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Past Life Memories in Childhood

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JohnA

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When I was a toddler, I felt as though everyone knew that they would grow up and start over again. I remember that is what happend to me and thought everyone had the same type of memory. When I started telling my mother about what I looked like when I was older, this at somewhere around the age of 3-4, I realized she didn't know what I was talking about. I did not attach the word death with it and had no Idea one had to die to start over, I thought that you just got older then it just happend one day that you become a baby again. That was an inner understanding that I had since I could remember. My mother didn't believe me and so I just dropped it. But I remembered then as I do to this day that in my last life, I was about 40 or so years old, had jet black hair, was wearing a red plaid jacket or shirt. That I had an axe in hands, that I was in front of a tree stump about to chop wood. I was in good physical shape. I was surrounded by a forest with a strong sense that this was in the US. Which was somewhere other than where I lived at the time in this life.
I also knew that it was a continual thing, this growing up and starting over again as a baby. I have no other memories other that those. At the time, as a child, I had blond hair. I have no idea what all this means except that it felt good to find out other children had the same sensations and memories as I do. I just heard about this place on A&E. I'm 42 now and am a president of a National Mortgage Company.
 
Hi John. I registered only very recently and
have been lurking here reading posts but not
posting for some time. I also watched the
A&E program Sunday evening because I saw an
advertisement for it a few days ago.

I'd just be guessing to say that memories of
a past life carrying right on over, in a
very natural way for you it seems, is a step
in the process towards continued enlighten-
ment. You were open to it from a very early
age, perhaps something that started before
and maybe several lifetimes ago.

I think of every life as part of a process
and that includes the eventual realization
of the process itself. I'd like to think
this realization is a very important step, a
sort of milestone.

If you watched the program and you never
forgot, it must have hung in there in some
very important way. I have two sons who had
strong past life memories at the same age
but they don't remember anything about it
now and only one continued to develop the
concept and express interest in knowing more
about it.
 
I think the only reason I still remember it today is that I tried explaining it to my mother and she thought I was "making it up". I was very close to her as a child and she was very attentive to me. She never rejected me like that before. It came as a shock when she said "I made it up" or "saw it on Television" and just walked away. She did that once more when I was about 5-6 on one other situation that didn't involve this subject, but that also made me very sad, upset,and confused, I remember the details of that also. So I think her rejection which I was not use to, made me remember to this day the individual situations. She was a die-hard Christian, and later went on to have out of body experience as she lay near death from the Hong Kong Flu. After that, she was more open to this kind of stuff. I think most parents don't want to shock or scar their kids and will just placate them with "oh that is interesting and what else..." this allows the whole thing to pass away without a memory key. I also think our Judean/Christian culture has something to do with memory replacements. Whereas, if your parent doesn't react as the child expects, maybe they would remember it, but then that would be cruel to the child. How did you react to your children when they brought it up?
 
Like you John, I spoke to my parents about my past life. Actually, they said I spoke about "before." I can't recall what I said, but then like you I was about three or four when it happened, today I'm 32. When my parents quesitoned me further, they must have been more accepting of this than your mother was, I would say, "you know before I was born. Before I was your kid." But then, when I relized they didn't know what I was talking about I would abruptly become quiet and say "oh, nothing." It was as though somehow I knew I wasn't suppose to talk about it. It just slipped. I've spoken to my parents about this in the recent years. They recall it quite well. However, they to agreed that when they directly started to quesiton me I stopped talking. They wish now they had tape recorded me. Sometimes, I talked about my past while playing with my doll or imaginary fiend. Perhaps others who read this, who have a child that is speaking about "before" might consider doing this. I wish my parents had.
 
Hello Again John,

I think there is definantly something to what
you say about our upbringing and the subse-
quent parental response to a child's sudden
and spontaneous recollection of a past life.

In looking into it, I found that children of
any culture are no more and no less likely
to have a spontaneous memory. They often
seem to be triggered or to surface for a
variety of perfectly normal reasons. Whether
or not we continue to remember might depend
on the reaction of those around us and it can
go either way. Some people are certain they
remembered because their parents scolded them
harshly and others because it was accepted.

My Grandmother said her people believed that
when a child related such a memory, s/he may
be doing so because it is or will become
important in this life. It might be something
your soul has decided to work on this time.
She said we do not always resolve or even
learn a lesson such as to cherish existence
without living many lifetimes, without
working on it and then dropping it and then
coming back to it over and over.

Then again, it might not be nearly so vital.
After my youngest son's third birthday, I
made a comment that, next year, he would be
four years old. He became very upset. "I
don't want to be four! When I'm four, I'll
die! Thats what happened before!"

It took awhile to get the story, what he
could remember, out of him. On his fourth
birthday, last time, his grandparents had
decided to take him to the zoo in the city
and they took a picnic with them. He told
me his mother (she wasn't me) had just had a
new baby. Clearly, his grandparents had
noticed all the excitement around the new
baby and a little boy feeling left out.

My response was that they must have loved him
very much to plan such a special day for him.
He liked that a lot. During the trip, there
was an accident. He was not in a position to
see what happened. He first woke up still in
his body and in a great deal of pain. He
told me it all got dark and the next thing he
knew he was up over the car looking down.

He saw his Grandmother, part of her body
crushed beneath the car and his Grandfather
thrown from the vehicle laying in a "funny
way". There was a lot of blood. He said he
had felt something pulling him up, pulling
him away but he resisted to see what had
happened. Frightened and horrified, he gave
in to the sensation and moved rapidly up
"into the clouds".

He was only four years old but he knew he
hadn't died immediately. He realized he did
die after it went dark, that his grandparents
were probably dead too. Having been told that
he would have a fourth birthday triggered the
trauma. Perhaps, if nothing were ever said,
he wouldn't have remembered. We honored his
desire not to go anywhere with either of his
grandparents until he was five years old.

He no longer remembers the incident even
though he remembered it clearly for two whole
years. Once he celebrated his fifth birthday,
he felt released. He believes he doesn't
remember because the trauma resolved itself.
This might be a life of rest for him, one
without great conflicts to work out. I think
we get those from time to time and that our
souls truly need them.

Perhaps, if you begin to explore those old
memories, more will surface. Maybe it is
just time for you to begin to realize what
physical existence is all about. You might
have experienced a very satisfying existence
as a lumberjack. Time will tell.

Kateet
 
John, I have past life memories too and have been afraid to tell anyone at all! Also there are scars on my body, well, brown spots that coinside with the memory. I'm so glad I saw that program the other night on tv, cuz sure and people would think we're nuts! (Do you know of any place we can talk about adult past life realizations?)
thanks.
 
Hi Kateet,
Wow, thanks for sharing that. I take it that was the son who continued to pursue "something" in life. Did he get into looking into other spiritual things, like a "Search". I've always looked for answers but always came up a skeptic on most ideas. That is why I don't think I can recall anything else, and almost afraid to try. I feel that all of these "past Life regressions" and Hypnosis to "remember" past lives do not really work. Indeed, they can clutter up your real memories with fiction. After a while, you may really believe it and now you have diluted what was the truth. After seeing all those people who had their therapist induce "False Memories" of child abuse etc., I know that you have to be careful as to who and what you believe and experience. I guess I'm satisfied knowing only what I know now and can trust. I guess my memory isn't as bad as I thought, a few months ago when the Census takers started their physical visits, I was remembering when they came to our house back when I was a small child, then I thought that it couldn't have been 1970, because I was almost a teenager by then, so it must have been 1960, yet I was only 1 and 1/2 years old (born 6-'58) I can still remember it was 2 people, and what they looked like, that they came to the door and my mother would not let them in, but gave them our information at the door. Then she explained it all to my Dad that night.
 
Dear John,

I told my son to take his interest first into
more objective directions. He took summer
courses at a local college in comparative
religions and sociology just as I had done.
One of the things he learned is that most of
the people living in Christian based cultures
who embrace reincarnation also imbue their
past lives belief with those Christian views,
often without realizing it. You read a lot of
that right here too. I have.

Muslims (Islamic) believe in reincarnation
but ONLY for men. Women exist only to serve
men and do not have souls. This what allows
them to mutilate their female children among
other things. The Muslim belief in reincar-
nation is used as convenient way to say I am
better than you and to keep a significant
segment of their society in virtual slavery.

Hindus believe you can reincarnate into
animals or insects. But, only some animals
and insects are revered and others not. And
they have a 'funny' way of showing their
reverence, by allowing them to suffer. They
also have a strong caste system. Ofcourse,
nobody ever reincarnates from a lower caste
into a higher caste or vice/versa. This would
tend to suggest that a child with early
memories suggesting a life in a higher or a
lower caste would be disbelieve and perhaps
harshly denied. I also wonder how one can
significantly advance there karma by becoming
an insect but not experiencing life from the
pov of another caste or sex?

You've heard of the Dahli Lama (spelling?)?
His beliefs and those of his followers also
disallow crossing sex. Supposedly souls have
a specific sex although I don't see how. To
be honest, the point is not believed by all
their followers.

In the west, people who talk of past lives
tend only to describe lives in which they
were fabulously wealthy and or famous (Can't
tell you how many Cleopatras are running
around these days! Then there was the man
who claimed to be the reincarnation of a
famous man who didn't die until more than a
decade after this man was born)or, the most
common, had been victimized. But, never have
they been....not so nice to say the least.

Oh, forgot to count the Punk era when kids
loved to say they were once a "real" vampire
or Satan. Just learning how much the original
text which eventually became the Bible had
been altered and added to in order to in-
crease political power, make it easier to
convert the pagans, control the masses, and
so on, was absolutely staggering.

When the original scripture was discovered
and the laborious job of translating it
began, the text was real eye opener from the
very beginning in Genesis. Throughout, it
reads "the gods", "and the gods"....not God
but gods, plural.

The uneducated average "common man" didn't
know any different from what he told and if
he is not told the truth, not even in a book
he is raised to believe is sacred, what can
he believe? Christianity is far from being
the only collection of religious beliefs that
tend to defy reason and many Christians
believe things that aren't even in the Bible
such as going to heaven or hell right after
death. Actually, you moulder in your grave
until the "Second Coming" when only a very
significantly small number actually be saved
and get to heaven.

That small number, something over 100,000
probably seemed quite large back when it was
first written, perhaps even a tad ambitious
at the time. For one thing, they didn't know
about China, lol.

'Til next time, Kat
 
Kat,

Actually it *is* possible for a lot of Cleopatras to be running around. That was a long time ago. What I've discovered about myself and my family from 100 years ago in my research is that most if not all of us have other selves, or to put it more simply, our souls are in more than one body at a time. My mother now was born 4 years before her last lifetime died; she had projected out, but left her soul in there simulatneously---*that* person who remained I have identified now as well. This all seems to fit in with a holographic theory of the universe.

Peaceful thoughts,
DJ
 
Dear DJ,

I don't think I was incorrect when I said I
didn't think ALL of those people could have
been Cleopatra. I think you should have said
that YOU believe it is possible. I am 42yrs
old and hardly new to reincarnation. My
background knowledge is extensive and does
not come from the popular press.

Kat
 
LOL...well, of all the people in this forum, I personally think DJ is the one least likely influenced by the popular press!

Sunday
 
Kat,

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I didn't say that I thought "it was possible" for *all* those people to have been Cleopatra. I said that I thought that it was possible for "a lot of Cleopatras to be running around."

DJ
 
Actually, I thought the Hindu system was all *about* moving up from one caste to the next. Leading a "good" life was supposed to result in being born in a better class. Though, most of the Hindus I know today say that caste is no longer a big issue for them or many other modern Indians.

And regarding female genital mutilation...It's important to bear in mind that the *men* are not the ones doing this to their daughters. Women arrange it, women perform the operation, and the child's mother typically is the one who holds her down for her "initiation." It is a complex societal issue and, as horrific as it is, is *not* done out of malice toward the kid.

By the way, the US doesn't currently allow women or children in danger of being mutilated to seek asylum in the US on the basis of being persecuted. This is one of the easier things Americans could do to help end the practice of FGM: pressure the government to protect the people who come here to escape it.

cashew
 
On the plus side, FGM has been thrown out in a whole section of Africa by the women themselves. In a grass roots type thing, the women discovered it wasn't good for their health, nor was it a religious requirement and over a period of a couple of months had meetings from village to village and decided not to do it anymore. I remember reading this in Readers Digest a year or so ago.

------------------
I had my car's alignment checked...It's chaotic evil. :)
 
JohnA,

I can understand your hesitation at past life regression, citing the 'false memories' of child abuse. You may want to remember, though, that not all of the memories of child abuse were false. Very few people, relatively speaking, are going to come up with past life memories of the famous/infamous. There are a lot more less well-known lives. The experiences, the lessons, no matter what name was attached to the lives we previously experienced, are what we should be seeking.

I've never been officially regressed. I have been told about several lives -- some of which felt very familiar, some of which did not. And I've had dreams of others which were so real that I felt like I could touch the people, the items I saw in these dreams. Perhaps we remember what we do, when we do, because a past experience is touching something in our current lives.

I don't really remember that as a child I had any vivid memories of previous lives. Except for my insisting (at the age of 3) that I would grow up to be a man because I'd done it before. My neighbors at the time (puritanic New Englanders) were a bit appalled. I do remember enjoying its effect on them, but don't remember anything about that specific life I may have been referring to.
 
Sounds like my son (4yrs). A few days ago he told his babysitter that after he dies, the next time he got born he was going to come back as a girl so he could be a mommy.

------------------
I had my car's alignment checked...It's chaotic evil. :)
 
Dear DJ,

I apologize. I misunderstood.

Dear Cashew,

A friend of mine who is from India, up until
four years ago, said, "It isn't an issue for
you if you are not low caste and living in
India." In India, it isn't politically or
socially correct to make public slurs against
the low caste the same as it is not in this
country towards a minority. That doesn't mean
that low caste in India and minorities in
this country experience prejudice as a non-
issue.

While the Hindu belief in reincarnation does
seem to include at least a theory that one
moves up in caste, in actual practice there
are deeply held prejudices that simply do not
aknowledge it happens.

As for the Moslem practice, well, of course
many women there support it. I would be
surprised if they didn't and I've visited
the issue recently. It was on the agenda of
the recent Women's World Conference.

It is complex the same way many women's
issues in this country are complex. Many
women still believe that a woman's place is
in the home. During the 'Nanny Trial', the
baby's mother received mountains of hate
mail for failing to stay home where she
belonged and it was HER fault the baby died.

Many women are equally certain they will not
ever be raped because they don't wear pro-
vacative clothing and never visit the 'wrong
side of town' all alone in the middle of the
night. I had a friend who was absolutely
devastated after she was raped, in a public
park during broad daylight while jogging and
wearing loose sweat pants and sweat shirt.

She was devastated because she believed the
stereotype about rape victims. Many women
do and that, says my therapist, is the origin
of their guilt. Somehow, women are still
taught, it had to be her fault. Somehow, she
was just asking for it. My friend sobbed in
my arms and said, "I feel like a filty, dirty
slut!"

Even when the cultural concience and moral
climate changes, individuals themselves do
not necessarily change their personal world
views. These things take time...lots and
lots of time.

To one and all, I salute you, Kat
 
Kat,

My heart goes out to your friend. I hope that she sought help with a support group for rape victims. Remind her that rape is a power thing; that she is not at fault.
 
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