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Who Were You In The Past?
One of the philosophies that believes in past lives reincarnation and other births for the soul is the Hindu philosophy. The Hindu philosophy also believes in athma (soul) and karma (deeds). Hindu religious scriptures say that the soul never dies but merely changes body or form, much as one might shed old clothes for new.
This differs greatly from Christianity, which has as its focus Christ's resurrection. The Hindus state that the soul can take any form, whether man, woman or animal. The deeds one does in one's present life, or karma, will dictate what happens to someone 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.
In regard to modern-day reincarnation theory, Dr. Ian Stevenson has collected some compelling data. Even though modern science scoffs at the idea of past lives reincarnation, Dr. Stevenson believed in it. Therefore, although it can't be said that his data is the most respected scientific data on the theory, it's very famous and his cases are very well documented because Dr. Stevenson held a degree in medicine and was a psychiatrist.
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 confusing and well known of these involved a young boy who was just six years old at the time. From a tiny village in Punjab, the boy said that he had been a man named Satnam Singh, from the village of Chakkchela, in a past life. He had never been to the man's village, but said the man had lived there and could also recall details from there with amazing clarity.
The boy's family tried to dissuade him from making such statements, but he continued to claim that his name was Satnam, even going so far as to reveal the name of the man's father. As Satnam, he said that he had been killed while coming home from school on his motorcycle. This claim was investigated and was indeed found to be true, that a man named Satnam Singh had indeed been killed thusly. The boy also revealed other intimate details about the man's family that checked out to be true. The final proof was when the man's handwriting was compared to the young boy's, and they proved identical.
Another child Stephenson interviewed had a past lives reincarnation account about a young woman. The little girl's name was Swarnalata, and she was just three years old. Nonetheless, she claimed to have been Biya Pathak, a young woman. The child could describe the house the young woman had lived in with very significant clarity, and even took her father to the property when they were traveling back from the railway station in their town one day. She further said that if they were to go to this young woman's house, they could get a far better cup of tea then they could on the road. The 'clincher' in this case happened when the little girl recognized the young woman's brother and addressed him by a pet name, from a group of people numbering nine.
Stevenson's files are filled with these cases, dozens of them. Stevenson also asserted that if a physical trauma has taken place in the last life, it can show up in the next as a birthmark. Indeed, one subject said that this had happened to him. He said he was his own deceased uncle, on his mother's side; the subject had a scar on his head that matched a knife wound his uncle had had in the same location, the wound his uncle had died from.
Another child claimed that he had been a man named MahaRam, who had been killed by close range shots to the chest area. And in fact, the child had birthmarks on his chest that looked like they could have been bullet wound scars.
Many psychiatrists and psychologists, as well as of eminent authorities, believe that past life regression is indeed plausible. Among them, Dr. Brian Weiss is considered to be the father of past life regression. Even though science remains skeptical about it, it's also worth noting that many people experience a complete disappearance of fears and phobias they've carried their entire lives after they've undergone several sessions of past life regression therapy.
Why You Should Live Your Life In The Past
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