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Are My Past Lives Important?
What is past lives reincarnation? It's a theory that says that the soul lives many lives, again and again and again. One of the philosophies that believes in past lives reincarnation is Hinduism, as dictated by common, or deeds, and athma, the soul. The religious scriptures from Hinduism say that the soul can't be destroyed, only that it changes. It lives on, changing form from one body to the next, just as a snake might shed its skin.
Christianity has a very different viewpoint of reincarnation, focusing on Christ's resurrection instead. In Hinduism, the soul can inhabit any form, woman, man, even animal. The karma, or deeds of the human being, dictate what the next life will hold for that person.
Several Hindu scriptures talk very much about past lives reincarnation. Most notable among these is the Bhrigu Sanhita. This scripture apparently had a complete accounting of the future and past births of all souls living; it's unfortunate, then, that the scripture has been lost to the ages.
Dr. Ian Stevenson has the most compelling modern day account of rebirth, as represented in the data he collected. Modern science still pooh-poohs rebirth as a legitimate claim, so it can't be stated that this is the most noted source of scientific information on past lives reincarnation as a theory. However, it's the most famous and is extremely well documented because Dr. Stevenson was a psychiatrist and had a degree in medicine.
Dr. Stevenson didn't put his patients under any kind of hypnosis or trance like state, unlike many modern day pass life regression therapist. Instead, he collected his data entirely from children who spontaneously recalled past life incidents.
Most noted and perplexing among these cases was that of a small child, a boy, six years old, from a small village in Punjab. This child claimed that he had been a man named Satnam Singh; further, he could vividly describe the man's village of Chakkchela, even though the boy had never actually been there.
The family was nonplussed by this, and tried to dissuade the boy from saying such things, but the boy continued to insist that he was Satnam and even told people what the man's father's name had been. The boy described his death by saying that he had been killed in a motorcycle accident as he was coming home from school. The boy's story was investigated, and was found to be absolutely true; indeed, a man named Satnam Singh had been killed in a motorcycle accident on the way home from school. This little boy also revealed very personal details about the family, which also turned out to be true. Most amazingly, though, the handwriting of the young boy and Satnam Singh were compared, and found to be identical.
Another child Stephenson interviewed had a past lives reincarnation account about a young woman. The little girl's name was Swarnalata, and she was just three years old. Nonetheless, she claimed to have been Biya Pathak, a young woman. The child could describe the house the young woman had lived in with very significant clarity, and even took her father to the property when they were traveling back from the railway station in their town one day. She further said that if they were to go to this young woman's house, they could get a far better cup of tea then they could on the road. The 'clincher' in this case happened when the little girl recognized the young woman's brother and addressed him by a pet name, from a group of people numbering nine.
Stephenson's files contain dozens of these types of cases. He further states that when an injury is caused in one life, it can often manifest in the next life in the form of a birthmark, in the same location. As one example, a man from Thailand recalled that he was the reincarnation of his deceased maternal uncle. This man had a scar in the exact location where his uncle had suffered a fatal knife wound, to his head.
Another well-known case of Stevenson's was that of a boy who claimed to be a man called MahaRam in a past life. This man had been killed by close gunshots to the chest, and the boy carried similar scar-like birthmarks on his chest that looked like gunshot wounds.
Many psychiatrists and other eminent authorities in psychology and psychiatry believe in rebirth as a legitimate concept, including Dr. Brian Weiss, who is considered to be the father of past life regression. However, science continues to be very skeptical about it. Nonetheless, it's also worth noting that when many people undergo a few sessions of past life regression therapy, they experience the sudden disappearance of phobias and fears they've had their entire lives.
Past Lives Reincarnation - For A Bright New Future
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