Do you remember any of your past lives? Do you believe in reincarnation? What is the purpose of reincarnation? If we’re bad in this life, will we come back as a rat in the next one? Do we lose the wisdom we’ve gained when we start anew?
All good questions.
I am not an expert on reincarnation and past lives, but I’ll tell you what I know, and I’ll tell you about my own experiences and beliefs.
The way I understand the universe, we are souls who choose to incarnate to learn spiritual lessons so that we can evolve our own souls and also affect the lives and lessons of others. We make a general plan for ourselves to work out karma and learn lessons, then we select our parents, and get busy getting born. After you die you go back to the ether, review your progress, compare it to the plan you set out for yourself, and decide if, how, and when you’ll return to continue your evolution.
Why?
That’s how the universe wants it. I see our souls as tendrils that the universe sends out to experience things it can’t. We take our experiences back to Source and it processes them.
So what about our past lives? Can we remember them? I have had several dreams that I believe were glimpses into my past lives. There’s no way I could ever verify if I was these people, but in my heart, I believe these to have been real experiences. I’ll share a few with you.
In one of my most powerful past life dreams, I woke up in a very small room in a castle. The only things in this room were a makeshift bed, a table, chair, and a sconce for a torch. I instantly knew all the details of this life. I was a conquered woman. In other words, my people were conquered and I was taken prisoner. I could see a parchment map on the wall showing the territories governed by my conqueror. I believe it was in the 1400s. I was made a concubine to the King and I bore his bastard child. And that was the only reason I was still alive. That and because the child I bore was a son. Each morning the only joy I had was to go to the baths where the young sons of the king were bathed and see my baby, who at this point in my dream was probably about 8 months old. That morning I went to the baths and looked joyfully upon my child, whom I was rarely allowed to actually hold. Unfortunately, there were a few boys in the room who decided to have some fun with my baby. They scooped him up and held him under the water. Only one boy, 6 years old, and a legitimate child of the King, tried to save my baby from the cruelty of the other boys. He was unsuccessful. When I finally reached my baby boy, he was dead. He was all I had and the despair and sorrow I felt were overwhelming. Numbly, I took his body, walked out to the cliffs outside the castle, and I simply fell into the mists. A suicide. I woke from that dream pretty upset but I felt that it truly was a past life memory.
In another experience I dreamed I was a little boy about 8 years old. I was walking outside very purposefully after having just fought with my mother. She told me not to go outside to play because there was a strong thunderstorm coming. I defied her and went outside anyway. I ended up in my favorite playplace… a storm drain or wash. I drowned there because of the storm.
In another experience I was a small boy, probably around 10 years old or so. I had leukemia. I remember seeing my mother and a priest by my bed giving me last rites. I died and felt my spirit lift out of my body. It was a strange experience as I felt I was both watching and participating at the same time.
In yet another experience I was a very strong male member of some kind of tribe. I was second in command to the chief who was married to a beautiful woman. One day the men of the tribe went hunting but I was told to stay behind to guard the women. It was a shameful thing to be left behind and I knew the chief did it to punish me because he suspected I was having relations with his wife. I wasn’t (for the record!). But after the tribe of men left, we were attacked by a neighboring tribe. Being the only male in the group I was left with the task of trying to defend an entire camp of women and children. I was mostly successful at beating off the attack but someone shot me with an arrow and it was poisoned. The chief’s wife took me into her own tent to try to leech the poison out of me. The chief and the rest of the tribe members came back at an inopportune time. The chief saw his wife tending to me in his own tent and was instantly jealous and enraged. Before his wife could stop him, he stabbed me in the chest with his spear. The last moments of this life I heard the wife explaining frantically to her husband that I had single-handedly defended the camp from attack. I saw the look in the eyes of the chief as he realized he had made a grave error. In my very last moments I forgave him and then died. But I knew we had some major karma to work out between us.
Okay so what does it all mean? And how do I even know these were real past lives? I don’t. I’ve had thousands of dreams, though, and I can tell which of them are premonitions, communication from spirits, past lives, and which are just my subconscious clearing out the daily clutter. I don’t find a whole lot of value in knowing about my past lives except to the extent that what I was feeling each time I died is a window into my own soul’s evolution and history.
I believe that each time we incarnate we retain the awareness and wisdom we gained in previous lives. Which is why I think it’s really important to gain as much wisdom and awareness as you can so that your soul can progress faster.
Will we come back as a poor person if in this life we are rich? Sure. Money makes no difference to spirit. Will we come back as a lower life form? I don’t think so. I think animal spirits have their own path and we humans have another. But I’m not sure so don’t quote me. 😉 If we are enlightened in this life will we come back as an unenlightened individual? In other words, if we’ve already learned compassion and kindness will we come back as greedy, cruel people? I don’t think so. But in any lifetime you could be led astray.
I don’t spend much time or energy pursuing knowledge about my past lives. There’s so much work to do in this one that I really don’t have time. I look forward instead of back. I seek to understand myself as best I can so that I can increase my awareness and learn my lessons. And then it’s back to the ether for me where I’ll review my soul’s progress and come back to try again.
