“The process of birth is never, under any circumstances, a one-time phenomenon. It is always gradual. Even on the purely physical plane, a human being is not born complete. The baby leaves the womb of the mother and first becomes merely a physically separate entity. Even this physical separation is still not complete right away. It takes a while until mother and child are truly separate entities. And I do not mean this in terms of independence and self-sufficiency, for obviously the child is not able to fend for himself for a long time.

“If you think carefully, you will note that all the childhood years are part of the birth process. Gradually the mind is being freed, released, being born into the physical reality, as it were. More gradually the person’s spiritual nature and higher values are being born, though not always. They often remain unborn, waiting for a future existence to be released. Talents often take time to be born, in most instances considerable time. Accomplishments which the soul has acquired in previous lives need to be nurtured, the technicalities learned for this body, so that the inner knowledge has an adequate instrument to express itself.” (PL #255)