How Long Until Our Souls Get It Right?

Answers to questions about past lives asked in an Indigo Girls song. Are we serving time for mistakes made by another in another lifetime?

Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and founder of BestPsychicDirectory.com (for top psychics & mediums).

This weekend, Melissa and I took our dogs for a drive around the coast of Southern Maine. A storm recently left the coast with a lot of damage from the surging ocean waters. The roads had been closed off for a while, so we took the drive because we heard they had opened the roads again.

We were driving along, shocked by the power of the ocean to annihilate what seemed impermeable. The hammering of waves had overturned concrete walls. Paved roads had collapsed when the soil underneath was washed away by salt water. Sand, stone, and rocks had landed on the lawns of homes, destroying fences, lawns, steps, and siding of houses as if they had no right to be there.

During our drive home, the song “Galileo” by Indigo Girls played on the radio. It’s always been a favorite of mine. I love many Indigo Girls’ songs, but “Galileo” is among my favorites. After the song ended, it stimulated a conversation between Melissa and me about past lives, which inspired me to use the song as an outline for this article.

“Galileo” was written by Emily Ann Saliers, one-half of the Indigo Girls duo. The song tells the story of someone who, for the first time, considers the concept of past lives and the implications of dealing with issues that might stem from them.

You can watch The Indigo Girls sing the song in the video above, then let’s break the lyrics down to see what we can learn from them. Song lyrics are in italics.

Galileo's head was on the block,
The crime was looking up the truth,
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode,
I try to trace them to my youth.

In this first verse, the lyrics ponder life the way most of us do, at least before learning about past lives. Emily considers how her fears might be traced back to her childhood. We often successfully trace our issues to our youth, but we sometimes encounter fears or problems that are more difficult to trace in our current lives. This is where the next verse comes into play.

And then you had to bring up reincarnation,
Over a couple of beers the other night.
And now I'm serving time for mistakes,
Made by another in another lifetime.

I’ll bet many of us interested in these subjects can recall when the subject of past lives first came up in a conversation—maybe over a couple of beers—and suddenly, the thought grabbed hold of your mind and sparked a thousand questions.

I feel frustration in Emily’s lyrics, to which many of us can probably relate.

“Wait, you mean to tell me that I’m paying for the mistakes and shortcomings of some numbnut who lived in 1863? That’s not fair!”

There’s accuracy in the concept. This is where my article on Soul vs. Spirit can help clarify this subject, so if you haven’t read it yet, now might be a good time. Assuming you have read it, your soul is that spiritual aspect of yourself that is experiencing the human lifetimes of many spirits, your current life included. Because we can only learn a limited number of insights from any single lifetime, it’s built into the system that we evolve from numerous lifetimes. We can’t do it all in one life.

Emily points out in her lyrics that, at first glance, it feels like she’s serving time for the mistakes made by another person in another lifetime. But that’s not really the case. The bigger picture of past-life insight is that we build upon the growth and wisdom gained in other lifetimes. Said another way, it’s more likely that we’re simply experiencing a different angle of the same issue for more profound insight.

Perhaps we learned in one lifetime what it’s like to be exiled by our family, friends, or even our country. Maybe we learned about loneliness and self-dependency from that experience. Yet, because of the lessons learned in that lifetime, we might learn in a future lifetime what it means to be among the group that exiles someone. Now, we see a different side to the experience of being pushed away by friends, family, or community because we are among the group that pushed someone out.

Perhaps the casting out of the individual from the group was done out of necessity for the safety or survival of the group. Or maybe it was done out of fear, such as when people with leprosy were cast out into leper colonies. However that might have felt to be exiled, it is another side of the experience of being shunned from the group.

Later, you might have a similar yet new experience, perhaps in this life. It’s 1975, and the clique you hang out with in junior high turns on you, forcing you to be alone or join another clique for safety and inclusion. The concept of exile, banishment, or separation from your family or community has many faces. Since we can’t gain insight into all sides of a human experience in a single lifetime, our soul does this in layers throughout several lifetimes.

For example, we might learn what it’s like to be murdered in one lifetime, to be the murderer in another, to be the family member of someone who is murdered in another, and to be the family member of a murderer in still another. Each of these four lifetime experiences around murder will hold vastly different lessons and knowledge. Yet, each experience fills us with greater insight until we eventually know all sides to that experience, even if that takes four or more lifetimes.

This is where the song's chorus contemplates what we’re discussing here.

How long 'til my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light?
I call on the resting soul of Galileo, king of night vision,
King of insight.

Emily Saliers then changes direction to contemplate another aspect of past lives: the remnants of past-life traumas and wounds that carry over from one life to the next. Here’s how she described it.

And then I think about my fear of motion,
Which I never could explain.
Some other fool across the ocean years ago,
Must have crashed his little airplane.

Here, we see the lyrics turn from frustration to understanding, recognizing that a past-life trauma of crashing an airplane might account for a fear of motion.

The best evidence to suggest this is true comes from past-life regression therapy. Many people have experienced phobias that have no apparent relation to events or traumas in their current lifetime, so they sought the help of a past-life regressionist (a specialization of hypnotherapy). Using techniques of hypnosis, the subject experiences a past life related to their fear or phobia.

Emily mentions the crashing of an airplane, but issues can stem from all sorts of events and injuries. If someone is strangled in a past life, they might have problems with the neck or complications with breathing. Suppose someone is trapped under a house after an earthquake in a past life. In that case, they might have problems with claustrophobia in another lifetime. Or if the rear leg of a horse fatally kicked someone working as a farrier in the 1800s, they might come into this life with an unfounded fear of horses.

What’s fascinating and liberating is that many people have healed their fears, phobias, and even health issues simply by bringing this past-life experience into their conscious minds. In other words, just by experiencing the past life during hypnosis, they now understand the connection between their unconscious phobia and their past life, which often eliminates the issue in this life. This can be as true for mysterious yet ongoing aches and pains as it is for phobias. So, the person who was strangled might heal his breathing issue or neck pain simply by bringing the past-life trauma to his conscious awareness. How cool is that?

How long 'til my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light?
I call on the resting soul of Galileo, king of night vision,
King of insight.

I'm not making a joke.
You know me, I take everything so seriously.
If we wait for the time 'til all souls get it right,
Then, at least, I know there'll be no nuclear annihilation in my lifetime.
I'm still not right.

I love the character arc we see in this story. At first, there’s frustration with the idea of past lives; now, there’s no fear of nuclear annihilation because the person still has work to do.

The lyric is a bit overly optimistic in this deduction since death doesn’t wait for us to complete our work. Most people still have work to do upon their passing. Still, while it’s true that our soul might call us home after our work here is done, there’s plenty of afterlife evidence to show that we can also choose to hang out for a while if we want to enjoy life for a little longer. Our free will does play a significant role in the timing of our death. (There are other factors at play here, too, which you can read about in this article.)

I offer thanks to those before me.
That's all I've got to say.
'Cause maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime,
Now I have to pay.

But then again, it feels like some sort of inspiration,
To let the next life off the hook.
Or she'll say, “Look what I had to overcome from my last life,
I think I'll write a book.”

The lyrics end by seeing both sides of these concerns about past lives. The writer, Emily, recognizes that we are paying for the shortcomings of our past-life counterparts, but this insight inspires her to do her best in this lifetime to let the next version of herself off the hook. I love this mindset. It’s selfless and considerate of others, specifically future versions of her soul.

How many friends and family members do we have who refuse to change or grow regardless of who else might be affected by their behavior? “It’s just who I am. Don’t ask me to change.” We all have older adults in our lives who are still dealing with the same issues they were dealing with in childhood. Emily was in her late twenties when this song was released. I can’t help but admire her altruism at such a young age. Even if she’s not directly referring to herself in the lyrics, she knows the importance of thinking about our future counterparts.

The lyrics eventually surrender to the idea that we might fail in letting our future selves off the hook. Emily ends her song, seeing the glass as half-full. At the very least, even if we fail to overcome our challenges before we die, the next version of ourselves can write a book about all the obstacles we overcame from our past life.

I think that’s a great place to land. “I’ll do my best. But if I fall short, at least I’ll leave the next incarnation with something they can overcome and tell the world about in a book.”

Emily Saliers finishes with one last round of the chorus.

How long 'til my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach the highest light?
Except for Galileo, God rest his soul,
King of the night vision, king of insight.

You might be wondering where I stand on the chorus questions. From what I’ve learned in my investigation of past lives, which includes experiencing multiple past-life regressions, I think the question is missing the point of a soul having a human life. We don’t experience a lifetime like a test we can pass or fail. A lifetime is simply an experience that allows us to grow. Do we raise our vibration (frequency) with each new experience (lifetime)? I would say we certainly do.

Even Infinite Intelligence, which many people name God, is constantly evolving from all the experiences each one of us is having. We’re not trying to get anything right. We’re simply experiencing new sides—alternate angles—of infinitely possible experiences. There’s no way to fail, no right or wrong way to do it. And since the possibilities are infinite, the highest light is ever-increasing. Like playing a musical instrument or learning chess, there’s always room for improvement, even after a lifetime (or many lifetimes) of practice.

Hopefully, you view that as good news. Peacefulness comes from knowing that life is an experience rather than a test. This doesn’t suggest that kindness, gratitude, and compassion aren’t preferred by our souls over selfishness, entitlement, and indifference. The former hold their own rewards over the latter. Still, the only person who is going to punish you for being a selfish sleazeball is yourself once you go home to the afterlife. That is unless you turn it around and become your version of Mother Theresa before you die. Just like Hollywood, the powers that be love a good character arc.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me. And thanks to Emily Ann Saliers and the Indigo Girls for this inspiring and insightful song. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section. I also invite you to suggest new songs about life after death for future articles because I really enjoyed writing this one. I hope you have a week full of love, joy, abundance, and health.

With love,
Bob

Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His latest venture is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.

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