How far back do past lives go?

[kemetic18]

I've been wondering about this lately and hope I can explain my question coherently.

Although I'm sure no one knows for sure, I wonder how far back in time our past life memories reach. I can recall a life in ancient Egypt that dates to the Old Kingdom around 2550 BC and I feel fairly sure I lived a life in Mesopotamia prior to that.

Then I was just reading a book about ancient cultures suggesting some sites of human occupation can be dated to 8000 or even 10,000 BC. Many of these sites were little more than hunter-gather camps but I wonder if anyone here has memories from that long ago.

 

[Sunniva]

Hiya Kemetic


It's a great question, but also a very difficult one to answer. I know people, including myself, have memories that goes back a very long time to the early hunters (Life in the Palaeolithic), but how early?


On this forum we do not advocate the belief that human souls can reincarnate as anything else but human, so we must assume that we can't trace (human) reincarnation further back than the earliest humans. But when did humans become humans? Where is the transition between abes and humans? Anthropologists believe that difference is in the brain and I think we should probably look here for the answer. When our ancestors developed the ability to think beyond reality, when they created beliefs in higher powers and an afterlife, that's in my opinion probably where it all started.


(That is not to say that I believe humans created the soul, the higher powers and afterlife, but I definitely believe that there's a dynamic relationship between the two and that the latter is dependent on the former.)


Technically that means we probably should count neanderthal incarnations among our past lives as the neanderthals are the first 'humans' in the sense of what I described above. They buried their dead, decorated the graves, gave them gravegoods.


That being said, I think the further we move on in time, the more lives we live, the past becomes more blurred. The more recent the incarnation, the more details are remembered.

 

[Nightrain]

I wonder how far back in time our past life memories reach. I can recall a life in ancient Egypt that dates to the Old Kingdom around 2550 BC and I feel fairly sure I lived a life in Mesopotamia prior to that.
CLIP


...I wonder if anyone here has memories from that long ago.

Hi Kemetic! Although I personally suspect that the relationship between body and soul goes back throughout the evolution of physical life; it is, as Sunniva indicates, a difficult question to answer. The danger of trusting memories that go too far beyond recorded history is that very little can be thought of as substantive. It becomes a very open-ended question, which leaves us only to read and accept someone's ancient memories at face value. May I ask whether your memories were spontaneous, or triggered by something?


Referring to my only "regression" session, which seemed to bear anything close to an ancient memory involved the Western coast of Anatolia around 1200 B.C.E. Although the story had a contemporary message that impacts upon me today; I can't understand how anything 3,200 years ago would find its way through thousands of subsequent memories to appear in my present consciousness. Somehow, the message has validity; but, my ability to accept the story as a real incident can still be questioned, and would, therefore, be somewhat a moot issue.


I don't actually know if such impressions are real, but I feel that there is always some sort of message buried within. Can you sense anything in your recall that has a useful message? Can you describe what you recall? How did you feel when recalling your impressions?

 

[kemetic18]

Thanks for the replies.


Sunniva- I agree with what you wrote about the more lives we live, the more the past becomes blurred. My very old and ancient past lives are mostly just feelings about places/times, impressions, and a couple clear memories that I really do cherish. I can remember much more detail from more recent lives.


I guess that's really where I was going with this question. If lifetimes from 2000 or 3000 years ago become blurred with time, it is possible to remember even farther back if one was alive then?


I personally haven't experienced any memories from a time before ancient Egypt. But if humans were living in groups around 10,000 BC, those souls are still around today with those memories. I just wonder how someone with those memories would be able, if at all, to determine just how long ago that was.

 

[Nightrain]

...if humans were living in groups around 10,000 BC, those souls are still around today with those memories. I just wonder how someone with those memories would be able, if at all, to determine just how long ago that was.

Humans have been living in groups far longer than 10,000 BC. Recently, there was an article in several archaeological sites such as this one, in which it was reported that Archaeologists have discovered the oldest possible bone flute from a Middle Paleolithic site in Slovenia, the Divje Babe I site, a Neanderthal occupation site with Mousterian artifacts. The flute came from a stratigraphic level dated to 43,000 +/- 700 RCYBP, and it was made on a juvenile cave bear femur.


And, where there is music, there is some form of civilization. Well...in my opinion, anyway. Sunniva and I go back and forth on this subject, because I keep trying to push human civilization back further than science is willing to allow. Since, I don't have any background in her field; I'll admit that she is the true authority.


But, at least you will know that sentient beings and past life memories might go back further than 10,000 BCE. However, it would be very difficult to date one's memory without some recorded historical event or custom that would serve as a kind of reference. Given all the knowledge available regarding ancient Egyptian life, I think it is possible that certain facts could trigger a sense of familiarity; and would possibly, therefore, be past life related.

 

[Jadeswan]

As Nightrain said, it would be hard to recognize how ancient a memory might be. I know my memories of life in 17th century England seem so relevant and immediate, yet to my conscious mind that time period sounds impossibly long ago. When I sat at my desk writing in my little book it could have been a scene from this life. There was nothing to distinguish it in any special way from me sitting in the room I had as a teenager (granted I didn't allow anything overtly modern in that room.) Subconsciously I used to assume that living in the past was like living in black and white. As silly as it sounds, I was amazed at how rich, how vibrant, how "now" everything was as I remembered those old lives. I think that an ancient memory might feel "modern" enough that it wouldn't be recognized. I believe people were surprisingly sophisticated in certain areas during ancient times and yet there are people living in very primitive surroundings to this day.


It's an interesting subject to speculate about....

 

[TLD]

There are cave paintings in the south of france that date to 40,000 bc...I have always been moved by them. As an artist I see them as a direct link to our past...for me art is a way to live eternally. I guess what I am getting at, is that we are all old souls, but how old we are is hard to know.

 

[Sunniva]

Sunniva and I go back and forth on this subject, because I keep trying to push human civilization back further than science is willing to allow. Since, I don't have any background in her field; I'll admit that she is the true authority.

Aww, thanks Nightrain But you know I love having these discussions with you. Even people as scientifically stubborn as me need to have their boat rocked once in a while (if only to find out I was right afterall :tongue: ).


I completely agree with those who said that it's hard to date memories. We ought to remember that hunter-gatheres are not confined to prehistory, but have been present all through history - and are still present in remote parts of the world. So even if one have a memory of being a hunter, living primitively, etc. you can't really tell whether its prehistoric or modern.

I guess what I am getting at, is that we are all old souls, but how old we are is hard to know.

I think this touches upon another discussion, which is somewhat related: Reincarnation and Population Growth - there are some interesting points that may be relevant to Kemetic's question

 

[Looking Backwards]

I'd say very far, though I'm not sure how many people from that far back would still be going through the cycle - that's not to say they couldn't have taken a few breaks before returning (and I believe that's possible), or perhaps just really needed to, but I'm sure there are people who could trace their souls to the bare beginnings. Why not?

 

[Florence]

When I was 74 I decided to try my hand at painting.


I was very amazed at how well they turned out. I was so overwhelmed that I stpped painting for about 6 months. I told my daughter that I thought a spirit had come down to help me....I teased but down deep I really wondered about this sudden talent.


Then.....I had a very vivid dream. I was in the back part of a cave. I could see the firelight on the wall. I had drawn the figure of a person (male) with charcoal or something and was now rubbing red berries all over the face. I was very intent about this process because I was thinking that the red color in the face would show that I drew this picture while the person was ALIVE. As I was waking up I was mumbling....the berries are still there on the floor....they are petrified...but they are still there.


I don't know what year or where I was ....I just know that I was a female and very mentally involved with making sure others would realize the person was ALIVE...


The dream was so very vivid that I immediately knew it was a past life and that I had painted in the past.

 

[usetawuz]

I do not have any idea how far back can actually be verified, but I have scattered memories and specific events dating back to what was said to be Atalntis...over ten thousand years prior to its apparent sinking into the Atlantic. Combine that with some strange impressions of lives in other forms and places. I was given a ballpark figure of lives on earth numbering in excess of 4,700...although I am finding that between 1900 and now I have had four lives, fourth being this one, so at that rate of living and dying there isn't necessarily a whole lot of life covered in those 4,700 lives! To give further perspective, I died in 1905 at 17 years, died in 1919 at 9 years, died in 1943 at 19 years, and was born in 1960 and live now (obviously)...so I have lived longer in this lifetime than I lived in the three previous lives combined. The last long life I am aware of went from the mid seventeen hundreds to the first quarter of the eighteen hundreds...seeing the revolution and initial efforts at forming a new country. A death as a 20 something in the civil war in coastal Georgia is the only clear mid-eighteen hundreds I've gotten so far, but the late eighteen hundreds hold some interesting vignettes of which I do not have a clear picture.


I do want to add that while this life for me has been fairly easy by all accounts, it is obvious that those of my recent past were certainly not, and frought with all aspects of pain and agony to me and my loved ones. I cannot think of this as a deterrent from reincarnation. I hear of the difficulty each of us face and how, when we deign to mention it, we state that since we have free will we're not going to do this again! I am not a special soul...I am not a glutton for punishment...I will go out of my way to avoid pain if at all possible, but if I am going through four lifetimes in one century there must be something positive going on that takes away the pain from being born, living and dying four times in the same century.


I have no fear about anything that is happening or going to happen, either here or the hereafter. Besides, there is nothing I can do about it anyway. I would simply request that those of you who read this and have an inclination to give it some thought will think about the big picture...what we do here is for here and now and has little to nothing to do with our greater existence. It is an expereince our souls cherish, but it is also one of many our soul is dealing with at this time. Placed in its proper perspective, our lifetime here takes on a much easier mein...live, love and enjoy! After all, what have you got to lose? Nothing, as everything you actually have stays with you!


All my love and light to everyone reading...

 

[Nightrain]

...what we do here is for here and now and has little to nothing to do with our greater existence.

Very thought provoking post! It's remarkable that you have been given such information, and that you've been able to reach back that far! I can, sometimes, understand why most of us are not able to consider how many experiences we may have had. Whatever purpose we have in the physical form, during this life, would certainly be lost among four or five thousand others. As it is, I can't even remember a lot of things from this life, let alone the past few. As you say, we must focus on the purpose of this one life. If we must venture backward to help us out of a rut, that is great! But we mustn't let what lies behind us to distract us from our mission. Sometimes knowing too much might take away some of the magic of this particular life, and small discoveries would not be so magic, if found among 4,700 pages full of discoveries. Thanks for those wise thoughts, fellow traveler.

 

[usetawuz]

Hi Nightrain...in my case, I do not like surprises! And when I get them it takes me some time to assimilate them and to structure a response...I don't necessarily need to control the issue, but rather to see the whole picture before taking action. Life usually doesn't tip its hand so surprises occur regularly. I can say that at some level the research into past lives for me has smoothed the road, or taken the suddenness out of the surprise for me. If I can gleen some shred of experience from only half of those 4700 experiences I've got a full instruction book!