"Avoid the Light," Warn Reincarnation Trap Advocates
Clarifying the Archontic Soul Trap Narrative
Welcome to Awakening Minds—a reader-supported publication for open and discerning minds devoted to consciousness expansion, reality creation, and self-mastery
⚠️ Experience a “revolutionary healing science expanding the boundaries of being.” (NEXUS magazine) > Discover the unique and life-changing EVOLVE YOURSELF biofield activations. New Ceremony scheduled for NOV 21st 🗓️
Read my first book, THE GRAND ILLUSION: A SYNTHESIS OF SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY - Book 1 📘 10,000 hours of life-changing research—distilled
With a paid Substack subscription to get FULL Substack access (includes all audio 🎧 versions + comments on all pieces)
Thanks in advance for supporting.
Intro / Your Weekend Read Is Here
No apologies: this is a longer one than my last couple, so grab a tea and get comfy.
I recently watched a Youtube video proposing to explain how the so-called “reincarnation trap” works. It was about as disappointing as I expected it to be, for various reasons, however, that did not stop a number of people leaving glowing comments in support.
Dismayed at much of the content and the somewhat naive interpretational lens deployed, I left a huge comment that went roughly as follows below. As you go, you’ll get an idea of the claims made about the “reincarnation trap” in the video—ideas garnering increasing (and mostly unwarranted) popularity.
Mercifully, you’ll never have to subject yourself to actually watching the video after reading this.
I’ve inserted sub-headings to highlight topics for easier reading.
Here goes…
My Comments About the Reincarnation Trap Video ⤵️
This is a very incomplete and warped picture of what actually happens, and why it happens. Also some strange “spin” put on certain things mentioned. Couldn’t help but notice the lack of cited source material to verify the claims/interpretations provided.
You mention an initial fear of the light some people report when they have an NDE or die—that is perhaps natural for anyone with limited spiritual/metaphysical access or awareness. Many people are disoriented and confused upon dying. Kundalini experiences can also be disorienting for people, but that doesn’t mean it’s the naughty Archons raising your kundalini.
Out of many sources I could cite, OBE pioneer Robert Monroe (originator of the “loosh” idea now being abused by proponents of the Soul Trap meme) outlined a number of options available to someone newly deceased, including the return to their soul cluster/Causal body/Higher Ego, among other options such as reincarnating. The point is, there are options freely available and he witnessed/experienced it (among many others)—the only constraints are the awareness and attachments of the individual.
The “Rescue” System
Small-minded and dogmatic religious folk, for instance, hang out in “Hollow Heavens” together. These are already mapped as pleasant mid-astral realms which are collective thought-constructs perfectly designed over time by the believers themselves to fulfil their afterlife expectations. They linger/stagnate there until they are ready to be helped beyond those low-level hypnotic states and into much broader awareness, eventually choosing from an array of options. (Other people dive back into earth life as fast as they can, without waiting around.)
The beings who help them out of these stagnant states are not naughty Archons, but benevolent networks of souls, many of whom used to be stuck in such realms themselves and want to “pay it forward”.
There is indeed a large-scale “social work” type system to help people snap out of the trance and move into the appropriate realm. (Why don’t you acknowledge this, are you not aware?)
Bardo Thodol
I find your representation of what is in the Tibetan Book of the Dead to be misleading. They explicitly state everyone encounters the Clear Light (chance for liberation) but few recognise the opportunity and thus, most people miss it, being drawn organically to other things/distractions/reincarnation, etc. And yes, people encounter the contents of their own minds—that is still going on today, as always. But the Tibetan view is more nuanced and far less sinister than you present here.
Egyptian Book of the Dead
As for the Egyptian Book of the Dead, there’s apparently no clear, canonical line in the Egyptian Book of the Dead supporting the claims made here regarding a process of intentional deception, or “spirits who will appear as your family or friends in order to trick you.” That specific motif — apparitions taking the form of loved ones to deceive the newly dead — is prominent in other traditions (e.g., some modern folklore, certain Gnostic/Christian or folkloric accounts), but it does not appear as an explicit, named warning in the standard Book of the Dead corpus. If you think it does appear in Egyptian texts, please provide direct quotes and citations.
What the Egyptian funerary texts do contain — and this is fundamental — are many passages that make plain the afterlife is full of deliberate hazards, hidden/“invisible” destroyers, hostile gate-keepers and tests that can mislead, injure or destroy the unprepared soul. Those passages amount to a strong practical warning: the deceased must know names, passwords and spells, and must repel dangerous beings and “slaughterers.” That is a form of deliberate post-mortem hostility, just not involving “masquerading loved ones” or insidious deceptions of that nature.
This picture is nothing like what is claimed in the video regarding the ancient Egyptian teachings.
Regarding Egyptian mystery schools/esoteric traditions, “If you are looking for the idea that Egyptian mystery schools encouraged the dead or dying to ignore initial light displays or bright phenomena (as a form of spiritual caution) — the available mainstream evidence does not support that as part of the canonical Book of the Dead.”
So far in my journey I haven’t found anything in Egyptian writings that support your claim about Egyptian writings warning people to ignore any initial light displays. ChatGPT couldn’t find anything either. Please provide a source.
You mention people should go back to actually look at the source texts, but you do not reliably represent their messaging, and make no attempt to support your claims with specific citations. “Do as I say, not as I do...”

Unidentified Postulated Tech
You seem to suggest sophisticated technology could create deceptive holographic illusions post-mortem—but where was that amazing technology during the Gnostic era—or before it? These (benign) experiences have been happening for an awful lot longer than we’ve had any kind of verifiable electromagnetic technology.
You offer no substantive evidence or rationale to support this claim (and you ARE making a positive claim).
Furthermore, the suggestion consciousness could be electromagnetic (EM) in nature is not supported by the evidence. Our brains can be influenced by EM fields, yes, but post-mortem discarnate consciousness going back millennia... Not so much. Even remote viewers found they could bypass all forms of shielding just by effectively ignoring it/acting like it wasn’t there, or just imagining what might be there if there was no shielding.1
There is no meaningful evidence provided to support the conjecture (which is all it is) that “sufficiently advanced technology *could* create convincing experiential realities for souls transitioning through death.”
And when you connect the dots more thoroughly, it seems obvious this isn’t what’s happening. But it appears you rely on the Icke-ian “Saturn-Moon Matrix” idea to justify your assertions. Not a strong support.
Santa Claus *COULD* also be behind the whole thing—but throwing hypotheticals around as if they are evidence (let alone proof) is disingenuous at best.
What Happened to all the Ancestors?
Additionally, your thesis directly implies that ALL beings encountered post-mortem are deceptive tricksters—then where are all the deceased souls of the many millions of people who’ve come before us? Conveniently overlooking this aren’t you? Are the ONLY discarnate entities that exist just the tricky, malevolent Archons? We seem to be drowning in Archons these days.
You also don’t take into account that ancestors/deceased beings can shift between realms and come and go as they please. (And when we acknowledge that THEY are in fact the ones normally greeting a dying individual, we don’t have to tie ourselves in knots trying to support an idea like the Soul Trap meme. These discarnate souls are numerous and can be found readily across numerous experiential domains, but you fail to acknowledge this.)
Movement Through a Tunnel or Towards a Light
The light experienced at death being a “delivery/transport system” is how the subjective experience of consciousness undergoing the phase change into post-mortem conditions is frequently experienced (perceived as movement through a “tunnel”). Insinuating this is driven by some mysterious and unsubstantiated tech is just silly. Occam’s Razor says: It’s an organic function of consciousness altering its state.
Why Not Just Avoid the Light?
Why are people encouraged into the light by these loving beings when they die? Could it simply be that if they don’t go into the light they might just end up earthbound, and there is therefore a system in place to minimise the chances of that rather undesirable outcome?
Why is that possibility not discussed?
The “Source”
You mention “the real source” in passing, but offer no insight as to what people might expect—what are you leaving people with other than fear and paranoia?
Deleted Memories
You say souls are “stripped” of everything they’ve learned (including their other-life memories), but multiple different sources show we volunteer to undergo the forgetting—it’s actually part of a built-in bandwidth problem innate to the human experience as it’s currently configured. (Human consciousness is limited when cyborged to the body.) That’s WHY the theme shows up over centuries all around the world in different symbolical guises. (More on this in Book 2.)
But sure, sell people fear, based around assumptions of some unnamed slippery “technology” instead.
BTW, microtubules are most likely artifacts from preparation methods, not real things. Hameroff and Penrose’s work has little bearing on what you’re claiming is happening here.
Advanced Humans?
You ask why spiritually advanced people struggle with the same fears that plague the rest of humanity—apparently without realising that sufficiently advanced souls are *not* affected like that. Ask any advanced initiate (and no, I’m not referring to myself).
You fail to address the fact that we exist in MULTIPLE realms/paradigms at once (parallel selves)—this is a key concept to grasp in discussing these subjects. One example: The “atmic spark” never left the Divine Source field; Atma-Buddhi never leaves the blissful Monadic/Nirvanic realm, though it emanates “parts” of itself into lower realms for the purposes of exploration.
Deja Vu
Spiritual awakening brings a sense of deja vu with it, not because of anything sinister, but because that information/memory *always exists* subconsciously, and what has happened is the individual has brought some of that awareness to the conscious level again, hence its familiarity.
Suppression Tech Losing Efficacy?
You suggest the “memory suppression tech may be losing effectiveness”, but fail to consider an organic process is under way in which the basic background energetic conditions on earth are shifting, and supporting an evolutionary process (which involves increasing bandwidth and remembering). We don’t need to conjecture silly things to account for this trend.
There are multiple sources that explain a more sensible reason/s for souls not bringing full awareness with them into the Earth Life Operating System. The human biological system is simply not able to work that way at present (bandwidth problem).
Karmic Guilt Trips
Which of Newton’s case studies was it which featured the woman “owing a karmic debt” for all the trees she’d cut down? I’ve read all his stuff. Please specify—which case number was it so we can all check? Granted, that particular instance does sound suspect and should never be given weight—prima facie, it sounds like guilt-tripping manipulation. I have seen other such instances, but they are overemphasised at the expense of other crucial contextual data by “trap” enthusiasts.
“Reincarnation” is supposed to happen (ideally) from the “Causal plane” level, also referred to as the Higher Ego/soul cluster. Monroe used several terms for this, such as EXCOM, Repertory, and I-There. This is where your new personality gets designed for the next earth life experiment/incarnation. At this level though, all incarnate lives could be seen as happening simultaneously, and there is no “passing” of “time” in the sense we experience it. (I have much more detail around these themes in Book 2, so will not get too far into it here.)
Every single action does *not* create a karmic debt, that seems to be a false representation of the general life-between-lives material. You do point out the true meaning of the word karma though, thankfully. (It means work, or action.) I discuss karma through a different lens in Book 2.
Please show *where* in the literature souls are made to feel *personally responsible* for massive collective problems. You don’t provide a single case study.
I will happily concede: Guilt trips such as this are a giveaway that someone may be interacting with Archon-like imitator beings, meaning they are still operating in astral or lower-mental realms, where such beings should be expected to be found (thought-created realms replete with egregorial entities). Brian Weiss’ hypnotically-obtained past-life data featured channelled messages from “Masters”, and yet at least one of the voices that came through his client (in Many Lives, Many Masters) spoke of the need for “punishment” for earthly deeds. That would qualify as an imposter being hijacking the uplink.
OBEr Gordon Phinn, to cite one example of an adept “imaginaut,” based on his experiences with the Monad/supersoul, has explained that your current life is not the result of actions from a past life. One of the deceased SPR members (Myers I think) explained in a channelled contact that he need not reincarnate because all he had to do was access the data from the other members of his collective soul entity, sparing him the need. (All this is covered in depth in Book 2.) My point is that this information is publicly available, so why do you not discuss such things for the sake of balance and transparency?
The Usual Problem/s
I don’t totally dismiss some aspects of what is presented here. There are instances that could be seen as a form of manipulation, but you take it way too far, weaving it into a whacky, unsubstantiated narrative composed of a hodge podge of different concepts thrown together, regardless of whether they actually make any sense or the pieces fit.
That there may be a sort of bogus system within a system, a tacked-on (or evolved) manipulation structure within the collective operating system is possible, and seems to be suggested by *some* sources (a small minority), however, if it exists, it is *far* from perfect, and not stopping anyone from accessing their true nature if they really want to. That happens internally and cannot be stopped by external entities.
What the Hell ARE Archons, REALLY?
You do not discuss the probability that “Archons”/equivalent may simply be system-generated egregorial entities within the collective consciousness operating system. Why not? That’s a major oversight. If they’re egregorial entities, they were generated by us, our thoughts, fears, belief systems, sense of justice, conscience, etc.
A clue is in the statement you make about how they feed off us—just as thought-forms would feed off their creators. They’ve simply become more sophisticated thought-forms powered by many different human minds; culturally-created egregores that want to self-sustain and continue to exist—and they need to fuel themselves through us.
They have a level of developed intelligence and guile, yes. But it seems they are effectively restricted to the astral-mental (lower mental) paradigm, seemingly native to it—the unfortunate fate of most thought-forms.
The reason they are “native” to that part of the architecture of the collective unconscious is because that is where we unconsciously birth such egregores with our emotions (astral) and thoughts (mental). They cannot move beyond this boundary layer, at least in principle. Certain of them may even evolve themselves in “time” to be able to do that, however this is another tangent.
To be clear, the majority of “guides” greeting and escorting people at death (or lending a hand during life) are likely to be fellow members of your Causal body/oversoul/soul cluster/EXCOM/Repertory/I-There), nothing more than that (they can also be part of someone else’s soul cluster).
Research shows that input from this class of discarnate—the authentic ones—is never invasive and always benign. Guilt trips are not part of the MO.
The other beings like “Elders”, councils, etc., may be culturally-powered egregorial entities evolved over many millennia of human experience. These are seemingly more Archon-like. They reinforce the survival tactics and methods and beliefs (e.g. justice) that we have ourselves invested in over a long time and programmed into the collective mindfield/unconscious. They—if they are indeed of the “Archontic” category—were likely created and programmed by us and, as such, they (like the “Archons” of yore) lack true nous and creativity.
This is a discussion requiring much greater nuance and context, which I will provide in Book 2.
Channelling, “Ascended Masters” and their Teachings
I agree that a lot of channelled material is garbage, or useless at best. Deeply awakened people don’t generally need that stuff. Same goes for the “ascended masters”. They are possibly another adaptation/evolution within the collective system, playing out the same themes already established long ago. Some may belong to the same class of beings as “Archons” (I doubt someone like Gordon Phinn would agree,based on his encounters, but let’s just say for the sake of discussion…).
The reason such beings seem omniscient is probably due to being collectively generated devices/beings, powered by the minds of many thousands or millions of people.
Such beings/devices have been identified in psychical research as well, though without using the term “device.”
If you had the knowledge of millions of people you’d seem pretty omniscient too.
You don’t seem to like their teachings about humility though. One of the reasons humility is part of those teachings, is because knowing what you really are doesn’t mean much if you’re an arrogant douche still running on ego games. Humility is widely considered essential, probably since it’s a function of recognising that all other people are just different parts of you. On a more anthropological-historical level, arrogant douches tend not to do so well in the tribe, so those traits would be “selected out” of the gene pool one way or another.
Enlightenment
Yay, you made a simple, accurate statement: enlightenment IS our natural state (at least in principle) and we don’t need intermediaries for it. ✅
Sad fact: most people are simply not ready for that, for meeting their true nature. It can be destabilising for those not ready. Hence the default into preconceived, tried-and-true thought-prisons within religion, for instance. They shield people from the “harshness” of “deep reality” and offer a temporary sense of certainty and stability.
Loosh and the Soul Trap
Note: Using Icke to support your soul trap conjecture doesn’t strengthen it. (Nothing against you, Davey boy! Children of the Matrix was a watershed moment for me many moons ago.)
The real reason the System seems optimised to constantly induce intense states of emotion is likely that we are in the (primitive) stage of development of the astral body—we have not reached the age of the intellect yet, esoterically speaking. People who do not know who they are tend to engage in a lot of drama and emotionally-driven fluff. They exist on the surface of themselves and feel most alive when they are emotionally activated. It is addictive for many.
We don’t need to be manipulated into it, we do it all ourselves, quite freely. Just like the way we consume absurd amounts of coffee on the daily, or perform any other ingrained habitual behaviour that may be driven by an absence of self-awareness. (This is not a dig at coffee drinkers, just making a point. I’m also not saying manipulation and conspiracies don’t exist, that just isn’t the point.)
Earth Quarantine / Earth as Punishment
The “earth quarantine” situation: well, as any mystic/gnostic can tell you, there is nothing stopping us accessing our true selves and achieving very “elevated” states of consciousness. So much for quarantine. Whether there is a physical-level quarantine is another discussion entirely.
Regarding Earth as a punishment/penal colony, etc. Various ancient traditions sensibly note that life inherently involves suffering and always has. That’s why this silly “prison planet” idea has so much appeal, despite the logic gaps. Many people are simply unhappy and want a rationale to make sense of the suffering. We tend to operate along well established psychological lines—which play out generationally.
The Gnostics saw life in the flesh as a sort of imprisonment, and now we are reviving their old software and putting modern spins/coding on it, including a generous dollop of “Ancient Astral Aliens” confusion. But is anyone monitoring the narrative for the sake of sanity or coherence?
Prepping for Death
You say doing OBEs and such offers good practice for developing awareness and prepping for death, but many people who do this are just as duped by the nonsense in the Astral Fantasia as anyone else. Just doing the thing doesn’t necessarily guarantee you know how to interpret what you perceive (a point well known to occultists over many centuries).
And as a result, the collective evolving storyline about “what’s going on”, as perceived in the imaginal realms, gets more absurd by the day. We add ever more “ancient aliens” and sinister variations on ancient themes (e.g. gnostic) to the narrative every day, mutating them a little here and a little there.
I find it understandable, though a bit naive, the exhortation to do your best to hold the intention to avoid the reincarnation system altogether. The choice for you to participate in the first place likely came from a much higher level, the soul cluster/Causal body in most cases.
(This “level” of consciousness is vastly expanded compared to lower paradigms/realms.)
In that case, your human persona (which only came into existence upon the Causal “ray” merging with the foetus) had no say in the matter—simply not possible.
However, some people do eagerly jump back into reincarnation from the astral realms and this is widely considered a bad idea, since the healing of the higher realms will not take place and the new life will largely be a continuation of the previous one. (More on that in Book 2.)
So, definitely don’t do that if you felt your life was a big bag of turds! 😆
Different “Higher Selves”
Both the Rosicrucians and Theosophists held the view that the “life wave” of Monads journeys through a circuit of seven planets, occupying each for a long time (to explore all evolutionary possibilities), before moving to the next, ultimately cycling through each planet 7 times, utilising different species as hosts as they go. This is, to them, the driving force behind evolution. Also the explanation for “missing link” species.
Since your infinite Monad is YOU, just at the superuser or “root” level, technically “you” did choose to engage in the human experiment/dream/video game—just not via your temporary human persona, the “avatar” used to experience the Earth Life Operating System, or video game, so to speak.
This seems to be a point of confusion for many.
The Monad emanates the so-called Causal body/Higher Ego—the version of us intentionally orchestrating our incarnate lifetimes—into the field of creation. The Causal self is a transpersonal pluralistic self, composed of all your various personas/lifetimes in the one imaginal cloud-based data archive. This, incidentally, is the type of consciousness from which most of Michael Newton’s LBL material likely came from—with some occasional exceptions resulting, perhaps, from low-level Archontic interference, or hijacking of the uplink.
I wanted to note: many people in NDEs evidently spontaneously have an immersion in the Causal level, however briefly. Like entering the higher Monadic plane (where “liberation” or Nirvana is attained), entering the Causal field is also an experience defined by an encounter with or immersion in light. It is frequently referred to as Home by these people and they instantly remember their previous existence there—they have massively increased bandwidth of awareness in this state of consciousness. This happens a lot, and entirely spontaneously. Other people experience various expanded states of “cosmic consciousness”, including identification with All that Is.
So much for being “trapped”.
The simple reason NDErs get “expelled from Paradise” (a.k.a. Devachan) appears to be that their Causally pre-programmed lifetime is not desired to end yet—it’s “not their time.” Thus, they are sent back to finish out their allotted timeline.
Other people are told it IS their time, but end up bartering for MORE earth time with the luminous emissary who serves as an interface with the Causal field—and they receive it. One woman succeeded in delaying her scheduled death on not one, but two occasions.
Consciousness
Finally: Your last couple of sentences are good. But we should be clear: Consciousness is not a tangible thing. It is not electromagnetic. It is an abstract. It has no width, depth, solidity, or dimension at all. It’s atemporal. As such it can’t be trapped in a cage or box. At worst, maybe subtly misled under particular (conducive) conditions. Humans with amnesia can easily be misled into all sorts of silliness.
But IMHO your usage of ancient traditions to support your thesis is not done overly well, and frequently misrepresents those sources and their messages (which is strange considering you touched on the importance of actually looking at those old texts—maybe you should look again).
There is actually a much more nuanced, high-level viewpoint available, a lens that makes even more sense and doesn’t require us to accept such a panoply of silly things, but I’ve said enough. People might want to check out my second book when it’s out there. (Or my Substack in the meantime)
Peace.
*end quote*
Dear reader, if you’d like me to post deeper explanations of the Archons and what the “Demiurge” really is, please let me know in comments. If there’s a thread from this post you want me to pull on, let me know 👇
About Brendan & His Other Offers
Brendan D. Murphy is the “consciousness guy”, afterlife expert, and author of the critically acclaimed epic, “The Grand Illusion: A Synthesis of Science and Spirituality — Book 1”

📕 BOOK 2 IS COMING! Get on the wait list for the astonishing Book 2 of “The Grand Illusion”
⚠️ OVERWORKED BUSINESS OWNERS: Would you love a leveraged way to build income online? Join us for FREEDOM ON TAP
UPGRADE YOURSELF with a “revolutionary healing science expanding the boundaries of being.” Watch the free How to Evolve Yourself (WITHOUT Hard Work or Meditation) Masterclass to learn how this transformative evolutionary biofield activation and healing work with sound can change your world. Watch the webclass to register and save your seat for the live ceremony November 21st
I document this in Book 1 of THE GRAND ILLUSION, which contains a detailed chapter on remote viewing.









Fascinating article as usual, Brendan! Of particular note: "Consciousness is not a tangible thing. It is not electromagnetic. It is an abstract. It has no width, depth, solidity, or dimension at all. It’s atemporal. As such it can’t be trapped in a cage or box. At worst, maybe subtly misled under particular (conducive) conditions. Humans with amnesia can easily be misled into all sorts of silliness."
So eloquently and brilliantly stated, my Brother! And your post inspired my own bite sized note about this today.
Reading this was an intellectual workout to say the least! And the fact that you are asking all the right questions is refreshing.
Many dabblers into esoteric studies frequently get sucked into exotic theories that satisfy their short term emotional needs; the need to feel superior to 'normal' people, the need to explain their incompentence, and express their depressive nature all at once.
As a trained Remote Viewer with 20 years of experience with the technique and having investigated many enigma targets, I can assure you that I have never come across a target where a person or entity was capable of 'blocking' me. They can make RVing uncomfortable and harder, but they cannot completely block me or any compentent Viewer for long.
Ultimately, there really is no privacy and everything is perceivable.
If I understood your point correctly, I agree that people don't perceive, or remember past lives because their outer personality is not ready for it. As soon as it is, the inner self will send them the memory.
Remembering past lives can be traumatic. Not very many people are capable of seeing not only their divine potential, but their shortcomings and failures of past incarnations. That is why most people don't remember them. Now, we only remember the significant events, but we do retain memory from one life to another.
The question becomes one of tolerance. As Nietzsche said, “The strength of a person's spirit would then be measured by how much 'truth' he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified.” We need to be able to accept and intergrate our past selves, the good, the bad and the ugly.
One quick note on "negative Karma": we are actually protected from our own negative Karma here on Earth, the same way a child in a playpen is protected the harsh realities of the physical world. Good parents don't let their children face physical threats before they are ready for them.
As soon as we are capable of integrating and transmuting those negative energies into their corresponding positives, we will gain access to them. The goal is mastery over them, when we are ready. And one of our most important goals in this life is to PREPARE ourselves for greater truths and revelations.
If we cannot make constructive use of past life memories, we will not remember them.
There are many more comments I could make, but I must stay on task today. I will put the "Archons" into my Blind Remote Viewing Target Pool and take a look at them. I've never actually investigated them.
Ciao!