Past lives, do you believe?

[Lean'n'mean]

Ok, all well and good but I didn't grow up in a house that had a lot of 40's decor, and as far as I remember I was drawn to the 40's.

Ha ! the things that influence us don't just stem from our home decor, which is fortunate otherwise I'd be stuck in a 60's time warp ......Influences come from everywhere & not just good ones, the bad ones we try to escape from also ultimately, guide us in the way we see the world.. Role models too, have a great influence on what we relate to or don't relate to.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I know for sure that when I die, I'm going to be reincarnated into fertilizer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm reminded of a movie (I think Kevin Costner said this?) where someone asks why when people think they lived past lives, it's always someone famous (or at least, very interesting)?

The woods are full of people who used to be Cleopatra, but rarely do you find someone who used to be the guy who cleaned Cleopatra's stable.

That said, and for the sake of argument, many of the serious studies of "reincarnation stories" have been of people who claimed to have lived exceedingly ordinary past lives. I remember hearing a radio documentary in the 70s called "The Strange Case of Gretchen Gottlieb" or something like that, about a woman who, under hypnosis, related in great detail the story of being a girl living in a small town in Germany in the late 19th Century -- and, according to the story, she did so in actual period German, even though in her conscious state she spoke no German at all. This could very well have been an elaborate hoax -- the seventies were the Golden Age of the "pop paranormal" -- but at the time it seemed much more convincing than the usual "I was Napoleon" type of thing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I know for sure that when I die, I'm going to be reincarnated into fertilizer.

I'm going to be stuffed and mounted, like Lenin.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Plant a young tree over me.

 

[p51]

I'm going to be stuffed and mounted, like Lenin.

My brother, who used to be a big hunter, always said he wanted to be tied to a tree when he croaked so the animals could have dinner.
Sure beats the expense of a funeral.

"I'll tell ya, country clubs and cemeteries are the biggest wasters of prime real estate."
-Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czervik in 'Caddyshack'​

 

[staggerwing]

I'm a believer. Look for a book titled Soul Survivor if you want an interesting read. It's about a child who remembered is past life as a USN pilot in the Pacific during WWII. He was able to recall details so thoroughly, that not only were his surviving shipmates convinced he was genuine, so was the still living sister of the deceased pilot he claimed to be.

In my own life, I have a vivid "memory" for lack of a better term, of an event that could not have happened in my lifetime. I described it to my wife in vivid detail. She's pretty supportive but was non-committal in her acceptance of it as a past life memory. Then one day, I walked in when she was watching the television, almost in trance with the color drained from her face. "What's wrong," I asked. She said, "I just saw you on the History channel."

"What do you mean?" I asked. She went on to explain she just saw some old film depicting exactly the event I described. Yes, it was the WWII era. No, I wasn't anybody special...or even on the winning side!

 

[rue]

My mother who doesn't believe at all in reincarnation once said that I almost made her change her mind when I was a little girl, starting around the age of 2 or 3, because I wanted to dress like it was the 1800s, even though I'd never been around anything that would have given me the idea. Even when I started learning how to draw, I drew pictures of men and women in period clothing. When I saw Gone with the Wind for the first time, around the age of 7 or 8, the clothes seemed more normal to me than the 1970s fashions of the time. Of course, looking back, can you blame me?

As far as the 1930s through 1950s clothing that I wear now, the music I listen to, and the way I prefer to live and decorate... I believe it's a direct influence of my grandparents. But you never know

 

[ChiTownScion]

I lean toward it all being nonsense- like 99.9% of organized religion.

But I suppose if I actually did have a former life, the clue might lie in my aversion to bitter cold. A anonymous company level officer trying to keep my men alive during a brutal and unrelenting Russian winter? Perhaps German in 1941-42, perhaps part of Napoleon's Grand Armee? No food, little armament, pitiful clothing and medicines.. and dealing with the inertia of indifferent careerist higher- ups. And eventually dying of starvation and exposure.

Stuff and nonsense, no doubt... but at least it doesn't wallow in the delusional grandeur of being a prince, potentate, or some other such silly crap.

 

[ButteMT61]

^^^over the "no fly zone" there @ChiTownScion...

 

[Rudie]

Being a professional hypnotherapist I came to believe in reincarnation. When working with regression to cause you regularly have clients who spontaneously snap into past lives. Often these people do not believe in reincarnation at all prior to their past life regression or haven't even heard of the concept. Scientific research by Ian Stevenson done with children who have memories of past lives points to reincarnation as the most plausible explanation. Obviously, there is no definite proof, though. There are numerous reports all over the world where children remembered and recognized people, places and incidents of previous lives that could be verified as true; children being able to speak very rare or even extinct languages from other ages and cultures. Very interesting work was done by hypnotist Michael Newton - who started out as a sceptic and disbeliever - about the doings of the soul in the life between lives. The interesting thing is that regardless of religion and belief systems people who enter the life between lives during a spiritual hypnosis session tend to receive very similar information, and in great detail. Christians, jews, muslims, atheists, hindus all experiencing the afterlife in a similar fashion, without having received any leading suggestions how they were going to experience it.

 

[Blackjack]

My mother who doesn't believe at all in reincarnation once said that I almost made her change her mind when I was a little girl, starting around the age of 2 or 3, because I wanted to dress like it was the 1800s, even though I'd never been around anything that would have given me the idea. Even when I started learning how to draw, I drew pictures of men and women in period clothing. When I saw Gone with the Wind for the first time, around the age of 7 or 8, the clothes seemed more normal to me than the 1970s fashions of the time. Of course, looking back, can you blame me?

As far as the 1930s through 1950s clothing that I wear now, the music I listen to, and the way I prefer to live and decorate... I believe it's a direct influence of my grandparents. But you never know

See thats funny because when I was little thats how I was, without the 1800's petticoats of course. maybe it's like Lizzy says and it's just which shoe is more comfortable, or maybe it's something else. I have heard of stories where kids, little kids describe things they couldn't possibly know anything about. So whats the answer? Personally I'm totally open to whatever.

 

[Rudie]

Nope. I don't buy into it, at all.
I think it's from an inherent need among humans to want something else to happen to them once they die, other than just fading to black.
I'm reminded of a movie (I think Kevin Costner said this?) where someone asks why when people think they lived past lives, it's always someone famous (or at least, very interesting)?

Actually, when people spontaneously snap into a past life during a hypnosis session they are almost never somebody famous or very important. They may consciously think they used to be Cleopatra but in hypnosis they are usually a peasant or merchant or something. Normal people leading normal lives. It may be different with recreational hypnosis, when people specifically do past life regression sessions to find out who they were. I tend to believe that those sessions don't yield much reliable information as the subconscious mind could very well just make something up to play along. But when spontaneously regressing to a past life the past life always has some connection to the presenting problem. In those cases they are never famous or important people. At least my clients haven't been so far.

 

[Blackjack]

An interesting movie from the 70's based on the book by Max Erlich of a man who goes to find the town that has been in his dreams where he was murdered in a lake 40 years before.

 

[Redshoes51]

I'm reminded of a movie (I think Kevin Costner said this?) where someone asks why when people think they lived past lives, it's always someone famous (or at least, very interesting)?

I tend to lean towards believing in it... and I actually believe I am the reincarnation of my paternal Grandmother... who died long before I was born...

Someone alluded to it earlier in one of their posts... the possibility of DNA Memory... I remember a great memory of having been at Mount Rushmore... a great, vivid memory... I asked my Mom one day when it was that we went there... and she told me, 'we've never been there...'

but my memories are strong... so strong... I do believe I was there...

Death... much like Space Travel... is the next great Frontier...

~shoes~

 

[Smithy]

What a fascinating question. I was brought up C of E so without the concept of reincarnation. But for me personally over the years I've loved the idea that if there is an eternal soul, the Buddhist idea that you have to keep coming back until you get it right makes wonderful sense. Maybe when you're snuffed out that's it, but I'd like to think that if that's not the case then you have to labour around to get it right. I also like to imagine that people like Hitler, Stalin and some of my old bosses have got a lot of work to do.

 

[ButteMT61]

One thing's certain, if we were here before and learn from our mistakes, I certainly have only had one very short prior life...

 

[p51]

I remember a great memory of having been at Mount Rushmore... a great, vivid memory... I asked my Mom one day when it was that we went there... and she told me, 'we've never been there...'

I had memories of Europe in WW2, very clear, I could even draw you a map of a village I could see in my mind as a small child.
I wondered why this was as I never crossed the pond until I was 18.
Then, in my teens, I saw the movie, "Kelly's Heroes," and the village matched my memories exactly. I later found that I'd seen the movie in a theater as a very small kid (not in the first run) and for some reason, I remembered the visuals very clearly.
Just saying, with movies it's so very easy to recall visuals from a place you're never been to...

 

[Blackjack]

What a fascinating question. I was brought up C of E so without the concept of reincarnation. But for me personally over the years I've loved the idea that if there is an eternal soul, the Buddhist idea that you have to keep coming back until you get it right makes wonderful sense. Maybe when you're snuffed out that's it, but I'd like to think that if that's not the case then you have to labour around to get it right. I also like to imagine that people like Hitler, Stalin and some of my old bosses have got a lot of work to do.

Hahahaha

 

[sheeplady]

If reincarnation exists, my daughter is an old soul, wise beyond her years. She's been here many times before.

I, on the other hand, got to have another couple runs at this given the life lessons I've been given.