Past lives and illnesses

[Kristopher]

Just wanted to post something I came across online. Thought it would be interesting to get your opinions to see if you agree/disagree.

There are many cases in which the ways a person died in past lives will have considerable effect on the symptoms of illnesses that appear in this life.

If the soul is stamped with experiences of deep injury and suffering because of illnesses or accidents that caused death in past lives, then the suffering will begin to show even though the person has a new body this time around. In many cases, the exterior portion of the spiritual body – the astral body, will undergo changes which will eventually manifest themselves in the physical body.

Example 1 of 6:

People with Skin Diseases, Asthma or Bronchitis

With skin diseases, there are of course cases in which allergies develop as a result of personal relations. As taught in Happy Science, if we trace back into the past lives of people with skin problems we find that there are also many cases in which they are connected to the way the person died in a past life.

In the case of person who was burned to death, since the skin will still strongly retain the sensation of being burned by fire, when that person is born into this life; corresponding birthmarks will sometimes appear. There are many other cases in which the connection manifests itself in various forms of skin disease or terrible skin allergies.

Even if they died in the same situation of a fire, there are also people who painfully suffocated to death because of the smoke. These people may suffer from asthma, bronchitis or some other form of disease of the respiratory system in this life.

Through regressive hypnosis, people can find out how they had died in a past life and how it has manifested in this lifetime. In many cases, these illnesses will be healed when the individuals realize this connection. This is truly a “scary” fact.

Since the symptoms appear on the body because there is a cause in the mind, if the mind is corrected, then the outside too will be healed. In this way, it is true that people with lingering memories of their deaths in a past life, who suffered terribly and were enveloped by smoke, may have asthma in the present life.

http://www.edgewaterresidential.com/2012/07/past-lives-and-illnesses/

 

[ChrisR]

I've never really given a lot of thought to the theory that physical trauma in a past life can manifest itself in the present body. However, after reading this extract, I cannot ignore the possible connection between my belief that I died in a volcanic eruption in my previous life, and the fact that I have suffered with bronchitis, asthma, and eczema in my present life. Indeed I've only recently recovered from a bout of bronchitis combined with asthma which lasted for over 3 months! X-rays and other tests revealed little wrong with me, although the symptoms were very much there, and severe enough to prevent me from working for several weeks.

 

[Midnight.Sapphires]

I know that in almost all of my past lives, I died from head trauma. I had my head cut off, was beaten with a wooden club, went through the car windshield in a horrible car accident, a house collapsed on top of me, fell off a galloping horse, etc.


In my current lifetime, I suffer from excruciating migraines which often leave me bed-ridden for at least a day or two. I've seen a lot of specialists to find out the source of these migraines but none could be found. In my case, knowing about my past lives and the possible connection to my present day migraines, has not helped to heal me of my problem.


I have a friend who was with me in a past life in WW2 Japan. We both died during an American air-raid on our town. We were together when the bombings started but got separated. I died when a building collapsed on me. He had gone back to my house to look for me, and the house collapsed on him but he didn't die immediately. I believe he was trapped under the rubble and the heavy beams of the house, and died from smoke inhalation due to the house being on fire at the time.


In his current lifetime, he suffers from hay-fever allergies and chronic sinus problems. He also has chronic low back pain and is claustrophobic. He can't even sleep in the dark - he needs to keep a night light on.


Another friend of mine was also with me in that lifetime. She was my mother. Life was very difficult during the war and food was scarce. She carried a lot of guilt in that lifetime because there wasn't much she could do for her children. She wanted to buy them sweets and toys, things that would make them happy but there was no money or anything for such luxuries. In this current lifetime, this friend suffers from diabetes, which means she must watch her diet and stay away from sugar, or at least limit her intake of sweets, which she loves. She is also a very generous friend, spending quite a bit on me for birthday and christmas and is always willing to help me out if I need things, despite being self-employed and working sometimes 7 days a week.

 

[kmatjhwy]

This is interesting. Personally have heard of this before. In my own personal life, even though I do not suffer from asthma or bronchitis, I do suffer from a lung sensitivity it seems. And I can get into having coughing episodes if I get into like dusty or smoky conditions or such. For many years, I have not be able to even stand to be around smoke. In a Past life Regression, I saw myself as a young Cheyenne girl who died of a lung sickness - tuberculosis.

 

[Midnight.Sapphires]

I also forgot to mention - this friend who was with me during WW2, we reincarnated together in the next life almost immediately after that. In that life, we met as children in a hospital in Scotland. He was in a wheelchair due to some sort of neurological problem and could not walk.

 

[Kristopher]

I've just started reading a book about Edgar Cayce called "Many Mansions". Although I haven't even read half of it yet, I've noticed that the PL readings he does on other people tend to be, what seem to me like, "sins". For example, a man born blinded was said to have been ordered to burn the eyes out of other people with a hot poker, which has led him to be blind in this life. There are many similar reading like this.


Having read other information before in Newton and Weiss's work, I can't help but think we don't have as much control over our incarnations as we like to think. Instead of, for example, being told during a PL reading, "You where born blind because you made other people in your past life blind", I would rather like it to be "You where born blind because you chose to be".


Taking this information into account, and the information I posted on this thread originally, it seems that we're basically trapped in either our own "sins" or events that can happen to us randomly in general, life after life. I know it could be called learning for spiritual development, but think about it: Even if it does us good in the long run, it still appears to be a form of punishment during that incarnation, in my opinion.


I respect that people on this forum most likely don't think this is the way "karma", if you will, works. But from all sources I have read they all basically link up the same way one way or another. I can understand why a lot of people in general maybe put off considering the possibility of reincarnation when they may have an element of fear attached to it.

 

[Totoro]

I think perhaps, being bogged down by karma and direction in terms of incarnation is a symptom of younger souls. Not that it doesn't exist for for older or more moderately mature ones, but in the case that they have attained a degree of less supervision and that free will actually reigns supreme at higher levels of maturity. I think that with out it, we wouldn't see the patterns of families reincarnating together and all these facts and little bits of information we find that seem to be encoded in everything.

 

[Cryscat]

I think that the mistake, if I can call it that, being made is thinking that Karma is punitive. Eye for an Eye type thing. But I am beginning to understand that Karma is really about balance. Example: If in one life you blinded people, then in your next life you may be born blind or become blind, not as punishment, but as a lesson on how it feels to be blind. To understand the painful loss of sight. Once you finish these two lives, you will have a understanding of both sides of the coin..inflicting blindness and being blind.

 

[Lady2]

I agree with cryscat - karma is complicated and not always a simple 'eye for eye'. but yes, I do believe illnesses/injuries can be related from past lives. The more I have read the more I believe that our past lives & physical bodies are connected on some levels. Also I have had experiences similar in some ways to ChrisR.

 

[Alexius]

Injury from past life


Firstly, I’ll say that I choose not to subscribe to karma. I do not believe that people are ‘punished’ but rather, they are enlightened after death. I do realise that sometimes, the idea that terrible crimes, unpunished in this life, might go punished in the next can be vindicating to those left grieving. After review and upon their next incarnation, they enter the veil and descend as an avatar into gross matter. The challenge is to recall or rectify oneself, not to endure suffering of itself.


On the topic of illnesses and injuries from previous lives, I do certainly agree.


This is perhaps not punishment but a reminder of learned truths, mysteries or features, otherwise forgotten.


During what I suppose to be an incarnation in 11th century Greece (Dodecanese islands), I was honourably beheaded in a fortress (though I cannot recall what for). I can only suppose it was honourable because a two-handed sword was used and I was not kneeling but instead standing upright.


Interestingly, the executioner(s) struck me on the right temple (although I am uncertain what with) before execution. This was presumably to stun me, although I am unaware of any historical practices that typically employed this 'stunning' method. If anyone knows anything, that would be a great help.


There is much to say (about exact location etc) but the upshot was that I presently have a fracture in the right-side of my head running down my temple to the top of my check (I have never had a head injury) and a fine line at the base of my neck running the entire length. (They obviously missed my shoulders, for which I am still grateful).

 

[usetawuz]

I think perhaps, being bogged down by karma and direction in terms of incarnation is a symptom of younger souls. Not that it doesn't exist for for older or more moderately mature ones, but in the case that they have attained a degree of less supervision and that free will actually reigns supreme at higher levels of maturity. I think that with out it, we wouldn't see the patterns of families reincarnating together and all these facts and little bits of information we find that seem to be encoded in everything.

I agree with this, with the clarification that to me the impact of karma is like the difference between an infant's gross motor skills and an adult's finely tuned, dextrous abilities; the less mature the soul, the less capable it is of managing karmic balances and thus the more powerful the swing of the karmic pendulum. Conversely, the greater the maturity of the soul, the greater its dexterity in maintaining and fine-tuning karmic balances to achieve the soul's ends. I, too, believe karma to be balance and not retribution, and I believe it to be a universal law.


As for the impact of previous deaths manifesting in current diseases, I have no knowledge or personal experience. I recently noted in another thread that my last violent death in WWII left no physical mark or disease on this body I now occupy, while my son currently carries a mark on the spot which caused his death in Viet Nam.

 

[Ankhesenamun]

I also died from a head trauma in my original life in Ancient Egypt - I was killed by being hit over the head with a heavy object. To this day, I suffer terrible migraine - luckily only rarely, but when I do get a migraine attack, it gets extremely painful. More often though I get a sort of headache that feels as if something very heavy is weighing me down, and that can get so bad that I am unable to do anything other than rest.


I also suffer with terrible asthma and a fear of the dark and also fear of being alone in the dark. Unfortunately my circumstances are such that since the death of my beloved cat I have to live alone, and, despite always having several lights on - even at night - I am so terrified at night that I sometimes find it impossible to sleep.


I have a feeling that all this might be caused by having drowned in a former life, or died otherwise in a way to do with water. I even get the sensation that I'm drowning out of the blue, and then I start to panic, and I often feel that I cannot breathe any more! I have had past life regression twice and each time only remembered my life in Egypt, so it would be interesting to find out if I did drown in another life. I also have a fear of the water and would never set foot on a cruise ship so maybe I died through the sinking of a ship that I was on...?

 

[Eighth Timer]

I remember dying of tuberculosis as a child.


I vaguely remember drowning as an adult.


Both could possibly be described as "lung conditions". In this life, I contracted viral bronchitis at 3 months old and survived with no ill effect.


I again contracted viral bronchitis at 7 years old, had a near death experience in hospital and survived otherwise unscathed.


I had one further brush with bronchitis at the age of 14. This has lead me to believe that there is a reason for myself having these three encounters with the same disease?


At age 43 now, I've not had bronchitis, asthma or any other lung problems since the mildest case at 14 years old.

 

[LightWalker]

Taking this information into account, and the information I posted on this thread originally, it seems that we're basically trapped in either our own "sins" or events that can happen to us randomly in general, life after life. I know it could be called learning for spiritual development, but think about it: Even if it does us good in the long run, it still appears to be a form of punishment during that incarnation, in my opinion.

That resonates deeply with me, as my experiences in this life and the suffering I've seen in other people's lives because of how they were born can only be explained in the context of karma, and whether you call it karmic justice or karmic debt, or any other term of your choosing, I believe that we are punished in some way when we do evil to others.


It may be that is a choice we make in the Bardo state with the help of our guides and ascended masters to undergo punishment in order to purify our own karma and take another step forward on the path to enlightment, or it may be that this punishment is assigned to us to teach us valuable lessons, but I definitely believe that we do pay our karmic debts for harming others in one life with our own suffering.

 

[liberty]

Dr Ian Stevenson studied this topic and wrote about it extensively here.


His abstract is called "Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons" (click the link above to see the whole thing, illustrated with photos)

About 35% of children who claim to remember previous lives have birthmarks and/or birth defects that they (or adult informants) attribute to wounds on a person whose life the child remembers. The cases of 210 such children have been investigated. The birthmarks were usually areas of hairless, puckered skin; some were areas of little or no pigmentation (hypopigmented macules); others were areas of increased pigmentation (hyperpigmented nevi). The birth defects were nearly always of rare types. In cases in which a deceased person was identified the details of whose life unmistakably matched the child's statements, a close correspondence was nearly always found between the birthmarks and/or birth defects on the child and the wounds on the deceased person. In 43 of 49 cases in which a medical document (usually a postmortem report) was obtained, it confirmed the correspondence between wounds and birthmarks (or birth defects).