How To Uncover Past Lives
77First, Of Course, It Helps To Believe....
My previous Hub titled, Reincarnation: Is It Real? led to this one. On THIS page I'll present a number of ways to learn about past lives. Sometimes we simply get "slapped in the face" with an event that shakes us up before such a possibility ever occurred to us. In the vast majority of cases, though, we believe first...and then go "past life hunting".
One cautionary note: It is possible to latch onto the thought of having been a historical figure "just because". For example, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who believe they were famous in earlier lives. The likelihood that there were so many individuals who were Jesus, or the Mother Mary, or George Washington, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, whoever...is not terribly logical.
Does that mean anyone who feels strongly about that is "nuts"? Plenty of conservative folks would say "yes". I suspect there is another explanation, something (for lack of a better word) I call a "harmonic".
Eh?
Think about it this way, using, oh, George Armstrong Custer as an example. There are plenty of people who hate Custer's guts with a purple passion--and not without some reason--but let's say you did live in Custer's time during the Civil War and after, not as Custer himself but as one of his cavalrymen who looked up to Custer as a personal hero despite following him to your own death at the Little Big Horn.
Now you have come to believe you were him in a past life...simply because in admiration you came into this life resembling him in appearance and personality. What you fail to realize is that you picked those features in this go-round because of your admiration, trying to "harmonize" with your hero.
Of course, there's plenty to influence us in this life alone. For example, my preoccupation with cartoons/comics as a kid may well have influenced my later decision to draw the CLUCKERS anti-drug cartoon strip.
But enough about the "harmonic". I may or may not be right about that; it is only one dude's theory, after all. Let's move on to the main topic, namely how to know your own backtrail. There are many methods, and each has its own value.
Reincarnation & Past Lives Explained: The Eckankar View
Uncovering Past Lives By The Numbers
The following techniques are actually a composite, but for purposes of clarity, let's "pretend" they were all experienced by a man named Jake. Each one has worked at one time or another.
1. Ask a psychic. This can be a little tricky, especially since not every psychic is capable, accurate, and honest. Even so, Jake knew one he could trust and asked her (one time only) for a few specific answers. He got them. He and his father in this lifetime had been soldier buddies during the English Crusades. Jake died in battle because his friend (now his father) had been passed out drunk when the enemy jumped them.
Which explained Jake's long term tendency toward resentment ("You weren't there to cover my back, dude!") and the equally long term guilt felt by Jake's father--guilt Jake had known nothing about until that moment.
2. Watch your dreams.
3. Keep an eye out for the written word. Number two and number three worked together for Jake one year, allowing him to identify a past life with great detail and accuracy. He'd known his maternal grandfather had died before he was born. It seemed possible he'd been that grandfather. But when university archives containing some of that man's writings were read through carefully, they did not quite "feel" right.
But a brief couple of references to the great grandfather did feel right. Jake went home that night deep in thought and, after going to sleep, had a powerful dream in which he heard a stated reference to "the lawyer". When he woke, he knew, yup, he'd not been his own grampaw (remember the comedy song by Ray Stevens?), but had been his own great grandfather--who had been a lawyer, which the grandfather had not.
4. Fear and Nervousness to the rescue. In 1974, Jake and his wife moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Both had employment lined up, but money was still terribly short, the U-Haul truck would soon need to be turned in, and they had as yet found no place to live. Their jobs were in Rapid City, and they were intently, perhaps even desperately, searching for a house to rent somewhere within a thirty mile radius of that town.
Nothing good was happening.
Noon arrived as they were checking out possibilities near the tiny tourist mecca of Keystone. Edgy and hungry, Jake led the way to the Ruby House, a local restaurant, where they placed orders for buffalo burgers. As soon as that was done, he excused himself to go to the restroom. While standing at the urinal, it suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks: He'd been killed in that area in a past life. He just knew. Probably an arrow, it "felt" like, and quite possibly before white men were even in that part of the country.
Upon returning to their table, he noticed he'd done something automatically that had not been a habit for years: Placed his back to the wall, so no enemy could sneak up on him without being seen. They ate their lunch and drove back to Rapid City, where lodgings were found at shortly after seven p.m...in an Indian (now called Native American) neighborhood.
5. Past Life Therapy--Michael Newton, Therapist
Jake Has Not Done This, But....
Jake just raised an eyebrow at me when I asked about past life regression. Not that he was skeptical, simply that he's never felt the need to seek out a hypnotist because he does not care to put himself under a hypnotist's influence in any way. A warrior, our Jake, but not a super-trusting Soul.
6. Watch the written word, Part II: Our friend is something of a writer in this lifetime, but more than anything, he is a reader. Even when meeting for lunch at a local restaurant (not the Ruby House!), he always arrives with a book under one arm. Several decades back, again during a time when money was shorter than short, he ran out of reading material.
Disaster!
That day, his area library happened to be holding a book sale, 25 cents for a big hardback. He found a 750 page volume that appealed to him. By page 50, it had his full attention. By page 100, he knew: He was reading his own autobigraphy, written about a very hard lifetime prior to and during World War II. It taught him a lot, although the second time he tried reading it, there was no way he could get through it. In the end, he burned the thing....but he never forgot.
7. Watch the movies and your body. It is, apparently, possible that sometimes a past life as an historical figure really will turn up. Jake once had this happen after reading a book about a soldier who really did live many centuries ago. He is not usually subject to boils, but at that time a huge boil surfaced on the outside of his upper right thigh. When it finally burst, it left a terrible crater for weeks...just as Jake was reading about that soldier...who limped rather badly because of a combat wound that had gouged out a large chunk of the muscling in the man's upper right thigh.
Bingo. Equally impressively, a made for TV movie about that early warrior aired at just about that time. Watching the show, stunned, Jake called his ex-wife who was and still is a dear friend of his. When he advised her to watch the same show, she stopped him by saying,
"I'm already watching it. And when ------- ----- comes on the screen (even though an actor, not the orginal dude), I see you!"
SUMMARY: There are probably many more ways to "uncover" past life memories; the above are simply intended as a few triggers, a bit of food for thought. It is also well to remember that the motivation for uncovering these gems hidden deep within us should always be to help us live this life just a little bit better. At least, that's our recommendation!
Thanks for reading,
Ghost32
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i just read a story of a women who is re-birth of ann frank of Germany. she has same past life memories
I will publish a hub about re-birth of famous celebrities
Great HUB again. Ghost! Good reading.
regards Zsuzsy
Wow! Thanks, everyone--I was still editing and putting in links, got done and already had three comments to this Hub. THAT'S never happened before! Guess we now have some idea how strong interest runs on this topic, for sure.
Awesome hub, Ghost! You're so right about triggers and events being clues to our past lives...you just have to be aware and open to receiving them. Often, I'll come upon something and, like Jake, other things concerning the same "something" (a TV program, a book, a conversation with a friend) will come up again and again in a span of a few days. This usually tells me there is something to it; something I need to pay attention to.
I have to admit, though, I never considered some of these messages and hints might be about my past lives! It's usually something I feel I have to write about, and I end up doing oodles of research and writing a piece or an entire website about the topic. But, you're so right - this could very well indicate a past life "nudge"; I do always feel a certain familiarity with the material when I do my research and writing!
Thanks again for another great hub, Ghost - past lives and reincarnation are always such fascinating topics. Also, gratz on the many hits - just needed to find your niche maybe. ;)
Thanks Skatoolaki--and, I'll add a "truism" I'm sure you're aware of, but which might help other readers. Namely, that when it comes to reincarnation, "New knowledge easily learned is old knowledge." So, if you're an "instant whiz" at ANYTHING, it could indicate you've done something very similar in a past life. In Jake's case, for example, he seriously considered becoming a lawyer in this lifetime. His college grades in Business Law were virtually effortless A's. To this day he's a good guy to consult in tough legal situations BEFORE hiring a lawyer.
In the end, he went another route...but years later did uncover his past life as a lawyer (see text above) as well as several other lifetimes where he'd practiced at the bar.
But even easier food for thought would be the childhood prodigy, such as this season's American Idol contestant Brooke White, who began playing the piano at age 2 with no instruction whatsoever.
Hey there Ghost32, nice to see people writing about the non physical realms. I've seen several past lives, some of which I can categorically say are definitely real and a few questionable and most likely not real. However, I'm not one to put allot of energy into them, there is that trap of getting caught in wanting to know who you were and not actually being who you are now. I've regressed quite a few people who get caught in the story and don't see what applies to their lives now. This is what's important, well for me anyway. I'm into the spiritual evolution standpoint. As such regression is something used in conjunction with my transformation. Past lives are clues to answer why we are as we are. Any event in a past life that left unresolved issues will without doubt come up and hit you in the face in this life.
The non physical realms are so difficult to navigate and one can be fooled by what is real and what is a symbolic picture that we are meant to see that will help us move forward. Dreams are a good example of this, some are prophetic, some symbolic, some mean absolutely nothing. Always the question to ask is "What does this mean to me now?" My experience leaves me in no doubt that past lives are real.
Thanks, Jewels--couldn't have said it better myself.
I think we're all closely related and carry memories of our knowlege of each other from our heavenly existance...before here. One body - One person tho... I don't think we keep coming here.... unless maybe that's why I'm so tired. =) great read tho....Marisue
Thanks for the comment, Marisue--maybe you're "fortunate" and DON'T keep coming here...far be it from me to judge another Soul's journey. You did remind me of a coworker and friend I knew many years ago who listened to me on the topic and then announced that he found it all quite believable but ALSO believed this life was his FIRST as a HUMAN. Since I was used to hanging out with folks trying to "outdo" one another as to who might be the "Oldest Soul" among us, his viewpoint was truly refreshing.
I will say he did seem to have that sort of fresh innocence about him that one might associate with a youngling who'd not yet been pounded on for all that long....:D
well i never say never....too many mysteries in the world for me to do that...and I love the mysteries...
maybe we keep coming until we get it right? haha frankly, I really do believe only one body one spirit one time; however I do believe in eternal existence, before during and after soooo no telling how or who we are in all those existences...I hope I am good in all of them....lol Marisue
Another very interesting hub in this (what I hope will be!) series.
There is a story in our family about my paternal step-grandfather, my mother, and me. A few days before I was born, my step-grandfather died. As my mother's 5-day labor neared its end, both she and I were not expected to live. My paternal grandmother always believed that her husband gave his life so that my mother could live and I could be born.
I don't know too much about Grandpa Herbert, except that he was a great wit, a mischievous tease, and a dangerous card shark. My family has always told me that I share some of these traits.
Next time I visit with my Aunt Katie, I'll have to ask her more about him.
Thanks for a most provoking read!
Great hub, Ghost! More, please!
Thanks for the comments!
Marisue: I guess wanting to "be good" in all of your lives is admirable, but from my own memories, I haven't always been good even in THIS life, so.... On the other hand, I do believe that we generally PROGRESS as individuals over time, including multiple lives, so if we're not precisely the "best that we can be", at least we're a bit "better than we were before". It might not always LOOK that way, but the progress is there...somewhere...LOL!
Sally: Not to give away TOO much, but I strongly suspect your paternal grandmother has it right...and certainly we are NOT restricted to staying the same gender as we move from life to life, Herb--I mean, Sally! (Come to think of it, we're not even restricted to staying one sex IN one life, considering transgender surgery and such.
Shirley: I'll definitely keep doing Hubs, although the pace may slow down a LOT for a while. I'm going back to driving truck full time as of Thursday night (I drive night shift only), April 10, 2008. Been full time online for 7 months but ran out of money, am focusing on getting a music video online once a week, and....
But I WILL do my best to get ONE Hub done before going to work, and include a couple of those music vids at the same time. Should be fun.
Sri Harold Klemp makes an excellent point about timing and the right time in one's life to take this concept seriously and examine the possibilities in greater detail. For me, a major part was in a simple acknowledgement that no one, single religion was the "only" way. It was essential for me to open my mind to possibilities and it took most of my life to reach that point. It was actually a book by Pam Evans, a local author, called "Dead As I'll Ever Be" that was the pry bar, so to speak. An excellent hub, my friend. I'll be reading more of your writing. I've also included a link to this hub on my "The Heir To Ares" hub.
Past lives have held a great deal of fascination for me since my awakening some years ago...although I don't believe for a second that I've been anybody of historical significance. I do know, though, that I have spent incarnatons as both men and women. And when one adds the aspect of karma, it does get a bit tricky, doesn't it? Thanks again for this great hub!
I belive in past lives but was not at all sure about some uncovered by regression hypnosis in which I discovered I had been a woman market-trader in Putney and a lumberjack in Scandinavia.
I've heard how we move into new lives and it's 'arrranged' that we run into the same people over and over, the same group works things out in new lives whcih sounds interesting and very cool. I can believe that. But I have trouble believing that we can be hypnotized to actually remember another life.
Dolores, you bring up a very good point. I suspect that some people can be successfully hypnotized to do that (remember another life) but that others cannot. On the "pro" side, if it is true that every experience we've ever had is stored somewhere, why NOT be able to gain access through hypnosis?
On the other hand, even though we hypnotize ourselves every day in many ways, some of us are NOT susceptible to being hypnotized in a clinical setting. My wife and I both fit in that latter category, as in "ain't a-gonna happen."
Funny, only yesterday I was thinking about hypnotism - I just don't trust it myself - the idea of someone having control over my mind is just too unnerving!
The story of Jake and his father really struck me - it does sound nice to think we're reincarnated with our loved ones but I've always wondered if it's rather wishful thinking. All the same I'd like to believe it.
Apricot, there's precisely zero doubt in my mind that via reincarnation we in fact reunited with our loved ones. The flip side of that coin is that we are also reunited with our hated ones. That is, if you and "Soul X" (for example) tended to settle your differences by taking turns killing each other in life after life, this pattern will simply keep repeating until at least one of you figures it out and breaks the cycle.
Fortunately, in my own experience at least, it doesn't usually take a super-long time to get rid of an old enemy once you DO figure out the situation.
Whew! What a relief!
Sometimes objects from the past can spark something. It could be any emotion. It might seem irrational, but it may induce a reaction.
I am attracted to Egypt.. always have done. When I visited, I just knew stuff. Dont ask me why, but I did. It even freaked out my family. The routes were familiar and I felt at home. I am sure that I have had a past life in Luxor. Not sure what capacity, but I certainly fitted in.
The items in my house are very victoriana, mostly replicated, but I have an empathy with it.
Does this make sense?
xx
Makes sense to me. In fact, it makes so much sense that I'm not that crazy about hardcore travel any more. Seems like whenever I head off to some distant country, I end up stepping in some of my own "past life ca-ca". Nothing that can't be dealt with, but enough to leave me less than shiny-eyed with anticipation.
It is comforting to read an article from one who really believes that life is continuous from one life on to the next. I just wish we could find those souls we knew before in an ez manner. Looking forward to visiting a past life therapist....thanks for your links, too, Lz
Best wishes for a really cool outcome when you visit the therapist.
As for finding "former contacts" easily: It's been my experience that nearly every "significant" contact I make in my daily life IS someone I've known before. Not necessarily someone of hardcore importance (either positive or negative) but still significant.
But I seldom focus on setting out to "find" someone from the past. The reasoning:
1. If the other party was an uncomfortable contact and I don't NEED to get in touch, I'm better off never finding him/her.
2. If I DO need to be in touch, the Lords of Karma and/or my spiritual guide will make sure it happens whether I make any effort in that direction or not.
3. Either strong love OR strong hate will draw us (me & the person from the past) together without any other force needed to be in operation.
4. Most of the time, I've got more than enough on my plate already.
interesting read...I don't have knowledge on the subject. However I do believe anything is possible while we ride this wonderwheel. I just hope that if I lived a past life I didn't die viciously by a dinasuar or bear. and that if we have an after life may it be non caotic. And void of suffering. and illnesses for all. And the ones that wanna have war they can take a ship abd do i in Mars or some other place except here. Hold on it's my alarm clock, thank you Ghost32 for you insight and humanity...may the world give you and your family Peace.
Bolt, thanks for the comment. I'm not absolutely certain some of us more stubborn types would actually learn anything without having some sort of suffering as an incentive, but your preferred vision is still pretty cool.
When I was a child, I had a recurring dream about being in a wagon train and attacked by Indians. Is this the type of thing we are to be keeping an eye for? I know there were things in the dream that I could not have known at that age.
Yep, that qualifies. Sounds like a past life memory to me.
I once had a friend who was not only adept at out-of-body travel but, just for the heckuva it, could transmit *his* past life memories into *my* dreams (an area of "Woowoo Land" better left for another time). This "talent" of his was quite irritating on my end, because such events usually involved bloody battles I *knew* I had never been involved in.
Then one night I had a vivid dream similar to Becky's about being in a wagon train attacked by Indians. There was a young boy beside me whom I sensed was my friend's son. Toward the end of the attack I woke up in a sweat. The next morning I called Friend to vent my displeasure at having a good's night's sleep disrupted by one of his memories, to which he calmly replied that particular "dream" hadn't been sent by him, that it must've been one of my own memories from a life he and I shared in that period. As soon as he said that, it dawned that it *was* me watching the attack from under a wagon and the boy next to me was my own son in my present life. ;D
LOL!
Uh...sorry, JamaGenee. I'm sure it wasn't the least bit funny in the moment. And Dreams of Intrusion can be nasty. But...if you sensed the son's was "your friend's"...and then realized the son was "yours"....
I've written about my exes, as you know, but not about our past lives together--for the simple reason that to do so would violate Spiritual Law, and I just detest garnering Stupid Karma when I know better.
But I can say, hiding under a wagon during an Indian attack is acceptable for "cool"...while many of my past life recalls with my exes were just downright humiliating. In one, I was a very short and very fat, very wimpy husband to a beautiful girl who was getting it on with the local Joe Handsome on the side. Under the laws of that time and place, I had the legal right to kill BOTH him and her.
So, what did I actually DO in all my glorious chubby wimpiness? Why, went crying to my mother, naturally!
Fun dream, NOT!
Could explain a bit of my distaste for Mommy's boys and obesity in this lifetime, though...:)
Good call, Ghost, on Mommy's boys and obesity! Now about writing about past lives with exes would be a violation of Spiritual Law...in all I've read on reincarnation, I'd not heard that one. Hoping it's because they're still alive, otherwise I'll have to scrap a hub I'm working on. ???
I was pretty tired when I wrote that one--got a nap shortly after--and somewhat misstated it. (That's my excuse, anyway.) Let's try again:
The Spiritual Law I had in mind is not about not telling where you and an ex might have been at all. Rather, it's the one that says, if you believe you know (for example) that Person X in this lifetime was also Person C in a previous time, keep your lips zipped.
And I can see where that might be a really good idea. For example, if Joe (or Josefa) Blow had been Jesus (I'm ba-a-a-ck! And y'all don't know me THIS time, either!!), or Hitler, or half of Bonnie & Clyde, or Lincoln, etc. etc., publishing that information might not be good for anybody.
Why was my thinking so far off earlier in the day? (*shrugs*) Put it down to brain f*rt! LOL!
Thanks for the clarification. Kinda thought it was some variation of that. ("Half-heimers" is the excuse I use for those pesky blonde moments.) ;D
LOL! "Half-heimers" works.
I can't believe ppl believe in past lives. Sorry, just my 2 cents. You're born once, you die. Pretty much sums it up.
Quite a few folks believe exactly as you do, of course--born once, die, end of story. Which is fine; I'd never try to convince anyone they were wrong. Heck, for all I know, maybe there ARE people who do that.
But if you're an individual (like me) who starts actually remembering past lives, then take that a step farther and do some research, it becomes impossible NOT to believe in reincarnation.
Which is not always a comfortable thing. My wife, for example, had a very hard life in many ways for her first 45 years, right up to the time she met me. Then on top of that, a whole pile of disabilities starting coming down on her, and today she struggles from hour to hour. With THAT kind of experience, the idea she might have to come back again in a new body and do it all over again is terrifying to her.
Thanks for commenting.
sorry to hear about your wife, that is horrible to hear. However the bible states differently. Please assure her when she passes on, not to worry. She will be pain free for eternity if she accepts Christ in her life. The good book states this. I wonder if ppl don't just have dejavu of something they either hid, or blocked out or simply forgot about. I know I get deja vu, but it was either a dream I had, or something in my past that happened I forgot about :) Just inquisitive is all lol.
Thanks for your concern, but neither of us is Christian or ever likely to be, nor do we accept the Christian Bible as the literal word of God.
I agree that people do have deja vu and dreams can be very important. This world is, to me, a very small grain of sand compared to the great beach of the lives we live on the inner planes.
We all have the right to choose in what we believe in. My thoughts go out to you and your wife. I hope she can rid of all that is wrong with her :)
Thanks.
It would be a tall order indeed to for her to become fully healthy at all levels (due to both the number and severity of ailments). But there are a couple of silver linings, neither one to be sneezed at:
1. Pam has grown spiritually by leaps and bounds since being clobbered with her various disabilities.
2. She celebrated her 60th birthday in September, a remarkable feat considering the distinct possibility she could wake up dead any morning since December of 1998.
3. We HAVE seen her get rid of a FEW things along the way: Rheumatoid arthritis (she still has osteoarthritis), epileptic seizures (I moved us to a remote, off grid acreage and built us a low-stress, no-neighbors home), and a heart murmer--just to name a few.
Erinn Soule 4 years ago
I would love to know more! wonderful, thank you!