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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Wil and the narrator learn from Feyman's Birth Vision?

2. Who ignored Charlene in a previous life?

3. Of what is the narrator immediately aware as he returns to the physical plane at the beginning of Chapter 8?

4. The narrator says the church suppressed the doctrine because of what?

5. What does the narrator say moved the human race forward to a closer union with the divine in the 1960's?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Webber tell the narrator about Charlene?

2. What does the narrator say he realized about humans born into the world?

3. What did the narrator see begin to emerge that changed the way humans interacted with the world?

4. In Chapter 8, what does the narrator hear as he returns to the physical plane and what does Webber tell him about the noise?

5. How does the narrator connect Charlene with one of his previous lives?

6. What does the narrator realize about all his previous lives and what he thinks is needed to change the trend?

7. What does the narrator discuss with Wil concerning the Christian church?

8. How does the narrator describe hell in Chapter 7?

9. What does Wil say about the scenarios the narrator saw?

10. What did the narrator see in his vision about the teachings of Christ?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator remembers a previous life. In this life, narration reveals, the narrator was a monk, initiated into an understanding of the Insights and determined to bring them into the wider experience of the Christian church. While being persecuted, he pretended to have an ankle injury to buy himself more time to write out and distribute copies of the first Nine Insights, but was eventually arrested, imprisoned and executed.

1. Given the interest the narrator has in spiritual principles in his present life, explain why his vision of a past life, e.g. being a monk, would be a logical type of past life the narrator might see.

2. With research, if needed, explain why any spiritual system such as the Insights would be contrary to and threatening to the Christian church. Use examples to support your answer.

3. If the Nine Insights have been known for as long as the author asserts, why do you think only a handful of people actually know about them? What might this say about spiritual paths in general? What might this say about the importance of spirituality to the majority of humans?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 6, and indeed throughout the novel, storytelling can clearly be seen as a function of thematic agenda - what happens happens because the author wants to make his philosophical point. This manifests here perhaps more blatantly and directly from other novels without such overt agendas, but at its core the purpose of storytelling remains the same no matter what story is being told - to awaken some sort of reaction and/or increased insight in the reader.

1. Explain, with examples why the first sentence above is true.

2. Why do you think a novel that overtly has an agenda would use most of the actions of the characters, the subplots, the behaviors and situations to advance that agenda more so than a typical novel.

3. Do you think the purpose of storytelling is the same no matter what story is being told - to awaken some sort of reaction and/or increased insight in the reader? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Some of the theories expounded in this section are certainly interesting - the idea, for example, that past unresolved conflicts are the source for present tension, and the idea that Soul Groups are unified by what might be described (but which actually aren't) as a talent.

1. Discuss what the ramifications would be for individuals if much of their behavior and personality were a result of previous lives.

2. If Soul Groups were indeed true, discuss in detail why it would be logical for them to be grouped as like talents.

3. For the sake of argument, assume reincarnation is true and argue for or against the idea that animals also experience reincarnation.

(see the answer keys)

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