Reincarnation and Learning From Past Lives
by Curt Remington
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Do we have past lives?
In performing psychic readings, I’ve viewed past lives from the caveman era, ancient civilizations, medievel Europe to 1970’s Boston. Looking at these lives has made it clear to me that we reincarnate countless times, working on many lessons. What would the alternative be? If we had only one life, we might spend it rich or poor, healthy or crippled, happy or miserable. Talk about the luck of the draw. With an eternity ahead of us, it makes far more sense that we’d experience and learn from all of these conditions. It also seems logical that we’d get lots of chances to “get it right.”
Last Saturday, there were hundreds of other people in Seattle that also believe in reincarnation. We all attended a fascinating past life regression workshop with Dr Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist, author and specialist in hypnotherapy. After the first group hypnosis exercise, 2/3 of the audience raised their hand to indicate they’d seen images from a previous lifetime. Along with more great exercises, Dr Weiss shared stories of people who’ve recalled visions of a prior life, then visited a place and found the details were just as they had seen them.
My clairvoyant training provided plenty of validating experiences. We looked at many lives for ourselves and each other. Occasionally, someone would give me specifics of a life that I had already seen for myself, with far too much detail to be coincidence. I’ve also seen boats or clothing, then gone to the internet and found that people really dressed like that in Morocco or used boats like that in Egypt around 2000 BC.
What can we learn from our past lives?
As a psychotherapist, Brian Weiss uses past-life regression to help people release health or emotional problems that are troubling them in this life. For instance, someone with severe claustrophobia may see themself buried alive in a tomb in ancient Egypt. Once they recognize where their fear originated, they can then quit worrying in this life.
For me, seeing many past lives, and how they fit together, has given me insight into the lessons I’m working on and why. At the workshop, I saw myself in buckskins with a muzzle loader, making my way home through woods, roughly 250 years ago. I came to my cabin and found my family killed by Indians. Full of anger and hate, I went too far in seeking revenge. Eventually, I found myself outnumbered and died from many arrows. In reviewing this life, I saw there were better alternatives. With less hate and anger, I might have done less violence and lived a longer life. With time and the support of friends living nearby, my grief would have lessened and I could have still found some happiness in that life.
In my next life, I was reincarnated as an indian and eventually became chief, seeing firsthand how terribly Indians were treated, lied to and forced onto poor reservations. I fought some in that life too, but soon realized the impossible odds. As chief, I worked on peace and on doing what I could for the tribe. Yes, I do believe in karma and that we learn from tough lessons.
Looking at these lives drove home messages about peace and about prejudice. We all are really one people, learning together, taking turns to experience different races and religions. If we could remember that, while we’re here, there would be a lot less fighting. By hating a group of people, you’re likely to come back as part of that group, in order to experience their point of view.
Learning the lessons you’re here to learn now will make your future lives easier and happier. If you don’t learn the lesson in this life, you may have to keep repeating it. My warrior lessons go back through many lifetimes. Apparently, I’m a slow learner, at least when it comes to being peaceful. You may have completely different lessons, like ones about generosity, bravery, compassion, love or countless others. The Michael Teachings website holds a wealth of information about life lessons and our spiritual progress through many lives. It also goes into soul age and characteristics that you carry with you from one lifetime to the next.
Have you already felt the effects of ancient memories?
Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy
You may already have subtle memories of earlier lifetimes. Are you especially drawn to mountains, oceans or desserts? You may have had a wonderful life near one of these. Maybe you’ve taken a trip and felt deja vu or a special connection with that place. I sure felt that visiting ancient Roman ruins.
You may even have felt an instant connection with certain people in your life. I truly felt love at first sight, when I met my wife. I have since found that we’ve been married in many lifetimes, going back thousands of years. We’ve also played other roles in each others lives, such as good friends, siblings, parents and children. You’ve undoubtedly spent many lifetimes with some of the key people in your life too.Along with sharing many lifetimes with key people, we may also spend our time in the spirit world with them, between lives and after we quit reincarnating. Like I mention in my “Science and Heaven” article, Dr Michael Newton does similar work to Dr Brian Weiss, but he focuses on our time between lives.
How can we remember our past lives?
Some people easily remember a past life, while others may find it a struggle. At the workshop, many people saw glimpses of a life immediately, during the group hypnosis. For others, it takes a lot of practice, especially for those of us that like to analyze everything. I’ve, at times, had the same problem, in performing psychic readings. It’s important to let images and information flow. Save the analyzing for later.
I included a meditation exercise for you to try. I also highly recommend Brian Weiss’s CDs, which you can find at Hay House or at Amazon. Seeing images on your own is a great way to experience your past, although it can take a good deal of meditation and practice. If you’re impatient or are having difficulty, a good psychic can tap into your past lives and give you key information. My wife and I have looked at past lives for a variety of people. I forgot to mention it on my psychic readings page, but there is general information on readings.
Past Life Meditation
Every time I sit down to meditate, I start bygrounding and running my energies. These two meditation exercises will help you relax and clear out other thoughts and interfering energies. Using these exercises every day will eventually make everything else easier, like staying calm, being nice, becoming psychic and lots of other wonderful stuff.
Anyway, once you’re in a calm, clear meditative state, with your eyes closed, have the intention of tuning into a past life. You can even specify a time period or a particular type of life, like a life with someone you’re close to or a life that you were rich, brave, poor or whatever. With that intention, wait and see what comes up. Maybe you’ll get a sense of something, like feeling great space and dry dessert air around you. Images might start taking shape, like woods or an ancient city, possibly a snowy tundra. Relax and try to explore. A good first step is to look down at your shoes or bare feet. They may give you a good clue as to the era. Can you see what else you’re wearing? Is someone with you? Do you sense that you also know them in this life? If all you’re seeing is the back of your eyelids, relax and enjoy your calm meditative state. This may take practice.
If you are getting good pictures, try moving forward in time and see what happens. What lessons did you learn in this life? If you feel up to it, you can even move to the end of that life. There can be important messages in how our lives ended and in any life review we may have done. Once you come out of your meditative state, more questions may come up, like how the lessons in that life may pertain to the life you are in now. Did you have a trauma in that life, that is causing you trouble in this life? Take the time to look at these, and try this technique again later. The more that you do it, the easier it will get.