Ok, 

So this thread is dedicated to discerning past lives vs. a connection to something bigger.  With remote viewing, sometimes the viewer looks out of someone else's eyes, so to speak, although they are not that person.  At times, in deep meditation we can connect with everything.  All that is, and that should include different story lines, lives lived and lives yet to be.

I'd like to hear from those convinced that they know their past lives.  How do you know it is you - or do you just know?  If our individuality is what is called Maya or illusion in the far east, then isn't the key understanding that we are all one?  Could it be that for the development of your own soul/progress you are seeing a different life so intimately that you claim it truly was you back then?  Not that it would matter as far as the lesson you currently learn from it.

I think this is a very important distinction.  I have heard it said on this board that certain mystics, Sweedenberg, etc. did not believe in reincarnation, but more a close association of another spirit with one's own. 

So what about it?  For those of you put in touch with past lives - let us know.

Thanks,

Matthew 

The fact that Sweedenborg doesn't  believe in reincarnation, but does believe in things such as two negative guides being assigned to each soul, says something about him.

Personally, I don't have any verifiable experience with past lives, but the sources of information I believe to be most credible, state that reincarnation does exist.

Plus the principle of reincarnation makes sense, because it provides a way for souls to evolve.

Also, I'm able to understand how it's possible.

Some people contend that it doesn't exist, because all of time happens instantaneously. This viewpoint mixes up levels of reality. Consider the following:

You live in San Francisco, and you want to send a bottle of magic potion to a friend who lives in Japan. Time isn't important, so you take a patient approach. You wrap the bottle carefully in a box, and on Monday drive it to your local Federal Express office. On Tuesday Federal Express loads it on a truck, and drives it to the airport. On Wednesday, the package gets loaded on an airplane, and is flown to Japan. On Thursday, Federal Express picks it up from the airport, loads it on a large truck, and then delivers it to a Federal Express wharehouse.  On Friday, the package is loaded onto a small delivery truck, and then is delivered to your friend.

Each day of the delivery process represents an incarnation, because each time the bottle of magic potion was contained within a different vehicle.  A person who advocates the instanteneous incarnation argument might contend that different bottles of magic potion existed during the different incarnations. It is only because of their connection that they seem like the same bottle. But is this true? Or was the same bottle of potion passed along from delivery vehicle to dellivery vehicle?

Or another way to look at this, isn't it possible that an individual parcel of consciousness has the ability to focus its attention on different realms of existence, different locations in space, and different periods of time, while always remaining the same consciousness it is? Perhaps it is only that which is perceived, including misidentifications, that change.

Perhaps I should put it this way.

The consciousness that each individual is, has the freedom to experience different realms of existence, including different bodily incarnations.  Some people try to dispute this by saying that since all of time happens instantaneously, there are different parcels of consciousness in each moment of time. Right now I feel like I'm experiencing my existence through the same consciousness through which I experienced it 5 minutes ago. It would be a mistake to contend that a different parcel of consciousness existed 5 minutes ago, simply because the instantaneous nature of time requires that independent parcels of consciousness exist at each moment.




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thats funny poem Dave   nothing like pain to awaken one to the "now" moment.

doc, I get it. can only relate my telling my own subjective experiences along this line to explain my belief, so like to share. might be futile to increase understanding..still, it aint over till the fat lady sings...lol.....ahem. In peeks at a past life, just one so far, I was doing a dirty deed...   but I thought I was right. don't we all?  It was I because it felt like me, but it was a self that was a little "less" evolved than the self I know myself to be today. for one thing this other self was too impulsive and reactive. I just had to forgive her, as she was trying to help someone else by what she did...also the glimpse would support the thesis of reincarnation being true.

but you are saying the someone has told you each life is a new consciousness...I say it is a mix of new and old; best way I know how to put it. For if the memory is wiped out upon incarnation, then all things do indeed become as new experience...and new consciousness is generated as well with new experiences.

getting back previous memories (look at our language, we do not have a language for concepts of All-Time)
but I must use the word previous to communicate ideas. If we have a need to understand a problem we currently have, sometimes a previous life will be shown. this particular life glimpse I was shown so I could bring closure to a certain relationship. once it was accomplished, with the glimpse as an aid, the past life , and the relationship in question was no longer important to reflect on. Yup....it was me all right. it totally reflected all the current dynamics of the relationship. sure glad I don't have to repeat that pattern. I think we are always renewing ourselves, each new day by what we choose to dwell on. even Jesus said you must be reborn.

love, alysia

Hi all,

Some neat stuff to ponder here on this thread.  All I can offer is my own personal experience.  What I gathered from it was that I was being shown one of my past lives.  How did I know it was one of mine and not just someone else?  I only know it because I felt it with every fiber of my being.  So I can't explain it or prove it, can only report it.  (This is long, sorry).

I was dreaming a regular dream when someone walked into my dream, at first playing along so as to fit in.  But then he began asking me questions that didn't fit, and it felt like he was prying for information or trying to get me to remember something.  He said, "It's been a long time for you, Vicky.  You've come a long way." And then he showed me a scene as it began to open up.  Suddenly I was pulled from the regular dream setting into another scene altogether and I was instantly fully consciously awake.  This was not like my usual "lucid dreams" because I had absolutly no control over anything.  When I got pulled into the scene, I found myself fastened to a pole with my hands behind my back.  I was moving swiftly over a plains area, with mountains far, far in the distance. 

I felt intense fear for an unknown reason, and I kept saying that this is only a dream and I want to wake now.  But I could not wake myself up.  I tried to change something, anything but nothing would change.  Nothing wavered as like in lucid dreams, and I didn't have to try to hold conscious awareness as in lucid dreams.  As I realized I had no control over this very real feeling lucid dream, I got increasingly scared because I thought that possibly this was not just a lucid dream but something that was actually happening to me now at that moment.  All I could rationalize was that because of my full conscious awareness, that told me I was either awake, dreaming, or having an out of body experience. 

So what happened was, as I was swiftly moving forward over this plains area, I could look down and see the ground moving beneath me and I could look forward and see where I was headed.  Far in front of me was a man standing holding a staff in one hand with and ankh symbol on top of it, and he wore an ankh necklace.  He wore a robe with a hood on it, I believe it was white with yellow or gold.  I can still remember his face, an older man with a white beard, who looked like he was absolutely filled with anger and hatred for me.  He was standing at the edge of a cliff and I was pulled directly up to him until we were face to face, and then I was pulled to the side and swung around to where I was now overlooking a village, all while still fastened to the post.  I could see the dwellings below me and when I looked at one in particular I suddenly thought to myself, "I died down there."  And then thought, "When I was Diana I died down there.  I don't want to die again, I'm not Diana anymore.  I shouldn't have to go through this again!"  I was terrified at thinking all this.  And suddenly the whole entire experience replayed itself precisely over again.  And this time I was even more terrified because I couldn't understand why I had to see it again.  I wondered how long it would continue, why was that man so angry at me when I was Vicky now and not this Diana person anymore?  And if this event had already taken place in the past, why did I have to re-live it again now?  When I saw the place where I knew I had died before, I thought to myself "I won't die for her, not now.  I am not Diana anymore". 

That is all I remember.  The whole experience was complete terror.  I don't know any more than that.  So I wonder why I was shown this.  Nothing else like this has ever happened.  (This was back in college when I was probably about 21 or so).

You know how real lucid dreams can feel?  Well this was more real than that, about a hundred times more real. 

Spooky's right. you can work on this for awhile and get some ideas. sounds like witch buring scenario to me. you may have threatened the church elders by having one too many visions....to me, going back to scenes like this is exactly like retrievals, where you bring the other directly into the light of understanding. so would be "retreiving Diana" these selves need our love, as the love was not given back then, we the only ones can love ourselves then. question: what is ankh?

thanks Spooky. doesn't ring any bells for me that symbol..maybe it do for Vicky?

  The Ankh represents Spirit--the circle being part of matter--the cross, which represents the 4 directions and elements.  But the circle is above matter, so Spirit transcends Matter.  So in a way, the Ankh is a symbol of the Soul, since Soul partakes of and is from Spirit-the Source and experiences Matter--which is a twisted reflection of and the lowest vibratory rate of Spirit.

  Its one of the oldest symbols for regeneration and rebirth.

  Vicky, your experience sounds like it must have been later Egypt--if it was even in there...their knowledge and how they lived had degraded severely from its earlier days.  The Priests of Egypt eventually became like every other religious institution...a way of power over others.