Reincarnation and Past LivesReincarnation is a fascinating topic with endless possibilities. The idea of reincarnation has its roots in Eastern belief systems, but many Westerners also accept the possibility that we have many lifetimes on this planet, rather than just one.
Reincarnation presupposes that energy itself never dies, but is merely recycled into other forms. Much as the felled tree becomes paper, or the dead plant becomes compost, so do we become something/someone else after our physical death in this lifetime. The cycles of birth, death and rebirth shown us by the revolving seasons point to a cyclical way of looking at the world which includes the idea of reincarnation.
For those who believe in reincarnation, the soul itself never dies, but takes on different physical forms in different lifetimes. Although there is disagreement and debate among believers in reincarnation in other aspects, this idea remains consistent. Our physical bodies die, but our souls, our essences, live on and at some point return again in physical form.
The idea of transmigration of souls (where a human can be reincarnated as an ant, or a mouse as a human) is not as widely accepted in the Western concept of reincarnation as it is in the Eastern. My personal belief
is that only those animals closest to humans may become human and vice versa. Cats, in particular, seem to
be able to make the leap to human and back again, and I believe this is true for dogs as well. Otherwise, I
believe humans reincarnate as humans.The Eastern belief is that we are reincarnating only until we achieve godhead, and are reunited with the
One. My personal belief is that we can choose not to return to the One, but come back in another series of
lifetimes should we choose to do so. Many of these souls return as teachers for others.The Law of Karma is an integral part of reincarnation. In essence, it states that "what you do will come back
to you." What you create in one lifetime will be a part of subsequent lifetimes. I do not believe necessarily
in the more punitive aspects of karma, however; if one learns within the present lifetime, for instance, that
greed is not good, I do not believe that one must suffer a following lifetime (or more) of poverty to drive
the point home. However, the basic law of cause-and-effect is at work here: if you continually put out
negativity without recognizing what you are doing, then you will draw negativity to you in other lifetimes.
It is each individual's choice whether to learn, and thus not suffer, the consequences of negative action.Can reincarnation be proved? To some degree, I believe it can. Although doubt has been cast upon "The
Search for Bridey Murphy" in recent years, there are cases documented in India of children from one village
talking about lifetimes in another village that they have not visited this time around. And there are
numerous stories of adults receiving names, dates and places that have later been found to exist. Could
they have read about the information, or heard it elsewhere? Possibly. But it's hard to believe this is true in
every single case where specific information is received.You may have heard about "old souls", those who have been around through many lifetimes. They do exist,
although not all of us have been around since ancient times. Some of them may be the teachers mentioned
above, who have returned although they did not need to. Some are nearing the end of their cycle of
lifetimes. And some are probably just taking their own sweet time!I don't know the answer to where or how new souls are created. My belief is that whatever "The One" is,
that original source of energy, one day split off into two, giving birth to the masculine and feminine, and the
principle of duality. These two eventually split off as well, creating the first "children" souls. And as each
soul/cell divides, new souls are created.A woman I knew once told me that there are some soulless beings in the world today, because bodies are
being created faster than there are souls to enter them. I don't know if this is true, but sometimes when I
watch the news and hear of some horrendous killer, I begin to believe it is. I call them "The Soulless",
those who were not meant to be here.Are all of us reincarnated? I don't know the answer to that one, either. I believe that if you are of another
religion that does not believe in reincarnation, you probably aren't. Perhaps our death, as well as life, is
what we make of it. For those of us who do believe in reincarnation, the answer is clearly yes.Are we all reincarnated Cleopatras or Napoleons? Of course not. Most of us have had many lifetimes, and
most of those have been obscure (one reason it's difficult to prove reincarnation) in terms of history. If you
believe you are the reincarnation of someone famous, you may need to get a reality check. Obviously,
some of us are, but that number is very few. I cannot tell you how many people I have met who claim to
be the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley! Somehow, I don't think so.That does, however, bring up an interesting offshoot to the reincarnation idea: that of parallel lifetimes,
where the soul/cell splits into two lives on the planet during the same or overlapping time frames. I first
read of this idea in one of Dick Sutphen's books, and it certainly has fascinating possibilities. Your soul
could be both you here and now, and at the same time be the opposite gender in another country, doing
something completely different. Some believe you could not possibly meet your other "self", but I wonder
what would happen if you did!This also begs the question of soul mates. There are many different definitions and opinions on what
constitutes a soul mate; all I can give is my personal opinion. I believe a soul mate is the other half of one
of those split souls, early on in the process. What this means is that I believe we actually all have several
soul mates each, not just one. Which one we may (or may not) meet in this lifetime depends upon which
one incarnates in the same time frame, and in a close enough a place to allow a meeting to occur. I think
that if you believe in a "one, true soul mate", you are looking for the original half of your particular part of
soul, rather than the more recent split-offs. It's certainly a confusing concept, but this is the best I can do at
explaining my version of it.How do you find out about your past lifetimes? There are many different ways to do this. The most
well-known is probably past-life regression. In regression, a hypnosis therapist or other person equipped
to perform hypnotic induction, hypnotizes you, suggesting you go back prior to your birth in this lifetime,
and then asks you to describe what you see, where you are, who you are, and what is going on in your
life. Through a series of questions, a picture of a past lifetime emerges.There is a lot of debate about this method. It was quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but fell upon
disfavor in the 1980s due to concern about clients' mental states and worries about emotional damage
caused from directly experiencing a difficult or painful past life recall. There are also those who say that this
method is not accurate, that it is simply the subconscious filling in answers to the questions being asked.
Considering that the subconscious is all we really have to access these memories, I don't think this is a valid
argument. I still believe regression can be a good way to access some past life memories. You can also
attempt to regress yourself in a mild way, simply relaxing yourself fully, letting your mind drift, and asking
your subconscious to show you a past lifetime. It's a little more difficult, as you have to play the role of
both client and therapist, but it is possible to do it.Another method is to consult a psychic who is able to read past lives. If you choose to do this, be very
careful about completely accepting what the psychic says. Some psychics are excellent, some are not.
Some can read past lives well, some cannot. If you consult a psychic and get a reading that seems
completely off-base to you, don't accept the conclusions. If your psychic says "Oh! You were a Princess in
a European country, madly in love with the Prince of another country, and your families kept you from
marrying!", be very cynical. Most of us were not princesses or princes. See the section on this site on
psychics for more information on how to pick a good psychic.Astrologers can sometimes give you some information on past lives from your astrology chart. There is an
entire subfield of astrology devoted to interpreting charts from a past-life perspective. Using your 12th
house, 12th house ruler, 12th house planets, Moon nodes, retrograde planets, intercepted signs, and other
methods, you may gain some insight into your past lives leading up to this one, but it may not be as
detailed and specific as a psychic reading or other method may get.I personally think the best methods to start to uncover your past lives are your own intuition and your own
inclinations. There is a belief that a thing exists within all of us, called the "Akashic records". These are
records of all our past lives and more, that can be accessed by each of us if we learn how.The first place to look is your childhood. Children are closer to their past lifetimes chronologically than
adults are, and children are open to all sorts of possibilities, as they haven't had society and cynicism knock
their openness out of them yet. What were you drawn to for no good reason as a child? Did you go crazy
over a particular time in history, or a particular historical person or event? Did you go visit somewhere on
vacation, and have a strong reaction to that place? These are probably past-life clues. For instance, if you
had a passion as a child for WWII aircraft, unless it was during WWII, or your father was a WWII pilot, then
you may have been a pilot at that time, or an aircraft builder. Did you read a lot of books as a child about
the 1920s, when nothing else suggested that era might interest you? You probably had a lifetime then.
Were you born in California, but visited Georgia as a child, and felt like you knew your way around? You
may have lived there before.Look for clues even into adulthood. Read books about reincarnation, and pay attention to your dreams. If
you have ever had a dream set in another place and time frame, that may be a clue.I also think health problems you are born with or develop very early on in this lifetime are clues to health
problems or manner of death in your last lifetime. For instance, asthmatic babies may have had tuberculosis
last time around, or suffocated or drowned.Even as an adult, if you are traveling and feel strongly about a place (either positive or negative -- it's not
only what, when and where you are attracted to, but also what repels you that can indicate a connection),
it's likely you lived there or experienced something intense in that place before.Why should we want to know about our past lives? To help us better overcome problems in this one, and
to balance our karma so we do not need to carry it with us into future lifetimes. Curiosity is not the best
reason to go digging about for past lives, although that probably is why most of us start to do so. That's
okay; we're all curious creatures. But how much we learn depends upon how serious we are about why we
need to know. If there is nothing in our present life that seems to relate to why we are having difficulties in
our relationships, we may want to look to our past lives to uncover the answer. If we have a deep-rooted
fear of success, with nothing rational in this lifetime that is connected, a past-life experience may help us
resolve the fear.There is even a field called past-life therapy that does exist, although it does not have many practitioners. A
few psychologists and such have found value in using it, even if they don't personally believe in it. If
nothing else seems to be working in solving a psychological crisis, past-life therapy may be the answer.Finding out about your past lives may lead you to a richer, more fulfilling present lifetime. And isn't that what it's all about?
copyright 1999 by Ginger-lyn Summer
http://www.spiritrealm.com/summer/Reincarnation.htm