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Prior to getting published, Carol Bennett wrote this article for The Messenger, at the request of Editor Joann Turner. Enjoy!
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from NASA to Novelist: Why am I searching for a publisher? Because I got off the fast track, and onto my spiritual path.
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JENNIE'S REPRISAL is a novel, but it tells a very personal story. To fully come to terms with that story and its message, you should know the context of its birth. I will start by saying that the telling of this story really began with my own birth—when and where doesn’t matter. Just as Jennie’s Reprisal is the story of one eternal soul’s evolution through time, my own life story is one of evolution as well; its particulars are in their very lack of remarkability also timeless.
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Like most young people growing up in less than ideal circumstances, at least in their own estimation, I longed for a better life at an early age. Consumed with a careful and deliberate pursuit and cataloguing of the trappings of conventional worldly success and prestige, I prided myself on my college degrees and rewarding career at NASA. I dressed for success in dull blue suits, wore a Rolex, drove a Mercedes, lived on the Annapolis waterfront, and always had a handsome man at my elbow. Accumulation of possessions went from serving as concrete evidence of my ever-higher progress through life, to validating my personal worth itself.
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Carol Bennett, Author
JENNIE'S REPRISAL
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Exhausted from over-achieving pretentious goals, at the end of each day I prepared for another night of delirious dreaming in my one hundred year old Belgium oak bed in my 15x55’ master bedroom. The last thing I saw before closing my eyes was the ceiling, painted like my astrological chart to resemble the sky on the night that I was born. Lying still, awaiting sleep, I began to feel that there had to be more purpose to human existence than I had yet discovered.
Slowly at first, then more and more frequently, I began to experience dreams that I can only describe as altered-state perceptions of the ancient past and future. Shifting into other realities, like a fantasy that seemed real or in another lifetime, wasn’t logical, but it was real feelings strongly felt. Like everything else in my life, even my dreams were excessive.
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During college, while relentlessly researching the ancient past, I was thrilled when Duke University’s Marine Laboratory Exploration Vessel, towing an underwater camera at a depth of 10,000 feet, photographed large manmade columns on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Knowing that these were remnants of the legendary continent of Atlantis, I became frustrated that these findings were never elevated to the level of proof that Atlantis did exist.
Failed attempts to lobby Duke, for additional research and intelligent, objective evaluation, found that I couldn’t even mention Atlantis in serious conversation at that time. Despite the university’s findings, Atlantis was dismissed as something from the realm of fairy tales. What did happen though was that my dreams began to take place in ancient Atlantis.
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While working in a bureaucracy by day, the context of my dreams shifted at night. On the NASA Team, the Space Shuttle Atlantis caused my dreams to shift into Ancient Egypt. Flying over Egypt, Atlantis photographed ancient riverbeds under the sand that indicated a flow to the Atlantic Ocean that was directly opposite the current flow of the Nile River. Unlike my formal education and career that had trained me to work within precise limitations and to define reality as that three-dimensional world that can be perceived only by my senses, my dreams of ancient times began to expand my reality beyond the physical.
When my Father died, I suddenly realized that I too would not live forever. Accepting my own mortality, and contemplating what might lie beyond this life, further expanded my perception of reality. I started having vivid, recurring dreams of my Great-Aunt Jennie Gravatt who lived from 1897 to 1926, during the pre-depression era of the 20th Century—what I call The Olden Days. In final moments of sleep each morning, I became the soul of Jennie Gravatt, journeying from Atlantis to Ancient Egypt, to The Roman Empire, to The Dark Ages, to The Renaissance, to The Enlightenment, to The Olden Days, and into the future.
Studying the possibility of reincarnation, I found individuals and events during The Enlightenment and The Olden Days to be real. This breakthrough triggered a massive collection of information and people to help me uncover my destiny. I wondered: Do coincidences, dreams, and instincts evolve from lifetimes that I have lived in the past? Am I recalling the past lifetimes of my ancestors? Did I genetically inherit ancestral memories? Is it possible that when one dies, those loved ones who still live facilitate their rebirth?
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Communication with higher levels of understanding within me had gone beyond what I was willing to accept. Yet my dreams, memories, and other spontaneous recalls validated my connection to previous lifetimes. Almost every culture has had a belief in the afterlife and reincarnation, perhaps as a reward for the brevity of life. I’d love to believe it—to believe that I’ve been here before, to believe in the life that I’m living, and to believe that I will live again.
Byzantine Emperor Justinian called a meeting of the Ecumenical Council in 533 AD on behalf of his wife, Theodora. She belonged to a sect called the Monophysites who rejected reincarnation. At this meeting held in Constantinople, all references to karma and reincarnation were removed from the Bible. Yet the concept of karma is still supported by the biblical law: as a man soweth, so shall he reap. Also in the Bible, at John 3:6-13, Nicodemus questioned Jesus for saying that to enter the kingdom of God, You must be born anew. Nicodemus asked, How can this be? And Jesus replied, … If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Had Nicodemus understood the concept of the spirit being reborn, would Christians today accept reincarnation?
I have always liked the idea that when someone dies a baby is born. Yet, for me to believe in reincarnation was like trying to get a secular individual to accept Holy Communion. Eventually though, I concluded that there had to be proof of the eternal nature of the soul. Kipling’s Finest Story In The World had piqued my suspicions and Pascal’s 17th Century wisdom clinched it for me. Pascal wrote, Belief is a wise wager. If you win you take all, if you lose, you lose nothing. Since I had nothing to lose, I decided to believe. Besides, it was silly to think that in forty, fifty, eighty, or even a hundred years, that I could learn it all. I have to keep coming back until I get it right. Reincarnation is an extraordinary form of purification.
After confirming the concept of reincarnation through my spirit consciousness, I decided not to pursue validation to make it credible to others. I accept the probability of reincarnation and believe that validation isn’t necessary. I’m here in this lifetime, trying to become responsible for myself. I’m responsible for whatever I put out and it will all come back on me—if not in this lifetime, in another one. I no longer struggle with feelings of being in an isolated lifetime simply because it feels that way to my personality and ego. In spite of my spirit having veiled the memory of former incarnations, I’ve had glimpses into these lifetimes through dreams. My purpose evolved from an imposing opportunity thousands of years ago and I am just now getting a chance to see how big it really is.
The eternal spirit within me has imprinted upon it all that I have ever been. Knowledge gained during past lifetimes comes to me when I need it. After my earthly death, I look forward to going back through the veil of forgetfulness to review my spiritual imprints and fully discern the great purpose of my soul. Yearning to share my knowledge of the eons before my present lifetime, I took an early retirement from NASA (at a youthful 40-something and a substantial reduction to my six-digit annual income) to write JENNIE'S REPRISAL. This chronicle of Jennie Gravatt’s lucid dreams forges a compelling romance beyond conventional concepts of time, space, and consciousness.
Jennie’s dreams of previous lifetimes are more like self-discovery than historical curiosity. Subconsciously exploring past talents and former behavior as other human beings with varying pasts and cultures, she unlocks reveries that heal past injury and frustration and reawaken her spirit’s eternal passion. During each incarnation, her soul enters at its previous spiritual maturation plateau, then evolves, or regresses, to another level of understanding.
I donated my suits to a shelter for abused women and traded in my luxury Mercedes for their sports utility vehicle. And that man at my elbow has been replaced by an IBM ThinkPad in my lap. No, those microchips can’t keep me warm on long, cold nights. But writing about my Great Aunt Jennie keeps me from hocking the Rolex, renting out the waterfront, and leaving everyone whom I have grown to love in this incarnation. Success to me now is sharing my new spiritual insight with you through Jennie’s mystical trip to perfection as her soul journeys from Atlantis to Eternity. JENNIE'S REPRISAL is the process and the result of my spiritual epiphany. I hope this novel will be the catalyst for yours.
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