He had been working at the international headquarters of a spiritual organization in Menlo Park, California. Since most of the employees were members of this particular organization, conversations at the lunch table naturally turned to topics inherent in teaching, topics like dreams, past lives, and the shortest way home to God.

One day, while nibbling on a carrot stick, a coworker I’d nicknamed Zeta told me about a recent past life memory she’d had. She recalled flying in a one-person plane, seeing herself as pilot and bombardier. A white cloth was tied around her head. She was horrified to see herself dropping bombs on people going about their lives in an open plaza in Atlantis.

At the time, some of my managerial duties included overseeing a department that was editing video recordings of a recent conference. We had hired an outside company to help record the event and help our own people gather the material for eventual distribution to members.

One day, in a casual conversation, one of the production assistants from the outside company confided in me that years ago she had an unusual dream that still troubled her. However, before continuing, she made it perfectly clear that she didn’t believe in any of the things that we believe in, things like prophetic dreams, reincarnation, or karma. Slightly red from being in contradiction to her own belief system, she told me about her dream.

It seems that he had been walking through a square where there were many people doing what people do on nice days. A deafening sound descended, literally, from nowhere. The crowd began to run in all directions as dozens of low-flying planes roared into view and began dropping bombs, creating small but effective explosions. The production assistant recalled that the pilots wore (here drum roll) white headbands.

If your logical mind wonders how anyone on the ground could know what the pilots were wearing, I can only say that dreams don’t play out like our lives in the physical universe. In dreams, you can be present in your all-knowing 360-degree soul-filled body as an observer.

I imagine my mouth must have dropped open as I listened to her story. Two people I knew who didn’t know each other had the same dream from different perspectives: one bombing and the vaulted. As they say, something was going on in all this.

Hesitantly, I asked the production assistant if she would like to meet someone who had told me about a similar dream. She nodded. “Stay here,” I said as I turned on my heel and headed in the direction of Zeta’s cubicle.

Zeta and the production assistant exchanged stories while standing in the back hallway. Hardly able to breathe, I watched in silence and amazement. This was one of those momentous moments in time and space that are somehow orchestrated to resolve a longstanding karmic debt. The haunting memory of that day in Atlantis, lodged deep in their hearts, was about to be removed with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.

How simply the karma ended. Zeta looked at the production assistant with tears in her eyes and said, “I’m sorry.” The production assistant nodded and a debt was paid.

The world began to spin again.

Not all karma is resolved in such a simple and direct way. And who knows, maybe the two of them have been meeting and working for this moment for centuries. The moral of the story, however, is to stay awake. Be on the lookout for those times when you can consciously finish unfinished business and make further spiritual progress possible for all. If a moment is missed, it can be a long time before all the circumstances and conditions for resolution line up so perfectly once again.

Most recalls are not as dramatic as the story above, so pay close attention. He can begin by taking a close look at the people, places, and things that deeply attract him or inexplicably repel him in this lifetime. I had a sister-in-law, for example, who mentioned Druids in all other conversations. I suspect that something significant might have happened to him in a past life among these priests, medicine men and arbiters who first appeared in Britain around 600 BC.

Think about it. Have you found yourself collecting books on Spanish folklore, avoiding the Mayan exhibit at your local museum, or knowing intuitively what it feels like to be a servant? Our lives today are filled with hints of our past. Pay attention. Start taking some notes on possible past life connections and see where it takes you.

The end result: live consciously, resolve, grow.

-Except he would be holy available mid-April in paperback on Amazon.com