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What
is reincarnation? Reincarnation is the belief that the soul goes through many physical incarnations. Why should I learn more about my past lives? The vast majority of people get through their lives just fine without knowing anything about their past ones. However, while it isn’t necessary to know about your past lives, it can be helpful. The most pressing reason to look into your past lives is to resolve issues from them that are affecting your current life. For example, if you have an intense fear of flying, it may be the result of having died in a plane crash when you were a pilot in WWI. Another example is issues in your interpersonal life. If you were married to an unfaithful spouse in a past life, you may find yourself having unwarranted trust issues with the current one. The issues can be physical as well. In his studies on the reincarnation of Holocaust victims, Rabbi Gershom found a correlation between having asthma in the current life and being buried alive in a past one. Often, once one realizes the root of their problem, it helps them to release it and go on to lead a healthier, happier life. Knowing your past lives can help you figure out what you need to work on in your current life on a spiritual level. Seeing the patterns of behavior in your past lives may help you identify similar patterns in your current life that are causing you difficulties. Lastly, it can be a matter of personal interest. Sometimes it’s just fun to find out the little connections that run through your lives. One of our writers who does metalwork and welding was not surprised to spontaneously remember being a blacksmith in 1600’s How can I learn more about my past lives? The short answer is through meditation, hypnnotic regression and by having your past lives read by a psychic. The long answer is on our "How to Learn About your Past Lives" page. I had a dream about something that happened long before I was born. Could that be past life memory? It's possible. Past life memory dreams tend to feel more like normal memories and aren't as surreal as dreams usually are. What are soulmates? Soulmates are other souls that you reincarnate with, life after life, switching roles as you go. For example, your sister in this life may have been your father in a past one, or your mother in this one may have been your daughter in the past. What are twin souls? Twin souls are what people more commonly call "soulmates". These are souls that were split apart from a single soul. However, unlike the common conception of soulmates, they do not necessarily incarnate as each other's true love or even incarnate together in each lifetime. Do I have to look like who I was in a past life? No. It's true that some people are dead ringers for the people they have memories of having been in past lives. However, other people have indications of being the reincarnation of people they don't resemble. It seems like in the cases where people do look like their past selves, the resemblance was meant as some sort of clue to help them connect with the past life. If you look like whoever you think you were in a past life, isn't that just a coincidence and not an indication of reincarnation? In some cases, it could be just a coincidence. However, in others, the memories of the past life appeared long before the person had any clue that the historic person they remembered the life of even existed, let that they alone looked like them. Even more intriguing is cases where entire families of blood relatives look like various members of the family - by both blood and marriage! - of one of their past life personages. Another compelling situation is where couples who were married long before they had any interest in reincarnation, start remembering their past lives and find out that they look exactly like the married couple they remember being in the previous century. Are you basing who people were in past lives just on how they look? No. There are many factors involved. One common factor is that most people have a strong memory or or interest that relates who they think they were in a past life. This usually predates them knowing what that person even looked like, or in many cases, even existed. Other clues includes similar personality types and writing styles, incidences in their current lives that echo ones from their past, and scars and birthmarks that just happen to coincide with wounds received in the past life. Isn't that all just coincidence, though? It could be. However, we go by the "bundle of sticks" theory of coincidence. When you've got a single stick, it's easy enough to break. 2 sticks together is a little harder. 3 sticks together is harder still. By the time you have a whole bundle of sticks, you can't break them. It's the same with coincidences. By the time you get a preponderence of coincidences, it makes sense to consider that there may be something more going on. Why does everyone who believes in reincarnation think that they were someone famous in a past life? Actually, most people don't. Even the vast majority of the people we've encountered who believe they were someone known in history believe that they were a "B-lister" in history - known by historians, but not someone the average joe would have heard of. If they were delusional, one would expect that they would have imagined themselves to be someone famous that people nowadays have heard of. Yes, there is that old joke about everyone who believes in reincarnation believing that they were Cleopatra or Napolean. There have been cases where more than one person thinks that they are the reincarnation of the same historic figure. Reincarnationists have theorized that the reason for this is that their memory is a little faulty. They may have been, for example, the maidservant to Cleopatra, or Napolean's valet. They remember enough about the intimate life of the famous person that they believe they are that person instead of just someone closely connected to them. In all fairness, there are also cases where the person is delusional and their supposed past life is nothing more that the offshoot of a strong need to feel important. Why is there so much emphasis on the reincarnations of famous people on this web site? This site was an offshoot of the now defunct Historical Figures Reincarnated page on MySpace, which was started as a place for people who believed themselves to be reincarnations of famous people to discuss things in a private, supportive environment. Since many of the topics discussed were of general interest to reincarnationists, we expanded that to include everyone on this site. However, we still had more information available on people who had been famous in past lives. Part of the reason for that is that famous people were better documented, and we know much more about their lives to compare them to memories and physical aspects of who they are now. It's more convincing to present a case like Jeffrey Keene's as evidence of reincarnation than it is to present that case of someone who had been David Hughes, a Welsh farmer in the 14th century, who is only known from an occasional tax record. We don't think that famous people are any more important than the common ones. They are just easier to find information on. Why can't the past life reader tell me what my name was or give me specific dates? Your spirit guides may not want you to know the details. Too often when people learn about their past lives, they become obsessed with tracking themselves down in the historic record. While that's understandable, it sidetracks them from the real purpose in learning about their past lives - helping them to deal more effectively with their current one. Have I always been the same sex? Except for rare cases, people are both males and females throughout their lifetimes. However, most people seem to favor one over the other and will incarnate as that sex the majority of the time. My religion doesn't believe in reincarnation. We certainly don't expect everyone to believe the same as we do. Considering that there are literally thousands of different religions out there, there are going to be many different viewpoints on the matter. If you are offended by our difference in opinion, keep in mind that this website originates in the United States of America, a country that was founded on the concepts of freedom of religion and freedom of speech. We respect your right to believe as you do. Please respect ours as well. You are misrepresenting my religious beliefs. Again, considering that there are thousands of religions out there, it would be impossible for us to represent everyone's belief. These pages were only intended to represent our own views on the matter, not that of any specific religion. |
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Historical Figures Reincarnated, 2008 |
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