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Past Lives Reincarnation - A New Understanding
Past lives reincarnation is a theory dictated by the Hindu philosophy of athma, or soul, and karma, or deeds. With this, the soul goes through past lives reincarnation and other births, because it is indestructible and cannot be destroyed. Instead, it only changes form from one life to the next, much as you might change outfits once one has outlived its usefulness.
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.
There are several Hindu scriptures that talk about past life reincarnations. Most notably is the Bhrigu Sanhita, a scripture that supposedly held an accounting of all future and past births for current souls living. Unfortunately, this scripture no longer exists, and has been lost to time.
Most compellingly, Dr. Ian Stevenson has collected modern rebirth data. Although scientists still frown on the claims of rebirth, such that it cannot be said that modern science respects so-called 'scientific information' on reincarnation theory, Stevenson's work is the most well-documented and famous; not least, that was because Dr. Stevenson had a degree in medicine and was a psychiatrist.
Dr. Stevenson didn't put his patients under trance or induce hypnosis, as many past life regression therapists now do. Instead, he simply talked to children who had spontaneous recollections of incidents that had happened in their past lives.
One of the most puzzling and well-known cases involved a young boy who was six years old, and who lived in a tiny village in Punjab. The boy claimed to have been Satnam Singh, and he claimed to have lived in a village named Chakkchela. This is of note because the young boy had never been to Chakkchela, yet could describe it with astonishing accuracy and clarity.
The family was nonplussed by this, and tried to dissuade the boy from saying such things, but the boy continued to insist that he was Satnam and even told people what the man's father's name had been. The boy described his death by saying that he had been killed in a motorcycle accident as he was coming home from school. The boy's story was investigated, and was found to be absolutely true; indeed, a man named Satnam Singh had been killed in a motorcycle accident on the way home from school. This little boy also revealed very personal details about the family, which also turned out to be true. Most amazingly, though, the handwriting of the young boy and Satnam Singh were compared, and 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 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 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.
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 – Remembering the Past
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