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Reincarnation? Recalling Past Lives (From Memory; In Dreams)

A number of years ago I read a book "The Children that time forgot" by Peter and Mary Harrison I believe it was. The book supposedly listed a large number of cases where children mainly between the ages of 2-5 years old had provided details and information, unprompted, to their parents about their past life. Some of the pictures and information which these young children gave seemed remarkable (WWI insignia, the interior of a messerschmidt cockpit etc.). Although I can not obviously verify who these children were or their family circumstances, I was wondering what others thought about this phenomena. Has there been a thorough study undertaken as far as anybody is aware? I thought I'd post this as a question as I have been fascinated by this subject for years and would like to know if there are any 'scientific' explanations to account for these childrens experiences.

Many thanks in advance.
 
I remember a family friend telling my parents years ago about her daughter's past life memories.
The friend had gone on holiday in Paris with her husband and young son and daughter. They were walking past a patch of waste ground where a building had once stood, when suddenly the young girl (aged about 5), started talking about how she had lived here. She said the building had been a public toilet, and she had been an old lady who had lived in the building - she was a lavatory attendant. The girl mentioned all kinds of historical details that added to the story.
Of course, all this sounded bizarre and scary, coming from a 5 year old - so they got away from the place fast.
The friend later did a bit of historical fact-finding, and confirmed that the building had indeed once been a public lavatory for many years. Apart from this, she was unable to find out any information about an old lady who'd lived there.
 
I believe there is in reincarnation literature a famous case you a young Indian girl who was able to remember amazing details of a past life, but I can't remember the other details...
 
When I was 5 years old I had recurring dreams where I was in a plane that was shot down over a beach, then I went to an airshow and felt instant recognition towards a spitfire.
 
It often seems to be young children who seem to have these memories doesn't it? I think I wrote once before about my friend's son who insisted to her that I had been his mother in a past life. She didn't tell me until they were moving away as she had been afraid I would want to take him away. I too had dreamt that he had been my son but I had never said anything. He was great friends with my daughter and was always at our house.
My middle daughter, my grandaughter, my cousin's daughter and my friend's eldest son are others who have indicated that they thought they had lived before so maybe it's not all that uncommon. Noone had prompted any of the children, they just came out with stories spontaneously.
 
For a realistic overview of the day-to-day practice of past life belief and memory, you can't do better than to go here: http://www.childpastlives.com/

I haven't registered there because it's very much a faith-based community where I wouldn't fit in, and all I want to do is read the stories and get a handle on the different ways ordinary people who hold this belief think. One of these days I'm probably going to write a reincarnation story. As with most belief systems, the believers range from the sensible to the appallingly airheaded. As with most subcultures, the accepted stererotypes prove not to be true, or to be true in a more complex and nuanced way than people outside the subculture assume. Some of their constructs to explain common objections to the belief system are ingenious. I particularly like the story in which one girl remembers being a ghost between her remembered life and her present one - having her cake and eating it, and yet it's logical enough.
 
I am interested in reincarnation and think it's extremely possible. ...

I think the evidence from children is the most compelling, when they say things they couldn't possibly have know. As adults I think we've absorbed too much to make any evidence tainted. I always feel drawn to the 1890s but I don't know if that's a past life or early influences. I was heavily into The Phantom of the Opera and Sherlock Holmes when I was young. Did I like them because of the Victorian element or did I like the Victorian element because of them? ...

Something interesting through, I hate Airships they make me feel ill and send a chill down my spine. The sound, the movement, everything I can't stand them (Although I am fine with barrage balloons which are the same shape). The odd thing is you very rarely see airships these days (that God) so where did this come from? Did I indeed have a run in with an Airship in a past life.
 
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I am interested in reincarnation and think it's extremely possible. It would make sense of the age old question of why we are here. We are here to learn through this life before moving on to the next one. But do we ever reach the end? Maybe we do and become one with the higher intelligence/spirit/God who knows.

I think the evidence from children is the most compelling, when they say things they couldn't possibly have know. As adults I think we've absorbed too much to make any evidence tainted. I always feel drawn to the 1890s but I don't know if that's a past life or early influences. I was heavily into The Phantom of the Opera and Sherlock Holmes when I was young. Did I like them because of the Victorian element or did I like the Victorian element because of them?

What happens in you add in parallel universes too? What if they exist? Do we cross them? What if that's why some information is slightly wrong when investigated?

Something interesting through, I hate Airships they make me feel ill and send a chill down my spine. The sound, the movement, everything I can't stand them (Although I am fine with barrage balloons which are the same shape). The odd thing is you very rarely see airships these days (that God) so where did this come from? Did I indeed have a run in with an Airship in a past life.

Hi MorningAngel,

You make good points and your own experiences are interesting. I get what you mean - my own experiences are similar, though different in content.

I don't mention it much, even around here (I'm seen as weird enough already!) but from my earliest memories I can recall another existence in which I was someone else. There isn't a whole lot of detail, but if it was my childish imagination (and maybe it is, maybe it isn't) it must have been a doozy, because I recall being a man named John, from Michigan.

My siblings enjoy telling the story of a wall-eyed fit I had when I was two. I was rolling around on the floor, crying hysterically because of a song playing on the radio. It was Long Cool Woman by the Hollies, and I was screaming "don't make me go back to the jungle! I don't want to go back to the jungle!" I only have a vague memory of this, but there was some music I couldn't abide - anything by Creedence Clearwater Revival would upset me also. Eventually I stopped freaking out, but those songs created a sort of indescribable sense of dread up to a certain age.

I would also ask my mother about the time we went to Detroit, about how windy it was that day, etc. She would tell me that we'd never even been to Michigan. I didn't believe her for the longest time, because I clearly remembered that trip to Detroit. I could also recall a place that was laid out in a pattern of squares, a room with flourescent lights where I was waiting for a bus, in the dark before daybreak. (I'd never actually been on a bus at that point in time)

There were certain words in my mind (they would often turn up in dreams) that would also cause a sense of dread when I was small - "chop-chop" which I knew referred to food, though I'd never heard anyone use this term, or "boonie" or "Cochinchina". In my teens, I ran across the term Cochinchina in a book and almost passed out from the wave of dread that came over me. The term "elephant grass" (and many others) also got to me for reasons I couldn't explain, except that they seemed to come from this other life as another person.

For years I couldn't watch any film dealing with the Vietnam war - in my teens I happened to see a few minutes of Apocalypse Now (not even one of the scary parts!) and I had the worst nightmares I'd ever had up to that point, just ghastly. The same thing happened after seeing just a few moments of Full Metal Jacket. There was a time where there was spate of Vietnam war movies and I'd have to leave the room if any of the advertisements came on TV, because I didn't want to risk the nightmares.

These strange fears and dreads relating to "John" finally began to drift away in my mid-20's. I figure if these really were past-life memories, they faded once I'd got past the age when John had died. I can now listen to that music or watch those movies without any fear (well, except the fear that's meant to be there - Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket are pretty harrowing films, really. But without the same almost spritiual dread that used to be there.)

I did look up the online Vietnam war memorial and found a page for one person that gave me a strong response. He seemed very familiar. The time of death seemed about right, too, as much as such a thing can be (I'd judged this by the dates of music that scared me vs. music that didn't scare me - there is a definite cut off date). Anyway, there was a message on his page from a school friend, reminiscing about how much they'd loved basketball and hamsters.
Well, I love hamsters too, though that could be anyone, that's not a rare trait - but I've always had a memory of basketball, playing in the gym, and the distinctive smell and feel of the ball, even though no one in my family is sporty and I haven't actually played outside of 6th grade gym class. I'd always wondered about that.

But, ultimately, who knows? There's no way to prove anything. I guess I will always have to wonder.
 
I have often wondered about reincarnation. Over time I have had dreams about different places and times with people I was not to meet in present day until years later.
I posted once before about one of my youngest daughter's friends I had dreamt was my son long ago ( but said nothing) and I did not find out till they were moving that he had told his mother that I had been his mother before.
She had been afraid that I would take him away if she said anything and she and her husband had put it in their wills that he was to come to me if anything happened to them.
Her family were theosophists so she was inclined to believe in past lives.
 
It could be more like some people's lives were so vivid for them that their experiences and memories hang about in the atmosphere to be picked up by impressionable minds like radio signals, but nobody is reincarnated at all.
 
Hi MorningAngel,

You make good points and your own experiences are interesting. I get what you mean - my own experiences are similar, though different in content.

I don't mention it much, even around here (I'm seen as weird enough already!) but from my earliest memories I can recall another existence in which I was someone else. There isn't a whole lot of detail, but if it was my childish imagination (and maybe it is, maybe it isn't) it must have been a doozy, because I recall being a man named John, from Michigan.

My siblings enjoy telling the story of a wall-eyed fit I had when I was two. I was rolling around on the floor, crying hysterically because of a song playing on the radio. It was Long Cool Woman by the Hollies, and I was screaming "don't make me go back to the jungle! I don't want to go back to the jungle!" I only have a vague memory of this, but there was some music I couldn't abide - anything by Creedence Clearwater Revival would upset me also. Eventually I stopped freaking out, but those songs created a sort of indescribable sense of dread up to a certain age.

I would also ask my mother about the time we went to Detroit, about how windy it was that day, etc. She would tell me that we'd never even been to Michigan. I didn't believe her for the longest time, because I clearly remembered that trip to Detroit. I could also recall a place that was laid out in a pattern of squares, a room with flourescent lights where I was waiting for a bus, in the dark before daybreak. (I'd never actually been on a bus at that point in time)

There were certain words in my mind (they would often turn up in dreams) that would also cause a sense of dread when I was small - "chop-chop" which I knew referred to food, though I'd never heard anyone use this term, or "boonie" or "Cochinchina". In my teens, I ran across the term Cochinchina in a book and almost passed out from the wave of dread that came over me. The term "elephant grass" (and many others) also got to me for reasons I couldn't explain, except that they seemed to come from this other life as another person.

For years I couldn't watch any film dealing with the Vietnam war - in my teens I happened to see a few minutes of Apocalypse Now (not even one of the scary parts!) and I had the worst nightmares I'd ever had up to that point, just ghastly. The same thing happened after seeing just a few moments of Full Metal Jacket. There was a time where there was spate of Vietnam war movies and I'd have to leave the room if any of the advertisements came on TV, because I didn't want to risk the nightmares.

These strange fears and dreads relating to "John" finally began to drift away in my mid-20's. I figure if these really were past-life memories, they faded once I'd got past the age when John had died. I can now listen to that music or watch those movies without any fear (well, except the fear that's meant to be there - Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket are pretty harrowing films, really. But without the same almost spritiual dread that used to be there.)

I did look up the online Vietnam war memorial and found a page for one person that gave me a strong response. He seemed very familiar. The time of death seemed about right, too, as much as such a thing can be (I'd judged this by the dates of music that scared me vs. music that didn't scare me - there is a definite cut off date). Anyway, there was a message on his page from a school friend, reminiscing about how much they'd loved basketball and hamsters.
Well, I love hamsters too, though that could be anyone, that's not a rare trait - but I've always had a memory of basketball, playing in the gym, and the distinctive smell and feel of the ball, even though no one in my family is sporty and I haven't actually played outside of 6th grade gym class. I'd always wondered about that.

But, ultimately, who knows? There's no way to prove anything. I guess I will always have to wonder.

Fascinating Ulalume much my indepth than my Airship aversion.
 
I discovered something startling (well, startling to me) yesterday, and it would probably fit best in this thread, because it relates to something that has the quality of a past life memory. It seemed like a memory (if that's what it is) that belonged to someone else.

It's come up in dreams or errant moments for many years now, this "memory" of being a child in a starched pinafore, playing a game with other children. We were singing a song and looping around beneath the other's arms. This was on the lawn of an old stone house - it's not our house, we are visitors there - and the only other thing I know about the house is that it smells like...sort of like old paper, mildew and something a bit like the sharp smell of American money (assuming British money doesn't smell the same). Also it has a very old window in it that we are not allowed to touch.

The most haunting element of this was the song we were singing as we played. I couldn't recall the lyrics, despite trying, and only tune I could relate it to was something learned in beginner's piano lessons, called Green Gravel.
This version:

While I still don't know where this memory comes from (we certainly didn't wear starched pinafores in the 70's and 80's, and I've never seen such a house in my life) I did discover the song and the game, thanks to FTMB.

Over in the nursery rhymes thread, a rhyme called "oranges and lemons" was mentioned so I looked it up. it really knocked me sideways for a moment, because that was the song and game in the memory! No, I've never heard it in my life. Even without the grim ending, all the references in the rhyme are so English it wouldn't travel well. And i don't know if the tune was the same historically, but all the versions I found sound very similar to the Green Gravel one, above.

The game seems similar to London Bridge, which we did play at school, but all my memories of that are strictly from this life. :)

I dunno...maybe it's just imagination, but it was the eeriest feeling, hearing that song.
 
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We use to play oranges and lemons at school but it had a different tune to that, much faster and more up and down. We played London Bridge too which also seemed different in rhythm.
Some of the notes seemed like the music to the game Roll over.
There were three in the bed and the little one said" Roll over, roll over"
So they all rolled over and one fell out.
 
Even without the grim ending, all the references in the rhyme are so English it wouldn't travel well.

The dream could be a case of crypto-amnesia, as the sinister song is a natural choice for film-makers when childhood scenes foreshadow spooky or tragic events later. I think it is sung by the children at the big house in Dead of Night during a party which leads one girl to the discovery of a ghost-boy in the attic. The indoors setting does not match your dream but the use of the tune in these situations is rather a cliché and even a fleeting exposure to such a drama could have lodged in your memory. :)
 
The dream could be a case of crypto-amnesia, as the sinister song is a natural choice for film-makers when childhood scenes foreshadow spooky or tragic events later. I think it is sung by the children at the big house in Dead of Night during a party which leads one girl to the discovery of a ghost-boy in the attic. The indoors setting does not match your dream but the use of the tune in these situations is rather a cliché and even a fleeting exposure to such a drama could have lodged in your memory. :)

That could certainly be right, though I really can't recall hearing the rhyme or seeing the game previously (though it wouldn't be crypto-amnesia if I could, of course!) Never saw "Dead of Night" either, but I think the tune is also used during the procession in The Wicker Man. No words in that one and the game is different, and I have no memory of seeing anyone wearing animal heads. :p Still, stranger things have happened.

The weird thing, I guess, is that is that it does feel like it happened to me, when it couldn't have.
 
In the comments to a Greenbriar Picture Shows Blog. entry, I came across the following priceless anecdote.

Mike Ballew writes:

"You know, I once saw a write-up about Shirley MacLaine in an L.A. TIMES Sunday supplement. She was talking about how she used to be, quote, "a Moorish girl who cured the Emperor Constantine of impotence" in a previous life.

"A little later in the interview, TWO FOR THE SEESAW came up. "A young [writer] came out here the other day," MacLaine said, "and he had all these deep and probing questions like, 'In that scene with Robert Mitchum, what were you thinking?' My God, that was so long ago, who knows what I was thinking?"

:rofl:
 
In the comments to a Greenbriar Picture Shows Blog. entry, I came across the following priceless anecdote.

Mike Ballew writes:

"You know, I once saw a write-up about Shirley MacLaine in an L.A. TIMES Sunday supplement. She was talking about how she used to be, quote, "a Moorish girl who cured the Emperor Constantine of impotence" in a previous life.

"A little later in the interview, TWO FOR THE SEESAW came up. "A young [writer] came out here the other day," MacLaine said, "and he had all these deep and probing questions like, 'In that scene with Robert Mitchum, what were you thinking?' My God, that was so long ago, who knows what I was thinking?"

:rofl:


Didn't Shirl start up a small industry of her past life experiences in a series of books? There are a lot of "interesting" stories about her, not all complimentary.
 
There's an american TV documentary series on ..REally channel? in the uk...called the Ghost Inside My Child at the moment. I thought it was a one off, but caught a seperate episode two weeks later so assume I've missed one.

Although it has the usual "this show is just for entertainment" disclaimer at the beginning, it appears to be sincere accounts of childhood memories of past lives...a couple of stories which have made the press in recent years have featured in detail.

What's fascinating is that in each of hte stories they identify the alleged original person they child appears to have memories of being. But more than that seeing the parents detail the events and the piecing together of incidents so sincerly and convincingly makes it much more persuasive than the tabloid summaries of such tales...and diminishes in my mind the usual explanations of the parents feeding and leading the kids. It's really worth a watch.

Another interesting thing is the title. It's not what it intends, I don't think, but presents an intriguing alternative to "reincarnation" in the usually understood sense (one personality in different physical bodies). What if such memories are in fact a sort of possession of a quite separate but vulnerable by virtue of youth child? Or are information recieved in a mediumistic way from the dead but interpreted by the child as their own memory?

Worth a thought.
 
The 'Just for entertainment' line is a legal requirement these days and it drives me crackers. Apparently we're not allowed to make up our own minds. :banghead:
 
I think it's just a license to make sh1t up.
I assume its to stop any skeptical viewers suing them on some fanciful grounds for which they can have no real defense..ie the tv company could never prove they really were hearing messages from the dead or whatever so any defence against a law suit which relies on that claim would be difficult to maintain.

The consequence of that however is it creates the impression that any paranormal themed documentary must be pure invention peopled by actors. Which many of them clearly aren't. Whatever witness X really saw they're there on camera reporting it sincerely...it seems.
 
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I think many cases of dreams about other time periods are not memories of reincarnation but have more to do with the nature of time being nonlinear. For example, linear time involves the notions of past, present and future evolving in that sequence. I say that time would be more accurately defined as past, present and future existing simultaneously in the now. Further more, in actuality only the past exists because as soon as you become aware of the present, it is already the past. Some might say, in that case the future doesn't exist either because it has not happened yet. But the future has happened it is just a repetition of the past being that there is nothing new under the sun.
 
Hi Everyone,

This didn't happen to me, rather its something that happened to the brother of a friend of mine.

Last weekend myself and my wife visited a friend of mine for dinner whom we'd not seen for a number of years. In total there were 6 couples there (including his brother and his wife) and after a lovely meal we all retired to the sitting room for coffees. One of the guests (whom I didn't know) shared with us that, as a little girl, her home was haunted and she used to see 2 children in her bedroom who would stand at the end of her bed and wave to her before disappearing. At this point everyone began sharing their experiences of the supernatural with varying degrees of believability.

My friends brother (Martin) then shared with us a very unusual and interesting tale that happened to him 20 odd years ago however the story begins when he was around 3 years old. Apparently in the 1970's him and his parents and brother went to Cornwall for a family holiday. According to his parents, whilst travelling down there on the train going through the Devon countryside Martin had a strange episode where he went into what they described as similar to a trance like state. He stood on the seat of the train staring out of the window without blinking or acknowledging his parents demands for him to sit down. This incident lasted for a few minutes before he gradually 'came round' again. When his Mother asked him what he was doing he said that he was looking for the house where his other family lived because he missed them. The family then went on to have a normal holiday before heading home and then on the return journey the very same thing happened again in the same area as the previous train journey. This time though he said that he wanted to go and see his old Mum and Dad. Martin obviously can't remember this event, however his parents would tell him and tease him about it so this version is obviously only anecdotal based on what his parents told him.

Move forward 20+ years. Martin is living and working in US and leading a normal life, married with kids and working in the insurance industry. Martin was desperately trying to stop smoking around this time and had tried a number of different ways but none were successful. Eventually, he decided that he would try hypnotherapy to help him beat the habit so arranged to see a hypnotist recommended by a friend. At the end of the hypnosis session as Martin was coming round the hypnotist (sorry if that's not the correct term) began telling Martin that during the session he'd begun speaking about his old family in England. The hypnotist probed a little further and Martin began telling him that his family were in Devon in England and that his brother had gone to the war. He was asked what the year was and Martin replied that it was 1915. He asked Martin what his name was but he only replied that he lived "on the farm". The hypnotist then brought him back round to consciousness. Apparently, throughout his life Martin has very occasional and very random flashbacks that last a mere moment where, in his minds eye, he's looking out of the window of a cottage at a lush green rolling hill and a blue sky that are made up of extremely vivid colours and now wonders if they have anything to do with this experience. We asked him if he'd ever thought of having hypnosis again but he's certainly of the opinion that these type of things are best left alone, in fact the following morning he was quite uncomfortable speaking about it again.

I don't know if this is true or not but I think it provides a great example of some of the mysteries of how our minds work.

Hope you enjoyed it!
 
I think that some young children do have these experiences.
I wrote once before about my youngest granddaughter who had a strange reaction when she heard music from one of the music boxes.
My cousin's wife once pointed out an old farmhouse when we were driving that she said her youngest always insisted she used to live in before this life, and the oldest son of one of my friends told her he had belonged to another family but had died.
He also became hysterical one day at school insisting that his father had just died although her husband was still quite alive.
 
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What always puzzles me about past life experiences, is that they very often seem to be based near to the persons current location. Or at least in the same country. Indian children who have been reported to have these experiences say that they were based in India, and, as in this case, an English child has an experience in England.

Is there some sort of formula which keeps plonking us back in the same location, or is it that we only experience the local ones because of familiar sights. If you took a child abroad, would they have a recollection of being a Zulu warrior or an Amazonian princess?
 
What always puzzles me about past life experiences, is that they very often seem to be based near to the persons current location. Or at least in the same country. Indian children who have been reported to have these experiences say that they were based in India, and, as in this case, an English child has an experience in England.

Is there some sort of formula which keeps plonking us back in the same location, or is it that we only experience the local ones because of familiar sights. If you took a child abroad, would they have a recollection of being a Zulu warrior or an Amazonian princess?

Good to see you back, Lutz.

Is what you say strictly true though?

Alleged past lives seem often to have taken place in cultures of which the individuals own culture has knowledge or interactions (plenty of alleged former Romans and Greeks, for instance), although truly alien cultures seldom seem to get a look in: how many modern-day Japanese claim to have been medieval Inuit or Mayan slaves?

I do think a meta-study of the incidence of claims of past lives to determine the incidence by culture and claimed former culture could be extremely revealing, but I can't begin to hope that one already exists.
 
I've been reliving aspects of my life via Time Team (yes, Team, not machine!) I've been watching episodes filmed in places I know, or connected to my other interests.

I recently saw one episode about Syon House, West London, which is close to the hospital where I was born and my first childhood home in Hounslow. But I don't remember being born, and I didn't recognise Syon House or its grounds either!

Last night I watched one about St Osyth in Essex, which is only about a mile as the seagull flies from where I lived in Brightlingsea. But I'm pretty sure I never actually visited St Osyth, although the Essex tidal salt marshes are much the same anywhere you go.

I do much the same with other programs like documentaries, which are more interesting if they're about places or things I know. But I can't say any of them have given me any insights into past lives - I think I may be a 'new soul'.
 
What always puzzles me about past life experiences, is that they very often seem to be based near to the persons current location. Or at least in the same country. Indian children who have been reported to have these experiences say that they were based in India, and, as in this case, an English child has an experience in England.

Is there some sort of formula which keeps plonking us back in the same location, or is it that we only experience the local ones because of familiar sights. If you took a child abroad, would they have a recollection of being a Zulu warrior or an Amazonian princess?

I'm British and during my brief dalliance with self regression I must admit that most of the countries that suggested themselves were mainly European (England, Scotland, France) and only one other - which was India. The two that seemed the most convincing to me were definitely the places I had limited knowledge of - France and India.
 
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