We All Must Have Reproductive Freedom

 

 

There is a book called The Self Discovery Book: Inner Self Improvement by Michael Cavallaro. I have been reading this book and, recently, it pretty much explained something that I have not been able to put into words myself. It pretty much says that while a baby is growing in the womb, on a spiritual level, an abortion of this baby will happen if all three parties – the mother, father and baby spirit – are in agreement to it.

 

Here is an excerpt from that book with more information about the author’s view on this issue:

 

“In the human world, there are a lot of misjudgments and misunderstandings about abortion, killing life in the womb, etc. We want to take a moment to explain a concept for you to ponder.

 

“As the soul spirit connects to the embryo, there is still an opportunity to choose not to incarnate to the human form. Parents must decide if they actually want to have this child. This is a free will choice both on the side of the parents and the child itself. Let us be very clear: an abortion cannot take place unless all parties agree at some level. When parents decide they may not want a child, the child from the other side has the option to vote. If the child chooses to come through, the abortion will not take place.

 

“If the parents choose not to have the child and the child is in agreement that this choice is best for all parties, the child will consent to not coming in through the vehicle at this time, knowing that there are other opportunities. The being will wait until it is more conducive to the experience they want to have, rather than choose to come through parents who are not prepared or will not provide them with the opportunities that they require in this human state.

 

“Parents have the right to choose whether they want to be parents or whether they made a mistake by getting pregnant. Moral views are strictly human and have nothing to do with the spirit. Spirit consents and agrees to all choices. Spirit is non-judgmental and accepts the choices of all, for this is a free will planet.

 

“Sometimes a parent chooses to abort a child, thinking, “I will not be able to experience in this lifetime what I have come to do, so it is the best opportunity for all if I do not have the child at this time.” Many judgmental types will say this is morally wrong. But at no time does any one individual truly understand the choices others make. Judging another for their choices is utter foolishness. This may go against what you believe or have been taught but to be very, very clear, life is a free will choice on this planet, and free will means free.”

 

The author goes on to say that the soul does not enter the body until three months after birth, which is something I personally disagree with, but I do agree with his claim that we all have free will – man, woman, nonbinary – and we should ALL be allowed to exercise our free will and make our own choices – including reproductive choices.

 

Another thing the author seemed to forget is that the father may not always be “in agreement” with the abortion. I have come across many stories of when the father did not want the abortion to happen, but it happened anyway.

 

While I understand that abortion is not exactly “the murder of a human life” because the growing fetus is not 100% human until birth, I was not able to explain this in a way that made sense. In a way, it is like a growing plant. The seed sprouted and it is growing. It is fully a plant by the time it blooms and finishes development. The same applies to a growing fetus. Yes, they are both forms of life – everything that grows from a fertilized seed is a form of life, including what is inside the eggs that people eat. The growing fetus is not a baby until it has fully developed into a baby and is ready to be born.

 

My view, personally, is that abortion is actually something predetermined. We know what is going to happen to us before we are born. We even CHOOSE the things that will happen to us before we are born – including abortion. Yes, something like abortion is selected, because on the spiritual level, we know that we are entering a world where every single human on the planet has free will. Part of having free will means having the right to terminate a pregnancy.

 

Putting restrictions on that right is cruel punishment against all women because it is taking away their right to choose what happens to their bodies. It is, in essence, somebody else deciding that they should have control over all women and that they get to decide what these women can and cannot do. They think they know better, but they don’t.

 

It is wrong for a group of people to impose their religious beliefs about an issue affecting a minority on other people. Not everyone shares the same views about abortion. Not everyone is a Christian. Not everyone believes the same things about a select few in power who get to have a say over something which they should NOT be allowed to have a say over in the first place. Abortion is not a political issue; it is a PERSONAL issue. It is a human right which should be left to the decision of the person who actually has to carry the baby to term. Now, because these people in power decided to abuse their power and force their beliefs on every single woman in one state, a pregnant woman is literally being forced to give birth to an unwanted child, and who will likely abandon, abuse or neglect the child BECAUSE IT WAS UNWANTED.

 

Some people may think “Well, just give the baby up for adoption” but there are already hundreds of children waiting to be adopted. There are hundreds of children in the foster program yearning to have a family of their own. It doesn’t make sense to add more babies to those numbers. If a couple wants to adopt a baby, they have the option of making that arrangement themselves by other means aside from using the foster program or scanning the pool of hundreds of children available to be adopted.

 

The reason why I am pro-choice is because I understand that abortion is a personal choice. I cannot impose my beliefs about abortion onto other people. I will never force someone – including a frightened teenager whose boyfriend got her pregnant by accident or a woman impregnated by a rapist – to carry the baby to term, give birth to it and raise it. I would never force someone with a medical condition that could be passed onto their unborn fetus or could bring death for either her or the fetus through birth to go through with having the baby anyway. I would never force a woman who Does Not Want A Baby to have the baby. It is wrong to do so, in every case. But unfortunately, we live in a country where certain people in power seem to forget that we live in a world where we have the undeniable right to free will, and they are going to impose their force on all of those people anyway.

We Don't Know What Dreams Are, But We Do Know They Are Important

 

Humans have been dreaming for centuries. Tales of dreams exist in the Bible, Egyptian myths and on ancient tablets. But what are dreams? Not only do they fascinate us, but they mystify us as well. We don’t know what dreams are, although a lot of scientists and researchers have a lot of theories about them. People have been studying dreams for years and we continue to learn more about them. Even so, as little as we understand about dreams, what we do know about them is that they play an important role in self-development.

 

For one thing, we do know that dreams can help people figure things out. There have been times when I have struggled to figure out how to do something, what to say if somebody asked me about something or how to handle a sticky situation, then I’d have a dream that would give me those answers. Writers have figured out how to overcome writer’s block from their dreams. One prisoner in a Nazi camp had a very detailed dream on how to escape, and the dream motivated him so strongly that he convinced five other prisoners to join him in the attempt. They successfully escaped doing what the prisoner had done in his dream. One woman had dropped out of school and, from there, was unsure of where to go. She dreamed about going to medical school, and while she had some reservations about this particular career path, she decided to try it out, starting small. In 14 years time, she completed her medical education and became a psychiatrist. Some people have been able to solve math problems while dreaming.

Some dreams I have had motivated me to do things – like eat healthier, after I dreamed my mother told me that if I ate certain foods that she showed me, my workouts would go better – and sometimes all it was that I needed to get started on things was to just have a dream about me doing them. This helps with tasks which may seem too intimating or “too hard”; if we dream about seeing ourselves doing these things, it may not look so intimidating or hard to do after all.

 

Another way that dreams can help us is by overcoming trauma. Some trauma survivors turn to therapy or counseling to help them move past their trauma, but when they start having nightmares about their trauma, it can be one hurdle that is hard for them to get over in their recovery. Some therapists have encouraged these clients to gain better control over their dreams – such as by using lucid dreaming – and in many cases, these clients were able to turn from victim to fighter in their dreams. Or, someone saved them from their tormentor or they avoided the trauma from happening altogether.

 

There are a lot of aspects about dreams that are hard to understand, but thankfully, scientists and researchers have studied them for so long, that they have been able to pick up on a few key points about dreams. For example, one thing we have learned is that dreaming about being inside of a house represents we are having a dream about our conscience. A house represents our body – our selves – and we are working out issues inside of our conscience, issues we still struggle with today. For example, say you are inside of a house in your dream, and you have an argument with your father. This could mean you have an unresolved issue that you need to work out with him or, if he is no longer alive, an issue you need to work out on your own. Also, if we dream about ourselves as a child, then it’s possible we are dreaming about an issue our inner child is struggling with.

 

One thing that stands out about dreams, however, is that oftentimes, they can provide comfort. After my dog died, I was comforted by dreams I had in which he was in them. My grandmother and mother have also visited my dreams after their deaths, and those dreams offered comfort as well. It is very common to see departed loved ones in our dreams. Dreams can play a key role in helping us with grief. In some way, we are able to see our lost loved one just one last time or hug them one last time. In some of these dreams, they may give us a message or finally tell us the thing we always wanted to hear from them. Dreams can also provide comfort in another way, by addressing real-life problems such as bullying, unrequited love or anxiety in a friendship. When we have dreams about these issues, we may find the comfort or strength that we need to get through these issues.

 

Dreams also have a way of playing out the things that we wish for. In Book of Dreams, author and world-renowned psychic Sylvia Browne called these dreams “wish dreams.” These were essentially things that we wished would happen. When someone says “dream on,” we usually do, and that wish we have ends up being fulfilled in our dreams. While it may not ever happen in real life, we do get to have them happen in our dreams, and when we have these kinds of dreams, it can be the next best thing. Even so, some people who have wish dreams may feel compelled to make them come true. Some people have actually succeeded in making their wish dreams come true. But if this is not possible, no matter what effort is put into it, we must accept that this particular thing can only exist in the dream world.

 

Finally, dreams can be a source of escape. I write fiction, and many of my dreams have been sources of stories. I also went through a traumatic experience in life as a teen, and one person who frequently visited my dreams gave me the love, comfort, kindness and compassion that I did not receive from the people in my life at that time. These dreams were an escape for me, a method for me to get away from the nightmare that I was enduring in real life. In this way, they were a source of comfort, and not just a source of escape.

 

Despite these benefits we can get from our dreams, what is to be said about people who don’t have dreams? This is something many people have often said: “I don’t dream.” But, the reality is, everybody dreams. We all have dreams. You actually usually have more than one dream but usually only recall one. Dreams are actually a natural part of our sleep process – that is, if we are in REM sleep. Research shows that we usually can’t dream unless we achieve REM sleep. But does this mean people who “don’t dream” never achieve REM sleep? Not exactly, because we can still be in REM sleep and still dream without even remembering it after we wake up.

 

There are actually factors preventing you from either dreaming or remembering your dream. If you suffer from another sleeping disorder, it may be difficult from achieving REM sleep. This means you won’t be able to fall asleep deep enough to dream. Also, we are not so inclined to remember things very well when we achieve REM sleep so that may be why you don’t remember your dreams even if you do have them.

 

Another explanation for “not having dreams” is that you may actually be having dreams, but just sleeping through them. By the time you wake up, you won’t remember your dream because you woke up after the dream had ended. If you try waking up an hour earlier than you normally do, chances are good you will remember your dream. If you do, write it down immediately.

 

French researchers also discovered a certain kind of sleep disorder some people may have in which they do dream, but they can’t remember it at all upon awakening. In a study conducted with patients who exhibited signs of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), they discovered that these people acted out their dreams while they slept. However, upon awakening, they could not remember the dream.

 

Apparently, it seems that even if people report they don’t dream, it turns out that they probably do if they are able to achieve REM sleep, but that they just don’t remember their dream. If you want to try to remember your dream, then there are some things you can do. The advice to wake up an hour earlier is one thing. Another strategy is to keep telling yourself to remember your dream as you lie in bed at night, about to fall asleep. You can also write down anything you remember from your dreams upon awakening. Keeping a daily dream journal, no matter what you write in it, may help improve your dream recall.

 

While dreams may seem confusing and the stuff of a drug-induced fantasy, they are still fascinating and can offer us important insights about ourselves. If you pay more attention to your dreams, you just may discover a solution that has eluded you in your waking life or you may learn something about yourself. Take some time to think about your dreams, what they might mean, and how they can help you – because most dreams usually do.