What Is A Previous Life?

[John Tat]

How do you see your past lifes. How do they fit into you only having one pure self/spirit/soul and only one physical body at a time?. I understand some believe we can occupy more than one physical body at a time, but that's besides the point I'm talking about.
Do you see yourself as having multiple names and identities?
Do you see yourself as once being the physical Harry, John, Steve and so on in past lives?
They all died never to return...So in your mind who are they now and who are you now?
Is it something like a close relative who died and you remember who they were, how they acted and what they said and did?
What is your connection to Harry, John and Steve?. What is that allows you to talk about a physical entity that once lived and is now dead never to return and claim that was you?
Is it just a feeling or is it more concrete than that?
I'm asking these questions so I can understand
As some of you know, it's my belief and SeaAndSky's analogy was a good one.. I see the physical body as some sort of outer suit for my pure/spiritual self which when it gets old I get rid of it and reincarnate into a new suit ( physical body) and continue on
In other words even though I can remember individual physical bodies I once occupied they have little if any relevance. Its all about my pure/spiritual self learning and gaining knowledge
Because of my belief's it's simple for me. There is only one of me the pure/spiritual me. There always has been and will always only be one of me. All of those physical bodies I have occupied are dead and cannot and will never return. But I will always continue on and get another new physical body to occupy through my reincarnations Next time it will happen again and that physical body will also die when I'm finished with it
What I'm really asking is how do you fit into your previous and also your current physical bodies?
That's interesting to me

 

[Aelfgyva]

A Dress Or Jeans...?


Good morning John,


For me it is very, very simple...that which I am remains the same...just me! In all my memories I feel like me...I act like me. As to your question...my physical body now is like me getting up in the morning and deciding to put on a new dress to start the day! Tonight I will go back to bed, and tomorrow I will decide that jeans and tennis shoes are better suited for what I have planned for the new day...but under my "clothes"...it's just me!

 

[KenJ]

John,


That is the question I asked with my first post in many ways. What I consider to be the “best fit” is that my current incarnation has a percentage of my spiritual energy/Soul/whatever and the rest remains back “home” where the prior incarnated pieces have reunited prior to my current incarnation. This seems logical to me since it allows “me” to have my prior learning with me here on earth as well as having my prior existences back “home” where they can be accessed by mediums and such.


So, there is a direct connection with prior incarnated pieces of “Soul-energy” since it all becomes combined experiences/learning/understanding/validation. Each new incarnation would have a percentage of the entire Soul-energy which would contain everything; like a fractal image where the entire structure is represented in each portion.


So, a prior life is simply an incarnation similar to the current one without benefit of that incarnation's learning being added to the "home" soul until it reunites.


That is how I reconcile what, I believe, you are talking about.

 

[AOSpare]

It is simple....


It is a prior life where we could have been women, blacks, Indians, gays, murderers or spectators to murder. Who knows? I do not have any recollection, and frankly I am skeptical of those who recall myriads of incarnations to the detail..but who am I to say?


We are born again, to learn something that we have missed and expand our consciousness further.

 

[tanguerra]

The methaphor I sometimes use is it's like being an actor... say George Clooney (*sigh*) playing a part. In one movie he might play a good guy. In another movie he might play a bad guy. He might be fat or thin. Have a beard or no beard. Wear a different costume or do something to his hair. He might play a part in a comedy, drama, TV, screen, stage, whatever. He might 'evolve' through a series of different roles in his long career ... going from young heart throb, to doing light romantic comedies and moving on to more serious dramas or political thrillers.


George, the actor, is 'real'. He is a separate entity from the character he is playing, and yet, they are one and the same. He knows the script and he knows what is going to happen next. He has to 'believe' in the reality of his character to act well, but of course, he knows it's not really real, although, of course, it's his job to pretend it is and to be convincing.


The audience knows that this is George playing a part, but because of his acting skills, people soon forget about that and get caught up in the story of the character's adventures. The audience also knows, deep down that this is all make believe, but still they worry when he is in danger, even though they know he is really safe. They gasp when he gets shot, even though they know he won't really die. If they know what is going to happen next, it takes a lot of the fun out of it. If they go along with the 'fantasy' it's more enjoyable.


Does George get to choose what roles he wants to play? Well, to an extent. Obviously it needs to be a role that can get funding, which means some roles are going to be more suitable than others for our George. But being pretty famous, George gets to pick and choose more than most. Others are not so lucky and must take what they can get.


What is the purpose of all this? What is it for? Well, to entertain of course, but also to learn and instruct about life by telling a story and allowing the audience to participate vicariously in the experience of that particular character.

 

[John Tat]

Ken


Do you believe most have no real idea what a previous life is?


Do they also have no real idea what the connection is (if any) any previous life has to their current physical life?


In the end do most agree with me. That some part of our spiritual being is what continues on?


In a round about way that is what you said


It appears to me nobody has any clear and/or logical understandings or reasons for believing they have ever had a previous life


Maybe I'm wrong but that is how it appears to me


Regards

 

[KenJ]

Hi John,

Do you believe most have no real idea what a previous life is?
Do they also have no real idea what the connection is (if any) any previous life has to their current physical life?

I have expressed my views publicly and watched people’s eyes roll, so I would say that in my area of the world that people do not share my belief in reincarnation. It has been my experience that it is “out of bounds” to even ask most people about their thoughts about what they expect after death, let alone to ask them what they were prior to birth. My limited experience shows me that it makes people uncomfortable to even think about it even though they might have pretty deep religious convictions.

In the end do most agree with me. That some part of our spiritual being is what continues on?

I think that most everyone here on the forum believes in a continuous existence through various physical incarnation experiences, but outside this forum (in my area in the USA) not so much.

It appears to me nobody has any clear and/or logical understandings or reasons for believing they have ever had a previous life

This is subjective since it is not provable through our limited “scientific” methodologies that we hold so dear. For me personally, I am not aware of a previous life (like era, gender, happenings), but I am aware of glimpses of them and I have had experiences where I know things that I otherwise have no way of knowing in my current lifetime. After more than seventy years I still recall my feelings of my soul being more restricted in leaving my body as a child; my way of reconciling this with what my ego considers “reality” is to agree with the concept of reincarnation.


Ken

 

[lemonfarm]

I can relate to this. What I noticed is how similar I actually was all the time.


In all my lives. So the question I have is, why have so many?


I don't particularly enjoy this life so not entirely sure why have so many lives.

Good morning John,
For me it is very, very simple...that which I am remains the same...just me! In all my memories I feel like me...I act like me. As to your question...my physical body now is like me getting up in the morning and deciding to put on a new dress to start the day! Tonight I will go back to bed, and tomorrow I will decide that jeans and tennis shoes are better suited for what I have planned for the new day...but under my "clothes"...it's just me!

 

[KenJ]

I can relate to this. What I noticed is how similar I actually was all the time.
In all my lives. So the question I have is, why have so many?


I don't particularly enjoy this life so not entirely sure why have so many lives.

Most authors that I've read would probably suggest that there is something there that you still need to learn, especially if you are not happy in reliving it. It might be helpful to create a script of each life and compare them to see where other choices might lead in this lifetime. I would be hopeful that some sort of "feeling" would come about as your guide helps you in this task.