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Hypnosis And Past Lives Reincarnation
Past lives reincarnation is a theory whereby the soul goes through reincarnation and other births; the Hindu religion dictates that this happens because of karma (the deeds one does during one's life) and the soul or athma. Hindu religious scriptures dictate that the soul does not die, and only changes from one form to the next, and just as one might change clothes that have worn out for newer ones.
This is a very different philosophy than that of Christianity, which centers around Christ's resurrection. The Hindus state that the soul can take any form, man, woman or animal. The deeds or karma of a human being in the present, say the Hindus, will determine the life he or she will lead in the next life.
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.
A proponent of modern rebirth has been Dr. Ian Stevenson, who has collected much information on this subject. Science in general still frowns on the concept of rebirth as valid, so it can't be said that modern science supports this collection of 'scientific information' on reincarnation theory. Nonetheless, Stevenson's work is the most famous and well documented, not least because Dr. Stevenson was a psychiatrist with 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.
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 telling people about this, but he continued to claim that he was Satnam; he also gave the name of this man's father. He also said that he had been killed in his past life as he was coming home from school in a motorcycle accident. The boy's claims were investigated and were indeed found to be true, insofar that a man by that name had indeed been killed in a motorcycle accident on the way home from school. The boy was also able to give intimate family details, and these, too, proved to be accurate. What was most notable, though, was that when the man's and the boy's handwriting samples were compared, they were found to be identical.
Stephenson's collection also includes another popular account of past lives reincarnation, from a young girl named Swarnalata. This little girl was just three years old and vividly remembered her past life as a young woman she called Biya Pathak. The little girl described the house he lived in and took her father to the house one day when they were out. The child went so far as to suggest that she'd lived there, and that they could have a better cup of tea if they went into that house than they could get on the road. The 'clincher' for this case was when the little girl recognized the young woman's brother, and addressed him by his pet name from among nine people.
Stevenson's files listed dozens of these types of cases. Further, Stevenson states that when injury happens in one life, it can manifest in the next as a birthmark in the same location as the injury. This was indeed borne out in one of his cases on a man from Thailand, who recalled that he was in fact his own deceased maternal uncle, reincarnated. This man had a scar on his head that matched the location where his maternal uncle had been wounded with a knife and had died as a result.
Another child Stevenson talked to said that he had been a man named MahaRam. This man had been killed by close range gun fire in his chest area. And indeed, the child had birthmarks on his chest that very much looked like bullet wound scars.
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.
Is Past Lives Reincarnation Really Important?
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