An Excerpt from an interview originally published in Lazaris’ book Lazaris Interviews, Book II (This book is out of print.)

You know as metaphysicians that your Physical Plane is an illusion. You know as astute, intelligent people — whether you’re metaphysical or not — that reality is an illusion. Your scientists have demonstrated this so conclusively, so repetitively, so rigidly, that the only way you can pretend otherwise is to deny the truth.

The metaphysicians and the scientists, who are usually at odds with one another, agree totally on this issue: Your reality is a product of thought. Your reality is a product of consciousness. Your reality is an illusion of light. Your reality is an illusion.

Metaphysicians from the beginning of time have said: Time is an illusion. Einstein demonstrated that time is an illusion. Subsequent quantum physicists have more than demonstrated and proved that time is an illusion, that it is a convenience you have created for yourself. All things are simultaneous. Every lifetime you have is occurring now. Every lifetime you have is occurring now.

Now, you have those lifetimes, and you put them on a continuum. You call the left end of this continuum the past, and you call the right end of it the future. All that really means is that you are putting the whole array of lifetimes that are randomly scattered or placed out there — the entire smorgasbord of lifetimes — in order. You are putting them in sequence.

Following the analogy of a smorgasbord, when you go to a cafeteria, do you ever notice that while standing at the beginning of the line all the food is there? Even though you can’t get to it all at once — even though you put it on your plate in sequence -it is still all there. And you go down the line, don’t you? And of course, what do they put first? The desserts! … {laughter} … They put the desserts first. Then they put the salads, boring salads. White lettuce. It’s an amazing thing, white lettuce. … {laughter} … Then they put all the steamed main courses. Then they put the bread and butter and drinks and things like this. And you go down the line, and you gather a plateful of food. Do you eat the dessert first? Maybe some of you … {laughter} … You tend to do it like you’re supposed to. You start with the salad. Then you eat the main course. Then you eat your dessert. But it’s all there on your tray, and it’s all there on the smorgasbord or in the cafeteria line. Whether you are at the beginning, middle, or the end of the line, it’s all there at once.

Well, your lifetimes are like that, too, all laid out. They’re all there. You choose. ‘I’m going to do this one, and then I’m going to follow it with this one, and then I’m going to follow it with that one.’ You give yourself time. Sometimes your next lifetime might be in Atlantis, or it might be in the Middle Ages, or it might be in the 1800s. They’re all there. They’re all there, and you pick and choose which ones you want to experience when you want to experience them.

The other analogy we use is a movie theater. Particularly your multiple cinemas are conducive to this. When you go to a multiple cinema, sometimes all the movies are playing at the same time. You can go to this one and that one and this one and that one — any order you want. They’re all playing.

So lifetimes are that way. You have those that are called past and present and future lifetimes that are those which are in the same space as you, but in different times, and that’s your illusion. You also have those lifetimes that are called parallel lifetimes, which are in the same time, but in a different space. There’s a ‘you’ that’s alive now that isn’t this you, but is a parallel to you. It’s not literally a geometric parallel, but it’s a ‘parallel’ to you in time, not space. Some of you have two or three parallel lifetimes. A ‘you’ might be living in New York City right now, a best-selling author living on Fifth Avenue with a view of the park or whatever. A parallel life is a split-off of you.

Often split-offs occur in your adolescence because those are the times that you are highly filled with fantasy. Some of you, when you were 13, could have ‘died’ to be a doctor, right? You watched every doctor show. You read every doctor book. A doctor — that’s what you were going to be — a doctor, a doctor, a doctor, a doctor, a doctor! Then one day something happened, and … ‘Doctor? I don’t want to be a doctor!’ It’s as though it disappeared.

Often what has happened is you’ve split off, and that part of you, who has the same parents and the same upbringing, splits off and lives a totally different life, let’s say as a doctor at Columbia University in New York City, or wherever. But if you went to New York, if you looked them up in the roster, you’d never find them, because although they’re in the same time, they’re in a different space. Those are parallel lifetimes.

Assume that you have a past lifetime where you live and die as a corner grocer in Chicago, 1880 – 1960. You have your current lifetime doing whatever you do, and you were born in Pittsburgh in 1940. For those 20 years, — from 1940 to 1960 — the two lifetimes overlap. There are overlapping lifetimes that you have because all the lifetimes are happening at once. Time is an illusion. All lifetimes are simultaneous — past, present, future, parallel, overlapping. All of them are happening at once.

The most correct way would be to refer to all lifetimes as concurrent lives experienced in varying time/space continua. That is rather bulky, so you call them past, present, future, parallel, or overlapping. This is technically incorrect, but it is efficient and effective. Like time itself, it is an illusion that is technically incorrect, but both efficient and effective.

‘Well, why bother about past lifetimes?’ Exactly. Why bother? … {laughter} … Some of you have no interest in them. Fine, don’t bother! The Channel (Jach Pursel) has no particular interest in his past lifetimes. We did a life reading for him one time. We made a cassette tape for him at Peny’s request. He listened to it once and said, ‘Hmmmmm.’ And that was it. … {laughter} …

What about those of you who have had life readings? Should you not have done so? No. If you’re interested in lives, then learn about them. What we suggest, and we make this very clear whenever we talk of past lives, is that lifetimes do not cause. They do not cause your current life. They influence. They influence.

We’ve used the analogy of a sunburn, where if you’re sunburned and someone slaps you sharply on the back … ‘Oh!’ It’s going to sting. It’s going to make you cry. It’s going to make you hate for a moment or two until you can control yourself … {laughter} …

If you have no sunburn on the back and someone slaps you sharply, it’s going to sting, but not as much. It may annoy you. ‘Why do they have to be like that!’ It may cause some irritation, but not hate.

What caused the pain? Sunburn? No. No. The sunburn did not cause the pain. The slap on the back caused the pain. The sunburn influenced the intensity.

Lifetimes are like sunburn. They can influence each other, but they do not control. They do not cause. Therefore, if you failed in a past lifetime, it does not mean you will fail now. But if you do fail now, if you do create failure now (‘now’ is the only place you can create anything anyway), the fact that you failed previously may influence what you do — how you handle it now. For some of you it may influence in such a way that you can handle the failure more smoothly. ‘No problem. I don’t know why, but I know exactly what to do about it.’ Because of the influence of the past, you are prepared to handle this one easily. Others may feel totally devastated because the previous failure produces an influence of feeling more fearful.

Lifetimes can influence, just as you and a friend can influence each other. But you cannot honestly control each other. What you do does not make them do anything; it does not control them. It can influence them. Lifetimes are like friends.

Do you and your probable selves actualize the same events?

You do not ever meet a parallel lifetime, and you tend not to run into your overlapping lifetimes, because the trauma would be just too disconcerting. No, you don’t run into them, and they don’t have the same events.

Overlapping lifetimes are lifetimes where the previous one has not quite ended when the next one begins. The end of one overlaps the beginning of another. Sometimes your favorite television shows overlap, or two movies that you want to see on the same night overlap. It is disconcerting, isn’t it?

Well, you do sometimes experience the same phenomenon in lifetimes since they are all simultaneous. One begins before the other ends, except with lifetimes you generally aren’t aware of the overlap because it would be too confusing. It would be too confusing for a 5-year-old child to encounter or confront the 80-year-old man they are/were/are in a previous lifetime. It would be really disconcerting. They’d lock you up — either as the old man realizing ‘I’m a 5-year-old child,’ or as a 5-year-old child realizing, ‘I’m an old man!’ Either way, you’re in trouble!

So therefore, you bury even the intuition or remembrance of such things. Shhhh! Don’t even talk about that stuff, you know? Anyway, even if you did have an intuitive ‘hit,’ by the time you’re six or seven you forget about it anyway, so we would suggest you aren’t aware of probable selves like that. No, you don’t run into them, and they don’t have the same events.

With love and peace,
Lazaris