is awarded one that is perfectly tailor-made to match his consciousness and according to what his accrued karma can afford.

In this BodyMart, there is no "Complaint Department" because the magnetic universe never violates its own laws. No mistakes are ever made. Any discrepancy is perfectly explained by the individual’s karma. He may have forgotten what action produced which result, but the action was recorded in his subtle mind and buried in his memory. Thus, the magnetic, karmic reaction is destined to follow.

If we could view abortion in the light of the foregoing discussion, we would appreciate the fact that, at every moment, we are all under the stringent domination of cosmic forces, able to exercise only limited independence. A pregnant woman is as much under this control as is the fetus in her womb. She and the father have made only a small contribution to the divine agenda that mandates the preservation of the human race. Neither she nor the father knows the past of the soul/person who has just entered, or why that person has come into their lives. Indeed, they may know and understand little about the powerful forces dictating the entire process of procreation.

Transitioning from the invisible ether into the physical realm, the prāṇa-enclosed life-force, or spirit soul, has little choice but to enter a womb. Sometimes, that womb is a welcoming home prepared by a loving, expectant hostess or mother. Sadly, for others, it becomes a dark and dangerous dungeon into which they are cast, to await the abortionist with her forceps, syringe, and cannula, or with her caustic chemicals.

Compelling evidence for the existence of the indestructible life force, the eternally existing person, can be found in the growing number of accounts dealing with reincarnation. The subject is briefly hinted at in the Bible, but believers fail to understand this important concept because they are taught to focus on sin, salvation from sin, and the so-called resurrection of the dead and decayed body. However, the Biblical term "resurrection", when properly understood, is only another way of saying "a one-time reincarnation". Unfortunately, the unrelenting fixation on the temporal, physical body is reinforced by the theo-speculative interpretations of adherents to the Garden of Eden narrative. It precludes believers from accepting a countervailing exposition that is infinitely more sensible and practical.

The question posed by Vedic cosmology is: If the living being possesses the qualities of eternality and indestructibility, why is she placed in a destructible body? This is a profound topic, beyond the limited scope of this brief essay. Suffice it to say that the human form of life, according to Vedic thought, is designed and awarded for the express purpose of understanding these matters.

There are some throughly body-focused individuals, however, who are working quite assiduously to find a way to live forever in their present decaying bodies. Among them, six billionaires stand out:

Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sean Parker

These men have accumulated enormous wealth, influence, and power and are desperate to extend their dwindling chi in order to prolong bodyhood and the enjoyment of their material success. As Larry Ellison declared:

"Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?" Ellison told his biographer Mike Wilson in 2003.

Good question, Larry. But, no, the person didn’t "just vanish". What you are referring to is the living force that occupied the body and now no longer does. Where did it go, and why did it go? What was visible to us was only the gross body, now bereft of the life force. The unseeable, spiritual spark moved on. He was always invisible to you and to us. We never saw the person within. We, too, will be forced to leave our bodies and retreat into the ether. As such, all attempts at prolonging the duration of these temporary bodies are futile. Can the "problem" of dying be solved by throwing billions of dollars at it and having a good focus group meeting? Good luck. The endless continuum known as the samsaric, transmigratory rotation, the cycle of rebirth and death, rolls on.

The Indian ascetics who compiled and expounded the Vedas explained the process of reincarnation as a science, a cosmic arrangement that allows us, the eternally-existing persons, to fulfill our desires in this realm. Ultimately, it is a sophisticated arrangement designed to help us transcend our attachment to the temporary and come to that place where we can embrace our eternal, existential nature and position. The process of reincarnation makes possible the many lifetimes needed to accomplish this.

This ancient knowledge lies beyond the purview of modern religion, mundane law, and constitutional amendments. It also demonstrates why feticide is, indeed, an act of great ignorance that brutalizes its participants, causing deep psychic harm while endlessly triggering severe, unwanted karmic reactions.

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