When do souls enter babies

Let's look at them in reverse order. After Birth This idea is so far out of Judeo-Christian tradition that it has always been recognized as an impossibility. It is, however, held in a small number of New Age circles. Some New Agers state that some children do not get their souls until several days after birth. This harmonizes with a common New Age idea that souls get to choose the body in which they reincarnate. The idea in this case would be that there is no magic point where a child has to get a soul; it just depends on what soul chooses the body first.

Needless to say, this is a bizarre idea and is not likely to have much traction outside New Age circles. It may become somewhat more common as abortion and euthanasia lead to a greater push for infanticide and thus a greater desire to rationalize away the humanity of a newly born child.

At Birth Scarcely less bizarre than the post-birth hypothesis is the assertion made by some, supposedly based on Genesis , that one receives a soul and becomes a human when one draws one's first breath. This fails to appreciate the Bible's use of metaphor. The idea that one inhales a soul at birth would suggest that souls are made out of oxygen molecules and that we inhale them and exhale them all the time, two notions incompatible with biblical anthropology.

Furthermore, modern science reveals that the unborn have been already "breathing" through the placenta the pre-birth organ equivalent in function to the mouth , which has been taking oxygen and nutrients from the mother's bloodstream.

Today the at-birth view is most often found among pro-abortion Christians. However, from a biblical point of view, it is clear that a child is human before birth. When Mary's greeting reached Elizabeth's ears in Luke's Gospel, the unborn John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mother's womb ; we are also told that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb The unborn John the Baptist is also described as a brephos Luke , 44 , this being a Greek term meaning a babe, an infant, a newborn child.

These indicate the humanity of the unborn John the Baptist, who was then in the third trimester After Conception It is sometimes claimed that Thomas Aquinas believed that the unborn did not acquire a soul until several weeks after conception.

This is not true. Aquinas believed that the unborn had a soul a rational, human soul from the time it was conceived. This corresponds also to the point at which most organs are differentiated and the fetus begins to acquire a human shape. But it also means that should the fetus die after this point for whatever reason, he or she would be given a proper burial and the funeral prayer would be offered as if he or she died as an infant. The implications of this tradition is that being human is not determined solely by biology but through receiving a soul after an appointed time following conception.

It is the presence of this soul then which corresponds to moral viability and the establishment of certain rights, including life, support and sustenance, and the protection of lineage. I do not know which is true in religion, philosophy or law. But is it not wrong to calculate the age of a baby from the day it was born? The day they come to the world, we start counting. However, parents begin to get excited on the day they receive the good news that they will have a baby.

In the fifth week, the excitement increases as the heart beats. With the baby for 9 months, happiness, excitement and anxiety also grow. The transformation of a fetus in the size of a pea into a human being is followed with joy. Butterfly movements, kicks, first meeting at the ultrasound … We love our baby in existence, in spirit, without seeing it.

I was deeply struck by the information because I loved children very much, and we wanted to start a family sometime soon. In addition, I had most recently worked in a preschool and was very aware of the individuality of the children there; this seemed to go well beyond whatever the parents could have done to influence the children once they were born to them. Some kids could only be explained by the fact that they were born this way, with certain qualities already established.

We sign on for a very long and expensive contract as parents, and this goes well beyond the financial costs, which are legend but also includes our intense conscientious care and attention for the better part of 2 decades. So, I was happy to know that parents could influence matters by praying for a spiritual child to be born to them.

Many years later, I can now say it is not necessarily always easier , but at least the children will likely be receptive to the spiritual values in your heart and soul, giving a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment to this intense life commitment. I now see that when we invite spiritual souls into the family, there is an increased responsibility to follow through with appropriate spiritual support and training.

This, of course, is the topic of this book, and it is an ongoing process of discovery. It was my nature to want to do these things; still, I was only later stuck by the fact that it was my responsibility to do them, as well. Paramhansa Yogananda addressed the point of when the soul enters the body in numerous writings. Most of them go way beyond what you need to tell children, no matter what the age. Those deeper writings are for married couples desiring to pray in a special way at the point of conception, in order to invite a spiritual child to their family.

Of course, the love, goodness, and spiritual devotion of a couple also serve as a divine magnet, helping to draw a more spiritually receptive child. The story below carries the essence of this deep truth and frames it in a simple manner that can be broken down and used appropriately, depending on the age of the child.

Swami Kriyananda was often present when Paramhansa Yogananda spoke privately with disciples, received visitors, or discussed his writings. These conversations are recorded in a wonderful book, Conversations with Yogananda. This basic question of life is addressed in entry It is a common belief these days that until a child is actually born, it is not yet a consciously developing human being.

This belief is fallacious. Souls there that are ready to be reborn, if their vibration matches that of the flash of light, rush to get in. Sometimes two or more get in at the same time, and the woman has twins, triplets, or even — well!

Some sensitive, intuitive parents report feeling the soul being born to their family in that moment; and that the soul feels like a fully conscious, mature presence that then becomes the baby. It is by no means every devotee parent who feels these things — but it does happen, and it helps shine some light on this topic.

For this reason, and others, he said only a true God-realized Master can do an astrological chart with complete accuracy. You know your child, and you will know if and when to share any of these things. It is comforting for the child to know that we are always the soul — but sometimes we have a physical body, and sometimes such as after death, and before life we have an astral body, made of energy and light.

I have seen these ideas help many children, young and old. No one tells him that his soul will be rewarded for his righteousness in Heaven. That explanation did not happen and could not happen until the year BCE, when Aristotle taught a bunch of early rabbis about his ideas concerning matter and form.

Matter is the principle of potentiality and form is the principle of actuality. In the case of a sculpture of a horse, matter is like the clay and form is like the idea of a horse that a sculptor imposes on the clay. Matter is obviously material, but form is immaterial. Form is of the same essence as God, who is pure thought.

The rabbis of post-biblical Judaism in the Talmud immediately codified this Aristotelian dualism into the Jewish idea of guf Hebrew for body and neshama Hebrew for soul. With the new doctrine that our souls survive the grave, new explanations for theodicy could be formulated. Innocent people suffer on earth because they are just clearing their accounts so that God can reward them completely in Heaven. Wicked people who escape punishment for their sins in their lives, are punished forever in Hell after death.

Body and soul puts the goodness and justice of God back in order. Now, as to your question about when the body is animated by the insertion of the soul into it, there is a dispute.