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Mental Illness and Possible Past Life?

funnybunny

New Member
Hi everyone! I've been a lurker of this forum for a few days, and I finally decided to post.

To sum it up, my name is Nikki. I'm sixteen years old and I've spent much time in the hospital this year for mental health reasons. I've been diagnosed with depression and anxiety which I believe may stem from a past life.

When I was a toddler, my parents told me I was going to be having a baby brother or sister soon. Very confidently, my mother tells me, I announced that it was "Daniel" in her belly and I was very excited to meet him. Repeatedly my mother told me if her baby was a boy, they would call him Luke - but I continued to call him Daniel until he was about two. When my parents asked me why I wanted to call him Daniel, I would talk about "my baby that I was supposed to have, but I didn't know that when I died, so now he's going to be with me here."

My parents were very open-minded and allowed me to talk freely about such ideas, but they had no ideas of reincarnation at the time. My mother was raised Catholic, but we recently converted to the United church, which accepts reincarnation as a belief. My father is a Buddhist and is happy to think about past lives as a real event.

My mother became pregnant with my sister unexpectedly several years later, at which time she told me if it was a boy he would be called Aaron, and if it was a girl she would be Julia. I grew very excited and began to tell her stories about my friend Julia, who had curly blond hair and loved the animals we took care of. My mom asked me if Julia had been my sister, and I told her that no, we didn't have families like this one back then, everyone was family together and nobody had babies. She asked me how I got there if no one had babies, and I told her I was brought there when my other mom died.

I had a very active imagination at the time - many imaginary friends, seeing fairies, dolls coming alive to play with me - so my parents thought nothing of it. That is, until Julia was born, with curly blond hair. As she grew older she became very fond of animals - she has an autism spectrum disorder and cannot connect with people, but remains very close to her cat.

Only recently have I begun to discuss this with my parents, due to very strange and vivid dreams. The doctors in the hospital insisted that they were only dreams and that past lives do not exist, but the therapist I see when I'm at home is open to the idea. The dreams involve a communal living setting, in which the men, women and children are separate. No family units are present, but daily activities are normal - meals, school, chores, religious worship, lots of music and dancing. It feels very peaceful there. But as the dream goes on I leave the happy place for the normal world. It all looks very old-fashioned, sort of like the setting from Little House on the Prairie? When I leave, I want to have a baby. But by the end of the dream, I still haven't had one, and I throw myself into a river.

I honestly don't know if this is past life stuff or total crazy-talk. I wouldn't have considered it being past life-related until my mom told me the stories about my siblings. I do have a strong maternal instinct; I loved helping to take care of my siblings and I adore babies. I was originally hospitalized for a suicide attempt this year which involved a very unpleasantly cold ocean. Many of my depression-related feelings involve loneliness, a feeling of something being missing in my life. My anxieties revolve around social situations and an intense feeling that I'm forgetting something, almost like there's a memory that's just out of my reach.

Was there even a society like the one I seem to remember in history? It would've been before the 1900's, I'm certain. It reminds me of pioneer styles in a way. I feel that I need to know whether such a society existed, so I can present the information to my therapist. Perhaps if I could learn more about my past life, I could help my depression and anxiety to heal. I do hope this isn't too much to read all at once. If you made it this far, thanks a ton! :D

Nikki
 
Welcome to the boards


we all have different stories about previous lives


and how it affects us in this time.


Anything is possible Little House?


Dancing ? answers may come.
 
Welcome to the forum. You are lucky to have open minded parents. Yes, it does sound like past life memories to me. There were several American communal societies back in the 1800's and early 1900's. You are familiar with the Amish. There were also the Shakers and the Amana. Possibly others. Maybe it was in another country? You can google them. The Shakers made furniture. They actually invented the round saw blade that is used today. You also have psychic ability which is also common here. Being able to remember past lives and having psychic or intuitive abilities go hand in hand.
 
Welcome, funnybunny. We are glad to meet you. I was thinking along the same lines as argonne, that you might have lived in a communal religious sect of some kind. I hope you find comfort, and knowledge here!
 
Hello!


I'm wondering, have you ever heard of Shakers?


Your mention of men and women being kept separate and no one having babies reminded me of a book I once read.


It was a religious sect. They were celibate and procreation was forbidden once they'd joined the sect.
 
Mimic said:
Hello!
I'm wondering, have you ever heard of Shakers?


Your mention of men and women being kept separate and no one having babies reminded me of a book I once read.


It was a religious sect. They were celibate and procreation was forbidden once they'd joined the sect.
Here is the story on the Shakers. That's the reason they died out. No babies!
 
It's very interesting you mentioned about Mental Illness being apart of pasts lives and truth be told, I was thinking along those lines when I first came here. That is one theory but there might need to be more scientific data before Mental Illness and Past life link can be comfermed wellllllcome I have Autism/anxiety
 
If you live in Nova Scotia you are close to the Shaker Villages. Maine, Mass., New York, etc. Maybe you can go visit them sometime.
 
funnybunny said:
Oh my gosh. Shakers. I'd never heard of that group, but everything I'm finding about them fits perfectly! OMG
You should feel proud at having been a Shaker. Their ideas of gender and racial equality were 100 years ahead of their time. But they were also attacked for those ideas. And many Shakers also had psychic abilities. Some were mediums.
 
I suffered some sort of breakdown in high school


as well never told parents though it just got worse


I have always been with a hole in heart


Bouts of suicide thoughts plagued me.


Then I had my first past life dream.


about being hippie and deeply troubled.


That life I ended at very young age.


I have a post about that life.


In my heart it was warning don't repeat


the same as I did. When some sort trama comes in


Thats when a past life is awakened in my case


as as others.
 
funnybunny said:
The dreams involve a communal living setting, in which the men, women and children are separate. No family units are present, but daily activities are normal - meals, school, chores, religious worship, lots of music and dancing. It feels very peaceful there. But as the dream goes on I leave the happy place for the normal world. It all looks very old-fashioned, sort of like the setting from Little House on the Prairie?
On the dvd it talks about the Shakers taking in orphans. At age 21 the kids are asked if they want to stay and join them or leave.
 
Do you like Shaker music? You can search for it on YouTube.


Here is one video I found on the Shakers music and dancing.

 
I don't know if I believe that past lives can cause mental illness in this life.


However, I think that it's possible that your memories from that live are contributing to how you're feeling. Even if you don't believe that past life memories are real, it could still be a way of your subconscious trying to express your feelings (like how dreams sometimes reflect our fears in ways that aren't immediately obvious).


I also think it's possible that the way you feel in this life makes you more prone to remembering how you felt in that life, if both mental states were close. So your feelings of loneliness and sadness could make you recall the time when you also felt them before, especially in a lifetime you're already more prone to recalling.


I believe it would be worth looking into it. If past lives are real (and I think they are) then it might be worth addressing the ways in which remembering those things might be distressing you even more, and maybe coming to terms with what happened then could also help you find ways to cope with what you're going through now. If they aren't, it could still be helpful to look into why your mind is bringing this up.
 
Another possibility is The Oneida Community. It was a religious commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York.
 
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