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...but HOW and WHY does it happen?

michaldembinski

Senior Registered
I'm sitting here at my PC, working. Suddenly a flashback. It's from this life - West Ealing, London W13, on a wet November evening, mid- to late-1960s. It's dark, overcast, damp, streetlights reflecting off wet pavements (sidewalks to our American cousins!); Christmas is still several weeks away. Some light traffic, shopfronts, bus stop.

This flashback occurred spontaneously while I'm focused on my work in the here-and-now. The flashback is vivid, clear, as real, as tangible as though for a brief second or two I was there again as a boy.

OK - so far, this is something any cognitive psychologist, evolutionary biologist or neuroscientist would be able to cope with.

BUT... I often get flashbacks as real as this one which DON'T relate to the past in my current life. What's more, they are consistent to a certain place and time (Platzgeist and Zeitgeist, thank you Etheleona:thumbsup:). I've had these all my life.

A simple answer is I am a reincarnated soul. These flashbacks are merely brief openings through which my consciousness receives these anomalous memory events.

But HOW does this happen? I mean scientifically? And WHY does it happen? To enlighten me as to the truth of reincarnation? To give hope of a life after this one (on the basis that I've had at least one before?)

Anyone else experience a similar phenonomen throughout their life?
 
I experienced these frequently as a child, not so often now. It was as if a little window opened somewhere and a draft blew in, carrying images from another lifetime (though I didn't recognize them that way then). Then, in an instant, they're gone. I used one of those images on entering my first regression last year, and it led me directly to my past lifetime.


Why they happen, I can't say. I suspect that there is a portion of the brain that, especially with developing children, is particularly sensitive to psychic phenomena (for lack of a better word). I recently read in a book by a leading member of the Society for Psychical Research that there has been speculation that as children's minds develop, they replicate our evolutionary development, just as the fetus does in the womb. This seems to indicate that our ancestors of thousands of years ago were more receptive to these sorts of psychic influences than we are--as if they had that 'sixth sense' that we sometimes still feel today. In rare cases--apparently such as yours--this receptivity persists to adulthood--and no I'm not saying you're a throwback! ;)


Women, with a better intuitive sense than men, may generally remain more receptive to these sorts of things. For most people, however, both men and women, the brain has developed a kind of filter to keep these influences from coming through, perhaps because in our changing, materialistic civilization the 'sixth sense' is a potentially harmful distraction.


In a sense, then, all of those memories are still 'out there', just as in a sense our former lives are still going on (past, present, future are all human definitions). So the question is really whether the brain is able to sense them or not.


My two cents.


Lonewolf
 
Yes Michal, you are describing exactly the sort of thing that happens to me fairly frequently and has done since childhood.


As to how, I don't think 'science' has an answer to this yet, as science has not investigated it with any seriousness. Western scientists would mostly put this down to a) imagination b) falsehood c) a malfunction. As far as 'science' is concerned, the mind is some kind of outgrowth of the physical brain, as are other forms of consciousness; imagination, dreams, religious ecstasy and so on - mere by-products (sometimes considered inconvenient, surplus and uneccessary) of a functional, logical intelligence, the main purpose of which is supposed to be to allow our genes to successfully reproduce more bodies - end of story. Obviously having memories of past lives makes no sense to the current scientific model, since these memories would be supposedly housed only in a brain connected to a body which no longer exists.


As to why, I think it works like any other memory - something reminds you of something and the mind puts it all together and pulls out a related memory for comparison or contrast.


I personally make a big distinction between the 'brain' - which is part of the body, and the 'mind' - which is not. I believe the mind is actually the keeper of memories, thoughts, ideas and so on. (While the soul is more concerned with emotions, relationship with the "divine" however you conceive her, universal truths and such). The brain is simply the organ that seems to be able to translate ideas into coherent sentences and so on - similar to the way that the nose is not the creator of odours.


The mind survives death, as those who have experienced near death experiences will attest. Even though they may have been 'brain dead' - they are still aware of thinking, sensing and evaluating their experience and bring the memory of that 'back' when they regain consciousness.
 
lonewolf said:
I experienced these frequently as a child, not so often now. It was as if a little window opened somewhere and a draft blew in, carrying images from another lifetime (though I didn't recognize them that way then). Then, in an instant, they're gone.
Beautifully put Lonewolf. "Then, in an instant they're gone" This is exactly what I have.


(I've just had another present life flashback - the fishpond outside the old public library in Walpole Park, Ealing. Again, it happened spontaneously. I'm working away, focused on what I'm doing, then suddenly I'm a small child with my dad on my way from the library, books under my arm. I've had this one time and time again. This makes me wonder whether the frequency of this particular present life flashback doesn't make it a good candidate for re-appearance as a flashback in my next incarnation!)


Tanguera - as ever, an excellent reply. I share your clear distinction between 'mind' and 'brain'. Your words are worthy of repeated reading. We need to learn how to distinguish between what's genetic, what's chemical and electric (discharges between synapses) and what's spiritual; what's temporal and what's eternal.


Michal
 
Thank you Michal. It is a subject I have given a bit of thought to in particular recently.


Regarding your present life 'flashbacks' just as with a recurrent past life memory, I would be investigating a recurrent present life memory and asking myself what the significance of it was to my present situation. What is your psyche/ sub-conscious/ soul/whatever you want to call it trying to tell you?


Some examples of what I mean:


What is the main emotion associated with that memory? Was it a moment of perfect happiness for instance? Are you feeling less than happy at the moment? Did you feel very grown up that day? Are you thinking a lot about mortality at the moment?


Could your father be trying to contact you in some way from 'the other side' (assuming he has passed on)?


Are you thinking about your father or your son or some other similar relationship and are troubled by it in some way?


The soul and the mind work sometimes very subtly together to try to communicate with each other. The "soul" does not use words and sentences like the mind. Quite often images and impressions are used and it can sometimes take some analysis and thought to work out what it all means and bring it up to rational consciousness.
 
Hi Tanguerra,


What is your psyche/ sub-conscious/ soul/whatever you want to call it trying to tell you?... What is the main emotion associated with that memory?


Neutral - neither happy nor unhappy. The emotion was related rather to simply being their - the spirit of place, the atmosphere.


Are you feeling less than happy at the moment?


No - I'm feeling very happy right now, thanks!


Did you feel very grown up that day?


Again, not really - my emotions were in the background


Are you thinking a lot about mortality at the moment?


I'm always thinking about mortality! (have been doing so for ages. Life is so tenuous, what happens afterwards?)


Could your father be trying to contact you in some way from 'the other side' (assuming he has passed on)?


Father still alive and in excellent health, age 84. (Which genetically speaking bodes well for my longevity, in light of latest findings)


Are you thinking about your father or your son or some other similar relationship and are troubled by it in some way?


Not thinking about my relationship with either my father or my son at the moment; neither are troubled.


No - the current life flashbacks are entirely emotion-neutral. They perfectly capture the feeling in my mind when I was once there. Some moments/places return to me more often than most. I'm happy when these flashbacks happen, and I wonder whether these particular, regularly-experienced current-life flashbacks will return to "me" in the same way as my PL flashbacks currently enter my consciousness.


"For oft when on my couch I lie


In vacant or in pensive mood


They flash upon my inward eye


That is the bliss of solitude


And then my heart with pleasure fills..."


William Wordsworth, Daffodils


A nice poetic description of the flashback phenomenon.
 
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