Not Meant to Know?

[Mimic]

I've been thinking more about past lives lately.
I don't really remember mine. At all. I've had dreams that might shine light on two of those past lives.
But nothing really concrete.
I have been wondering more and more if I should attempt meditation or something to learn more. Or if I should let it go. If I don't remember maybe I'm not supposed to for whatever reason.
Has anyone else thought about this?

 

[Nightrain]

I've been thinking more about past lives lately.
I don't really remember mine. At all. I've had dreams that might shine light on two of those past lives.


But nothing really concrete.


I have been wondering more and more if I should attempt meditation or something to learn more. Or if I should let it go. If I don't remember maybe I'm not supposed to for whatever reason.


Has anyone else thought about this?

Hi Mimic!


The answer is, CONSTANTLY! I'm about where you are right now, and I've considered the possible ramifications of remembering things that could interfere with my own progress. After all, if you have gone through difficult times, you know that those bad experiences have been character building. If you had known ahead of time what you signed up for in this life, would you have initiated whatever brought you to this point?


There is a certain thrill we get when navigating from one new experience to another. Your parents, who have already been there, probably cringed whenever you announced your desire to strike out on your own. If we could remember a difficult past life, our choices in this life would naturally be affected, and we would feel the same kind of concern that our parents felt, rather than enjoying the excitement that comes with anticipating new experiences.


On the other hand, our desire to know about our previous lives is comforting, because knowing certain mysteries could possibly solve a destructive phobia, an unhealthy attraction to someone, or it could simply give us hope where it is needed. I like to think that the process of trying to discover our past lives may actually be more rewarding than the discovery, itself. I know that this search has opened up a whole new chapter in my life, and has put me in touch with interesting and intelligent minds. It has provided opportunities not only to help myself, but to possibly help others as well. And, it has created new and exciting mysteries at every turn.


I feel, therefore, that it is important to keep trying. And, if our efforts reveal only scant evidence of our past lives; then we know that, at least we tried. We can, then, presume that the rest is not meant to be known, yet.


-Nightrain

 

[sellingmysoul]

Mimic, meditation is a great tool to helping you remember, so would be seeing a hypnotherapist in order to be regressed. However, if you never recall any past lives, don't let it bother you. Not everyone does recall a past life. Maybe you have no need to recall a past life.

 

[stardis]

If I don't remember maybe I'm not supposed to for whatever reason.
Has anyone else thought about this?

This is just a personal opinion. After thinking about this for many years, I have concluded that instead of saying that "maybe we are not meant to remember", it may be more appropriate to say that "it is not necessary that we remember" our past lives. This life can stand on its own without consciously reaching into the past for help.


If we had never heard of reincarnation, we would live out this life to the best of our ability. But since we do believe that have lived before, it may be advantageous for us to realize that there are aspects of this life that could be past life related. I was able to find some peace of mind in this life by realizing that a place that I was obsessed with finding was in reality a place where I had lived in a previous life. I wish that I had known that at a much earlier age because I think that I could "moved on" and let that go because it seems like the really important issues that I face are issues in this life. So, maybe we do remember a lot more than we think we do, but we don't realize that those thoughts and memories are leftover from a previous life.


Meditation is something that has become a healthy habit for me. It is a way to forget about the rest of the world and let the mind wander on its own. It is quite surprising what will be revealed if you practice doing that consistently. It takes nothing more than finding some time for yourself (sometimes that is a hard thing to find, I know).

 

[msmir]

I want to add that if you are on a soul level not ready to "remember" a past life trauma, you simply will not no matter how much meditation or past life regression you have. It will come to you when you are ready to acknowledge whatever you can.

 

[sellingmysoul]

I want to add that if you are on a soul level not ready to "remember" a past life trauma, you simply will not no matter how much meditation or past life regression you have. It will come to you when you are ready to acknowledge whatever you can.

Yes, msmir, but bits and pieces of the traumatic memory may leak through until the person is ready to confront the memory in it's entirety. This leaking of bits and pieces of traumatic memories is the mind's way of preparing to face the trauma, although a person can, even after technically being mature enough, or strong enough, to deal with a memory that's nightmarish, refuse to acknowledge said memory. It happens all the time.

 

[msmir]

Yes, msmir, but bits and pieces of the traumatic memory may leak through until the person is ready to confront the memory in it's entirety. This leaking of bits and pieces of traumatic memories is the mind's way of preparing to face the trauma, although a person can, even after technically being mature enough, or strong enough, to deal with a memory that's nightmarish, refuse to acknowledge said memory. It happens all the time.

Yes I totally agree with that. Bits and pieces do leak through but it won't flood in all at once. I believe that your spirit guides also protect you remembering too much at once as well. It would be too much to handle. Before I would accept my last life in Auschwitz, and at the same time I wondered where my phobia came from... I went for a past life regression and found nothing. I drew a blank. And I feel the reason for that at the time was because even though my ego was desperate to find answers, on a soul level I was not ready to accept it until I was mature enough to understand what had really happened. Even though I understand the origin of my phobia, I am still far from ready to face it. Healing from such things really can take a lot of time, even several lifetimes in many cases, especially after enduring that kind of life.

 

[tanguerra]

I don't know about 'meant to remember'. Who is making the rules? Hmmmm? Ask yourself. Is it God (however you conceive Her). Does She spend a lot of time micromanaging every person's thoughts, deeds and memories? I think not. Is it one's own 'higher being' which decides when certain memories are appropriate in a particular lifetime. Perhaps.


Personally, I think some people just do and some people just don't, just as some people are colour blind and some people can't sing in tune. I think it is a mixture of the personal capability of the person and a bit of application, practice and natural inclination to explore these types of things.


Actually, most people do remember things at some level but often simply dismiss this as they don't understand what it is. Many, many people describe feeling nostalgic for a country they have never visited, having an aptitude for something they have never done before, inexplicably bursting into tears when they hear an old song for the first time, meeting someone for the first time and feeling as though they have known them forever and so on. What is unusual is to remember things in a lot of detail. That is actually a lot easier to do that you might think, but it can take a bit of practice and the use of a few techniques. Not everyone gets the hang of if right away, but that does not necessarily mean they are not 'meant' to remember, just that perhaps they are going about it the wrong way. Different techniques work better for different people.


In short, I think it is perfectly normal and natural to remember past lives, it is just the matter of degree which is individual. It is true that we have a natural mechanism where the mind will block out traumatic memories from the present life however, and I guess this could work with traumatic past life memories as well.

 

[Mimic]

I was speaking just about myself though.


And I think I agree with tanguerra and with mismir that bits and pieces seep through somehow. And what I do know, though very incomplete.


Such as dreams where my feet won't work, or where I am male, in another era, or my totally irrational fear of fire. Or as mentioned- my connections to other people.


That has been my experience for the most part. Brief insights.


My thinking is that I want to know more. But since I don't (for whatever reason) got me thinking along these lines.


Thanks again for all the input and ideas.

 

[Kapitan]

I've recently thought about the whole 'let go and let God' thing regarding my 19c Finnish lifetime. I had tried to do an email contact again, it's been awhile and no reply. I did finally email the maritime museum in the Aland Islands but - they don't have a captains list. What they have are log books and books where all the crews signed on. Now these books are for every ship - large and small. This is great but...I would have to actually make a trip over there and dig through every single book to find all the captains who commanded Cape Horn ships in the late 19c.


I really don't think I'm going to be getting over there any time soon....