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Past-Life Memories: Evidence of Reincarnation?

Your Friendly Familiar

This may seem like a more religious or philosophical post than one involving magic, astrology, witchcraft, and the like.  However, there may be more than meets the eye.  For example, there have been recent scientific studies that explores tales of children with memories of a past life.  Also, some believe that one can undergo a form of hypnosis that allows them to experience a past life.  Let’s explore and see how the magical world might have a special connection to the notion of reincarnation!

Table of Contents

    What is Reincarnation?

    If you were to look up the word in a dictionary, you may find a definition along the lines of: “the rebirth of a soul in another body”.  In essence, after someone’s physical death, their soul carries on and will be reborn into a future person’s body.  While a person’s physical body will perish and decay with time, the soul itself is immortal and will carry on through time and reside from one body to the next.  Some philosophies and belief systems follow the idea that a soul travels from one human body to the next in a never-ending cycle.  Some think the cycle will be broken once one reaches spiritual enlightenment and the soul will find a permanent spot in the highest place of an afterlife.  Some believe that reincarnation can not only move the soul from one human body to the next, but based on a person’s actions, the soul can move to supernatural.  For example, if someone gains negative karma from conducting morally wrong actions, then they could be reincarnated into a hungry spirit, demon, etc.  If someone builds enough positive karma, they could be reincarnated into a demi-god.  Again, it depends on the philosophy or belief system, and a particular person’s beliefs. 

    Does the Magic World Support Reincarnation?

    Short Answer: It depends on who you ask.  Many magic practitioners believe that after a person dies, they go immediately to an afterlife for the rest of time that contains angels, demons, spirits, etc.  Some who follow/practice Western religions or belief systems such as Christianity may not be supportive of the idea of Reincarnation, as a result.  On the flip side, many magic practitioners do believe in Reincarnation, especially those who follow/practice religions or philosophies such as Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, and most groups in Hinduism and Paganism.  Some magic practitioners who believe in reincarnation may think that it is possible to both experience countless lives and some of those lives taking place in an afterlife (such as being an angel, demon, spirit, etc.).  So that would support both the idea of afterlife supernatural beings and the idea of living many human lives.  Of course, there are many magic practitioners who are not necessarily religious or spiritual in general.  They just maintain an open-mind and/or feel indifferent about it, especially if the magic they practice doesn’t directly involve reincarnation or past lives.  So it’s up to you and your personal philosophy or belief system.   

    Children Having Past-Life Memories

    In many cultures, children are believed to be partially connected with the Spirit world. Many cultures and people believe that children hold innate spiritual powers or abilities that fade away as they age.  There have also been many cases where children experienced memories of a past life.  These children may carry a fear, interest, love, or attachment for something matching a previous person’s life.  Some children recognized themselves in an old photo of the deceased person.  Some may recognize a place of importance of the deceased person.  

    Dr. Jim Tucker, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences, studied past life memories for over 20 years.  He said that children usually start verbally describing their past life memory events at around 3 years old.  75% of them would discuss how they died in their last life and among those, 70% were unnatural deaths, including murder, combat accidents, and suicide.  This could possibly explain why only some people experience past life memories since traumatic events tend to be more memorable than mundane ones in comparison.  Also, children tend to discuss their past life memory during relaxing times, such as during a car ride or while taking a bath.  An example of this phenomenon provided by Dr. Tucker would be the case study of James Leininger.  Soon after his 2nd birthday, he started having intense nightmares about being a pilot of a plane that was being shot down.  He told his parents great details including the name of the aircraft carrier and the full name of a friend that was on the aircraft carrier with him.  The parents learned that the child’s dreams/memories were a striking match to those of a WWII pilot named James Huston, who was born almost 50 years before James Leininger.  

    Another psychiatrist named Ian Stevenson studied over the course of more than 40 years and more than 2,500 case studies of children who claimed to remember a past life of theirs.  These children would give testimonies and statements that would match the relatives’ accounts of the deceased person’s life.  Some children even seemed to carry matching birth defects, birthmarks, scars, or wounds that would match those of the deceased.  Stevenson would go through medical records and autopsy reports/photographs for comparison in those cases.  He also knew he would be confronted with skepticism and controversy in his study, so he also searched for evidence that would provide alternative explanations for this phenomenon.    In the end, Stevenson concluded that reincarnation was the best possible explanation for 4 reasons:

    1. The children and their relatives lacked the apparent motivation and opportunity (due to the study’s vetting process) to make the motive of fraud very unlikely.
    2. The children sometimes carried a large amount of information about their past life, which would not be reasonably obtained from investigating information between the families.
    3. The children demonstrated personality traits and skills that were not personally learned from others, and it would not be likely explained from the children gaining these from extra-sensory perception.
    4. The children that demonstrated congenital deformities or birthmarks that matched the history of the previous individual would be improbably explained by random coincidence.

    Of course, there are many skeptics.  Some say it’s simply young children with vivid imaginations, which is not unusual in of itself.  Some say the child learned the deceased person’s information from conversations between adults.  Some say the children were coached and learned detailed information from adults who wanted to gain notoriety.  What are your thoughts on this subject?

    Past-Life Regression Hypnosis

    Besides children recalling memories of a past life, many adults claim to have experienced past life memories from undergoing hypnosis that focused on past-life regression.  In the psychiatry/psychology community as a whole, past-life regression has been considered an unethical pseudoscience because (1) there’s no scientific basis of its accuracy or helpfulness and (2) it can create false memories and delusions, which can be harmful to a vulnerable participant and difficult to undo.  On the flip, many people claim it works and has been beneficial for them in one way or another.  There are many videos out there on YouTube that have someone verbally guide you in a self-hypnosis for a past-life regression experience.  For the purposes of this post, one of my Students watched one of these videos and she said she ended up being so relaxed that she ended up falling asleep and not remembering any past life memory, hahaha!   However, that doesn’t necessarily dismiss the entire experience.  Maybe these videos work for people in experiencing past life memories or at least help people, like my Student, fall asleep.  So if you decide to try out one of these past-life regression self-hypnosis videos, please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments (even if nothing ended up happening!).

    Past-Life Tarot Spreads

    For people who practice Tarot, there are many, many, many past-life Spreads available for you to explore and learn about your past lives.  You can find Spreads online that cover different perspectives of Past-Lives and can range from 3-Cards to 15+ Cards!  Below are 3 Spreads that I have personally enjoyed and hope you have fun doing, too:

    4-Card Exploring Past Lives Spread

    This is a good, simple spread for both beginners and more experienced Tarot Card Readers.  

    1. Describes me in a relevant past life.
    2. My purpose during that lifetime.
    3. A lesson I did not complete in that lifetime.
    4. How that life is relevant to my current life?

    12-Card Connecting to a Past Life Spread

    This provides more fun details about a specific past life with which you will be connected!  The first 8 cards explore that past life.  The last 4 cards shows that past life’s influence on your current life by building further into that connection.

    1. My past life’s gender identity.
    2. My past life’s childhood.
    3. My past life’s family life.
    4. My past life’s relationships.
    5. My past life’s obstacles.
    6. My past life’s achievements.
    7. My past life’s spirituality.
    8. My past life’s death.
    9. Lessons learned in my past life.
    10. What karma from my past life was brought forward into my present life?
    11. My past life’s purpose.
    12. What I should take away from connecting with this past life?

    15-Card Reincarnation Spread

    This is a big one!  But with more cards come more information.  Take your time with this one.  Please note that the Spread seems to be laid out in reverse, with the first card on the bottom right and the last, 15th card on the upper left.  This is on purpose because you are going back in time to learn about your previous incarnation.

    1. Who was I in a past life?
    2. Was I married?
    3. Was I happy in this past life?
    4. What kind of work did I do in that life?
    5. Was I an honorable person?
    6. What type of challenges/problems did I encounter?
    7. Was I a famous person?
    8. Was my health good during my past life?
    9. How did I die?
    10. Did I have a soul mate?
    11. Is my present love someone I knew in my past life?
    12. Am I liked to my current parents from my past life?
    13. Are any other members of my family from a past life?
    14. What do I need to learn during this current life?
    15. Will I reincarnate after this current life?

    Reincarnation: Truth or Fiction?

    It’s ultimately up to you to decide for yourself.  As of today, science can neither prove or disprove the notion of reincarnation.  Skeptic scientist Carl Sagan once asked the Dalai Lama if Buddhism would change their views of reincarnation if it was proven false by science.  The Dalai Lama responded, “”If science can disprove reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism would abandon reincarnation… but it’s going to be mighty hard to disprove reincarnation.”  Many do not believe in reincarnation because there is no scientific basis and/or it goes against their personal belief system.  Others believe in reincarnation because of personal experiences and/or it is supported in their personal belief system.  And another group is indifferent or on the fence about the notion, neither feeling one way or the other about reincarnation.  We may be a long way off for science to prove/disprove the notion of reincarnation.  In the meantime, we are all right to believe whatever we feel is right for us.

    So what are your thoughts?  Do you believe in reincarnation?  Have you experienced memories of a past life?  Have you participated in past-life regression hypnosis?  If you have memories of a past life, please go ahead and share them with us!  This is a welcoming, open-minded community whose purpose is to learn various topics.  If you don’t believe in reincarnation, why?  It’s completely ok if you don’t agree with something or someone.  The purpose is merely to provide contemplations to do inner dialogue to see what feels right or makes sense to us.  Thank you for reading this post and I look forward to learning more fun topics with you in the future!

    “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”

    – Lao Tzu

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