From a young age I loved learning about ancient traditions and philophies and how they viewed the world we lived in and of course about our creation story. How did we come to exist? I first learned about reincarnation learning about the world’s religions attending a Catholic high school, for which I am very grateful. The concept of birth, life, and rebirth were interesting to me, and also that life was more cyclical than linear, or didn’t exist at all. But it wasn’t until I had a professor that declared that reincarnation was a “fact” that I truly opened my mind to such a bold claim. Dr. Drew Leder, a medical doctor with a PhD in philosophy at Loyola University slowly changed my mind. He shared the life’s work of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who was the founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine for fifty years and studied nearly three thousand cases in rigorous detail.
Cases usually involved children with scars or birth marks and deformities that would correspond to memories of past lives that involved fatal or catastrophic injuries. Children recalling details of their murderers, including names, things far too specific to be random although that is the skeptics claims. When he would travel to investigate cases he would often collect many more than anticipated which made him hypothesize these instances were far more common that anyone realized. They were also not isolated to cultures that believed in reincarnation. Some of the most famous cases were decidedly of western or European and American children and families whose parents didn’t believe in the possibility of reincarnation.
Dr. Stevenson discovered other phenomenon as well, such as a large number of children who were born in Burma after WWII that had reported memories of being Japanese soldiers who were killed in the war. These children acted strangely according to their culture and had an interesting desire to wear Japanese style clothing and prefer raw fish to the more traditional spicy Burmese food and clothing (Stevenson & Keil, 2005).
There was an American Express commercial a few years ago that showed the process in some detail about how the Dalai Lama was chosen at a young age. In the commercial it shows a committee of the previous Dalai Lamas friends who show a young child a mix of objects on a table, some that belong to the Lama and some that are meant to deceive a young child. If the young child among other things chooses the correct objects that belonged and had an emotional attachment to the deceased Lama then he is then recognized as the new Dalai Lama. There are many Lamas in Tibetan Buddhism. This process will repeat when the current and 14th Dalai Lama leaves his body.
I have met two clients who personally remembered past lives consciously. One was an adult female, who was an officer in the US military. She had an attraction to the lifestyle of prostitutes that made little sense as a young child and recalled in vivid detail her life as a prostitute in London in the late 1800’s. She was even able to find a photograph of herself from that time in her research about the life that seemed so real to her from a young age. She could describe the objects in the photo and the story behind them. It is rare that an adult can so clearly recall a past life, typically these memories, if they are present in a young child, tend to fade by the time they are age 7 or so. I have only met one other child who remembered multiple past lives. This recollection troubled the parents who thought their child might have some mental disorders, but they were quite normal. There is a certain innocence a child has when they are recounting memories that can be quite authentic and genuine, especially when describing in detail past events that are all too vivid for a child’s imagination and limited life and real world experience. It was utterly fascinating as the child was so special and gifted. There is only one other adult that I am aware of that can consciously recall all of his past lives. His name is Matias De Stefano, and you can look up his story and media shows quite easily. His knowledge and detailed memories of the history of Lemuria (or Mu) and Atlantis, and the transition to Egypt are quite compelling should you wish to learn more about them. In fact, a number of my clients recall memories of Atlantis, which caught me by surprise.
I did my first past life regression a few years ago now. I trained with renowned hypnotherapist, Dr. Wendy Hill, of Encinitas, CA. My training was focused on inner child regression, which is a modality that helps train the mind to explore self-defeating limiting beliefs and transform them into healthy, empowering, and loving beliefs that can help unlock your life. When I went into my past life regression I was nervous, not knowing what to expect, but praying for some good to come out of it. We went through the induction, which is a type of meditation, and then finally arrived to a point and time in my past. I looked down, and saw my feet, which were a different color than I expected. I then started to describe my environment, which was sandy, and I also saw the pyramids of Giza. I was a middle-aged male, who was in the desert, traveling by camel in a caravan. I was nomadic. Dr. Hill asked me what I was and the word “Bedouin” flashed in my minds eye. This made no sense to me at the time. I had heard of the term before but did not have any sense of where they lived or lifestyle. Then we went into the life, which was very violent traveling in the caravans. My son was murdered during one skirmish when my caravan was raided. I saw people from my current life in my past life, who I won’t name at this time (this I now know is know as Soul Pods- we play and travel with people we like). Survival was the name of the game, and I was good at it, but it was a difficult and violent life. War was a way of life. The connection with my current life is this: after 9/11 I could have easily enlisted in the US Marine Corps and would have felt good about it. However, the idea of traveling to an Islamic country without a gun sounded more challenging to me and in greater alignment with where I was spiritually at the time, with gratitude to Dr. Leder for influencing me with meditation. I chose the US Peace Corps instead as my way of serving. Hence, in this life, I laid down the sword, and embarked on a more spiritual path, teaching people meditation, counseling them, and helping them help themselves without violence.
I share this experience so that you may understand that reincarnation is not something to be afraid of and neither is living in this life. Our souls are perfect and eternal. You don’t have to believe in a higher power, you can simply believe in yourself, as it is said in John 10:34, Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? This is reiterated in Psalm 82:6, I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. Rather than be told what you can believe or not believe trust yourself and your own wisdom about how the world and the universe really is. Seek out truth and wisdom, ask and you shall receive.
One book that has stood out to me for a long time is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in which Socrates gives a metaphor about people being chained and unable to look beyond the shadows being cast on the wall from behind them. Being unable to move, they think the shadows are reality. This is because they have never experienced anything beyond the shadows. Past life regression can give you a peek behind the shadows, should you wish to see. Mindfulness and more profoundly Vipassana meditation are ways to explore consciousness as well. Many people are afraid to do so. We crave safety in our world, and consequently find ourselves susceptible to slavery and authoritarian control in our modern world.
We are living in a very interesting time. The world is changing rapidly as I have written about. People are awakening from the slumber of the cave. There is a big universe out there and we are opening to it. Be mindful of your own self-defeating and limiting beliefs. Know you are powerful beyond imagination. Be grateful for the experience of this life and stay in the moment as best you can. There is good in this world!