@raincloud These discussions have made me remember "The Education of Oversoul 7" and I know I still have it somewhere....might be time to revisit those ideas from my youth and see how they resonate today. I do remember it was very "mind-opening" but I had/have a hard time holding on to the premise of non-linear time. I think it's possible....but it sure twists my brain into knots!
That s interesting. I started reading Seth Speaks awhile ago but stopped about 75 pages in. In fact, I had just forgotten about it until you reminded me -- perhaps this is my sign to return to it. I don't think I've yet encountered the Oversoul yet, but maybe I will happen upon it soon. No such thing as a coincidence, and all that :)
That s interesting. I started reading Seth Speaks awhile ago but stopped about 75 pages in.
I've read, or attempted to read, several of Jane Robert's books and stopped because they gave me bad vibes. That was just my experience, others' "mileage may vary".
@ana I find that to be true of almost anyone claiming to "channel" a "higher being". Most of the time, they're written in almost archaic English that just sounds like a high-school kid trying to sound important and lofty. I've also noticed that these "higher beings" seem to share a lot of personal/political/spiritual views with the "channel". Funny how that works...
Yes, suspicion is warranted in all cases. Jane Roberts always questioned herself and avoided being set up as a guru. Moreover, even if it is a spirit/personality or whatever, it doesn’t mean that they are worth listening to. Still, I found a lot of interest in the Seth writings, in the earlier books anyway and when I followed his suggestions on how to use dreams, I had some amazing experiences.
I've done more reading and personal research into Near Death Experiences and After Death Communication than on past lives. Accounts from both these fields would seem to corroborate the existence of reincarnation and past lives. Even many folks with deeply religious convictions about only having one life (and then we all go to Heaven) have come back from near death experiences with tales of how the soul lives many lives.
As for the possibility that past life memories are just genetic memories, it seems possible. This idea certainly makes many people feel comfortable having a rational, scientific explanation for such memories.
I have three problems with the genetic memory explanation.
1) Genetic memories would be limited to those memories of the parents (and their ancestors) at and before the moment of conception. That's when genetic codes are passed from the parents to the children. So no memories would be available after that point. At least some folks with past life memories have memories about their later lives and even deaths. Death memories especially shouldn't be available since no one conceives a child (and passes along their genetic codes) after their death.
2) I'm assuming there are at least some past life memories where the person in the past life didn't have children.
3) The point that someone else made here that some folks have past life memories outside their own genetic line -- other cultures, nationalities, races, and so forth that don't match their ancestry.
I think you have misunderstood me. When I spoke about genetic memories, I was saying this is one of many possible theories and not the single explanation/theory for why we remember past lives. I also did speak about alternative theories if you read my post as well.
I wouldn't say what I have shared is trying to make "many people feel comfortable having a rational, scientific explanation for such memories" - especially when you delve into the further insights shared in Geoff Cutler's book.
As I have already said, I like to keep an open mind to look at all possibilities and not rule anything out definitively. You say you have done your research and seem sure of your conclusions. I am saying here is what I have found as interesting theories/explanations but I am now more personally skeptical and less certain of past life memories and reincarnation being an absolute certain thing that we experience/happens to us - especially in what appears to be accepted without question by many in spirituality.
I did warn that what I would share may offend some people, and I acknowledge what I have said would be seen as an unpopular view on reincarnation and past lives, especially when many people have held onto these beliefs for a very long time and have invested much of their spirituality into it as part of their belief system.
I have an explanation that is rational, shows we can see, feel, and experience lives in the past that are not our own. We can even speak ancient languages and see their families, and feel emotions that those people felt, and still it doesn't mean these were our own past lives.
Being a highly empathic person, I can read people in such a way that I feel the way they do. It's as if both of us are inside me. I have even had people come into me energetically. This happens part of the time when I read people. Sometimes it's more intense or concentrated than other times. But there is this unity that happens where I feel their feelings and ideas.
Also I know from reading the future, that I can be in the future and feel the way people in the future are feeling. I feel their feelings so strongly sometimes that it's as if they are within me. I saw years back the insurrectionists who think they are Robin Hoods, men with bows and arrows, fighting a corrupt government for the good of all. I felt them. I even cheered for them, because I was feeling them within myself.
[The physics of quantum entanglement is one explanation that we can really connect with other's feelings past, present and future. Quantum entanglement has been shown in the lab with small particles. And experiments with bonded people have shown similar entanglement of their nervous systems.]
I've noticed that I can tune into people in the past and feel how they feel. Once when I was trying to figure out what happened to a missing Freshman college student, I concentrated on going backwards in time and then suddenly I saw the boy walking somewhere the night he disappeared.
I was looking down at a dorm where he had last been seen, and I saw him leaving the dorm and walking around to the back where he stopped for a while. I knew without a doubt that I was really seeing him and months later when the snow melted and they finally got bloodhounds to track him, my vision matched the bloodhounds' trail.
This experience, of course, is just remote viewing, not channeling. But as I was remotely viewing him walking around that night, I also felt his heart quickening, and felt he was hoping to score with a girl he liked.
That information also came out months later after the police released interviews with that girl who reported that he'd flirted with her and after she rebuffed him, he left and went around to the back of the dorm and called her from there.
She didn't pick up the phone that night, but I had seen and felt him just by going in my mind back in time. It was as if for an instant I had his life inside me. I also later felt an attachment to him and his family from the connection, that I can imagine that people who connect with people from the past could also feel attachments, and it wouldn't have to mean it was their past life.
I'm not trying to disprove past life theories, just providing another explanation that could make it seem like we were there when we are just psychically tuning into it.
Another time, I meditated backwards in time and in my mind I ended up looking down at my own feet and they were suddenly in sandals and I was standing on a sandy hard dry surface that felt like the Middle East. I can't prove it but I knew it was in the past. I felt that girl's feelings inside me. People told me that was definitely my past life I was seeing. Maybe it was. But maybe it wasn't.
Maybe it's just that all consciousness is available to us.
I was reading her the way I have read people so many times, where I have brought them into my psyche and body. I have done this with living people too. A woman asked me to read her husband and so in my mind, I just brought him in to me and, bam, I felt all these machismo feelings, and I told her his thoughts and she agreed that it felt exactly like him. Can't know for absolute sure since I could have been reading her impressions of him, but I sure felt like I was in a man's body.
If I can channel people in the past, just like we can channel people in the present and future, and pick up all kinds of information about them, then it doesn't mean these lives were my lives. It just means that consciousness is everywhere, past present and future, and we can pick it up and bring it into us.
I would love to believe that I, Jeanne Mayell, have lived before and will live again. And part of me wants to believe that it might occur. But it's an act of faith, not proof.
The big question is what happens to our ego, the part of us that is uniquely us, when we die? I think it is likely that it remains intact for a while because there are so many incidents where people were technically dead, but they came back and spoke about their near death experience. Unless those examples merely mean that we the living are not able to fully detect when someone is truly gone from their body.
But I also wonder if when we leave our bodies after a period of time, we disperse with the wind. Perhaps we merge with the trees, the earth, the animals, the seas. I'm open to all possibilities including past lives.
I don't think we, the living, are happy about the possibility of losing our ego, our Selves, though. So it's not surprising that so many people believe in past lives. It's too painful to believe otherwise.
But what if, just what if, death is a big expansion? Perhaps when we die, we expand and become one with the whole world.
I once had a vivid vision that I will never forget that would indicate that souls remain intact but not necessarily go into new bodies. During a guided meditation I saw souls flying around the earth like the wind. They provided a great glow, an aura for the whole earth. It was quite beautiful to see. They also looked like they were having fun flying around the earth.
Please tell me where I'm missing something about past lives here. Some proof or evidence I've missed. I am open to all of your thoughts.
Everything you have said is in the book I keep mentioning by Geoff Cutler and he goes into great depth about those things.
I have not gone into great depth because I don't feel comfortable copy and pasting the contents of his book to explain these things in further detail, hence why I prefer to recommend the book for people to read and see that information for themselves.
My understanding is everyone's life on Earth is special and precious, and I believe one of our main purposes here is to help evolve the human race into a higher more enlightened species, and this has been happening over many thousands of years - so that we are more in more alignment with the light and spirit of God. Each life that comes here is a volunteer to help both progress their soul and the human race. We have one lifetime here to do it. That is why life is so precious. There are many souls lining up to come here. Many are queuing to come here and have the human experience and will take any incarnation here they can get. Not every soul does though. There are some souls who do not choose to incarnate here. Some might want to just live in the Spirit world and some might choose other planets with different lessons and experiences. Earth is unique because it allows souls to put into practice what they have learnt in the Spirit world which cannot be experienced the same way there. It is like learning your theory test to drive but not actually driving the car itself!
Beyond our physical experience, we continue to evolve in spirit after we are done with our physical life here. The vastness of the spiritual realms is beyond contemplation, and there is so much more to learn and do there than we can ever understand just here on Earth. But we come to the Earth for experiences we cannot have in Spirit and to test ourselves.
We all contribute as different parts to the body of spirit - each having a specific role in the the world to contribute something and to experience it. Whether that be a doctor, soldier, teacher or writer - we are all equally important serving a puprose. No-one is more important than the other and we are all blessed with the help of previous souls who have come before us in specific roles we are here to experience during our lifetime here on Earth - and these souls can be our spiritual guides too. We then take these experiences that we each have had on Earth into spirit where they are taken and absorbed into the light - the ultimate conciousness that is God/The Creator. There is no need for us to repeat anything. God is experiencing Godself through us experientially.
@luminous I will get his book and read it when the time is right. While I was writing my post and thinking it through, I kept thinking in the background that we are just trying to evolve, and that's the spiral we are on. I'm so in love with nature that I can imagine dispersing to the wind. But then there are those I love here who I want to remain to witness and send love and healing to. I don't want to abandon anyone. When we do the Circle of Light, I feel such joy being able to love this earth and all her beings and send them healing. But then when engaged in political battles with people I see as harmful, I know I've got work to do, and I can imagine that we need to stay in bodies to evolve further.
Put it this way: I like to think it is a freewill decision to come back into physical bodies, if we feel there is more to experience and learn - rather than simply be trapped in a karmic cycle that forces us to.
My understanding is the law of attraction is much more prevalent in a mental/spiritual energy sense in the spirit world. Where a person may end up in terms of closeness/separateness from the light and love of God depends on what energy you are attracting/investing during your lifetime on Earth. If you have for example invested your energy in harming others then that is what you can attract spiritually. But no-one is ever permanently cut off and separate from God - they can choose to enter into the lighter higher realms but they have to be willing to change. That is why I think sin and karma can be a far too simplified way of characterising someone's experience and suffering on Earth in many beliefs. To put it another way: not everyone suffering during their lifetime on Earth is suffering because of karmic debt or sin.
@jeanne-mayell I just discovered this thread! Fascinating subject. I have read some of Brian Weiss's books (from previous recommendations on this list) and have also read up a lot on Near Death Experiences. I love reading everyone's experiences and interpretations here.
@luminous I am going to take a look at the book you mentioned. I am really curious to see the alternate perspectives to the traditional interpretation of past lives. I grew up Catholic, so I didn't really look into reincarnation until I was an adult. I am much like Jeanne in that I am sort of agnostic on the topic, but very curious and open-minded as to what it might all be about in the end. I agree with the idea that the total truth is beyond our comprehension as humans. In eastern catholicism, "the incomprehensible" is a phrase often used about God, and that resonates with me as to all things spiritual. We can only catch glimpses and try to piece together our understanding.
I have recently been watching movies that explore quantum/multiverse ideas and it sure is hard to get your mind around! I just watched "Interstellar" from 2014. Long movie, but really interesting in terms of how it all comes full circle.
Anyway - I am thrilled that we are discussing this here and that we are exploring a whole range of viewpoints on the subject. I have not had any past life readings or experiences, but something that always fascinates me about myself and others is what fascinates us? Those descriptions of places and things that you all have encountered that resonated in a particular way (for no apparent reason) are most interesting to me. I have definite interests and things I like or are moving to me that puzzle me, so perhaps it is all connected in this greater consciousness we all experience.
Btw, I meant to say in my previous post that I was referring to the different spirit realms in terms of closeness and separateness from God and our life on Earth being not necessarily tied to karmic debt and sin (for our reasons for suffering on Earth and returning).
I wanted to edit my post to explain this in case I was misunderstood but the edit button had expired.
I see you are/were catholic. Have you ever read the nde experience of Howard Storm? That is a real eye opener.
Like with many religions, I think there are elements of truth in each of them. In what in Catholicism might be described as "hell" for example might be attributed to separateness from God - and there is such descriptions in the lower planes/realms in quite a few nde testimonies - with many useful spiritual insights for why such places exist and how they end up there. In fact, I think it was Pope John Paul II who admitted hell was simply separation from God:
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_28071999.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-31-me-61289-story.html
I meant to add, too, that although I read Brian Weiss and am fascinated by the topic, I had an almost physical reaction of feeling rather uncomfortable in my gut about reading/thinking that reincarnation was true. Not from my religious background, but an almost "trapped" feeling that we are all in this cycle of reliving lives over and over. It is a scary thought, actually! But your comments above about the concepts of karma and sin being too simplified to explain people's suffering and experience on earth resonated with me.
It also reminded me of accounts in NDEs about souls choosing to come here (you mentioned this as well) as Earth is a unique physical plane where souls can experience great growth. And I have come across that idea (also mentioned above) that souls are lined up to come here! So, this nuanced discussion of a whole variety of perspectives is very soothing - we don't know it all and the joy is in the discovery and pursuit of greater understanding.
@luminous Yes! I have read Howard Storm's NDE. I just refreshed my memory and it said how one of the beings he saw during this mentioned that the "best" religion is the one that brings you closest to God. I do agree with that and agree that there are elements of truth in all the various religions and spiritual beliefs. And from my own experience, I feel I am expanding my perspective (over the last decade) beyond just my catholic beliefs and learning to not feel guilty about that (any catholics/former catholics will relate!) I have always had an innate belief that whatever speaks to you at a given point in your life is meaningful and as long as it is helping you along towards light and love, then it is a good thing. I had many wonderful experiences with traditional prayer and catholic belief (eastern catholicism, which is a bit more mystical in its approach than western catholicism), but have also had intuitive experiences outside of religion. I think keeping an open mind, calm, curious approach to what we learn from our own experience and others is the key.
@luminous I was making general observations on many of the posts here and not replying or responding to your post specifically. So no offense or misunderstanding was intended.
I personally try to find the balance between being skeptical and being open to possibilities beyond what is known through human science. I tend more toward looking for rational explanations, but know there is so much more that humans don't know - especially about the metaphysical universe.
The idea of genetic memory comes out a lot in science fiction, so I have been familiar with the idea for a long time. I only wanted to point out a few observations about genetic memory that folks may not have thought about - like only being able to realistically have genetic memories up to the point where the genetic material is passed down to one's offspring. I have not ruled out genetic memory as a scientific possibility for past life memories, but it does seem to have at least a few flaws.
I probably could have worded my comments on rational explanations better. They were not meant to be offensive or to single out any specific person. I was trying to point out that the default in our culture is to look for rational explanations and that people often feel much more comfortable with rational, scientific explanations than with metaphysical ones that we can't as easily prove or disprove.
I honestly believe that we are all seekers and that none of us have all the answers (and I'm skeptical of anyone who claims absolutely that they have them). The truth is probably some combination of scientific and rational explanations along with huge leaps of faith into the metaphysical.
No worries. I do agree with a lot of what you say actually - we are all just sharing different perspectives and each investigating in our own way.
I think you are right in that there does tend to be a simplistic approach in explaining these things sometimes, and this is shown in all walks of life - with a too simplistic way of explaining these things with beliefs around karma and sin as well.
I don't claim to be sure of myself and what I know because at the end of the day I am fallible and I am here like you and everybody else just offering different perspectives and experiences of spirit. I don't believe there is anybody who can claim to know the full truth. But I do believe there are nuggets of truth out there. It is like what @cc21 mentioned with Howard Storm's NDE with "the best religion is the one that brings you closest to God."
Just saw your tag. Only a month late :) I wonder why you weren’t afraid? that sounds terrifying. I don’t know if I have told you about all my regressions but the few that I have done have been very enlightening. What strengthens my belief in past lives is that even though I’ve seen, during regressions, in such vivid detail, these different lives and different times, cultures etc, they all feel as if the same familiar soul lived them. Same consciousness. Me. It’s not like watching a stranger, but kind of more like returning to a piece of yourself. Coming home. And sometimes it is frightening. I regressed once and found myself a slave in Mesopotamia or whereabouts and my child wrenched from my arms never to be seen again. How I longed for his return until that life ended. Sometimes enlightening.. have been a medicine woman in several lives, which makes sense. I have even done one with my eleven year child who has a love of art and she saw herself on a deck somewhere painting. These tiny imprints on our soul that are just waiting to be remembered, have so much to teach us about ourselves. We are infinite
After sharing w Jeanne and then will share w the Intuitive group class, I have a lack of confidence in reading tarot. Feels somewhat odd to me bc I don’t feel this kind of “writer’s block” regarding meditation, empathic knowing, pop-ups words or visions, etc. Then just a little while ago I was prodded to inquire why I use the name Earthangel which I remember I was called by my spirit guide named John. Anyway, I checked my phone Notes and I found the passage is written actually after a profound visionary past-life meditation (and not a msg from John) I’d assumed the name came from this meditation but it doesn’t. Rereading this past life experience, I’m reminded that I am Spirit Eyes, daughter of a great NA leader and visionary wise man. Perhaps this is the impetus for me to push past these unwanted and unnecessary stumbling blocks and connect w the Tarot in the deepest levels. Thank you to my Native Father and to John and the guides who steered me towards this vivid empowering identity. I will not be afraid. I didn’t keep the original date of this lovely vision/experience that’s below, but I’ve decided it doesn’t matter. Wisdom and connection and intuitive knowing transcends time. Amen!
Spirit Eyes
Well this was a fascinating meditation I just had and have to share.
I started w heavy psychic dread yesterday afternoon out of the blue since I’ve resigned to lead w loving kindness in my life in all things. The dread returned this afternoon so I decided to meditate to water/bowls and it was magnificent!
I was on a hilltop of grass, no trees, high above everything and a city in the distance but then even that disappeared. I was saying aloud “help me” and “I need help” but I wasn’t exactly sure what for but it felt good to say it. I felt safe.
Then a wide stream appeared and a NA man came across the stream on a horse. He wore a headdress initially.
At first I thought he was an older man but as he sat next to me and took my hands in his, he looked younger.
I can’t remember all of his messages right now but I began to speak affirmations about fear and time and place being only allusions. Like he was speaking through me or helping me find these affirmations.
He’d told me to love unconditionally and express joy and gratitude always.
Then he called me Spirit Eyes and kept saying that name.
I knew instinctually towards the end that he was my father and called him father. It was so very peaceful.
We also smoked a long pipe together in the beginning and then again.
I continued to speak affirmations about releasing people from my life without fear—Paul, my father, and Oscar my cat.
It was so powerful and empowering and comforting. I feel at peace. And know he’s another spirit guide and a strong one bc he was my father in another life, though he didn’t call me daughter or say the word father. I naturally called him “father.” Spirit Eyes… I googled it. I like it.
@earthangel This experience you had is just so beautiful. I am glad you were were able to go to that higher ground and find comfort there. I want you to know that it comforted me as well. I've had those experiences where a guide calmed me and told me my fears were illusions, but then I forgot as I wandered back into the collective angst. And I become afraid again. So your experience, one of those heightened moments in which we discover that there is a more beautiful reallity if we just take the time to go there, helps us all!