Steve, please put up with my summary of this conceptual model mentioned by bro. Anandamoy (After Sri Yuksteswar's remark reported in the AOY).
God created the cosmos, first in its causal layer. The causal universe. Plato's world of ideas. The essence of creation was merely concepts, thoughts, and ideas. From such a conceptual universe, the energy and matter universes condensed.
So, the primordial creative act of God created ideas, thoughts, which are universally, not individually rooted.
Whenever we believe some thought has originated from our brain, we are wrong. Such a thought already existed in creation.
I believe this is the strongest causal idea that I resonate with and it motivated me to practice Kriya yoga.
Plato’s view and idea of the transmigration of the soul.
Plato. The importance of transmigration in European thought is due in no small measure to plato's concern with the doctrine. He became interested in it after his first journey to western Greece (Long, 69–73), and described it in a number of striking passages (Meno, 81A–D: Phaedo, 70A–73B, 80A–84b; Rep. 10.614B–end; Phaedrus, 245C–256E; Tim. 41D–42E). These passages are fundamentally consistent, although there are variations of detail among them; the details are usually similar to or identical with those found in Herodotus, Pindar, and Empedocles (Long, 85). The purport of these passages is as follows: Human souls were originally created by the Demiurge out of Existence, Sameness, and Difference, and placed each upon a separate star, from which they were shown the nature of the universe and the laws of destiny. All of them are, at various times, incarnated as humans. They die, are judged, experience punishments or rewards for their deeds in life, and after 1,000 years are again incarnated. They choose their own new bodies, and this choice is of crucial importance; but it is governed partly by the necessities of their own nature. A soul that has kept itself free from bodily taint for three lives is released completely from the cycle of births; most souls must live ten earthly lives—spread over 10,000 years— and then they rise again to the region of the gods and a vision of Truth. According to the Phaedo (81E–82B), incarnation is possible into animals, birds, or even insects, but some Neoplatonists insisted that Plato was here speaking allegorically. Since the concept of orthodoxy scarcely existed in Greek religion, Plato or any other philosopher was free to borrow details of any doctrine from various sources, combining them to produce the sort of synthesis he wished. Plato gave us a doctrine of transmigration that is constructed to emphasize in particular the divine source and nature of the soul and that encourages righteousness to the end that the soul may return to its proper divine status.
