Have I been here before...?

Hello, non-existent readers!

A topic I've been pondering about (again) recently is that of reincarnation. Rather than my usual "here are some facts, the proof of which being these random people's websites" post, I am just going to muse about the subject.

I have had a few "past life memories". A few come from dreams - one that sticks in my mind is a dream I had when I was about 10. I was watching the scene on a television, but some oriental girl (a princess? or someone less prestigious) had to walk up some stairs - inside a narrow building with big blocks, like the inside of a castle. Scary-looking men stood and watched her walk up, they had strange white make-up on their faces and what looked like Chinese or Japanese dress. It was old, I'm sure, about 1200... there were snakes near the top of the stairs, around the sides, and at the top she put her head on a guillotine. I remember horrible blood on her porcelain white face, and I tried to turn the TV off, unplug it, even leave the room, but I couldn't. For years I thought that perhaps I was that girl, but from the perspective perhaps I was one of the guards, forced to watch and stand aside while an innocent(?) girl was executed.

Another was one I had at a past life regression workshop - just a vague imagination, but one that I wasn't controlling. I was a small girl, about 5, carrying around a very ragged doll with me. I seemed to be in a rural village, like Wales, and the year 1872 flashed for me. I went into my house, where I saw a woman (my mum) and a man who wasn't my dad, but her friend (I just knew). The house was very basic and poor, with a kitchen/dining room and a big bedroom. When asked to look around the place, I saw a big, black, looming village hall which filled me with dread, and a big forest in which we weren't allowed to go. As I walked away from the village I felt quite sad, but relieved.

And the other night - when I realised that I was dreaming, I decided to make the most of it and "visit past lives". Briefly, I was a school boy (in Greece?), quite young, but my entire class of boys and I decided to gang rape the teacher (a young girl)!!! It was horrible, but kind of not that rare apparently, but I felt lots of guilt. Then I jumped into another life... I asked to see my first life but this seemed to be my latest. I was an overweight, unhealthy businessman, in danger of having a heart attack. I had a wife and two daughters, one a baby and one about 5, and the house looked as if it was from the 60's. I fast-forwarded 10 years, saw my daughters older and the house re-done, but somehow ended up having an affair with one of my daughter's friends (uwww)... quite vivid... 5 years later I wake up in a shitty little flat, top floor over a dirty city with some skanky woman... stumble out of bed to "work" in the same building - it looks amazing, until I realise I'm the toilet cleaner, and in charge of the tropical fish tanks... my manager also hates me, and I've thrown away my life for a brief fling.

Now, I realise that all of these could have been simply dreams, fantasies, imagination, symbology or distorted actual memories. In a way, I find the idea of past lives quite fluffy, and lacking in evidence. The skeptic part of me tells me that past lives are a fantasy created from our fear of death... in the same way that any afterlife myth exists. It's a way for us to cope with how short and meaningless our lives are. The reported experiences are often fantasy - somebody with a specific pain or scar will manufacture a story to fit with it, some "explanation" for why they are the way they are. People underestimate the power of the imagination... I mean, if you write, or create characters when acting, then you are capable of creating an imaginary life... or does it mean that every character I dream up is in fact a past version of myself? I don't think so. We are capable of great fabrication and imagery, and shouldn't attribute everything to something more mystical like a past life memory or a message from spirits. Your mind is an amazing, powerful tool. Then again, what if what we are doing is tapping to the universal consciousness - not viewing a life that WE have lived but just picking up on some memory, some ghost or echo - chosen randomly or perhaps the memory of a passing spirit? Some beliefs state that we are all One and the same, God's mind etc, so surely we have been and will be EVERYONE, regardless of a time continuum - I've even considered deja vú to be when we meet someone that we have already been, rather than someone we knew in a past life!

However, I too want to believe in past lives. Why? Am I afraid of becoming nothing once my physical body dies? You bet. I'll admit this. But... can matter be created or destroyed? If our soul does exist and has a physical presence, then something must happen to those atoms once we die... unless they simply disband and become one with the universe, in which case little parts of us will end up in some way reincarnating. Alternatively, they stay together and try to find a new home. Perhaps all the lost souls are just waiting until they can reincarnate again - maybe they have a time limit or wait to find a suitable host? ... reincarnation is a very popular theory across cultures, so you do have to wonder about why. As for "memories" later being proved to match up with facts, I think media sensationalism and confirmation bias are guilty parties in a lot of cases. Ie everything remembered which doesn't turn out to be true is ignored. I did go to a workshop on regression once, though, and we were told some amazing stories of "memories" which turned out to be based on subconsciously learned things. However, the therapist admitted that some cases do seem to be genuine, although when people start rattling on about how they were a princess or famous figure he rolls his eyes and thinks "you too, huh?"... "Scientifically there is no proof for past lives" - well. No. There is nothing in pre-existing scientific theory (as far as I know) which can be used to come up with a valid explanation, nor is there a fool proof way to test it. But if you take the scientific METHOD - proposing a hypothesis, testing it, analysing the data... well, case studies and qualitative data are valid forms of scientific data (in the social sciences, anyway, psychology IS a science!!!) - so the cases in which people have accurately described times, places and people that they never could have known are case studies into the theory of reincarnation. Sure, there is no way we can build a soul-detecting time machine to prove whether they were just very lucky or possibly read some historical records once and forgot about it, but the "facts" that they somehow knew are there... surely this is in some way scientific? People really need to stop seeing science as their new religion. The scientific method is so far the best way to prove or disprove things, but scientific THEORY is not gospel; as you know from history, things that are held as truth can later be proved wrong.

Whew. So, also, let's have a look at some of the things out there on past lives. I'm currently reading Same Soul, Many Bodies by Brian Weiss. This here blog discusses some of the evidence - http://eteponge.blogspot.com/2007/09/reincarnation-examination.html. Dr Ian Stevenson's life work was to scientifically prove reincarnation using the memories of young children - who supposedly remember their past lives before they're convinced by society that this isn't right... From a Hare Krishna site (odd source, I know) - here's a reincarnation FAQ. I'm sure there are other, better ones somewhere, but many of the ones I found were very biased and discussed reincarnation as hard fact rather than theory. If you're interested in being regressed by a past life regression therapist (a lot of Hypnotists do this anyway) then have a look here - you can even train to become one, if you wish!! And, just for fun, find out what animal you were in a past life here ...

Feel free to comment with your own experiences!!!


References:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Same-Soul-Bodies-Brian-Weiss/dp/0749925418
http://www.brianweiss.com/
http://eteponge.blogspot.com/2007/09/reincarnation-examination.html.
http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-proof.htm.
http://science.krishna.org/Articles/2003/12/001.html
http://www.reincarnationstation.com/
http://www.pastliferegression.co.uk/database.htm