Are we supposed to remember?

This is a question I've grappled with a lot, especially lately.

If we are born into a world that is deliberately set up/structured to support the illusion of one human life per customer, how do the minority of us who have past life memories fit into the big picture?

I have read over the years that remembering past lives and the afterlife [or more accurately, our real life] is something that humankind is supposed to strive for. However, if we do succeed in this, it will make our collective suspension of disbelief impossible, thereby ruining the "production" we're all participating in here on Earth.

I apologize - I know this is garbled. Am I making any sense?

If we all remembered our past lives and understood that all is not as it seems, what would we then be learning? Take Hitler as an example. The more I read and think about it, the more I believe that he just drew the short straw in the afterlife - or he volunteered for the role of evil murdering despot for sound reasons that we are not privy to. The Holocaust was a huge event, including the war that resulted. Millions of souls were affected and the world was changed. It must have been planned ahead of time, at least to some degree. For the plan to be put into motion, you had to have souls who agreed to play the bad guys.

If we all believed that things happen for a reason, how would we then be able to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil? Wouldn't the whole Earth experience be ruined?

Has anyone else had thoughts along these lines?

Hannah said:

I have read over the years that remembering past lives and the afterlife [or more accurately, our real life] is something that humankind is supposed to strive for. However, if we do succeed in this, it will make our collective suspension of disbelief impossible, thereby ruining the "production" we're all participating in here on Earth.
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...If we all believed that things happen for a reason, how would we then be able to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil? Wouldn't the whole Earth experience be ruined?


Has anyone else had thoughts along these lines?

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Absolutely, Hannah! I would guess that almost all of us are having this debate right now. To some folks it's like knowing the gender of one's baby ahead of time. Some need to know, while others prefer the magic of a surprise without getting their hopes too high.


When it comes to the healing characteristics of knowing one's past lives, I'm absolutely all for it. There is an unfair aspect to the blindness we feel while struggling through lives only to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Not knowing can be a severe handicap.


As you say, however, one might ruin the stage production we call life by knowing too much. It can be compared to cheating on a test in school. On the other hand, learning our past lives could be part of the "plan". And, if something is truly not meant to be known, perhaps that is why some things are still being held from us.

I think destiny is wise and we`re just it`s puppets. If something happens, is because it HAD to happen, so yes, if we remember, it`s because we had to remember, and the stuff we don`t remember yet... well i wouldn`t say we don`t have to remember, because then we would just accept that they will come in the right moment and not keep trying to get them, we should think we`re meant to have them, so that way we keep trying, and probably trying is part of what destiny wanted us to do as well... although with that train of thinking... not doing anything could also mean that. In the end everything will point to whatever we do is right, because nothing that wasn`t meant to happen will ever happen. So how should we act in life? maybe we should just listen to our heart and instincts, they somehow lead our path.


I`ve been criticised a lot in these years (i don`t remember if in this forum, but in other places for sure) for saying that we choose before birth the experiences we`re gonna have in life, not every little detail but yes the most important things, and i think that an experience that traumatic to follow someone after death is important enough to have been chosen, it`s part of the things we agreed to learn. Maybe when we agreed we didn`t know for sure how strong that would be, but that doesn`t mean you didn`t choose it. And because you chose it, that doesn`t mean either that you can`t complain about it. And the same way we can "make choices" (because we`re guided by destiny) in this life, i don`t see why we can`t make choices in the astral as well, after all, some people tend to reborn in the same countries, or in the same families, is it just coincidence then? So i`m still a firm supporter of pre-life choices, because we know what we have to deal with if we want to learn something and progress.


About right and wrong, i believe they`re just human-made concepts, what is good for one, could be bad for someone else, and there are no universal goods. So in the astral i don`t think those concepts exist at all, the same way is with justice, i bet it`s nice to believe that all those bad evil low life people are in hell paying for their crimes, but nope, they`re sharing the same world as you, working, learning, living. So the concepts or right are wrong were made so people behaves and can live in society. I don`t think then our Earth experience will be ruined by accepting that everything happens for a reason, we should just keep living, as if we were able to make our own choices, and we should follow to our heart (you know, by heart i mean, those strong feelings that tells you to do something, and you feel bad if you go against them)

A few quick thoughts . . .


1) Most Eastern cultures do not believe in one life per customer. In fact, more people on the planet are born into a culture that supports a belief in reincarnation, than does not.


2) While I believe in pre-planning, (because I remember doing it) I don't think anyone sets out to become an evil murdering despot. More likely, Hitler thought he would unite Germany.

Blueheart said:

A few quick thoughts . . .
1) Most Eastern cultures do not believe in one life per customer. In fact, more people on the planet are born into a culture that supports a belief in reincarnation, than does not.

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You're right. I forgot about that!

Blueheart said:

2) While I believe in pre-planning, (because I remember doing it) I don't think anyone sets out to become an evil murdering despot. More likely, Hitler thought he would unite Germany.

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I'm not sure that explains the millions of victims. It seems likely to me that they must have known what they were in for, which means that it was planned - at least to some extent. Just a hunch.

I believe we plan our lives before we are born as I had written about pre-birth planning in my book. We have discussions about our upcoming incarnations with our spirit guides. We are eager to accomplish a lot but the spirit guides are evolved enough to understand how the ego works, and many times they may try discouraging us from taking on too much. But unfortunately our Higher Selves become stubborn and end up many times taking on more than the ego can really handle. We don't find this out until we have dealt with multiple episodes of hardships, incredible stress and anything more than our egos can handle. We may have plans in place but we also take into consideration about free will altering our plans. I believe we draw blueprints before our births but once we are here and taking risks, any event can drastically change what we had planned. I think in some cases, for instance some murders are planned... but then in other cases, it is not and we had just exited prematurally. Then that just means in our next incarnation we have to plan out what we had planned to accomplish in this incarnation but was not able to because of exiting sooner than we have planned. Think about suicides too. Are some suicides planned? That I am not sure. I think if a soul agrees to take on too much, it is something that I am sure the guides "talk" about before incarnating. But it is hard to say how badly punished you are if you commit suicide if you have truly taken on a lot more than you could really handle. But then again, regardless it deeply wounds those around you, it wounds you and suicide regardless of reason will certainly get you a lot of karmic issues to resolve in future incarnations. I believe if we have truly taken on more than we can handle, we may end up exiting anyway if it is too much without actually physically killing ourselves based on an egotistical decision to do so. We may end up dying from a heart attack instead or something... it still hurts others around us but we did not purposely on an egotistical level end the life... the soul had agreed it was time to leave regardless of how early it was in the journey because it had taken on too much.


As far as my thoughts about the Holocaust, I was a child that was killed in the Holocaust. From what I know, I had planned the life that I am having now (I have to do it now because I did not have a chance to do it then). However before that brief and painful incarnation, my guides had warned me about "so much evil" happening in the area where I had decided to incarnate, especially coming in as a Polish Jew. I was eager to balance previous karma and to take on new lessons but... my soul got too eager and even though the guides tried to discourage me I still did not listen. So as a result in this life I have not only had to balance previous karma and take on those lessons that I meant to deal with in my last life if it was not cut off, but I also have had the pleasure with healing from past life torture and trauma. Oh yes it was way too much and many times still is for my fragile ego (and during severe depths of depression around 13 I was very close to committing suicide), and believe me I have had my bouts of depression, I have had many "why me" moments.. oh yes believe me. But that has always been my lower self, ego talking...and in really bad moments I STILL may have those days but I do bounce back quickly because I immediately remember that since I had planned this, I need to buck up and deal with it. My Higher Self is quite proud of what I have accomplished in this life without having a nervous breakdown However I did listen to my guides before coming into this life when they did warn me everything that I had agreed to take would be too much. I do have some amazingly supportive people around to keep me going!! And when I look at my life from a broad perspective... even though I have had a lot of inner work and still have tonnes of inner work to do, and even with the challenges (which most here will choose to grow) I do have a pretty good life! Sorry for the ramble but I thought I would just add to this.


However, that was my experience. And I believe many souls did take a chance on coming in at the "wrong time" and in the "wrong place". I believe that because of the evil around, souls did know, before incarnating especially as Jews or minorities would be taking a huge chance on coming into a life that could dish them torture and traumatic premature death. But I also believe that maybe some did volunteer to experience that kind of torture to simply... as odd as this sounds, to gain a soul perspective of how it is to be a suffering victim. Remember we are all here to experience different types of lives and scarring is inevitable. We all have been victims, perpetrators, rich, poor, and the list goes on and on.

Hannah said:

I have read over the years that remembering past lives and the afterlife [or more accurately, our real life] is something that humankind is supposed to strive for.

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I ran across an old interview in an article with Dr. Stevenson and thought of this thread.

Omni: Isn't it often a disadvantage to remember a previous life?
Stevenson: Oh. I think so. These children become embroiled in divided loyalties. In many cases children have rejected their parents, saying they are not their real parents and have often started down the road toward their so-called real homes. In other cases, they insist on being reunited with their former husbands, wives, or children. One Indian boy was passionately attached to the woman he said had been his former mistress and was trying to get her back, causing himself and her real distress.


Source: Omni Interview

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When I was 14 - I met a 'soul mate' and we verified information collectively about past life memories together. It was overwhelming in one sense and did have sort of opposite ends to a scale. There were advantages as well as 'disadvantages' to this discovery within ourselves. It took careful balance for us to extract the information we felt we needed to know - and to discard the information we felt would 'harm' us in our current lives. We tried to keep it a secret between us - but it was very hard to do. Our families became aware of our 'understanding' and became extremely curious and wanted us to share our insights. We refused to talk about it outside ourselves. We had other kids on the block who had heard the rumors and we were always approached to give some sort of testimony about our past lives together. We would never acknowledge it was either true or false. One friend asked once why we wouldn't talk about an amazing discovery like that. My friend is the one who said it. I didn't even know what the word meant. He said,


"It is taboo."


I was shocked when he said it but just agreed with him. The other kids seemed to know what that meant. Afterward - I asked him where he got that word from. He said it just came to him through the avenue that the 'past life' memory came from. I gathered from discussion with others that it meant 'sacred' and 'holy' and not something to be shared for that purpose.


Over time - we did bury the memories fully in the subconscious. It became 'too taboo' for even our own individual minds. At the age of 18 - I had no memory of it what so ever. He still retained some insights and told me that my 'lack of memory' had made him feel like it was less than real.


36 years later and some of that information is again floating to the surface of my conscious mind - and - all over again - it amazes me. (One of the main reasons that we didn't want to talk about it had to do with the fact that my 'male' friend was a 'female' in a past life. He didn't want that sort of thing getting around. There were other profound reasons as well.)


For me - I feel there is a time and place for that sort of recall and it does require a balance to help keep the current mind focused the current life. We both came to the conclusion that our lives didn't belong to us as much as it belonged to our 'souls.' We looked at our souls as different entities from ourselves. Therefore - we didn't feel the 'past life' was a part of who were were in this life. It was a part of who and what the soul was in a past life. We (as teens) were trying to develop an identity with our current bodies. We felt that 'memories' were hidden (secret) and kept in the 'undertow' of the 'subconscious' and would emerge when it was needed and we did view it as 'sacred' or 'holy.'


I do agree there can be disadvantages to that sort of 'recall' and it does take a healthy balance to sort out what is needed and what gets buried and forgotten.


DK

dking777 said:

I ran across an old interview in an article with Dr. Stevenson and thought of this thread.
When I was 14 - I met a 'soul mate' and we verified information collectively about past life memories together. It was overwhelming in one sense and did have sort of opposite ends to a scale. There were advantages as well as 'disadvantages' to this discovery within ourselves. It took careful balance for us to extract the information we felt we needed to know - and to discard the information we felt would 'harm' us in our current lives.

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You made a very good point about finding "balance" between the advantages and disadvantages of remembering past lives, especially when this involves another person who shared a past life.


It's understandable that Dr. Stevenson would have pointed out the difficulties he had experiences among many of his cases, because most of his work involved many cases in India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh and Lebanon, in which children returned to a different family and desired to return to their original family.


On the other hand, the cases mentioned in Carol Bowman's two books seem to focus on children who are born into the same family. Carol's observations indicated that many healing characteristics exist when it becomes apparent that a child realizes he has a new and perfect body in this life. Stevenson never considered the positive physical and emotional benefits that may have been affected by the past life realization.


For the most part, I think that knowledge is everything, as long as everyone involved is OK with it.

It is my opinion that we each come to accept reincarnation as truth when it is our time to do so. If it is not part of your lifeplan to deal with issues beyond the material existence you are currently involved in, then so be it. Alternatively, if you begin to see synchronicities in everything about you, surprise yourself with a knowledge or talent you never took the time to learn, find yourself knowing places while never having been there, any curious mind must question the source of such capacities. Or not...free will, owned by each soul, enables us to choose our experiences, despite anything we planned pre-birth with our guidance.


I do not think right or wrong enters into the equation.

This just a comment. A long time ago I was watching a show, it was Twilight Zone or one of those times shows. Anyway on this part of the episode they were showing this girl that was NOT normal. The norm was to recall all past lifes. But everybody was mesirable. And the wanted the girl that could not remember her past at all to help them to forget. They showed people that were just hanging out on the side walks like homeless people. I think she started to do some kind of hypnoses for them to forget. This was like 25/30 yrs ago.


Thought I would throw this in. I wonder if any one else redcall that show. I have always been in to these type shows. And I remember thinking at that time how badly I wanted to remember my past life. I did not talk to anyone about beleiving in past lifes, I thinkl my family would have thought I was crazy. hehee I might be just a little :freak:

I think some of use need to remember, in order to move forward, and some of us need to forget, in order to move forward.

I don't really know how to explain this and make sense, but for some reason I can only remember maybe two PL's in dreams that I had as a child, one dream I was being attacked by a large animal (wolf?) and the other dream I was possibly a WWII pilot, who side I can't tell, but I'm drawn to the White Cliff of Dover, however I might be English as I love the period there around the 1920's.


And then there is another problem, is that when I dream, I have difficulty in ascertaining what is a PL and what is this life, specifically as I spent 32 years in the FD (not bragging), I might be dreaming about some of the more notable calls I went on, or even the more mundane ones, there doesn't appear to be a "tinge" to the dreams one way or the other.


This does not mean that I have trouble separating reality from dreams, as I'm well grounded, it's just that if I don't recognize the immediate moment, then how do I tell if it's a PL or just another silly dream of my mind?

hydrolad said:

This does not mean that I have trouble separating reality from dreams, as I'm well grounded, it's just that if I don't recognize the immediate moment, then how do I tell if it's a PL or just another silly dream of my mind?

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Remembering only two past lives is quite an accomplishment. And remembering them could possibly be, because they were the two in which you experienced things that pertain only to your present state of mind. In other words, those two past lives may be experiences that are most beneficial to you at the moment. Perhaps, when your attention is directed toward different issues in your present life, you might have different dreams that reflect that new state of mind.


Separating memories from ordinary dreams is not easy; but they say that memories are much more vivid and realistic. They may also come as flashes out of nowhere; unlike dreams, which kind of go nowhere.


By your description of the World War II pilot, I think it's probably safe to assume that the White Cliffs of Dover are friendly territory. Otherwise, you would have the feeling of dread as you approach that area.


As far as placing the time and date, I have noticed that many people report a "feeling" they get that a certain memory is from a certain date or location. Then, there are those, who sometimes judge a time and place by the type of clothing and accoutrements shown in their dream. However, I would trust the "feeling" instead of a deduction based on clothing style, because the same items may be part of a recreation during more recent times, such as, let's say, a Renaissance Fair or a play. Logical inferences can sometimes lead to mistaken assumptions.

By your description of the World War II pilot, I think it's probably safe to assume that the White Cliffs of Dover are friendly territory. Otherwise, you would have the feeling of dread as you approach that area....Nightrain1.

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Thank you Nightrain1 for the valuable info, I thing you're probably right, as I remember a feeling of being back home, of being safe again, and so forth, and another thing I might mention, is that I like the music of that time, Vera Lynn, Big Bands and so on.

We are not "supposed to" remember, but a handful of people do. Almost 99% of people that die have their soul recycled into the subsystem which is our reality. The reason for this is that not very many people have a low enough conscious entropy to escape into a higher reality, and are 'stuck' in the physical world that we know to interact and gain positive, entropy-reducing information. Anyways, when somebody is reincarnated, all the memories from their "past life" disappear at the hands of a similar mechanic to amnesia, breaking the connection to the memories and emotions stored in the non-physical super system. However, this system does not always work, and a select few's bodies remain attached to their previous experiences. Even more rare are people who remember past one cycle of life.

Vons said:

Almost 99% of people that die have their soul recycled into the subsystem which is our reality. The reason for this is that not very many people have a low enough conscious entropy to escape into a higher reality, and are 'stuck' in the physical world that we know to interact and gain positive, entropy-reducing information.

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What is the source of your information? I do not understand your use of some of the terms mentioned above and I would like to read more.


Also, are you of the mind that the "select few who retain their memory" are doing it as a matter of course, or are they like alot of us here, who have gotten clues of their previous lives and are using meditation and/or hypnosis to discover more?

I have no one "source" for this information, but the basics I found were in an astro-physics/meta-physics lecture.


The people that retain their memory are just like us, however the laws of probability dictated a loophole in the system, and the link to their past memories was retained. Memory of the past life can of course be cultivated, as demonstrated in many cases.

Hi Vons, sometimes there are loopholes in man-made laws that some people exploit to their benefit. A new law might later be executed to close that loophole. But what if that law (with loophole) was a bad one and primarily in place to exploit and control the masses? Should the law just be accepted?


Hannah, in answer to your original question I too have had the same thoughts as you. I think if everyone remembered the game would be over. But the chances of this happening are next to nil. Even if a game is badly flawed, some people will still play and support it - e.g. 'world game' called soccer.

firebird said:

Hi Vons, sometimes there are loopholes in man-made laws that some people exploit to their benefit. A new law might later be executed to close that loophole. But what if that law (with loophole) was a bad one and primarily in place to exploit and control the masses? Should the law just be accepted?

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I think you misunderstand my meaning. I was referring to how after a certain amount of cycles, the laws of probability would dictate a failure in a system. This applies to any system, no matter how perfect. This is somewhat like typing on the computer. Even if the most skillful and flawless typer were to write and write, eventually this repetitive task would exhibit errors in grammar and spelling mistakes.

How are you certain that all cases of past life recall are due to a failure in the system?

firebird said:

How are you certain that all cases of past life recall are due to a failure in the system?

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This is a difficult question to answer, as it requires in-depth explanation of several concepts. The simple answer is this.


The entire purpose of reincarnation is for the consciousness which is being 'recycled' to experience new feelings and eventually, when it is ready, pass out from the cycle which exists in our world and enter another, perhaps non-physical cycle elsewhere. Some refer to this passing as starting from nirvana, others call it heaven.


Now imagine a world where everybody clearly remembered their past lives and were enveloped in their memories and feelings which they previously had. They would, in such a world, think the same and have identical interests to their previous life, and would therefore have difficulty adjusting to new mediums of living.


Now the reason some do remember their past lives is not necessarily based on a systems 'flaw', but be an exception in the system. Going back to the typer analogy, after a while, this person will become tired of what he is doing and start to occupy his mind with other thoughts. He may think of a girl he knows, getting him excited and earning him a mistake in his writings. This is an exception. Not exactly a flaw in the writers ability to write, but a factor which caused the necessity for error.


Similar rules apply to reincarnation, as there are very many factors to consider. How did the person die? What was this persons mission in life, and was it completed? How dedicated was his conscious energy to this mission? Was there low entropy goals set? Where they achieved? Etc... However, the vast majority of the times, it is due to probabilistic fluctuations in the system. Remembering a past life is much like people who are born with disabilities and genetic diseases. Was this god's work? No, but simply a probabilistic fluctuation in the gene pool concerning the person's blood line. But of course, other outside factors can influence this and alter the outcome, forming exceptions in the system.

Hi Vons,

No, but simply a probabilistic fluctuation in the gene pool concerning the person's blood line. But of course, other outside factors can influence this and alter the outcome, forming exceptions in the system.

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I am sorry - but I am having a hard time wrapping anything tangible around your concepts. Since you have not quoted any reliable references it appears to be - conjecture. Can you reference any studies or is this a personal theory?

Vons said:

Now imagine a world where everybody clearly remembered their past lives and were enveloped in their memories and feelings which they previously had. They would, in such a world, think the same and have identical interests to their previous life, and would therefore have difficulty adjusting to new mediums of living.

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If we are not necessarily meant to remember our past lives; how does one accomplish one's purpose? And, can you speculate as to why so many children remember their past lives until the age of 5 or 6?

Vons said:

Now imagine a world where everybody clearly remembered their past lives and were enveloped in their memories and feelings which they previously had. They would, in such a world, think the same and have identical interests to their previous life, and would therefore have difficulty adjusting to new mediums of living.

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Why might not the opposite be a possibility - that PL recall might help a group of people adjust to better ways of living?

Now the reason some do remember their past lives is not necessarily based on a systems 'flaw', but be an exception in the system. Going back to the typer analogy, after a while, this person will become tired of what he is doing and start to occupy his mind with other thoughts. He may think of a girl he knows, getting him excited and earning him a mistake in his writings. This is an exception. Not exactly a flaw in the writers ability to write, but a factor which caused the necessity for error.

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You say “necessity for error”. I say necessity for correction. I think PL recall, in many cases, is a corrective tool .... an aid .... sometimes necessitated by an error in other factor(s). Depending on a soul’s individual tasks in a given lifetime, there may be deliberate goals to achieve that can only be (or are best) achieved with PL recall. The ‘errors’ and unfinished tasks in a former lifetime - or in this current lifetime - whether the result of actions by themselves or others, necessitates their recall of a PL. I think the Jenny Cockell case illustrates this well.

Remembering a past life is much like people who are born with disabilities and genetic diseases. Was this god's work? No, but simply a probabilistic fluctuation in the gene pool concerning the person's blood line.

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I believe some souls ‘plan’ a life where they are born with a disability or genetic illness. I was born with a disability in one of my former lifetimes, although I don't have memories of the planning process. I know of someone who has lived multiple lives as a person with a disability - they did so until they got it right. I do think that choosing to be born with a disability is a deliberate ‘spiritual’ path for some that, in addition to fulfilling the function of spiritual progression, may also be due in part to a necessity because of an error in the human gene pool.


Do you believe that a soul experiencing a lifetime with a physical disability is not really supposed to happen? If this is the argument, then you could apply this thinking to almost everything and might eventually come to the point where you would say reincarnation is not meant to happen.

Deborah: To what exactly are you referring to in my post? If it is to the snippet about genetic diseases, then I can certainly find sources online to support my words. What I was trying to convey was that if a persons grandfather, great grandfather, and several of his ancestors had cancer, this person would be likely to have cancer as well (versus someone who's heredity was free of such a disease). By outside factors I meant things such as environmental pollution, consuming drugs while pregnant, etc... Things that would alter the outcome of the health of a child. Please tell me if I didn't explain sufficiently, or missed your point altogether.


Nighttrain1: One's purpose is a very ambiguous concept, and can dramatically vary from one person to the other. I try not to concern myself with figuring out individual opinions, but instead look at the big picture. So far, my research has told me that we are all of our souls are tasked with reducing their entropy, and thereby reducing the entropy of the entire system (god, some would call it). Many of you may know what entropy means, but Ill make it clear for those uncertain. Entropy is an old concept in physics and thermodynamics, and It is basically a measure of disorder in a system. For example: If you were to buy a brand new computer, it would have a high measure of entropy, since there is no data on the hard-drive. The amount of data is uniform, not relative to anything else, and therefore non-existent. Now after 5 years or so of using this machine, the hard-drive would be full of data, all organized into folders and sub-folders, making the machine have lower entropy than it did 5 years ago.


That is where the similarities end, however. Measuring entropy in humans is a complicated task, since we are very complicated beings and our ability to store information is limitless. In my mind, one accomplishes their purpose when they have reached a certain point of entropy where they would no longer need to reside in our world anymore, making the subsequent transition to what some call 'the afterlife' (another topic I will touch upon later).


There are several reasons as to why children would remember their past lives better at the ages of 5 and 6, but I will discuss those that I think are most relevant. In developmental psychology, there is a certain age range in which a child is tasked with learning and mastering the fundamental tasks that it needs to survive. This is the most vulnerable age, a window of opportunity where the mind and body can learn the best. Now you may be thinking "If they remember their past lives well, then why would they need to relearn everything?" In my mind, it seems that many of the tasks that a child must learn at this age are geared towards developing the physical mind and creating muscle memory, two things that memories cannot induce.


Now as for the reason that children don't remember as well past this age, I think that the methods used to develop this child at this time period would influence a child to the point where they would start (forgetting?) the information that irrelevant to surviving and adapting to the present situation(s). For example, if a child of a western family were to remember a life as a person from japan 100 years ago, the customs and knowledge of actions/people at the time would not be compatible schemas for dealing with typical western tasks such as reading, fitting in at school, and later supporting a family in the western world. I hope this explains your question a bit. If you don't feel it does, I would be happy to expand my ideas.


Firebird: To answer your first question, I would like to use a quote posted earlier in this thread from TLD. "I think some of us need to remember, in order to move forward, and some of us need to forget, in order to move forward." It brilliantly summarizes past life recall, as both a useful tool and a curse.


Your second paragraph is one that starts diving into a zone of uncertainty and opinions, since both my and your answers can be true. Despite this, I do agree with what you wrote, since I sometimes wish that I could remember a possible past that I may have had.


I don't exactly understand what you mean by a soul planning its life, and I would be interested to hear more of this idea. Perhaps disabilities are there for a reason, as you said, and not just anomalies. Whatever it is, anything we say would be purely speculation. I do think it would make sense though that disabilities were not random, since it would make a soul more experienced after having to adapt to that lifestyle as opposed to a soul that did not.


I can't agree on your last sentence, since there is an overwhelming amount of proof towards reincarnations existence and purpose. But something like the purpose of disabilities is somewhat a controversial topic, since there is very little hard data to back it up. All we know is that disabilities happen, and I mentioned that they do not happen often, giving them a low probability. They also often happen through heredity. Everything else about them requires more research and evidence.

Hannah said:

This is a question I've grappled with a lot, especially lately.
If we are born into a world that is deliberately set up/structured to support the illusion of one human life per customer, how do the minority of us who have past life memories fit into the big picture?


I have read over the years that remembering past lives and the afterlife [or more accurately, our real life] is something that humankind is supposed to strive for. However, if we do succeed in this, it will make our collective suspension of disbelief impossible, thereby ruining the "production" we're all participating in here on Earth.


I apologize - I know this is garbled. Am I making any sense?


If we all remembered our past lives and understood that all is not as it seems, what would we then be learning? Take Hitler as an example. The more I read and think about it, the more I believe that he just drew the short straw in the afterlife - or he volunteered for the role of evil murdering despot for sound reasons that we are not privy to. The Holocaust was a huge event, including the war that resulted. Millions of souls were affected and the world was changed. It must have been planned ahead of time, at least to some degree. For the plan to be put into motion, you had to have souls who agreed to play the bad guys.


If we all believed that things happen for a reason, how would we then be able to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil? Wouldn't the whole Earth experience be ruined?


Has anyone else had thoughts along these lines?

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i hear what you are saying, i don't think it would be ruined, i just think it would evolve into what we are striving for. because we (i say we because after reading your message, i feel we're coming to see things from a very similar viewpoint)...because we are coming to that realization, and a lot of people hold the old human modes, it causes pain and confusion, and it seems to be a bad thing to see more of the truth simply because it brings up issues. so the people living in the ignorance of all this, they find their bliss in different ways than I do, and their world, their beliefs hold little meaning or value in mine. the things they hold dear evaporate when they enter into my field, so they seem to emanate the basic vibe that I am wrong... What i think is that the ego is better to be left behind. I am a happy person without the sentimental attachments that they all hold dear, and i see a great picture of what could unfold, but it hasn't happened yet, not fully. There's too many people holding it back, clinging backwards to the past, to the "truths" / beliefs and human ways that were, and probably are in the process of crumbling down, if we are indeed moving into a new age

Hannah said:

I'm not sure that explains the millions of victims. It seems likely to me that they must have known what they were in for, which means that it was planned - at least to some extent. Just a hunch.

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yea, i've thought about this quite a bit, i could see all the souls lining up to send their bodies in for that, the "holocaust experience", of course the soul knows things will be alright in the end, but it must be a hell of a learning experience, a good lesson from the eternal standpoint

freebird4747 said:

yea, i've thought about this quite a bit, i could see all the souls lining up to send their bodies in for that, the "holocaust experience", of course the soul knows things will be alright in the end, but it must be a hell of a learning experience, a good lesson from the eternal standpoint

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Just a thought here:


Say that these souls were lined up for the holocaust experience. What if they were really bad in a previous life and are now learning what they inflicted on others. For instance like “Blueheart wrote that Hitler might have thought he would reunite Germany”. Hitler could be back and now living an ugly situation. He could have been in the hands of a serial killer or some thing along those lines. If we are here to learn from PL experiences, that would make sense to me.


As far as remembering PL experiences. Maybe we are to learn a little at a time so that we can register it in our minds. Instead of getting a big bite of it all at once. If our brains truly work like a computer it could fry it.


And maybe we are supposed to remember only a little. So that we can learn whatever we are supposed to learn with out any biases. q6gif

I do find it hard to believe that an entire cultural group of any kind agreed beforehand that they would undergo genocide en masse. In fact, for all the next-life difficulties caused by horrific deaths, I sincerely wonder how any violent experience can teach anyone any kind of lesson. Assuming that traumatic experiences can leave both psychic and physical scars; and, assuming that most, or all of us may have experienced such things in previous lifetimes; I think choosing such things to happen would border on outright masochism. Considering the difficulties caused by such psychic scars for many lifetimes afterword, I would think that if there is such a thing as sin, choosing to have such trauma happen to ourselves would be the worst sin of all.


What if, instead, we choose parents who will be beneficial to us and them. Then after entering the next life, someone else comes along and ruins it only because they made a bad decision. We may have acquired good karma along the way as a result of the experience, but we still bear the psychic scars that result from that person's choice, and it can hold us back in future lives. So, what should we do? Well, if we don't know that we're reincarnated, I would suppose there is nothing that we can do, but to blame God.


On the other hand, I theorize, if we go back in time to discover the source of our past life trauma, we can find catharsis and move on with our head held high. Would we call that cheating? We are going into the past, not the future. By the same token, we could, perhaps, go further back and remember what we planned with our soul-mates and guides for the next life, and discover that we didn't plan for others to traumatize us, and that only good things can be planned. That wouldn't be cheating, either, would it? We still are not going into the future. We're reaching into the past to find out about ourselves.


With this line of thinking, I would opine that we have a duty to not only learn about our past lives, but to help others as well. As far as knowing the future is concerned, I do think that some people can get short and incomplete visions or feelings of something about to happen, like a birth, an accident, or a good poker hand. But it isn't enough to change how others are going to act in the future. Perhaps, there is a being somewhere, who knows the entire future. If so, it doesn't mean that that entity set up traps and traumatic events for us to fall into, because everything we do is by our own free-will. I would like to think that, someday, we'll get it together and disprove that entity's assumptions about us. Maybe we can change the future. And, maybe our future is to do just that. I believe we have the choice to do so, and learning more about our history is a good way to start. Don't you think?

Nightrain1 said:

With this line of thinking, I would opine that we have a duty to not only learn about our past lives, but to help others as well.

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I have a feeling that you are close to the truth, Nightrain. Perhaps, by virtue of our belief in reincarnation, we do have a responsibility to work towards the enlightenment of others by harboring the Love of the Creator within us and sharing that Love when the opportunity presents itself. "Consciousness creates" - right? I see that more and more in my life.


Just my own thoughts, but I think that we err in thinking that someone like Hitler comes back to the Earth. That human being was the product of his environment but his spirit is eternal, incorruptible and beloved by its Creator. It is difficult to see that the true reality of our nature does not embody human weaknesses because we are so thoroughly integrated into the human experience that we are essentially human beings. Those of us who have awoken to who we truly are, know that we are Beings of Light experiencing the physical world and as we mature in that knowledge our Light begins to shine through the human veneer.


I don't really think that we are witnessing people suffering because of past life behavior but rather we are seeing our collective failure to shape and direct the development of the human species on this planet so that Love for each other is the predominant experience in our lives.


I have now spent most of my life caring for loved ones who have suffered with disabilities and illness. I don't feel that I have chosen to suffer because of past life wrongs and neither do I think that my loved ones are suffering because of any past life wrongs. I just think it is how the pattern of reality unfolds and while we may know what we might be getting into ahead of time, we are not choosing to suffer in order to gain any positive karma for ourselves. I don't think that we really concern ourselves with balancing out karma but rather it is the participation in the story of the Earth that makes us line up to come here.


As far as whether we are supposed to remember our past lives, I think that we all remember to some extent but few realize it. I think we don't remember everything because the human mind can't cope with the spirit's past life history. For whatever reason we are here in the physical, it seems important to make this one life stand on it's own and the knowledge of past lives doesn't take anything away from the feeling that this life is a unique one-time-chance to experience something important. I think it will always be a mystery - even when we return the next time.