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Were You Famous In A Previous Life?
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.
Christianity has a very different viewpoint of reincarnation, focusing on Christ's resurrection instead. In Hinduism, the soul can inhabit any form, woman, man, even animal. The karma, or deeds of the human being, dictate what the next life will hold for that person.
Several Hindu scriptures talk about past lives reincarnation. Most notable among these is the Bhrigu Sanhita, which supposedly held an accounting of all past and future births for souls then currently living. It's unfortunate, then, that the scripture was lost over time.
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.
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.
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.
Stephenson's collection also includes another popular account of past lives reincarnation, from a young girl named Swarnalata. This little girl was just three years old and vividly remembered her past life as a young woman she called Biya Pathak. The little girl described the house he lived in and took her father to the house one day when they were out. The child went so far as to suggest that she'd lived there, and that they could have a better cup of tea if they went into that house than they could get on the road. The 'clincher' for this case was when the little girl recognized the young woman's brother, and addressed him by his pet name from among 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 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.
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.
Remember The Past To Plan Your Future
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