Pope John Paul II | Spinoza
In Return of the Revolutionaries: The Case for Reincarnation and Soul Groups Reunited, objective evidence of reincarnation is compiled which demonstrates that, from one incarnation to another, people have the same facial features, talents, passions and linguistic writing style. People are shown to incarnate in groups and that friends and families reconvene lifetime after lifetime, though roles may change.
In addition to independently researched reincarnation cases, a set of cases solved through Kevin Ryerson is presented. Kevin is a medium, much like Edgar Cayce, who allows a spirit guide named Ahtun Re to speak through him. Ahtun Re’s last incarnation was during the time of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhnaton, who ruled from 1353 to 1336 BC, approximately 3350 years ago. Ahtun Re was a high priest who ascended after that lifetime, as his soul evolution on earth had been completed.
Though I myself, until recently, had no belief in psychics or mediums, I found that Kevin’s guide, Ahtun Re, could make what appeared to be accurate past life matches, in which facial features, personality traits and writing style were consistent between the lifetimes. Cases solved by Ahtun Re that are featured on this web site include those of Ralph Nader, Carl Sagan and Oprah Winfrey. Another remarkable case solved by Ahtun Re, which is featured in Return of the Revolutionaries, involves Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations with God series. In working with Kevin and Ahtun Re over several years, I have come to accept that Ahtun Re has the ability to make accurate past life matches.
Two years ago, I asked Ahtun Re who Pope John Paul II was in a prior lifetime. Ahtun Re told me that John Paul II was the reincarnation of the philosopher Spinoza. When I read about Spinoza, I found that he was one of the most famous philosophers of Jewish descent in history. I learned that Spinoza attended a Hebrew school, the Talmud Torah, at the same time the that one of the most famous rabbis in history, Manasseh ben Israel, taught at the Talmud Torah. It was natural to ask whether Manasseh ben Israel was reincarnated in contemporary times. Athun Re told me that Manasseh was incarnate, but that his identity would not be revealed, as it appeared that Manasseh was being groomed to be the next Pope.
After John Paul II died and Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, I noted that Joseph Ratzinger’s facial features were consistent with those of Manasseh ben Israel. In a subsequent session with Kevin Ryerson, Ahtun Re confirmed that Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict XVI, is the reincarnation of Manasseh Ben Israel. This is how the reincarnation cases of Benedict Spinoza/Pope John Paul II and Manasseh ben Israel/Pope Benedict XVI were derived.
These cases demonstrate how an individual can change religious affiliation from lifetime to lifetime, which is also demonstrated in the extremely compelling case of Anne Frank/Barbro Karlen. These cases are indeed being posted in honor of Anne Frank, whose birthday is June 12. Barbro Karlen, Wayne Peterson and I are participating in a joint presentation on reincarnation on June 12, 2005 in Washington, DC.
Let us now examine the lifetime of Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza was born into a Jewish family in Portugal, in the year 1632. To escape persecution of Jews by the Inquisition, Spinoza’s family moved to Holland and settled in Amsterdam, the same city that Anne Frank’s family moved to in order to escape Nazi persecution. As a child, Spinoza was educated in his Jewish congregation’s school, called Talmud Torah. Early on, Spinoza was recognized to be an very intelligent child and a stellar student.
Spinoza was a free thinker. As a young man, he scrutinized bible teachings and noted significant discrepancies. For example, he was taught that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch and that this book was considered divine as it was written entirely by Moses. Spinoza noted, as had other scholars, that Deuteronomy 33 could not have been written by Moses as this section of the Old Testament described the death of Moses and of events following the death of Moses. How could Moses write about proceedings that happened after his death?
Young Spinoza, it is thought, given his subsequent writings, also disputed the traditional view of God as a supreme being who created the world. Instead, Spinoza imagined God as being embodied in nature. Spinoza, in his later writings, also disputed that God created souls. Instead, Spinoza imagined that human beings exist as “finite modes” within essence of God. Though these distinctions seem philosophical in nature, Spinoza’s rejection of traditional doctrine led to his being labeled as an atheist by some.
In 1656, when Spinoza was 24 years old, the elders of his synagogue excommunicated him from the Jewish community. Though the exact reasons for the excommunication were not specified, it is thought that Spinoza’s free thought led to conflicts with leaders of the community. Some historians have written that Spinoza was offered money by synagogue representatives to induce him to keep his opinions to himself and when Spinoza refused, excommunication followed.
Spinoza went his own way, attracted by the new scientific disciplines that were emerging through the works of Galileo, Boyle and Descartes. Spinoza himself become well versed in the field of optics, becoming a grinder of lenses. In 1670, Spinoza published A Theologico-Political Treatise, in which religion was examined in the context of society and politics.
A most extraordinary characteristic of Spinoza is that despite his Jewish ancestry, his radical approach to religion that resulted in his excommunication from his synagogue and his love of science, Spinoza had a deep reverence for Jesus Christ, who he saw as representing the pinnacle of human development. Though Spinoza did not dispute that Moses heard the “voice” and words of God, he saw this as a lesser achievement than what Christ attained, which was merger with the “mind” of God. Let us examine passages on Christ from Spinoza’s Theologico-Politico Treatise:
“So God revealed himself to the Apostles through Christ’s mind, as formerly he had revealed himself to Moses through the heavenly voice. And therefore, Christ’s voice, like the one Moses heard, can be called the voice of God. And in this sense we can also say that God’s Wisdom, that is, a Wisdom surpassing human wisdom, assumed a human nature in Christ.” “God revealed himself immediately to Christ, or to his mind, and not, as he did to the Prophets, through words and images, we can understand nothing but that the Christ perceived or understood truly the things revealed;.. And so Christ perceived the things truly and adequately.
Spinoza is remembered primarily as a freethinker, who argued, as one author has put it, “that the stability and security of society is not undermined but, rather, enhanced by freedom of thought, meaning primarily the freedom to philosophize.” Spinoza is also remembered as a man of contradictions, for even though he rebelled against traditional notions of God and the soul, he retained an interest in his Jewish heritage and in his latter years even took on a project involving Hebrew grammar. Spinoza embraced the paradox of being rebellious, yet in ways, traditional.
Another passion of Spinoza’s was to argue in favor of democracy as a superior form of government. He also strove to show how various types of governments could be improved based on a realistic assessment of human nature, which he outlined in this grand opus, Ethics, which was published posthumously. Spinoza died in 1677.
Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920, in southern Poland, 243 years after Benedict Spinoza died. Karol lost his mother and brother when he was very young and at the age of twenty, his father died. As a young boy, much like Benedict Spinoza, Karol demonstrated a high intellect and a love of philosophy.
In 1938, he entered the University of Krakow to pursue a degree in philosophy, only to have his schooling interrupted by the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland. As friends died during the Nazi occupation, Karol sensed that his life was spared for a greater purpose and he entered a seminary in 1942. In 1946, Karol entered the Angelicum University in Rome where he studied ethics. After serving as a rural priest for a few years, Koral earned a second doctorate in moral theology and began teaching in at Lublin University in 1953. He published several books on ethics during these years. In addition to his academic passions, Karol demonstrated a great love of nature and engaged in hiking, canoeing and skiing.
In 1958, at the age of 38, Father Karol Wojtyla was named a bishop of Krakow and in 1967 was named a Cardinal. Cardinal Wojtyla participated in Vatican Council II, along with Cardinal Ratzinger and at the Vatican Council II, Wojtyla participated in the writing of The Church in the Modern World, which can be construed to be a parallel to Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise. Cardinal Wojtyla was elected Pope in 1978 and as John Paul II, began a world wide tour. In 1981, a Turkish terrorist shot the Pope in St. Peter’s Square. He later attributed his life being saved to Mother Mary.
Pope John Paul II served as a champion of democracy and he helped bring down Communism in Poland and Europe as a whole. This is consisted with Spinoza’s assertion that democracy was the best form of government. Despite his vigor in defending human rights and freedom and his rebelling against communism, Pope John Paul II was conservative in his views towards birth control, abortion and women in the church. In this way, Pope John Paul II was perceived to be contradictory, much as was Spinoza, who was excommunicated from his synagogue due to his free thought, yet who embarked on a project involving Hebrew grammar late in life. Both were rebellious in ways, conservative in others.
Another similarity between Benedict Spinoza and Pope John Paul II is a common reverence towards science. Spinoza loved science and followed the work of Descartes and Galileo. John Paul II preached that science and faith could coexist together and it was Pope John Paul II who formally admitted that the church was wrong to condemn Galileo 360 years ago, when Galileo asserted that the earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. It is interesting to note that Spinoza was an admirer of Galileo.
Perhaps the most striking similarity between Spinoza and Pope John Paul II is the respect that they both demonstrated towards Jesus Christ. Though Spinoza was Jewish by heritage, a free thinker and philosopher, he wrote that it was only Christ who had achieved union with God and that the mind of Christ was the light for humanity. Pope John Paul II would agree.
