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Remember Your Past, Enjoy Your Present
For those who believe in past lives reincarnation, they believe that the soul goes through reincarnation and other births life after life. Among those who believe in this are those who practice the Hindu religion. The Hindu religion states that reincarnation happens because of the soul or athma, and because of karma, or the deeds one does during one's life. Hindu scriptures state that the soul doesn't die, and only can change from one form to the next; this is similar, for example, to the way one might simply shed old clothes for new.
This is very different from Christianity's view of reincarnation, which focuses on Christ's resurrection. The Hindus state that the soul can inhabit any form, man, woman or animal. The deeds or karma of a human being in one life dictate what's going to be his or her life in the next.
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 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.
Most noted and perplexing among these cases was that of a small child, a boy, six years old, from a small village in Punjab. This child claimed that he had been a man named Satnam Singh; further, he could vividly describe the man's village of Chakkchela, even though the boy had never actually 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.
Stevenson's work records dozens of incidents like these. Stevenson further states that if one is injured in a past life, the injury can manifest in the next life as a birthmark. This was indeed found to be true for one case that involved a man from Thailand; this man said that he was in fact his own now-dead uncle (his mother's brother) and had been reincarnated. The man bore a scar on his head that matched the location where his uncle had sustained a fatal wound from a knife.
Another young boy claimed to remember a past life as a man named MahaRam. This man had been killed by close contact gunfire to the chest, and the boy had several birthmarks on his chest that looked like gunshot wound scars.
Many psychiatrists and other eminent authorities in psychology and psychiatry believe in rebirth as a legitimate concept, including Dr. Brian Weiss, who is considered to be the father of past life regression. However, science continues to be very skeptical about it. Nonetheless, it's also worth noting that when many people undergo a few sessions of past life regression therapy, they experience the sudden disappearance of phobias and fears they've had their entire lives.
Past Lives Reincarnation And Who You Really Are
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