Early church fathers removed reincarnation in the Bible to combat our lazy ways. So, good motivation, but unfortunately misguided.
The truth of reincarnation was on Jesus’ mind when he spoke of how we need to be reborn. It’s not hard to see that we will stagnate if we’re not constantly rediscovering and rebirthing aspects of our true selves as we do this work to know ourselves better. Physical rebirth is an unalterable component of this same process. It would be pure folly to assume that we could complete all of the development we need to do in one short life. This defies any logic and all common sense.
So Holy Scripture hints at the truth of reincarnation in the concept of being reborn. But it’s stated as a boldface fact in the clear expression that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah. In the early years after the life and death of Jesus Christ, in fact, teaching reincarnation was a normal part of the Christian religion. So early Christians knew perfectly well that reincarnation was a true reality.
It was later on that church fathers saw how the knowledge of the truth of reincarnation was misused in Eastern traditions. So they took action to remove this danger; they took it out of the Bible. The misuse they witnessed in Eastern cultures was that of a fatalistic attitude toward life: “It doesn’t matter what I do—it’s karma. I have to go through this and there’s not a thing I can do about it.” It’s not hard to imagine how this set people back.
But the opposite extreme is no winner either. Denying this truth brought about a different damaging attitude. We placed an overemphasis of free will on ourselves, but did so with a superficial finger-wagging attitude of “I’d better behave or I’m going straight to you-know-where.” So then the fear of just about everything—fear of God, fear of not being good enough, fear of not fulfilling “the law”—caused just as much harm.
Jill Loree grew up in northern Wisconsin with parents who embraced their Norwegian, Swedish and German heritage. Foods like lutefisk, lefse and krumkaka were prepared every Christmas. And of course there was plenty of beer, bratwurst and cheese all year round.
She would go on to throw pizzas and bartend while attending college at the University of Wisconsin, and then moved into a career in technical sales and marketing. She would settle in Atlanta in 1989 and discover that the sweet spot of her career would be in marketing communications. A true Gemini, she has a degree in chemistry and a flair for writing.
One of Jill’s greatest passions in life has been her spiritual path. Raised in the Lutheran faith, she became a more deeply spiritual person in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) starting in 1989. In 1997, she was introduced to the wisdom of the Pathwork Guide, which she describes as “having walked through the doorway of a fourth step and found the whole library.”
In 2007, she completed four years of training to become a Pathwork Helper, and stepped fully into her Helpership in 2011. In addition to offering individual and group sessions, she has been a teacher in the Transformation Program offered by Mid-Atlantic Pathwork. She also led marketing activities for Sevenoaks Retreat Center in Madison, Virginia and served on their Board of Trustees.
In 2012, Jill completed four years of kabbalah training and became certified for hands-on healing using the energies embodied in the tree of life. She began dedicating her life to writing and teaching about personal self-development in 2014.
Today, Jill is the proud mom of two adult children, Charlie and Jackson, and is delighted to be married to Scott Wisler. She’s had more than one last name along the way and now happily uses her middle name as her last. It’s pronounced loh-REE. In 2022, Scott joined her full time in their mission to spread the teachings of the Pathwork Guide far and wide.
