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Past Lives - Why put Yourself Through it Again?
What is past lives reincarnation? It's a theory that says that the soul lives many lives, again and again and again. One of the philosophies that believes in past lives reincarnation is Hinduism, as dictated by common, or deeds, and athma, the soul. The religious scriptures from Hinduism say that the soul can't be destroyed, only that it changes. It lives on, changing form from one body to the next, just as a snake might shed its skin.
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 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.
Unlike today's past life regression therapists, though, Dr. Stevenson didn't put his patients into trance or hypnotize them. Instead, he interviewed children who had spontaneous recollections of the incidents they experienced in their 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'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 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.
The Truth About Past Lives Reincarnation
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