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Is Past Lives Reincarnation Really Important?
One of the philosophies that believes in past lives reincarnation and other births for the soul is the Hindu philosophy. The Hindu philosophy also believes in athma (soul) and karma (deeds). Hindu religious scriptures say that the soul never dies but merely changes body or form, much as one might shed old clothes for new.
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 scriptures in the Hindu religion talk about past lives reincarnation extensively. One of the most notable of these is the Bhrigu Sanhita. This scripture apparently had an accounting for everyone on earth, both for past and future births. However, this 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.
Today, most past life regression therapists use hypnosis or induce trance in subjects to get them to recall past lives. However, Dr. Stevenson didn't do any of these things. Instead, he simply talked to children who spontaneously recalled things that happened to them in their past lives.
Among the most confusing and well known of these involved a young boy who was just six years old at the time. From a tiny village in Punjab, the boy said that he had been a man named Satnam Singh, from the village of Chakkchela, in a past life. He had never been to the man's village, but said the man had lived there and could also recall details from there with amazing clarity.
The family tried to discourage the boy from saying these things, but he nonetheless continued to say that his name was Satnam. He even told others what the man's father's name had been. Further, the boy said that he had been killed in a motorcycle accident as he was heading home from school. This claim was investigated and it was absolutely found that there had been a man named Satnam Singh, and he had been killed precisely as the boy said he had been. The young boy also revealed intimate details about the family, and these also checked out to be accurate. The most amazing part of this was when the handwriting of the young boy and the handwriting of the deceased man were compared, and were found to be absolutely identical.
Another popular account from Stevenson's collection about past lives reincarnation came from a young girl named Swarnalata. This little girl was just three years old, but nonetheless, she could recall her life as a young woman named Biya Pathak very vividly. She described the house she had lived in, and in fact took her father there one day when they were traveling. The child even said that she'd lived there, and that they could get a better cup of tea in that house than they could have if they'd got it on the road. What sealed this case was that the little girl recognized Biya Pathak's brother, and called him by a pet name from among 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 child claimed that he had been a man named MahaRam, who had been killed by close range shots to the chest area. And in fact, the child had birthmarks on his chest that looked like they could have been bullet wound scars.
Many psychiatrists, including Dr. Brian Weiss, the father of modern past life regression, as well as several other prominent authorities on psychiatry and psychology, believe there may be such a thing as rebirth; however, science is still mostly skeptical about it. It's also worth noting, however, that when people undergo past life reduction therapy, they can often get rid of life long fears and phobias after just a few sessions.
Past Lives Reincarnation – Why Should You Remember?
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