First, I'm deeply honored to have passed your nitty gritty test S&S!
Secondly, there have been a lot of good comments in this thread that I can relate to. S&S is right, I do get to wear the cloak of cultural anonymity and I actually think that's been more of a comfort than I've realized. In China, my family is portrayed as soap opera characters and despite being able to read many interviews and books by people that actually knew them, people take the fictionalized versions as fact. I've found that frustrating to a degree, as it's made my research in China difficult, however, I couldn't begin to imagine growing up there; some of the things that have been said about them are quite crude and absolutely ignorant.
Despite my life long interest in China, I knew nothing about my family, even thought i could have easily I could have found them, on the internet, but i wasn't aware of them until 2006. I think my friend in contrast, was much more subconsciously aware of his past life than I was. I think until 2006 though, it was blocked off from me on purpose; either it be spirit guides or my own life plan. And after that point, I did find myself and family rather quickly.
I was burdened up to that point in not knowing or understanding why I felt so out of place in my body and then in 2006 and for several years afterwards, I had this "presence" in my life that was gently pushing me to find out who I was in a past life. So all in all, I think I've had this burden of feeling crazy in one regard or the other and I had to work backwards, since I quickly found my family.
For me, it was resolving the anger and frustration I had towards my past life and also my friend, who was my husband then, that "proved" it to me. Having so many articles and books available to me though, I began to try and disprove everything I could and the more and more I did that, the more concrete proof I ended up with. The emotional component was by far the largest, but there are so many other things I can't explain away by mere coincidence.
I agree too though, that also needs to be backed up being able to know things that you can't read in books on online. I had a dream once about being in a bedroom and I was able to verify it as mine by looking at some photos that tourists had taken by visiting the palace. That was an interesting experience because in the photos, there was a wardrobe that was moved next to the bed, when I knew it was across from the bed but off set to the left. In other photos I found later, I realized that the cabinet was moved so that visitors could see it, since in it's original position, it would have been out of view from where the walkway was roped off. It was also off set because there was a door on the wall, opposite the bed.
So all in all, I don't mind being so public and or transparent about it, because like S&S was saying, it doesn't mean anything to anyone here. I enjoy keeping up with my research thread, because with each new "find" I add to it, I can keep proving to myself that I'm not crazy. I have both the advantage of being well documented and also anonymous and maybe it's the teacher or public servant in me, but if someone can see that someone else has some pretty hard evidence, maybe from reading my thread, they can feel better about themselves and like they aren't crazy either.
That's the only thing I want from it. To be able to help people see that there is more to life than we realize and I just hope I can ease someone else's pain and suffering. You're all right, it'd be better to not have gone through this, to not have to question who and what you are and we see the gift and wisdom in the "veil" here as someone was saying.
I'm not lucky, or better. I"m just like anyone else here. I don't think my story is different than anyone else's that I've read so far. I just have more "stuff" and like I said, if you can consider that proof, I hope that can convince you that you're not crazy either.
Secondly, there have been a lot of good comments in this thread that I can relate to. S&S is right, I do get to wear the cloak of cultural anonymity and I actually think that's been more of a comfort than I've realized. In China, my family is portrayed as soap opera characters and despite being able to read many interviews and books by people that actually knew them, people take the fictionalized versions as fact. I've found that frustrating to a degree, as it's made my research in China difficult, however, I couldn't begin to imagine growing up there; some of the things that have been said about them are quite crude and absolutely ignorant.
Despite my life long interest in China, I knew nothing about my family, even thought i could have easily I could have found them, on the internet, but i wasn't aware of them until 2006. I think my friend in contrast, was much more subconsciously aware of his past life than I was. I think until 2006 though, it was blocked off from me on purpose; either it be spirit guides or my own life plan. And after that point, I did find myself and family rather quickly.
I was burdened up to that point in not knowing or understanding why I felt so out of place in my body and then in 2006 and for several years afterwards, I had this "presence" in my life that was gently pushing me to find out who I was in a past life. So all in all, I think I've had this burden of feeling crazy in one regard or the other and I had to work backwards, since I quickly found my family.
For me, it was resolving the anger and frustration I had towards my past life and also my friend, who was my husband then, that "proved" it to me. Having so many articles and books available to me though, I began to try and disprove everything I could and the more and more I did that, the more concrete proof I ended up with. The emotional component was by far the largest, but there are so many other things I can't explain away by mere coincidence.
I agree too though, that also needs to be backed up being able to know things that you can't read in books on online. I had a dream once about being in a bedroom and I was able to verify it as mine by looking at some photos that tourists had taken by visiting the palace. That was an interesting experience because in the photos, there was a wardrobe that was moved next to the bed, when I knew it was across from the bed but off set to the left. In other photos I found later, I realized that the cabinet was moved so that visitors could see it, since in it's original position, it would have been out of view from where the walkway was roped off. It was also off set because there was a door on the wall, opposite the bed.
So all in all, I don't mind being so public and or transparent about it, because like S&S was saying, it doesn't mean anything to anyone here. I enjoy keeping up with my research thread, because with each new "find" I add to it, I can keep proving to myself that I'm not crazy. I have both the advantage of being well documented and also anonymous and maybe it's the teacher or public servant in me, but if someone can see that someone else has some pretty hard evidence, maybe from reading my thread, they can feel better about themselves and like they aren't crazy either.
That's the only thing I want from it. To be able to help people see that there is more to life than we realize and I just hope I can ease someone else's pain and suffering. You're all right, it'd be better to not have gone through this, to not have to question who and what you are and we see the gift and wisdom in the "veil" here as someone was saying.
I'm not lucky, or better. I"m just like anyone else here. I don't think my story is different than anyone else's that I've read so far. I just have more "stuff" and like I said, if you can consider that proof, I hope that can convince you that you're not crazy either.