This transformation of the past in the present is a subtle thing, produced by the power of light to change who we are, how we feel, what we believe. Light's power to affect identity is multi-level and affects the self in its very structure and core. It can also affect that part of the self that is the past-self. When that happens, the self that once was, exists no longer. It is progressively erased, along with all traces of it in the present.

Such an erasure of 'karmic residues' or of 'karmic threads' cannot happen as a result of the exercise of will, or thought, or intention. It must happen through the re-energizing of the whole being around a new core-identity so that the inner connections with the reality of what 'has been' no longer exist or exist only to a minimal degree. As this reorganization occurs, the new comes into the foreground, assuming its place as the main event and replacing what has needed to be let go of.

This erasure of the past happens as part of a deep healing process known as 'purification'. 'Purification' brings us into greater proximity with our deeper and truer selves and allows us to reshape our identity so that it conforms to our highest values, the values of the Divine within us. Such aspirations may have been thought of, in the past, as too far-fetched or out-of-reach to hold. In fact, there are still many who believe that people cannot fundamentally change. Nevertheless, the new awareness of spiritual reality and the advent of greater light flowing through consciousness today make all such assumptions about our incapacity for change specious. For change is what light brings about - change toward growth and wholeness, change toward healing, change toward a deepening of truth.

Erasing the past can only happen when, in addition to the power of light, one is willing to let go of the past and become someone new. If there is a wish to remain attached to certain beliefs, outcomes, relationships, or situations because of their emotional meaning or because one is afraid to give them up, then this kind of rearrangement of molecules cannot take place in the way that it would if full identification were present with the new and with the capacity of the new to create growth.

We are, at all times, shaped by our own free-will as well as by the deeper identity that lives at our core, and so the journey to remembrance of this inner core will take place at the speed and in the manner that we can allow, and will not take place before we can allow it.

What is essential to understand in viewing identity and one's own capacity for change is that there is no aspect of the self that is fixed and immutable except for one - that we are each created out of Divine essence with a core of light and love that is part of the Oneness. This inner core is immutable. All else may vary.

What we choose to hold onto and to let go of is therefore up to each of us as we move through space and time. Ask yourself, therefore, who am I, really, and who do I want to be? These are the pivotal questions that can shape a life.

Julie Redstone is a teacher, writer, and founder of Light Omega, a center for spiritual teaching and healing in Western Massachusetts. The purpose of Light Omega is to create an understanding of the sacred transition into light that the earth is presently going through and the changes this will bring to individual and planetary consciousness.

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