Lyshe:

If you were to find that karma doesn't exist in the ways you described, you'll find that you don't need to worry about Karma in such a way. Some sources of such viewpoints come up with such concepts so they can control their followers. For example, surrender your life to  Guru whoever, so you won't have to reincarnate over and over and over again.

Some sources of information advocate the viewpoint that reincarnation doesn’t exist in a linear way, rather our souls exist in an Oversoul kind of way, and projects numerous portions of itself into various lifetimes. As far as I can figure, each portion lives just one lifetime, and eventually returns to its Oversoul, and the accumulated knowledge and wisdom then becomes available. Oversouls are a part of Soul Groups, and information becomes available at Soul Group level.

Due to various experiences I have had, it seems to me the above viewpoint is true. Some near death experiencers have found the same. For example near death experience Ron Krueger wrote the below:

“Directly in front of me, but slightly below, stood a group of spirits: less than 100, but more than 50. Each spirit had an identity of sorts, but they were part of each other-a single entity, a single awareness, all part of a single force. In the center of the front row were three oriental women. I realized that all of the spirits comprising the entity were my past lives, and the oriental women were my most recent lives.

Their faces were clearly humanoid, but from their shoulders down, their forms blurred gradually. Their arms and legs dissolved near their ends. Hovering on the same level, in rows, they seemed loosely joined at the shoulders. Their identities were of both sexes and all nationalities. None were deceased relatives, and I recognized none of them from my recent life.

Each of the spirits had lived once, but the truth and experience and wisdom of each lifetime was integral to the entire group. When each soul returned, their lives were absorbed by all, so there were no distinctions between thoughts and attitudes within the group. Each of them shared completely every experience and every knowledge of every lifetime into a single conscience. Like spices and other ingredients added to a Mulligan stew, each added to the mix, but the resulting flavor was one. I was them, and they were me. They were all of my past, and they were of my present.

They communicated with me as one, not with words, but by a kind of telepathy. Every thought, whether it was one simple emotion or volumes of information, came packaged with instant and complete understanding. No message could suffer misinterpretation, the problems of syntax, or variance of intelligence.”

https://www.nderf.org/Experiences/1ron_k_nde.html

Near death experiencer Thomas Sawyer wrote the below:

“Reincarnation is not a linear thing. One of the problems in defining it is that there is no analogy to it. It is outside of time, yet we can’t help but think of it in terms of the past and the future, and this incarnation. The whole story is so big and so involved.

Reincarnation is an opportunity to reach a goal. The goal is true self-realization. Self-realization is to know that you are a soul, a part of God, yet also the Whole. Perhaps no one has a very good image at all of his or her soul – the whole self. And they have no idea of what proportion their personality is in relationship to their soul.

As an example, a characteristic of your personality is one percent of all of your personality characteristics put together, and all of your personality characteristics make up your personality, and your personality is only about five percent of your soul, then we are blinding ourselves to 95 percent of the rest of our soul in order to reincarnate.

Reincarnation is an opportunity to evolve through many personalities. The definition of reincarnation is that your personality is who you are in your current lifetime, and that it can be reincarnated as an entirely different personality with the characteristics of the previous personality and previous personalities including even characteristics of another soul altogether. That is, characteristics of your present personality may be the reincarnation of other characteristics of personalities from your previous lifetimes as well as characteristics from personalities from other souls.”

https://www.near-death.com/experiences/ ... awyer.html

Near death experience P.M.H. Atwater wrote in her book We Live Forever, page 37:

“I saw that what resides within our earthly frame, what we think defines us as human beings, is but a finger of what we are, a projection from our soul’s mass.”

Near death experience Christian Andreason wrote:

“What I observed in the realm went way beyond what I would have originally thought reincarnation would be….

Reincarnation (I learned) is about birthing new energy from our original energy. When we take on a new lifetime, this happens by us merging new energy (gifted to us by God) with bits and pieces of our older energy mixed all together.

Heaven then helps us to fit into a new space (in this case a physical body) so that we might explore new ideas or feelings that require additional Soul searching and/or experience.

If there is any part of our core Self that causes us to hold serious questions about ourselves and our abilities, you can bet your bottom dollar that we will re-incarnate again and again until we are satisfied with the answers we eventually find.”

Robert Monroe’s (a well know out of body explorer) book Ultimate Journey (page 166) also provides an example of a soul projecting additional parts of itself according to need:

Robert: “How far back does this [his soul’s history] go?”
Robert’s I-there: “Before you were born.”
Robert: “You had better tell me. I don’t remember.”
Robert’s I-there: “You wouldn’t. You didn’t exist. We made the decision to become human again. We selected the time and place and organized the DNA mix—elements from the physical and elements from us. We took those parts of us that seemed most appropriate, rolled them up into one, and sent them in. There you—and we—were!”
Robert: “What exactly did you send in?”
Robert’s I-there: “Personalities, memories. What else?”

Such way of evolving spiritually extends to Soul Groups. Paul Elder’s book Eyes of an Angel (pages 157-158) provides an example of souls sharing their lessons to a significant degree:

“As you know,” Meldor [Paul’s spirit guide] explained, “the main goal of a soul’s journey is to attain the perfection of unlimited love through the accumulation of knowledge by experience. Most soul groups accomplish this through a cycle of incarnations, challenging themselves, and working to overcome the obstacles. Every entity in the cluster adds to the experience, knowledge, and energy of the group. Although each soul has its own plan and life blueprint, it is loved, encouraged, and supported unconditionally by the entire group.

“The life experience of every member of the group contributes immeasurably to the strength of the whole. This is a very important aspect of the soul group. As the entire cluster of souls vibrates as one, the individual life experience of any single member becomes an experience shared by the rest of the group. This is of tremendous benefit to the advancement of the entire group. With several members of the group incarnated at the same time, the process of learning and accumulating experience is significantly improved. As the combined experience of the cluster grows, so does the power of its overall spiritual vibration. This acceleration of the developmental process allows the group to move more quickly to higher levels of understanding and vibration.”

Meldor’s statements intrigued me. “So are you saying that other members of my soul group are able to share the experience of the life I am now living?”

I am weary of information that is obtained through channeling; however I have found a few such sources that seem credible. Geraldine Cummins received information from the spirit of Frederick Myers. In the book “Road to Immortality” she wrote the below:

“Chapter VI THE GROUP-SOUL THE GROUP OF PSYCHIC CONSCIOUSNESS-- THE PHYSICAL BODY A GROUP OF ATOMIC CONSCIOUSNESS THE group-soul is one and yet many. The informing spirit makes these souls one. I think I have explained to you before, that as there are certain centers in the brain, so in psychic life there are a number of souls all bound together by one spirit, depending for their nourishment on that spirit. When I was on earth I belonged to a group-soul, but its branches and the spirit--which might be compared to the roots--were in the invisible.

Now, if you would understand psychic evolution, this group-soul must be studied and understood. For instance, it explains many of the difficulties that people will assure you can be removed only by the doctrine of reincarnation. You may think my statement frivolous, but the fact that we do appear on earth to be paying for the sins of another life is, in a certain sense, true. It was our life, and yet not our life. In other words, a soul belonging to the group of which I am a part lived that previous life which built up for me the framework of my earthly life, lived it before I had passed through the gates of birth. In this invisible world there is infinite variety of conditions.

I can only speak of what I know. I do not claim to be infallible. Take the following as the axiom I would lay down for you. Many Soul-men do not seek another earth life, but their spirit manifests itself many times on earth and it is the bond which holds together a group of souls, who, in the ascending scale of psychic evolution, act and react upon one another. So, when I talk of my spiritual forbears I do not speak of my physical ancestors, I speak of those soul-ancestors who are bound to me by one spirit. There may be contained within that spirit twenty souls, a hundred souls, a thousand souls. The number varies. It is different for each man.

But what the Buddhists would call the karma I had brought with me from a previous life is, very frequently, not that of my life, but of the life of a soul that preceded me by many years on earth and left for me the pattern which made my life. I, too, wove a pattern for another of my group during my earthly career. We are all of us distinct, though we are influenced by others of our community on the various planes of being. When your Buddhist speaks of the cycle of births, of man's continual return to earth, he utters but a half-truth. And often half a truth is more inaccurate than an entire misstatement.

I shall not live again on earth, but a new soul, one who will join our group, will shortly enter into the pattern or karma I have woven for him on earth. No doubt "karma" is a word I use incorrectly here. For it is something more and something less than karma that he inherits. I am, therefore, a kingdom, and yet I am but a unit in that kingdom. You may say to me that, for the Soul-man, one earth life is not enough. But, as we evolve here, we enter into those memories and experiences of other lives that are to be found in the existence of the souls that preceded us, and are of our group.

I do not say that this theory, which I offer you, can be laid down as a general rule. But undoubtedly it is true in so far as it is what I have learned and experienced. Now, this speculation--as you would probably call it--is interesting when applied to genius. The souls who have preceded us on earth naturally stamp us mentally and morally. If a certain type of psyche is continually being evolved in the one group, you will find that eventually that type, if it be musical, will have a musical genius as its representative on earth. It will harvest all the tendencies in those vanished lives, and it will then have the amazing unconscious knowledge that is the property of genius.

Here, in the After-death, we become more and more aware of this group-soul as we make progress. Eventually we enter into it and share the experiences of our brethren. You must understand, therefore, that existence for my soul-as separate and apart from my individual ego--is dual. I lived two lives, one in the world of form, and one subjective, in the community of which I am a member.

http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/myers/Ro ... tality.pdf

You are welcome.

Why would anyone have to reincarnate 8.4 billion times? A person would probably just keep accumulating more Karma if he or she incarnated that many times.

The person who made up the 8.4 billion thing, kind of funny that he or she said eight "point four" rather than just 8 billion.

There is no person that has such knowledge. It is nothing more than made up hokum.