Can I reincarnate into the past and how would that work?

[Lia1992]

Okay, so my question is a little more complicated than I could squeeze into a title.

As I stated in previous posts, I have several wished how my next life will be because I'm not happy with how my life has gone in this incarnation. I want to be born a girl in my next incarnation (and, as a "lesser" wish, I also want to have a sister in my next life) but most importantly, I want to be born to a more progressive family in terms of child-raising, such as extended breastfeeding and self-weaning, co-sleeping and unschooling.

But I wonder whether I have to reincarnate into a life in what we perceive as the future in order to experience that.

Because many people talk about that our purpose of reincarnation is to "evolve". Now, they do understand that as a constant improvement from "primitive" to "advanced" but I don't believe that. First, I don't belief that our current society with hierarchies, unequality, inustice etc is very advanced because just because we have better technology or hygiene doesn't make us more advanced if on a social level we exclude certain minorities or groups and fight each other over recources or power or religion etc.

I believe that, in that regard, we used to be much more enlightened. The sources for this belief stem from reading the works of Heide Göttner-Abendroth, specifically her book "Geschichte matriarchaler Gesellschaften und Entstehung des Patriarchats: Band III: Westasien und Europa" (History of Matriarchal Societies and the Emergence of Patriarchy: Volume III: West Asia and Europe), as well as reading about childism and unschooling as well as extended breastfeeding from the blog of an Australian mother who practises unschooling with her four daughters.

So, based on the explanation of my beliefs, I wonder whether it is possible to reinarnate into a phycal body who has already been born. It's kind of similar to what Ian Stevenson observed that a soul may animate more than one physical body at a time, something that is sometimes known as split incarnation or parallel lives. In my case, though, it would be more like reincarnating into the past after having already died. Like, I would love to reincarnate as one of the four daughters in the blog by the Australian mother so I wonder whether such a thing is possible. At least, I want to be born into a family with similar beliefs.

I also wonder whether I could reincarnate further into the past such as into Neolithic times described as peaceful and egalitarian by Heide Göttner-Abendroth who also mentions that the people in those times believed in reincarnation as well as they believed that everything returns and reincarnates be it the sun, the moon, the seasons. They believed in the Great Goddess who was the Earth herself and that people who died would reincarnate into the matrilocal family.

So I wonder, in the end, whether I could choose one of those options or maybe choose a life in a parallel universe where history has changed in such a way that is more in line with my wishes and beliefs.

 

[Speedwell]

I don't think it is possible as you have described to incarnate into some past-life. The reason is that in order to do so your soul (or whatever word you prefer) would have to displace or push out the existing occupant of that body. It would also mean a life with no free-will since every action of that body has already happened, so it would be a passive ride along in a vehicle which must perform whatever actions were already done. Aside from the moral or ethical questions it raises about how one would negotiate with the existing soul already living that life (would it be theft or a violent overthrow of the rightful owner for example), the total lack of free will would make it a worthless option.

As for the future. Since I believe we have free will, I also believe the future is not yet written, since it depends upon decisions and actions not yet made - as well as many other factors beyond our control. In that sense the future does not exist. I don't think we can suppose anything about what the future will be like.

My advice, for what little it may be worth, is to exercise your free-will at the point where it is in active contact and involvement with things. That is to say, here in this present life. Preoccupation with alternative existences is a form of distraction, a way of avoiding having to think about the present. By itself that may not be a bad thing. It is good to have hopes and dreams of a better life. But somehow - in my opinion - it is necessary to get those hopes and dreams to activate events and changes in this present life, here and now. So yes, hope for something better. But at least consider the possibility that it could be here, not too far away in your future in this life. Don't give up on yourself. You deserve better.

 

[Lia1992]

I don't think it is possible as you have described to incarnate into some past-life. The reason is that in order to do so your soul (or whatever word you prefer) would have to displace or push out the existing occupant of that body. It would also mean a life with no free-will since every action of that body has already happened, so it would be a passive ride along in a vehicle which must perform whatever actions were already done. Aside from the moral or ethical questions it raises about how one would negotiate with the existing soul already living that life (would it be theft or a violent overthrow of the rightful owner for example), the total lack of free will would make it a worthless option.

As for the future. Since I believe we have free will, I also believe the future is not yet written, since it depends upon decisions and actions not yet made - as well as many other factors beyond our control. In that sense the future does not exist. I don't think we can suppose anything about what the future will be like.

My advice, for what little it may be worth, is to exercise your free-will at the point where it is in active contact and involvement with things. That is to say, here in this present life. Preoccupation with alternative existences is a form of distraction, a way of avoiding having to think about the present. By itself that may not be a bad thing. It is good to have hopes and dreams of a better life. But somehow - in my opinion - it is necessary to get those hopes and dreams to activate events and changes in this present life, here and now. So yes, hope for something better. But at least consider the possibility that it could be here, not too far away in your future in this life. Don't give up on yourself. You deserve better.

Thank you for those kinds words!

I totally get what you mean by distracting yourself with thoughts about alternative existences. But I guess, since my dream is to have a good childhood, it's not something that I could achieve in this life unless I were to roleplay with a female partner as my mommy or something reinacting childhood. Which is why I am preoccupied with reincarnation and a better, more progressive childhood in the first place. I have a certain idea of what I want in life but since that is highly political, I cannot discuss it here.

While we are on the subject of future lives, do you think that I could choose a family that would give me the kind of childhood I desire? And how do you think that would work?

 

[SeekerOfKnowledge]

In your current life, you can support or create a foundation or create a web page about the benefits of breast-feeding. This obviously is a big thing for you. (I have been bottle-fed myself, by the way, my Mom would have wanted to breast-feed me but couldn't, because she had to take medicine at that time). So while you can't have this in your current life, you still can support the idea in what way ever which may or may not lead to more other kids being breast-fed.
As for a future life, it is totally possible that you will be breast-fed again (you may already have had this in a past life), your true self will decide when you choose your next life.
And one great thing about our current time is that you can choose your gender and gender ID (according to your profile you live in Germany, and in Germany you really have the choice now).

As for reincarnating into the past, some physicists say that time is not really linear, so maybe it could be possible. Your higher self would have to choose a body living in circumstances which would prevent the time "line" from being changed while you still would have free will, more or less. A medieval farmer in the early 1300's won't be able to change a lot, especially not when it is a small village that has been/will be wiped out in the mid-1300s. Just as an example. You also could reincarnate as an engineer or scientist in the century before the library of Alexandria was destroyed. No one knows how many inventions were made and forgotten, so if someone reincarnated into that time, they could write down all their great ideas without changing the past.

 

[There and back again]

I won't lie thinking that dealing with linear minds and personalities can be a huge waste of time but I do feel that you are probably further along than they are by not being inside the box timeline wise. For me personally I just want out and pretty tired of the mouse utopia and all the social problems that comes with being in this world especially in the times we're living in now as it wasn't this bad not so long ago.

 

[Lia1992]

In your current life, you can support or create a foundation or create a web page about the benefits of breast-feeding. This obviously is a big thing for you. (I have been bottle-fed myself, by the way, my Mom would have wanted to breast-feed me but couldn't, because she had to take medicine at that time). So while you can't have this in your current life, you still can support the idea in what way ever which may or may not lead to more other kids being breast-fed.
As for a future life, it is totally possible that you will be breast-fed again (you may already have had this in a past life), your true self will decide when you choose your next life.
And one great thing about our current time is that you can choose your gender and gender ID (according to your profile you live in Germany, and in Germany you really have the choice now).

As for reincarnating into the past, some physicists say that time is not really linear, so maybe it could be possible. Your higher self would have to choose a body living in circumstances which would prevent the time "line" from being changed while you still would have free will, more or less. A medieval farmer in the early 1300's won't be able to change a lot, especially not when it is a small village that has been/will be wiped out in the mid-1300s. Just as an example. You also could reincarnate as an engineer or scientist in the century before the library of Alexandria was destroyed. No one knows how many inventions were made and forgotten, so if someone reincarnated into that time, they could write down all their great ideas without changing the past.

Thank you for your kind reply! Yes, it is a big thing for me. I explain the reasons in this post (Will my unfulfilled wishes and desires in this life influence my choice for a next life? | Reincarnation Forum) and I quite like your suggestion to create a web page or something similar on that subject. I also like your remark that I may have already been breastfed in a previous life, possibly even with the practice of extended breastfeeding which might have contributed to it being a big thing for me.

That would also lead me to the question of whether I could choose my family and how you specifically think that would work. I have read many theories or memories of other people here on this forum and elsewhere but I'd like to read your opinion or maybe even memories, if you don't mind.

And yes, I'm aware of the status of trans rights in Germany but there are several things that prevent me currently from openly coming out and i want to settle down first and be fully independent from those things that stop me before I do so. Also, as someone who thinks of maybe having kids one day and being a supporter of unschooling (which is illegal in Germany), I'm thinking of moving to another country one day.

I too believe that time is not linear but, as a certain Doctor once said that "actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff". And when people argue that I would have to sort of push out the soul of a past physical body, my response would be that how do we know that it's not us who reincarnate into the past and live in that physical body in the first place? I also believe in parallel realities so each choice that I would do that would be different than the outcome in our time would result in the creation of a parallel universe. So I wouldn't worry myself about there not being any free will. And as you suggested, I could reincarnate into someone from, say, the Paleolithic or Neolithic period who wouldn't really be a big influence on history. But perhaps I could live a happy life without changing the history because, if we can truly map out our next lives (I believe it is our own choice if we want to see a glimps of that), it wouldn't really matter whether it would be a life that would be from either what we call the past or future. To me, it would only matter whether I'd live a happy life with a happy childhood to my ideals. I believe that I would still have free will and if I don't take a glimps of what paths this new life holds (whether in the stone age or a future date from the point of this body's death), I won't even know whether I have free will or not.

 

[Lia1992]

I won't lie thinking that dealing with linear minds and personalities can be a huge waste of time but I do feel that you are probably further along than they are by not being inside the box timeline wise. For me personally I just want out and pretty tired of the mouse utopia and all the social problems that comes with being in this world especially in the times we're living in now as it wasn't this bad not so long ago.

Well, whether it wasn't this bad not so long ago depends on who you ask. For some groups, it was bad before. But I assume that you're talking about a time when it wasn't bad for anyone which I totally believe. I believe that in Paleolithic and Neolithic times, humans did live in egalitarian societes. And I agree with you that I would love to live my next life in a more positive world.