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Is There Such a Thing As 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 differs greatly from Christianity, which has as its focus Christ's resurrection. The Hindus state that the soul can take any form, whether man, woman or animal. The deeds one does in one's present life, or karma, will dictate what happens to someone in the next life.
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.
Most compellingly, Dr. Ian Stevenson was a modern day believer in past lives reincarnation; he amassed a collection of data that is the most famous and well-documented data of its kind. It can't be said that it's the most respected source of scientific information on reincarnation theory, since modern science still discounts rebirth claims, but it is nonetheless so well known because Dr. Stevenson had a degree in medicine and was a psychiatrist.
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 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.
Another startling case from Stevenson's files involved that of a young girl, three years old, named Swarnalata. This child remembered that she had been a young woman named Biya Pathak, and could vividly described the house that she lived in. In fact, when she and her father were traveling one day, she led her father directly to the property and even said that she had lived in the area; further, she said that they could get a better cup of tea in that house than they could on the road. Her recollections were completely validated, however, when the little girl recognized the young woman's brother, and addressed him by a pet name the young woman had had for him, from a group of nine people.
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 case from Stevenson's files was very astonishing as well; with that, a little boy claimed that he was a man named MahaRam; MahaRam had been shot and killed at very close range, in the chest. What was amazing was that this young boy displayed birthmarks on his chest that looked like gunshot wound scars.
The 'father' of modern past life regression, Dr. Brian Weiss, supports the concept of rebirth as a plausible one, and so do many other prominent authorities in the field of psychology and psychiatry. Even so, science itself remains very skeptical about the concept of past life rebirth. It's also true, however, that people who have past life regression therapy often suddenly are rid of phobias and fears they've had their entire lives.
Help Yourself By Revisiting Your Past.
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