It’s far too easy to get caught in the trap. With so much attention being focused on the national election, it is sometimes easy to overlook local initiatives. I recently moved to Colorado, and am appalled by an amendment that is being proposed for the state constitution.
Amendment 48, also known as the “personhood amendment,” is an initiative that was placed on the ballot by anti-abortion extremists. Not only targeting a woman’s right to decide what happens to her body, it is also designed to deny access to contraception and dictate what doctors can do in treating pregnant women.
Basically, the bill defines a fertilized egg as a person and grants that egg all the rights available to a breathing, self-sufficient human being. Many who support Amendment 48 hope this is one more step to overturning Roe v. Wade.
What could this mean?
Amendment 48 represents the ideals of those who believe that a fertilized egg is a person and deserves to be born no matter whose body it is in and no matter what it costs her.
IUD’s and hormonal birth control could be defined-not as contraceptives but-as abortion tools since they prevent “a person” from implanting in the woman’s uterus. By making birth control illegal and unavailable, women’s bodies become the property of the state. Any man, whether he had her permission or not, could force her to bear his children. Ectopic pregnancies, where an egg implants in a fallopian tube, would involve a “person” in the wrong place. Under this new amendment, a doctor would have to wait until it naturally aborted or the tube ruptured putting the woman’s life in grave danger.
There are measures similar to Amendment 48 being debated all over this country, and even the world. Christians, Catholics and others who work to undermine personal freedom miss the obvious Spiritual truth: we are not our bodies.
Members of some of the most powerful religions in the world spend a great deal of time creating rules and laws that dictate the personal lives of others. Anti-abortion and “pro-life” activities are about control and domination of women. They are not “God’s laws” as many proclaim. God and “God’s word” have been used as an excuse to harm others for far too long.
Many of us know that women used to be revered as Goddesses. To some degree, they ruled over man. As perceived givers of life, perhaps men fear that women are more “spiritual” than men. Maybe it’s the animal instinct to control their access to sexual activity and to producing heirs. Whatever the reason, there are powerful people using the law to control women.
Once men figured out that they could use their physical strength to dominate and control women, all the spiritual, political, and social rules changed. God became known as the bearded man in that separate place called Heaven. He is also known as Lord and Father. Women were excluded from the definition of anything spiritual. Amendments, such as the one proposed for Colorado, would take us back to that time when women’s bodies were more obviously the dominion of men.
It is no mistake that God is defined as a man and that our species is commonly referred to as mankind rather than the inclusive humankind. A great deal of effort and power has been devoted to suppressing females and making sure we don’t stray too far from the comfort zone defined by mankind.
If the followers of the traditional religions would step back and question what they are told, they would see that they are being deceived by their leaders. Their policies and rules are designed to control matters in the physical, not spiritual, realm. Followers are told that if they control the physical, their spiritual souls will be “saved.” They are convinced they are a body who has a soul that either goes to Heaven or Hell. This is a perverted twist of the truth. This distorted view makes followers easy to manipulate.
If more people KNEW that we are spiritual beings using temporary physical bodies they would be less concerned with defining a fertilized egg as a person. They would know that as Spiritual beings, the physical body is merely a TEMPORARY vessel. Whether a fertilized egg is aborted or not allowed to implant is irrelevant. The spiritual being, if it chooses to incarnate, will find another vessel. The Spirit, directed by karma or self-created destiny, chooses the circumstances of birth and death.
As long as people think the person IS the body or the fertilized egg they fail to see themselves and others as we really are…SPIRITS/Souls WHO NEVER DIE. Everyone and everything is an expression of the creative energy of this Universe. It doesn’t matter what you call that creative force, God, Goddess, One, Being, Spirit, or Universe. What matters is that you know YOU never die and your thoughts, words, and actions determine your destiny.
The case of Terri Schiavo brought this glaring fact to light. After a cardiac and respiratory arrest, her body was in a persistent vegetative state for fifteen years. While it must have been horrible for those who love(d) her, her Spirit was likely attached to the body until it died. When her husband attempted to allow her body to die by removing the feeding tube, a national furor erupted. He was called a murderer and even the governor of Florida took a “moral” stand against him. Her husband was trying to free her. The sleep-walkers wanted to stop him.
It is as if many religious followers worship the Spirit’s temporary body and not the Spirit. This is dysfunctional idolatry, or worse, intentional misdirection of attention.
Religious leaders preach about souls and the life after death but they either don’t believe in the true Spiritual nature of the soul or they don’t want their followers to know the truth.
The Spirit can be trapped by a body that no longer functions. The body must die to free the Spirit. By valuing the body or fertilized egg more than the Spirit, people sleep-walking through life attempt to control things that are not theirs to control.
If more of us valued the growth and experience of the Soul or Spirit, humanity would devote more precious time on Earth to making the world a better place for everyone and everything. How wonderful our Earth experience would be if we could enjoy our time here and focus on real spiritual evolution instead of talking about it.
People who are busy campaigning to deny women's rights, gay rights, whether someone's going to Heaven or Hell are too busy to question what they're being told. Religious and political leaders know it’s easier to follow the herd than to take a potentially unpopular path. Eternal damnation if they don’t follow the “word of God” is a mighty and terrible weapon. By sowing seeds of fear and watching them sprout, some leaders maintain control over their faithful sheep.
Pretending we aren’t Spiritual beings and denying rights to others is the work of their Devil and an obvious hypocrisy. Yet it is a tactic that has worked for thousands of years. Many have forgotten that they don’t need a mediator to connect with the Spiritual realm.
Remember what you are. Help others wake up and wander away from the herd. Their eyes can be diverted from false prophets. Vote even if you think your vote doesn’t count. Take action. It won’t hurt and it might make a difference.
Caryn Colgan
Karma Artist and award-winning author of Ancient Pact, Vol. 1: The Element of Air Ancient Pact, Spiritual Contemplation Cards& soon Karma Boot Camp and Karma Rules