A dramatic example of how the threads of karma and opportunity are woven through lifetimes comes out of the pages of English history.

This is a story of principle versus ambition. It is also a lesson of how karma gives us a second chance.

In 1155, when Thomas Becket was just thirty-six, Henry II appointed him chancellor of England.

Becket was an energetic and skilled diplomat, statesman and soldier. He became the king’s close friend and confidant, and the second most powerful man in the realm.

In 1161 Henry wanted Becket to become archbishop of Canterbury. Henry’s motive was simple. By placing his friend in the highest offices of both Church and State, Henry would bypass the traditional tension between the archbishop and the king. Becket hesitated.

He foresaw the inevitable conflict between the interests of the king and the interests of the Church.

He finally assented when the king insisted, accepting the office as “God’s hidden will.”

After his consecration as archbishop, Becket adopted an austere and devout lifestyle in contrast to his former days as a lavish man of the world.

Much to Henry’s displeasure, Becket resigned his post as chancellor and zealously championed the cause of the Church.

The relationship between the two men quickly deteriorated.

Threatened with imprisonment or forced resignation, Becket fled to France. His exile lasted for over six years.

During that time, Henry challenged both Becket and the pope by having his son crowned coregent by the archbishop of York, a right reserved to the archbishop of Canterbury.

Becket then excommunicated the bishops who had aided Henry and threatened England with an interdict that would close all the churches.

Henry finally backed down and invited Becket to return to England, where he was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds.

It wasn’t long, however, before the two clashed again. In a fit of rage Henry cried out, “What disloyal cowards do I have in my court, that not one will free me of this low-born priest!”

Four barons overheard the king’s remarks and brutally murdered Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, four days after Christmas. His last words were, “For the name of Jesus and the defense of the Church, I embrace death.”

Becket’s murder shocked Christendom. His tomb swiftly became a shrine and the site of hundreds of reported miracles.

Just three years after his death, he was canonized. In 1174, pressured by public opinion, Henry did penance at Becket’s tomb.

In the sixteenth century the souls of Thomas and Henry were once again cast in the roles of chancellor and king of England.

Once again they were given the choice to serve God’s will or man’s will, to champion principle or worldly power.

Thomas Becket reembodied as Sir Thomas More, and Henry II as the infamous Henry VIII.

Watch how precise is the opportunity based on past karma. Starting in 1510 Henry VIII promoted Thomas More to a series of public offices.

More was a lawyer, an accomplished classical scholar and a deeply religious man.

He helped Henry write a statement against Martin Luther’s doctrines, for which the pope rewarded Henry with the title of “Defender of the Faith.”

Again, Henry and Thomas became friends and the king appointed More the chancellor of England.

While chancellor, More gained a reputation as a prompt and honest judge. When the king started assuming authority over the Church and divorced Queen Catherine in opposition to Church law, More resigned.

He refused to take an oath acknowledging that the offspring of Henry and his new wife would succeed to the throne because it contained a provision that challenged papal authority.

For this he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

In 1535, More was tried and convicted of high treason and then beheaded for opposing the Act of Supremacy, which declared Henry the supreme head of the Church in England.

His last words echoed the sentiment voiced by Becket. He said that he died for the faith of the holy Catholic Church, “the king’s good servant but God’s first.”

Like Becket, More was made a saint by the Church.

Ironically, in 1538 Henry VIII had the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket broken to pieces.

He also ordered Becket’s name erased from the prayer books and prohibited any images of Becket in England.

After so many centuries, he still had not forgiven Becket, just as he had not forgiven Thomas More.

 Life Between Lives

Near-death experiences, past-life regressions and the accounts of those who “see” spiritual planes with their inner eye have all painted a picture of what takes place between lives.

The accounts say that between embodiments we are in a heightened state of awareness, one that seems more real than life on earth.

They describe beautiful lakes and glistening cities as well as encounters with “beings of light.”

Dannion Brinkley, who has had three near-death experiences, was led to a “city of cathedrals” made “entirely of crystalline substance that glowed.” He later found out that these were halls of learning—places “where there was no pain and knowledge flowed freely.”

Life Between Life by Dr. Joel Whitton and Joe Fisher describes the experiences of those who recalled under hypnosis what they did between lifetimes.

Some reported that they studied “in vast halls of learning equipped with libraries and seminar rooms.”

Doctors and lawyers spoke of “studying their respective disciplines during the inter life while others remember applying themselves to such subjects as ‘the laws of the universe’ and other metaphysical topics. Some people even tell of studying subjects that defy description because they have no earthly counterpart.”

The accounts also reveal that between lives we meet with a group, or board, of between three and seven spiritually advanced beings.

Those who recall their encounter with this board say that these wise ones prepared them for the tasks ahead in their next life.

Dr. Whitton’s subjects reported that these beings are “highly advanced spiritually and may even have completed their cycle of earthly incarnations.”

They say that these beings intuitively know everything about those who come to them and “their role is to assist [them] in evaluating the life that has just passed and, eventually, to make recommendations concerning the next incarnation.”

In some spiritual traditions, this board is known as the Karmic Board, a group of advanced beings who adjudicate karma, mercy and judgment on behalf of every soul.

After each embodiment, our soul meets with the Karmic Board to review our progress in that life.

Before we take incarnation again, we pass before this board to receive our assignment and karmic allotment.

We are shown what family we will be born into and why, where we had difficulties in the past, who we have to settle accounts with and how we can take advantage of new opportunities to make spiritual progress.

In essence, we review the plan for our upcoming life.

In Life Between Life, Whitton and Fisher say that this life plan, which they call our “karmic script,” involves what our soul needs, not necessarily what it wants.

“The karmic script often calls for renewed involvement with people who have figured, pleasantly or unpleasantly, in previous incarnations,” they write.

“In the words of one who felt compelled to make compensation to others: ‘There are people I didn’t treat too well in my last life, and I have to go back to the Earth plane again and work off that debt. This time, if they hurt me in return, I’m going to forgive them because all I really want to do is to go back home. This is home.’”

Another of Dr. Whitton’s subjects groaned, “Oh no—not her again!” when his spiritual advisors notified him that “his personal evolution would best be served by being reborn to a woman he had murdered in a previous life.”

After hearing one of my presentations that talked about the soul’s experience before life, a woman wrote to tell me about a pre-birth memory she had had many years earlier.

She recalled being escorted by her Higher Self into a room that looked like a long hall.

Men and women dressed in long robes were sitting at a table off to the right side of the room. “I remember standing before the man at the middle of the table. He had shoulder- length white hair and a white beard that touched the middle of his chest,” she wrote.

“There was a gentle presence about him that helped me relax as he read my assignments for this life from the parchment he held in his hands.

I was a very excited little girl—I could hardly wait to get started….I left the room with my guide, and as I walked into a beautiful garden I began to sense that my mission might not be so easy.

Uncertainties began to fill my mind. We sat down on a stone bench, which was surrounded by beautiful roses and flowers of all colors.

I sat in deep contemplation, knowing that it would be only moments before I would be born to my current mother.

“I knew I was coming to help and support her, but I also had something very important to attend to when I became old enough.

I turned to my guide with a concerned expression and asked, ‘Will I lose what I have gained?’ He clasped my hands gently in his own and said, ‘It is up to you.’”