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Past Life Regression As A Healing Tool
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 from that of Christian theory of reincarnation, which focuses on the resurrection of Christ. It is believed that the soul can take any form, whether man, woman, or animal. The deeds or karma of the human being in the present life are what determines the kind of life that person will have 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.
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 patients under trances or into hypnotic states, however, as many modern day past life regression therapists do. Instead, he simply interviewed children who spontaneously recalled things they had experienced in past lives.
Among the most well-known and puzzling cases was that of a child, a young boy, six years old, from a tiny village in Punjab. This child claimed that he had been Satnam Singh, a man from a village that the boy named as Chakkchela; the boy claimed to have lived there as Satnam Singh, even though he actually had not been there himself. Additionally, the boy could describe Chakkchela in minute detail.
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.
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.
Stevenson's files contain literally dozens of these cases. He also states that it can often happen that a trauma in the last birth can take form in the next life as a birthmark. One subject certainly had this happen to him. He recalled that he was his deceased maternal uncle, and a scar on his head proved to be a match to the knife wound his uncle had died from, also on his uncle's head in the same location.
Another astonishing case was when a little boy claimed to remember a past life in which he had been a man named MahaRam, who had been shot and killed at close range in the chest. And indeed, this young boy had birthmarks on his chest that looked like scars from gunshot wounds.
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.
Use Past Lives Regression To Understand The Past
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