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by L. Rae Lake

Part 1: THE ISSUES

(Please note: this article concerns hormonal, not genetic factors in childbirth.  Visualization may have an hormonal effect on a pregnancy but in no way affects a genetically troubled pregnancy. Ideas in this article are experimental and under no circumstances should they replace conventional birth control methods or normal medical advice. rl).  
 

Suffer the Unloved Children

Before considering the dual nature of reproductive choice--physical (objective) choice and hormonal (subjective) choice--let us consider the relationship between human fertility and the mounting problems we face as a society. 

If we wonder what's wrong with our educational system, with our values, with our morality, perhaps we should begin at the beginning by studying the overall effect on society of mounting hundreds of thousands of unwanted babies, abused or neglected by irresponsible or uncaring men and women. Add to these the growing numbers of emotionally challenged or drug-positive babies (some of whom were described by one teacher as predatory personalities), alcohol damaged infants and physically challenged AIDS babies who, as a group, threaten the economy of health and assistance systems in every state. Consider the statistics on the high percentage of homeless people who are survivors of foster care systems. And finally, consider the long-term effects of the multitude of children being raised by women alone, families in poverty or not, without the on-going influence of financially supportive fathers. 

Whether governmental or personal, the on-going political debate over birth control and gender selection will become even more culturally complex as scientific human cloning enters the mix. These ideas are stimulating thought and controversy about life and death, birth and abortion, on a global scale. When women--as a world group--become able to have babies only when and as they personally choose, there will be interesting, positive ramifications for society as a whole. In an ideal world, of course, women would get pregnant only when they are ready, infants will be valued as the treasures they are, adoptions will be rare, abortion unnecessary, and invasive contraceptives will be a thing of the past. But our reality is the world as we find it today.

The purpose of the human reproductive cycle has evolved in male and female to ensure the continuation of the species but this does not mean that the purpose of any individual woman is to have a baby. That is a matter of choice. Making sexual decisions is a natural part of growing up from conception onward. Like everything else, a pregnancy is part of the overall duality of Life, governed by the natural laws of Mutual Attraction. Every aspect of human free will is subject to the duality of yes and no, especially in terms of:

Individual crises and those related to humanity as a whole are governed by the objective Principle of Conflict, while inner crises of the spirit are controlled by the subjective Principle of Decision. The subtle interplay between these two principles is responsible for two uniquely human qualities of indecision and controversy.

Mankind bargains with Nature constantly. We change the weather, live under water, experiment in space, save preemies, keep people 'alive' on respirators, and will one day soon clone human replacement parts and, occasionally, human beings. The cloning of perfectly marched replacement parts such as bone marrow, nerve cells, heart tissue, livers and so on will do far more to alter the nature of human life than any insignificant controversy about abortion, contraception, or even human cloning. 

If choice were not a natural part of human nature--on all levels--we never would have left 'the Father's house' in the first place. For women to respond to this subtle, abstract, hormonal opportunity for reproductive decision is simply another example of humanity stretching to explore 'the hemline of God'.

Exploring Hormonal Self-Control

There is ample reason to believe that hormonal self-control (using informed visualization or specific imagery) may hold the key to those 'innate reactions which will negate conception'. An innate reaction is something present from birth and belonging to our essential nature. Also note that innate reactions are derived from the mind rather than from experience, and are based on ordinary expectations. When reproduction is based on reason (as opposed to logic), pregnancy becomes an opportunity not a 'mandate from God'; it becomes a natural no-fault offer which in timely fashion may be accepted or refused gracefully by the woman herself--with no possible outside interference.

Through mental visualization or through guided-imagery, many people can now alter their own stress levels, heartbeat and blood pressure with immediate, tangible, physical effects. Anything which affects stress, equally and powerfully affects hormonal levels in both men and women. Already it is possible for some women, for example, to mentally initiate menstruation to negate an early unwanted pregnancy. This is definitely not the old 'power of positive thinking' but instead involves sound visual techniques coupled with detailed knowledge of the processes involved. Others might wish to use this technique to insure a safer pregnancy, or to alleviate the symptoms of pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) or the annoying side-effects of menopause. 

If any degree of hormonal self-control is possible at critical times, this wonderful potential of the human brain has far-reaching reproductive implications for women everywhere. (This is developed in Part 3). It is not important that only a small percentage of women today can effectively use these hormonal techniques. If mental techniques of hormonal self-control hold part of the answer or even a clue to natural birth control, the abortion controversy will be defused not by resolution (under the Principle of Conflict) but in a quiet, personal way by solution (under the Principle of Decision).

Solutions that supersede controversy inevitably will emerge as individuals use and clearly understanding the technical distinctions between the two levels of choice---hormonal choice and physical choice. Thinking through the techniques of solution to this deeply conflicted, very human crisis requires a sound grasp of the physical process involved in hormonal self-control.

The process of menstruation which allows the problem of unwanted or untimely pregnancies is the same process which may solve it.

The Bumpy Road to Solution

Essentially, reproductive conflict rages between equally sincere adherents to the religious motivations of the exclusive logical, fact-oriented intellect, and the more abstract spiritual motivations of the inclusive reasonable, intuitive consciousness.

This clarifies the distinction between the motivating essence or intelligence of the human spirit and Religion which is humanity's persistent attempt to institutionalize and regulate the human spirit. 

The single most counter-productive element preventing a productive dialogue between the so-called pro-choice advocates and the combined anti-abortion/anti-sex/anti-sex-education/anti-contraception advocates is ignorance of, or refusal to learn or use technically accurate terms. A fetus, for example, medically, is only a potential baby. Using language correctly, a human infant goes through stages. After conception, a fertilized egg divides into a tiny ball of totipotent (undifferentiated) cells which is called: 

The uterus, shaped a bit like the symbol for Taurus, is a fist-sized, triangular 'envelope' suspended in the vaginal canal: its lower part is called the cervix, and it is connected to two ovaries by fallopian tubes. The womb, a vague, biblical term, is the deeply biased, emotion-laden word of choice of extremists. Virtually everyone misuses the word abortion. Not every loss is an abortion. When a pregnancy is terminated in the first 8 weeks there is technically no fetus, and medically, no abortion. There is only an embryo and a simple procedure called a menstrual extraction, a menstrual regulation, or a menstrual aspiration.

"We all wish embryos were formless but they are not. They have a human form.  And there is emotional pain for everyone concerned."

When Does Life Begin?

This question is so poorly conceived, so vague and misleading, no possible human answer can be true. As a practical matter, in cosmic, timeless or divine terms, Life had no beginning and therefore has no end. Being omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, Life permeates all that is, it no doubt existed prior to expression in our rather insignificant solar system and will certainly outlive it. The life in us is one with the life of the planet. It cannot be taken or destroyed but 'passes on' from form to form, from experience to experience Life cannot be taken in the spiritual sense because intelligent awareness supersedes our universe, known and unknown. Life simply IS.

More pertinent questions are:

Controversial only in terms of its significance, quickening, according to the ageless wisdom teachings and many historical religious traditions, marks the moment of entry by the soul or self-aware psyche. 

Medically speaking, around the eighteenth week (4-1/2 to 5 months) the fetus 'quickens' and begins independently to move around in the uterus. The Quran or Koran, for example, forbids abortion 'after 120 days, when the soul is formed'. When it kicks purposefully to announces itself (an amazing sensation every mother recognizes), as opposed to random body movements, a fetus has become a Human Being. Until then, according to Alice Bailey, 

"The light body is inchoate and diffused
and simply hovers over the physical form
...waiting for an opportunity to enter 
and irradiate the consciousness".

The soul (psyche or consciousness) 'hovers' until the physical fetal brain is sufficiently matured to accept such an energy fusion or transference safely. At the moment of quickening prior to the fifth month, a type of electrical jolt of psychic-physical significance joins soul and body and produces self-awareness. In that instant, magically, a human being is created.

Before the profound experience of quickening, a fetus (whether scientifically or naturally produced) is merely a living human form, matter, separate, with as yet no separate Identity or self-consciousness of its own. 

Separate and distinct from the mother's self-identity, the embryonic, very human form represents humanity's exclusively animal nature prior to the spiritual fusion of quickening. 

It is likely that this period prior to quickening formed the conceptual basis for the religious notion of Original Sin, when matter (the fetus) stands 'separate from God', and for which condition 'atonement' (at-one-ment) must be sought. Ironically, such at-one-ment (becoming one or whole) is effectively and automatically achieved at the moment of quickening.

The spiritual justification for early abortion is based on the fact that prior to quickening a fetus reflects only our strictly animal nature. When quickened--at around 18 weeks--this human-animal embryo is imbued with self-awareness and becomes a true human being. Just as the fetus symbolizes the physical relationship between a father and a mother, the individualizing consciousness symbolizes the essential relationship between the part and the whole, between matter-Mother and spirit-Father. In that profound but often unnoticed moment, penetration of the fetal brain by the indwelling, individualizing consciousness creates of the living human form a true human being--a son of Man (female or male fetus) who is also a son of God (soul or psyche).

Justifiable Homicide Is Not Murder

There is no 'war against babies', as the Catholic Pope contends. The real war is against sexual ignorance. Can we help well-meaning people who don't understand the nature of life come to grips with the fact that babies are not being killed or murdered? Only embryos and fetuses are involved. Killing babies is infanticide, not abortion. (See Part 4). Yes, both menstrual extraction and abortion definitely do end a life--the life of a human form--but it is wrong to call it murder. Before quickening, this is analogous to losing one's tonsils or appendix which represent both the death of a form and the death of living cells which make up the form. The hovering soul, however, remains relatively unscathed as the dense physical form releases its bit of life.

Killing isn't always against the law. Although laws vary from country to country, legal, somewhat socially acceptable ways to take human life include the death penalty, war, self-defense and abortion. Under some legal systems abortion is a legal form of justifiable homicide, not murder. There has never been a universal recognition of the sanctity of human life. Most religions permit men and women to kill in self-defense or time of war. When a man pushes a button to kill millions, he is acting in indirect self-defense and the church doesn't object. While it may not condone it, the church officiates when the state enforces the death penalty. Abortion is in this same categorical gray area of justifiable homicide but when a woman acts in self-defense as pregnancy threatens her future, fundamentalists cry murder.

Due to a widespread inability to distinguish between life and form, willful death or the laying down of the form disturbs most people, whether abortion, or assisted suicide. By human standards, death is equally the condition of the soul or awareness prior to conception, and after incarnation. From the soul's perspective, life in an ordinary physical body or form is called the 'little death'--a period of prolonged limitation. As increasing numbers of people grasp this subtle point of view they will experience an entirely new way of thinking and of living.

Two Distinct Approaches to Reality

Well-meaning as some people are, the anti-abortion movement is based not on spiritual truth but on a sentimental belief system. The problem for society as a whole is that the combined anti-abortion forces oppose all realistic alternative solutions. Like nationalism and racism, the abortion issue is only simple for fundamentalists. For many, abortion merely compounds the actual sin of fornication. Christian fundamentalists oppose sex education and Catholics don't want birth control. So born-again fundamentalists join forces with the Catholic orthodoxy carrying images of dead fetuses, throwing their children across doorways to block clinics, and yelling 'murderers'.

Hopefully, more people will soon realize that the spiritual circumstances of a pregnancy, and of a woman's right to choose, are more significant than the form side. 

"Life is one and naught can ever take or touch that life. [Our] sense of proportion as to form [must] become ...forward-looking towards the soul, and not backward-looking towards the form nature. 

Some very sincere devotees and promising applicants [to spiritual understanding] are so preoccupied with form ...that they have no real time to give to soul expansion". 
(The Rays and the Initiations, Alice A. Bailey, p. 127).

Those who meditate listen to God, those who pray speak to God, but no one speaks for God. Conflict erupts when one group tries tell another group what 'God says'. Fortunately, social conflict eventually produces harmony--so in time we may anticipate better relations, at least among the more reasonable factions of this controversy as worldwide dialogue continues.

Women all over the world are quietly struggling to be free not to have babies but the task is formidable. Women who have had all the children they want, or can afford, or their bodies can withstand, need to be able to decide their future. Women in destructive relationships should be able to avoid being trapped by pregnancy.

Abortions already outnumber births in some cities. While personally viable, adoption offers no solution because adoptable children continue to outnumber available homes. No one likes abortion. The truth is that what we think and how we feel about abortion are totally different matters. We all want people to be sexually responsible.

(End Part 1--1 of 4)
CREATING HUMAN LIFE, NEGATING CONCEPTION
--and other secrets of hormonal self-control

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