does everyone have past lives?

I am very much a believer in past lives, but I wonder if all children, and adults have lived before? I wonder because some children have these memories, yet others do not. Maybe they don't have unresolved issues from a past life? Does anyone have some suggestions? Also I wonder, has anyone done a regression and learned that there child now was a partner or parent to you in another life, and if so did it make things feel strange in this life?

Welcome to the forum angela28. As you start reading some of the threads here you'll find the answers to all your questions. I'm sure folks will post some of their experiences here as well. You might want to start out be reading the read only FAQ, which contains a lot of good information.

John

Hi and welcome angela28 there are many interesting posts here about children with past life memories.
I am not sure why some children remember and others don't it could be as you said, that they have don't have unresolved issues to work through. I will be interested to hear others thoughts on this too.

Kind Regards
Kay

Angela,

My religion teaches that no new souls have been made for a long time. If so, everyone alive today has had many previous lives, and I agree with that idea. I believe that no one is in their first life here on Earth.

You said,

"I wonder because some children have these memories, yet others do not."

--> That is not proof either way.

"Maybe they don't have unresolved issues from a past life?"

--> I believe everyone has unresloved issues from a previous life -- we just do not remember them, which is a good thing.

"...has anyone done a regression and learned that there child now was a partner or parent to you in another life, and if so did it make things feel strange in this life?"

--> I have identified a few people in my life as people I lived with in previous lives. It does not make things feel strange, it only makes me feel I am simply meeting an old acquaintance.

To that last sentence I must add this -- I have had a lot of trouble with my sis ter in this life, and a psychic told me it was because of inter-twined karma from a previous life together.

Hi Angela,

I think its possible that all children do have past life memories. Studies have shown, however, that they mostly forget them by the time they are 7.

I think there are many reasons why children either do not speak of their memories or they are not heard. Some children are just not very vocal about anything and often keep thoughts to themselves. Some children are literally shut down or ignored by their parents when they do speak about it.

My own son straight out told me he was mine and my husband's father in a previous life. He was 2 1/2. I did not believe in reincarnation at the time and while I remember his statement giving me pause, I was able to dismiss it as the ramblings of a 2 year old. Sometimes kids just do say things that do not make sense and are not past life related. I think that is why some parents do not realize what their kids are saying. Its not the first thing that leaps to mind when your child says something odd to you.

It was not until my son was 5 when he 'really' told me a lot of details that I could ignore him no longer. Some kids won't try twice.

I also think that the more traumatic past life memories are easier for kids to access and harder for them to explain to themselves. If you lived a long and happy life and died in your sleep of old age, it would seem that when you were born again as a child, there wouldn't be much to trouble you or a need to have something explained. While, in my son's case, his past life mother died suddenly in an accident, he had more to work through. It was separation anxiety to the millionth degree when I left him for 4 years.

Do you have a child with memories?

Hello Angela28 and welcome to the forum!

This is only my personal point of view, but I think we all have lived here before and it's possible for all of us to remember those past lives - but spontaneous past life experiences happen to only some children and/or adults.

Often these people are more sensitive to the spirit world, and then there are those who have to remember in order to be able to solve some issues. I think most of us have/had some kind of PL experiences, but they are not always easy to recognise. It could be just that one notices a sound, smell, scenery or something that seems familiar - but the experiences can also come as clear memories, almost like films.

I hope you enjoy this forum and will find answers to your questions! :thumbsup:

Karoliina

Hi Angela,

I'm quite sure we ALL have past lives. Reincarnation is a natural process which we all undergo, without exceptions...

Some remember more than others perhaps because parents are more aware of what the "memories" often really are, whereas others might just consider these signs as "childplay" or "imagination"?

I have a son whom I believe was a cousin and deadly enemy in a past life. And yes, it is a strange feeling, but it is also a blessing in order to better understand how things truly work...

I agree. I'm sure we all have past lives (except for those who are here for the first time).

I think animals do too. We got two kittens who ran to the kitchen every time we used the automatic can-opener --- even though they were never fed from cans like this (the breeder used a pouch and most cat-food cans today are pop-top). I suspect this was a past life memory of theirs.

I also believe that new souls are being added to the system all the time (and highly evolved souls leave it forever). I think existing souls can spawn new ones. In multiple-personality disorder, this may happen.

thanks for the replies

Thank you to everyone who sent replies to my last post. I did find them helpful. I do have a little girl, she is only 1 1/2 yrs. old. I'm not really sure what started my intense interest with past lives as my parents don't really believe. I have always been a strong believer in life after death, and find it very facinating. I would love to have a regression done, but living in a small city makes it a little harder, but it is definatly something I'm looking into. I have read some very interesting stories on this board. Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories.

As far as why some children remember and others don't, I wonder if it's something biological. One function of a normal brain is 'forgetting.' Think about it- tons of information goes through our brain and it'd be confusing if our brains didn't sort out what we need to remember. Perhaps in these children, the part of the brain that makes past-life memory inaccessible doesn't function 'normally.'

Another way of thinking about it- You know how sometimes you wake up and remember a dream you had, and other times you don't. Some people hardly ever remember dreams, and others do frequently. Also, if you have a violent or suddenly-ending dream, you're more likely to remember it. Maybe it's as simple as that with remembering past lives?

Hi Justin,

"I'm sure we all have past lives (except for those who are here for the first time)."

How do you personlly feel this works? How can a Soul/Spirit be here for first time, in your view?

"I think existing souls can spawn new ones. In multiple-personality disorder, this may happen."

We'll have to agree to disagree here. Personally I don't think we, as souls, can divide or spawn new souls. Each soul is unique and indivisible. As far as I know, multiple personality disorders are caused by "external" causes. It is due to one person being under the influence of one or more influencing spirits. A situation similar to "spiritual obsession". It is interesting to observe that most psychological disorders seem to have a "spiritual" cause...

`

I'm not really sure either, I guess it just kind of happened. Bonds do have a strong influence on who we are...who we become.

I have a lot of friends who we became very close...inseperable the minute we met, and all of the friendships we made together became the same way, like we were all a second...large family.

Because of them no matter who we feel doesn't always understand us we never feel alone even when we don't say it we know how each other feels because of things like a smile or facial expressions and social cues and things like that.

A lot of it happened just meeting spontaneously just kind of happening to be at the same place/same time kind of thing, it is amazing how big a role friends play in our lives.

I remember a few lives where we were siblings and friends as well like now the few memories I have of then we would always be together somewhere, we were just alike in those lives while in this one we are like a big bunch of all kinds of complete opposites hanging out together not everyone 'gets' why we do but we do one thing hasn't changed we're still 'partners in crime' and always get each other into and out of trouble but things always have a way of turning out o.k.

Some of the things we get into are maybe 'out there' things that spontaneously just...kind of...happen on a totally otherwise normal day that gets ditsier by the minute.

I remember one life we didn't want to be somewhere but we knew we had to be so we were just hanging out by this shallow little pool thingy day dreaming and gossiping or whatever then I think some young guy comes along who had a feeling we'd be there and tells us that it's getting a little late and didn't want to see us get in trouble so we just caught wherever we were supposed to be by the last minute but no one noticed.

In this life I've had friends tell me that my house is like a chick flick or one of those dreamworks type movies because of all of the things we get ourselves into yet I'm always being told I'm 'too' normal and cool headed.

Another memory i've had from a dream was two friends and i who were sisters then were late for school in a past life so we decided to take this short cut and things like that it wasn't modern but not too awful far back.

This post has been edited by Forum Staff for readability purposes (paragraphing)

buntaro said:

My religion teaches that no new souls have been made for a long time. If so, everyone alive today has had many previous lives, and I agree with that idea. I believe that no one is in their first life here on Earth.

Click to expand...

Question is, Buntaro, is it their first human life here on Earth?

I tend to towards the notion of old/young/new souls in people. There are some people, with whom I have a soul affinity, who definitely carry insights and preferences from the past. Most people though do not have this. There's six and half billion plus humans living today. Eighty years ago, there was only two billion humans. From this, I deduce that an extra four and half billion souls have come to take on human form for the first time during the past eight decades.

But what were they before? I believe that consciousness is everywhere - even within the atom - and that it does not depart the universe, but evolves, from atom to single-cell organism to plant to animal - to human (and thence to angel and finally becomes part of God - the Oneness, the Everything, the Ultimate Consciousness and Purpose).

It's difficult telling someone that they've not lived a human life before - but I think it's very true - most people haven't!

How can you tell? They have little or no interest in history, they don't much care for the music, art or styles of past eras, they're generally less reflective or philosophical, are in more of a hurry, are more materialistic, less worried about the environment ("I'm not going to be around to suffer the effects of global warming").

I get on better with the "old" or "young" souls and find I have little in common to share with "new" souls... If you have soulmates, keep them close!

Michal

I still think new souls are being formed all the time and souls are entering this world (perhaps from other realities).

I've known people like this: they seem very "incomplete" in some sense. One was a brilliant mathematician who only worked on one aspect of a particular mathematical problem his whole life. He wasn't even interested in other areas of mathematics (or anything not connected with mathematics).

Other "new souls" may be serial killers or sociopaths because they have no subconscious identification with the human race. To them people are like large wind-up dolls or animals.

Hi Michal,

From this, I deduce that an extra four and half billion souls have come to take on human form for the first time during the past eight decades.

Not necessarily. By stating this you are discarding the possibility of the existence of incarnated beings in other worlds. Personally, I do not believe that this is the ONLY orbe that contains life. Plus there is also the "spiritual realms".

Hi Justin,

Other "new souls" may be serial killers or sociopaths because they have no subconscious identification with the human race.

I agree, as this is in accordance with my belief that we are all in constant "moral spiritual evolution". People with a level of consciousness and moral values such as these are, in my view, certainly at a "less evolved" stage...

Charles Stuart said:

you are discarding the possibility of the existence of incarnated beings in other worlds...

Click to expand...

Hi Charles

Possibly - but a long shot... I've met many people with a thing about specific times and places in history, but no one (yet!) with a claim to have lived before on another planet, universe, dimension or reality.

What about yourself - do you have some feel for life outside our dear home Earth? Or have you met people who have an inkling of some other world?

Michal

Hi Michal,

Yes, I have heard of and read narratives of people who remember having lived in other worlds, but we cannot go too deeply into this as it against this forum's policies to talk about "allien life".

There is a book by Chico Xavier called "The Exiled from Capella" that refers to a "spiritual migration" from a star called Capella (The Lamb) to Earth, but this was about 15.000 years ago (about the same corresponding time to Atlantis, apparently), so not many would remember, although in the book it is said that the legend behind the "Garden of Eden" relates to some having "subconscious memories" of Capella.

Spiritual elitism

There's just something about the whole old/young old/new souls discussion that resonates deeply with me. It reminds me of the old days, when elitism was the name of the game.

No matter how enlightened we human beings perceive ourselves to be, we have a need to stratify the pecking order in some way, preferably to our own advantage.

A past belief of mine (current incarnation) I'd picked up from a book somewhere along the way was that most people are 'once born', and thus don't reincarnate. And that you can tell the people who don't by the sorts of lives they lead. Criminal activities, domestic abuse, heavy alcohol use, the usual list of 'asocial' behaviors. At some point I realized that was spiritual elitism, and that I'd bought into it.

Whether we ascribe wrongdoing to the influence of negative third-party entities (the Devil made me do it), inheritance (the bad seed), the influence of the moon (mental illness was once called "lunacy" for that reason), the age of the soul, etc., we do this in order to reassure ourselves that we good people never could do anything bad, because bad only happens for a reason.

The problem is when you come up with a criteria that indicates 'badness', what you are really doing is indicating 'otherness'. And that's a road I've already been down. More than once.

I haven't seen anyone saying they are a young or new soul in this discussion. But who would want to admit it after it's been said that these souls may be serial killers and sociopaths.

Ironically, of the people I've had discussions with who remember being serial killers and sociopaths before, all of them are well-used souls, and some of them have memories of the types of non-policy lives/existences that michaldembinski asked about.

If I was to create a theory based on the sort of information that has come my way, it would be the opposite of Justin Smith's.

< theory >

Old souls, who may or may not have had non-policy existences, are more likely to consider human beings as automatons, or animals.

< /theory >

That can be taught to newer souls, who may or may not have had non-policy existences, however. An entire nation was once intentionally taught that a particular group of 'others', were not only bad in every possible way because of what made them 'other', but rats. And although it's possible that among the rat-haters were fresh, young inexperienced souls in their first incarnations, all the ones I've run into again have been around the block.

There may be others out there who don't fit that model, but I've yet to have my data skewed by any exceptions.

Phoenix

I also believe WE ALL were new souls once and, in other lives, have done things that would appall us today. We must have compassion for people who are "starting out".

I also believe there are other realities (other planets or even other types of universe) and many "new" souls are only new to this reality. They may be old in other senses.

I can't believe "old souls" could ever be serial killers. People who have lived many other lives have suffered and had intense relationships and are incapable of view others as mere objects. They have too much shared experience with the human race as a whole.

Phoenix said:

There's just something about the whole old/young old/new souls discussion that resonates deeply with me. It reminds me of the old days, when elitism was the name of the game.

No matter how enlightened we human beings perceive ourselves to be, we have a need to stratify the pecking order in some way, preferably to our own advantage.

Click to expand...

Good point, Phoenix - it can be called the 'Sneetches on the Beaches' syndrome... (remember than Dr Seuss classic?).

But the 'old souls/new souls' is not about pecking order in a social sense. Many 'new souls' are people in a hurry and force themselves onward, materialistically, regardless of the feelings of others or of their own long-term best interests. Many 'new souls' therefore achieve some kind of greatness within society - but at what cost.

Old souls/new souls is a division by values, by what we hold dearest, by what we ultimately strive for; purpose. Beauty, art, understanding, peace, rather than $10m in the bank.

Michal

Quite so Phoenix and Moondansyr,

We are sometimes very quick to label things Good/Bad, Old/ New, Black/White, Either/Or. We humans like simple dualities and we like to see (sometimes fairly simplistic) patterns in things that may, in fact, be quite chaotic or at least not as simple as we would like them to be.

I agree that this 'old spirit' 'new spirit' stuff is elitist (besides which there is no such thing as time in the spirit world, so such words are meaningless, but we have been over that elsewhere).

Every soul is doing their best given their abilities and circumstances, understandings and 'fate' whatever it might be - their chosen purpose in this life - whether they are an alchoholic on a park bench in Ipswich, a millionaire, a Harvard Professor, Sufi mystic, Latvian ski-jumper, jazz musician or a dustman.

There are presently some of the wealthiest people on the planet shovelling record breaking amounts of money at a variety of worthy causes and in general trying to 'save the world'. Are they new souls? Are they following a materialistic and therefore lesser path because they have $10 million in the bank? Obviously this is too simplistic to account for what they are up to. Are there others who see their only goal in life to amass wealth and buy themselves toys for their own delight? Certainly. Some spend their lives trying to remain in a permanently narcotised state. What are they up to? No idea. Wish I understood it, but I don't. Nazis, vacuum cleaner salesmen, serial killers, deep sea divers.....

It is very arrogant (although natural I know) to judge what others are 'up to' from our own (limited) points of view, with whichever goggles we may be wearing (the set of standards we have adopted) for this incarnation whether it is middle-class, Christian, Western, educated, professional or otherwise.

Let's see beyond these petty little differences, hierarchies, one-upmanship and try to grasp what is beyond that.

Yes, Angela, it is my belief that everyone has been round and round and round the block many times since the dawn of 'time' and beyond. How many times, which block, well that is for the individual to know. Why do some remember and some do not? Interesting question.

Good points Phoenix. Since there is no "time" outside of the Human Experience, souls aren't old or new, they're simply souls. And our behavior or actions are supposedly based on what lessons we need to learn. So it could be that what society sees as antisocial behavior is simply a soul learning a much needed lesson. Granted on a mere human level there need to be consequences, but that isn't an indicator of a soul's development, I wouldn't think.

John

Justin Smith said:

I can't believe "old souls" could ever be serial killers. People who have lived many other lives have suffered and had intense relationships and are incapable of view others as mere objects. They have too much shared experience with the human race as a whole.

Click to expand...

I can see where you are coming from. It's an excellent hypothesis, but it does not allow for exceptions. And all it takes is one exception to disprove it:

Sample case:

The entity recalls non-policy lifetimes that are predate human history, as well as many human incarnations. This would indicate that it would be classed as an 'old soul'.

Many of those lifetimes involved 'killing in the name of' (King/Emperor/Church). In one of them that is fairly recent, the entity has shared memories with me that indicate it's having been a serial killer.

Perhaps the answer lies between the two theories.

< theory >

Old souls, who may or may not have had non-policy existences, and who have killed in the name of...are more likely to consider human beings as automatons or animals, than old souls who have suffered and had intense relationships with human beings.

< /theory >

Phoenix

Old souls

I think it was Edgar Cayce that said, "All souls were created at the same time." But not all of them choose to incarnate on the Earth plane. He indicated that many souls have never incarnated on this plane of existance, and many more have only come to Earth a few times.

Some think that souls who enter the physical world want to advance faster spiritually. Especially those who have had many lifetimes on Earth.

Old souls/new souls not elitist

tanguerra said:

We are sometimes very quick to label things Good/Bad, Old/ New, Black/White, Either/Or. We humans like simple dualities and we like to see (sometimes fairly simplistic) patterns in things that may, in fact, be quite chaotic or at least not as simple as we would like them to be.

I agree that this 'old spirit' 'new spirit' stuff is elitist (besides which there is no such thing as time in the spirit world, so such words are meaningless, but we have been over that elsewhere).
...

t is my belief that everyone has been round and round and round the block many times since the dawn of 'time' and beyond. How many times, which block, well that is for the individual to know. Why do some remember and some do not? Interesting question.

Click to expand...

Hi Tanguerra,

Sometimes one has to be politically incorrect and simply state the fact that some people run faster than others, some people have better hand/eye coordination than others, some stand on the podium and receive gold medals as a result.

I do like your point about 'no such thing as time in the spirit world' and will take it on board. But I would like to reiterate that in my life I meet people I get on with, and those I don't; of the ones I do get on with, there are definitely some with a 'past life predisposition' who share certain characteristics (passionate interests in past periods of history, are more philosophical and spiritual) and those that aren't. I'm not judging, I'm not holding one group above the other, nor am I awarding gold medals. I'm saying that some people show clear signs of repeated human incarnations, while others do not.

Whenever I swat a fly or mosquito I am aware of that its consciousness is moving on; similarly the consciousnesses of the animals I eat moves onwards and upwards.

Look at this graph:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Population_curve.svg

How could have the consciousnesses/spirits/souls of all 6.5 billion people alive today have all had regular past human incarnations? Some might have had long intervals between lives - but even so...

What do you think guys?

Michal

I think the emphasis should lie on "human incarnations"... Even if many - probably most - people have been humans for a period of lives, why should that have to apply for all people??? i can very well imagine that there could be people out there that are humans for the very first time in this life, but who have gone through the animal kingdom before - or people who have *just* "taken vacation" for a long period of time from human incarnations, by sticking to lives as different animals or even plants (maybe just for the fun of the experience!). Some maybe is on Earth for the very first time, having been intelligent (or non-intelligent) extra-terrestrial or extra-dimensional beings before! The possibilites are endless!

And then I gotta agree with Michal's point that people ARE different! There's nothing non-PC in that! Just a plain observation of a fact... And that doesn't mean that there exists any universal "objective" yardstick that makes it possible to rank people's inherent worth as humans - that's thought is just Social-Darwinistic bullcrap that should have (but unfortenatuly haven't) been buried with the kind of societies that lost WW2... Even though the present Western civilization tend to rank white heterosexual affluent/rich males as on top of everyone else, that's not an objective universal truth - it just have to do with our specific kind of hierarchical society! Other, non-Western hierarchical societies have similar ranking lists (heterosexual, affluent/rich males on top, they're just not ethnically white and/or Western). Heck, I can easily dream up some kind of inverted-ranking kind of society, were lesbian, non-white women who are single mothers are ranked as most worthy! Doesn't mean it's an objective, universal truth...

(End of rant - stepping off soapbox) :cool

Well said Star Rover. There is nothing at all wrong with all of we wonderfully complex individual souls being 'different' au contraire viva la difference and all that. People have different abilities/interests/characteristics. None of us are in a position to do any judging of other's choices - whether we think they are misguided, old/new, good/bad, right/wrong or whatever. We should be very cautious about casting that first stone lest we take our own eye out one of these days.

Yes Phoenix, people have done some extraordinarily cruel things over the millennia for a vast array of justifications that doubtless seemed to make sense to them at the time. Eventually, I hope, they will grow tired of it, as your entity seems to have done, and move on to other, hopefully more creative pursuits - but, hey, it's up to them.

Michal it is a very specious argument to look at the current human population graph and say that it is impossible for there to be 'enough' old souls to go around. I have heard that argument many times as some kind of refutation that reincarnation is possible. But souls are not something material like sausages that might run out. They also do not operate within the same simple linear time framework as the body does.

For instance, I am not entirely convinced that I have not lived this life over a couple of times now - trying out different decisions to see how that goes (this is a very interesting and comparatively comfortable historical period to be alive so why not?) I think this accounts for me sometimes having an idea of how things are going to/might 'turn out' and frequent de ja vu. (Bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day). It would also not surprise me if I had the 'next' life in ancient Egypt or better still, back in the golden age of jazz - that would be cool and why not? Who says I must always go 'forward' in linear time? Eh?

Consider the vast eternities of the universe and limitless expanses of time and then say again that it is 'impossible' for there to be enough 'old' souls to supply 6 billion conceited little Earthlings.