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Are My Problems Really Caused By My Previous Life?
Past lives reincarnation theorizes that the soul goes through other lives and other births; Hinduism is one such philosophy focuses on past lives reincarnation, dictated by athma, the soul, and karma, or deeds. Hindu religious scriptures state that the soul cannot be destroyed, and therefore lives on, changing form from one body to the next just as we might shed old clothes for new once the old ones have worn out.
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 about past lives reincarnation. Most notable among these is the Bhrigu Sanhita, which supposedly held an accounting of all past and future births for souls then currently living. It's unfortunate, then, that the scripture was lost over time.
One of the most compelling past lives reincarnation experts on rebirth is Dr. Ian Stevenson. His data is famous and compelling because he had a background in modern medicine; he held a degree in medicine, and was a psychiatrist. This is especially notable considering that modern science discounts rebirth as a legitimate claim. Therefore, it can't be stated that this is the most notable source of scientific information on reincarnation is theory, just the most famous and well documented.
Today, most therapists who use past life regression induce trances in subjects or use hypnosis to get them to recall past lives. Dr. Stevenson did not do that, however. He simply talked to children who could spontaneously recall events from their own past lives.
Among the most famous and puzzling of these cases was that of a small boy, six years old, who came from a small village in Punjab. The little boy claimed that he had been a man named Satnam Singh in a past life, and could even minutely described the man's village of of Chakkchela; that was true even though the child had never been there.
The family tried to dissuade the boy from making these claims, but he nonetheless continue to do so. He even revealed the name of Satnam's father. The boy claimed that he, Satnam, had been killed in a motorcycle accident when he was on his way home from school. This claim was investigated, and it was indeed found that the man had been killed in just the way the young boy described. He also revealed other intimate details about the family, but the most startling aspect of his reincarnation claims was that when the young boy's and Satnam Singh's handwriting was compared, it was found to be identical.
Stevenson's data also contains another startling case, that of little girl who was just three years old; she was named Swarnalata, but recalled being a young woman named Biya Pathak in a past life. She could minutely recall this young woman's home, and in fact showed it to her father when they were traveling one day. Further, she said that she had lived in the area and that they could get a better cup of tea in her house than they could on the road. Her recollections were completely validated when she recognized the young woman's brother, and addressed him by a pet name the young woman had called him, from a group of nine people.
Stevenson lists dozens of these cases in his data, and also states that in some cases, when there has been a physical trauma in the last life, it can manifest in the form of a birthmark in the next life. A man from Thailand seemed to illustrate this; he recollected that he was his own deceased maternal uncle, reincarnated. And indeed, this man had a scar on his head that was located in the exact same place as a knife wound his uncle had died from.
Another young boy claimed to remember a past life as a man named MahaRam. This man had been killed by close contact gunfire to the chest, and the boy had several birthmarks on his chest that looked like gunshot wound scars.
Dr. Brian Weiss, who is the father of modern past lives reincarnation theory, is one of the more prominent authorities on the subject; he and other colleagues in psychiatry and psychology believed that there may be such a thing as rebirth. Even so, science itself is still skeptical. It should be noted, however, that if people undergo past lives regression therapy, they can often rid themselves of phobias and fears in just a few sessions.
Past Lives Reincarnation And A New Understanding
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