Haven’t you ever been to a place that looked so familiar that you felt you must’ve been there before, even though you know you have not? What about the feelings of attraction or repulsion you sometimes feel when you meet certain individuals? Is it your imagination or is it connected to a previous life? And what is imagination anyway? Some believe it is a reflection or memory of something previously experienced.
As a child I always wanted to go to the United States of America. I didn’t know why but I was always drawn there and the feeling has intensified over the years.
The first time I visited the U.S.A. in August 1994, I knew I was going home even before the plane landed. The feeling was so strong that it was very difficult to ignore. I am a Greek-Australian woman who has never lived anywhere other than Australia, so why would I feel at home in the States?
In the months preceding my trip, I had many dreams and ‘visions’ (or ‘spontaneous remembrances’) of Native-American images. There were also very strong emotions associated with these images. Suddenly, many things made sense and I realized that America had once been my ‘home.’
As a result of these experiences I wanted to learn more about past lives. This led me to a couple of good books, which provide ‘proof’ for those who need it, and are a source of comfort to those who want to understand what they are experiencing.
Dr. Frederick Lenz teaches Eastern philosophy in the U.S.A. In his book ‘Lifetimes: True Accounts of Reincarnation,’ he describes how some people have “spontaneous remembrances” of past life situations. These memories are very vivid, like the memories we would have of certain childhood experiences or even more recent events in our lives.
For some, the memories came when they were experiencing some crisis in their lives and they needed more clarity in relation to it. Dr. Lenz interviews a man who describes how he and his wife cannot have children. While agonizing over it, he went to church to pray and had a vision. He saw himself in a jungle with a large group of men holding spears. They went into a village and killed everyone there. One of the people he killed was a pregnant woman.
In effect, his current life situation is an opportunity for him to learn. We are always presented with life situations at some point in time that will enable us to learn from our past mistakes. In relation to reincarnation, this is called ‘karma.’
Dr. Lenz’s work may be difficult for some to accept especially since he teaches Eastern philosophy, which is largely based on the principle of reincarnation. But what provides more evidence for those who need it is that most of the people interviewed did not believe in this prior to their experiences, much like myself.
Past life regression (which is a form of hypnosis) is now becoming more common among traditional therapists (i.e. psychologists and psychiatrists). But first, let’s clear-up some misconceptions about hypnosis.
‘Hypnosis’ is the Greek word for ‘sleep.’ However, people are never actually put to sleep with this sort of therapy because then they wouldn’t hear the therapist. It is actually a very deep state of relaxation, which allows more information from the subconscious (or soul) to flow through to our consciousness. We have to be aware of what we are hearing, seeing and feeling during these sessions so that we can use the knowledge we acquire about ourselves in our daily lives.
In the book, ‘Discovering Your Past Lives,’ Dr. Glenn Williston, a psychologist, and Judith Johnstone, a writer, document the regressions of many of Dr. Williston’s clients. The transcripts demonstrate how much intricate detail is recalled by those regressed. These details are verified through the investigation of the authors.
Dr. Williston claims that when people are regressed they go back to specific past life situations, which are continuing to cause them pain in the present. The therapist is there to guide them – the clients are the ones who lead the way. Once their painful memories have been worked through, their problems in relation to this disappear.
Even though I am presenting a case for reincarnation, there is also a case against it. Frank Wright, the author of ‘Emotional Healing’ and a practitioner of Private Subconscious-Mind Healing (PSH – which also involves hypnosis) is skeptical about past lives. He refers to a scientist who claims that human beings carry at least 70 million messages about their ancestors in every cell and that ‘past life memories’ may actually be the experiences of their forebearers.
However, Wright goes on to explain that he has had many clients who do recall past lives in detail during PSH sessions that can be linked to issues in their current life. These issues are resolved when the process is complete (similarly to Dr. Williston’s clients mentioned above). He chooses to remain open to the possibility of reincarnation as he is more interested in helping people heal than proving its existence.
Keeping an open mind is also important to me – especially when it comes to questioning our current view of ‘reality,’ which limits our potential for spiritual awareness.
© New Age Power (Helen Papadopoulos)
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