Who can remember past lifes?

[Wayfarer64]

Man this is very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

How was it in the womb? What do you remember?

 

There was pink light and voices and the feel of my mothers' bones around the womb. -I've written of this here before - I think I'll look it up and see if there is anything to add- soon-Pat

 

 

EDIT:

I found this entry-

 

I'm getting the idea that perhaps we are each correct for ourselves and our view-points. Having whatever sort of mind we may have - gives us each an amplification or dimming of our original inner self to various degrees. I have always felt a connection to my "original" self and indeed remember being in the womb and being born. These are of course rather deep and not as often in my waking consciousness-as say- thirst and the need to piss etc...(Which is to say at least once a day). And dimmed a bit by the following 52 years of living between then and now... but they're still vivid and true memory experiences.

 

This does not make me enlightened. It helps me only to realize that there is a continuum and connection to that which could enlighten me; if I could make the encredible efforts of will becoming non-will, and being returning to non-being , (while still a breathing, singular entity), - that such seeking would seem to intail!

 

Still, I am becoming more ready to delve deeper into my spiritual path and seek a fuller understanding of the Tao. I have already presumed some level of understanding as I became a conduit for a book of Taoist sonnets, and had the ego to publish them! This with only some small understanding of the" Chinese mind"... I am also quite secure in my work being a worthy element within Taoist thought. This is not from ego, but from a sense that the way the poems came through my consciousness as an act of creativity was an inspired response to something within me that used me for its' own expression.

Edited March 19, 2009 by Wayfarer64

[nac]

Random RNA patterns in the brain can cause people to remember things which never really happened. (in this life ) I think such memories provide a precious oppurtunity for the perfection of one's morality using what Jung called "meaningful coincidence" or Synchronicity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity

[TTT]

Random RNA patterns in the brain can cause people to remember things which never really happened. (in this life ) I think such memories provide a precious oppurtunity for the perfection of one's morality using what Jung called "meaningful coincidence" or Synchronicity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity

 

There are so many movies about reincarnation where people's memories are verified, that I

am not going to believe these RNA pattern changes are the cause. But they could represent a

very small minority of the causes of course

[Gerard]

.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Gerard

[Taomeow]

Cool. I live in Holland. There is indeed a place called Schermer. However a Church is called "Kerk"

in Dutch. In Germany it is called Kirche. But it could have been different ages ago. Here is a link of

some Churches around Schermer: http://images.google.nl/images?hl=nl&q...sa=N&tab=wi

Thanks for the youtube movies, they are awesome and give genuine proof!

TTT,

 

OK, I found it and recognized it. Nearly gave me a heart attack.

 

On page one of your link, picture number six (bottom right) gives the closest view to the one I remember. If you click on it, the caption says something I can't translate, but I noted the word "Kerkje," which is further explained as "de kerk" -- well, "kerkje" seems pretty darn close to what I, in this life, interpreted as "kirche" as I hear it in my past-life memory --

 

what is it, an archaic way to pronounce "kerk?" Do you happen to know? or you, fair Rain?..

 

The caption says, omschrijving: "Kerkje Gr. Schermer", de kerk vanuit het westen.

 

The bridge is THE bridge, the one I remember, unless it's its twin brother, a replica, etc. Looks pretty much the same. I noticed the date on one of the buildings in another picture on that page -- 1652. I may have been a century or two off with the word "medieval" earlier, I really have no idea exactly what century it was -- my feeling is that not much, and not fast, may have been changing visually or lifestyle-wise in that place between, say, the 15th and the 17th centuries, so I couldn't tell the "when" for sure. (Matter of fact, I know an Amish family from Pennsylvania whose all members dress exactly like their medieval or 17th or 19th century ancestors did as we speak, have done so all their lives, just like their parents and grandparents in the 20th, and all their clothes are still homemade. When they were here in CA on a visit -- they were seeking some medical treatments for a sick little boy in the family and eight relatives came along with him! admirable and enviable! -- I was showing them around and people kept stopping them in the streets, at stores, etc., to ask if they were for real. Yup, they were. And their thinking, unlike their clothes, isn't archaic at all... but I digress too much, sorry.)

 

Anyway... TTT, thanks! Appreciate the near-heart-attack!

[Taomeow]

fascinating! my ancestors came from north Holland around Groningen.

 

How far is it from Schermer? Could I of that Schermer life have known your ancestors?

 

I don't remember my last name from that life, alas, or my first one for that matter. (I remember several names from my Greek life, including my own, one day I'll research...)

 

I remeber one past life. revealed itself after light hypnosis/regression with this lady;

http://www.kristinawennergren.com/artinterpretation/who.htm

I superimposed that life on my current. that was .. instructional..

 

the idea of past lifes through history seem to adapt to our notion of time as something linear.

thats when I realized my philosophy is more like spheral than linear.

 

It's loopy to me... like the Amazon. If you look at it from above the plane whereupon it flows (from a plane in the sky, in the case of the Amazon, or from a different plane of existence, in the case of the river of time), you see the meanderings of the great river very clearly on a clear day, and you see that most loops don't swirl back onto themselves, but some do... some do. Strange things happen in the river of time. Mystery of mysteries!..

 

It's interesting how (at least some) men's past life memories are "more linear" than (at least some) women's -- they (men) perceive a hierarchy, an ascension from "lower" to "higher" kinds of spiritual accomplishment --

 

also they seem to remember facts (job description, rank, social status, etc.) while I, e.g., whose all past life memories are of female incarnations (doesn't mean I never incarnated as a man, it's just that I can't remember any of those lives, if they ever happened) -- I mostly remember how things felt and what the way they felt meant to me.

[TTT]

TTT,

 

OK, I found it and recognized it. Nearly gave me a heart attack.

 

Anyway... TTT, thanks! Appreciate the near-heart-attack!

 

Wow, this is amazing! Yes I see the bridge is there, right in front of the Church.

Kerkje means "little Church". Amazing..

[dizzydazzle]

I am currently traveling in India and Tibet and trying to find places that have frequently appeared during meditation and in dreams. It all started when I took an initiation from Paramhans Satyananda Saraswati of Bihar School of yoga. Gloria Grace, a gifted psychic did a past life regression and these visions became much more meaningful. I am almost shocked to actually see some of those places I saw around Western India. As of now, I think visiting those places has been immensely useful. If you ask me how exactly, I don't think I can describe that in words as of now

Edited March 22, 2009 by dizzydazzle

[Sunya]

found a thread on remembering past lives on E Sangha, a Buddhist forum. so i'm going to quote some good posts from there. hope they don't mind..

 

 

If you can get into a meditative state, sometimes if you look at your hands or feet then you notice they are someone else's.

 

You really have to have worked on yourself quite a bit to have past lives arising spontaneously. You need good intuition. You need to trust yourself and your impulses. They normally start coming through in fits and starts so you need to be paying attention to what arises in your mind all the time, not just in a half hour sit per day. You also need to make use of them, to use them to understand yourself better in order to make progress. That is what opens you up.

 

If you want ask... ask the universe or your buddha nature or Tara or whatever works for you. Then you need surrender and gratitude and knowing that you will be heard.

 

 

 

 

Bhikku Bodhi explained it in one of his lectures once. I believe it's detailed in the Visudhimaggha. I'm pretty sure it requires at least the 4th jhana. Then one practices recalling their current life, further and further back, until things become very clear. Soon the practitioner can become aware of the actual period during pregnancy. (A womb with a view?)

 

Then further back, until *BAM* - brick wall. This is the period at/before conception that one is trying to recall. It's impossibly hard. So one makes a firm resolution to go back further, but has to go back into jhana to sharpens one's mind even further. After many attempts, one is able to break through, and one recalls ones former death, then can go back into the previous lifetime, then another birth. The process has to be repeated again. Recall of that life until the womb, then another brick wall, etc. I suppose after a while it gets easier, then one can go back 100s of lives or more.

 

Sound like a lot of work? Of course, that's AFTER being able to achieve the fourth Jhana. So, not impossible, but I think there are a lot of other more practical things one could do with those kinds of mental facilities.

 

 

Without the right wisdom, I think seeing even one past life (witnessing your own death and perhaps birth) would be traumatic. Not to mention remembering more than one.

 

I've got enough crap to deal with in this life!

 

I reckon with a mind disenchanted with the whole self-narrative, it can be a useful tool for understanding longterm karma.

 

For a mind still caught up in that, I'd worry it might well be like upgrading from the Cosbys to Days of Our Lives in terms of how we spin things for ourselves. 'oh, but I am meant to do this, because I did all these other things in a previous life. It's fated!'

 

 

one of the problems with recalling past lives is that you have to get deeply past your linear mind. Words have kind of eclipsed the right brain functions quite substantially. We think in words. Even pictures can be limiting since if the pictures are too different from what you see now your mind goes into a kind of rebellion.

[rain]

How far is it from Schermer? Could I of that Schermer life have known your ancestors?

 

I don't remember my last name from that life, alas, or my first one for that matter. (I remember several names from my Greek life, including my own, one day I'll research...)

It's loopy to me... like the Amazon. If you look at it from above the plane whereupon it flows (from a plane in the sky, in the case of the Amazon, or from a different plane of existence, in the case of the river of time), you see the meanderings of the great river very clearly on a clear day, and you see that most loops don't swirl back onto themselves, but some do... some do. Strange things happen in the river of time. Mystery of mysteries!..

 

It's interesting how (at least some) men's past life memories are "more linear" than (at least some) women's -- they (men) perceive a hierarchy, an ascension from "lower" to "higher" kinds of spiritual accomplishment --

 

also they seem to remember facts (job description, rank, social status, etc.) while I, e.g., whose all past life memories are of female incarnations (doesn't mean I never incarnated as a man, it's just that I can't remember any of those lives, if they ever happened) -- I mostly remember how things felt and what the way they felt meant to me.

 

----

 

Yes, the interaction with the surroundings and the people involved, how they felt, what went on and what they meant to you is clearly the strongest issue for me, it is "the play". and the issues very often are timeless, but my attitude towards it can be read through the scenery I've chosen...

So those details, like; where, scenery, clothing, architecture, social status points to historic reference and this "stage" ads valuable background information. It's not divided either, these factors intermingle. But yes, a yin and a yang a left and a right..movement..or enrgetic appearance..love the river you painted in my minds eye.

 

sigh.

 

Yes!..north Holland and your clear memory shots are amazing. Groningen..close enough..what century are we talking?

[Yoda]

just a nugget from being a Jesuit missionary on my way to Africa in the mid 1800s. My best chum then I'm still pals with in this life. And I was some sort of priest dude in Egypt I think.

 

I think my daughter was my mom's mom.

 

I've heard that it's nice that we forget our past lives. That if we didn't, things would get really awkward. A friend of mine has a daughter who seems to remember that she was once my friend's mother... things like that!

 

TM, I'm glad you found your bridge!!

 

Yoda

[Ian]

Bhikku Bodhi explained it in one of his lectures once. I believe it's detailed in the Visudhimaggha. I'm pretty sure it requires at least the 4th jhana. Then one practices recalling their current life, further and further back, until things become very clear. Soon the practitioner can become aware of the actual period during pregnancy. (A womb with a view?)

 

Then further back, until *BAM* - brick wall. This is the period at/before conception that one is trying to recall. It's impossibly hard. So one makes a firm resolution to go back further, but has to go back into jhana to sharpens one's mind even further. After many attempts, one is able to break through, and one recalls ones former death, then can go back into the previous lifetime, then another birth. The process has to be repeated again. Recall of that life until the womb, then another brick wall, etc. I suppose after a while it gets easier, then one can go back 100s of lives or more.

 

Sound like a lot of work? Of course, that's AFTER being able to achieve the fourth Jhana. So, not impossible, but I think there are a lot of other more practical things one could do with those kinds of mental facilities.

 

Sounds about right to me. I know one buddhist teacher who has explored his own, and can look at other people's, but he says it's hard work and he won't do it just to satisfy curiosity.

[Trunk]

OK, I found it and recognized it.

...

The bridge is THE bridge, the one I remember, ...

What a fun thread.

Instant inclusion in TTB's 'greatest hits' album.

(Out on vinyl in December.)

[TTT]

Swami Vivekenanda in Raja Yoga.

 

 

39) When he is fixed in non-receiving he gets the memory of past life.

 

When he is fixed in non-receiving he gets the memory of past life.

When the Yogi does not receive presents from others he does not become beholden to others, but becomes inde-pendent and free, and his mind becomes pure, because with every gift he receives all the evils of the giver, and they come and lay coating after coating on his mind, until it is hidden under all sorts of coverings of evil. If he does not receive the mind becomes pure, and the first thing it gets is memory of past life. Then alone the Yogi becomes perfectly fixed in his ideal, because he sees that

he has been coming and going so many times, and he becomes determined that this time he will be free, that he will no more come and go, and be the slave of Nature.

Edited March 27, 2009 by TTT

[三江源]

.

Edited March 30, 2015 by 三江源

[rain]

The collective unconscious holds memory of everything there ever was, so if you tap into it, or have a leak in your psyche somewhere, the collective memory can seep in and BINGO a fragment from the movie to seduce you, as all humans are addicted to stories.

 

 

cool cat. i like that.

[Taomeow]

What a fun thread.

Instant inclusion in TTB's 'greatest hits' album.

(Out on vinyl in December.)

 

Yeah, a fun thread indeed.

 

For me personally, the coolest part was the correction of my past-life pronunciation (and the sound it was that I remember, not the spelling -- I have no idea if I was literate in that life -- "if that life or any of the others ever happened" is an ongoing disclaimer, as I stated at the very beginning) -- by TTT which turned out to be the closest thing to corroboration of the experience's reality I ever had. (Remember, I thought the second word sounded like 'kirche' -- two syllables -- and TTT said it's 'kerk' in Dutch, and then the actual Schermer church with that unforgettable bridge smack in front of it turned out to be known as 'kerkje' -- two syllables -- just as I heard it in my mind's ear!)

 

This particular memory emerged when I was 19, with no prompts from anywhere. I was living in the Soviet Union, behind the then-solid-enough Iron Curtain. I had no particular interest in things Dutch nor any exposure to same, nor any discussions of same with anybody. I had never read a Dutch novel nor seen a Dutch movie at that time. Schermer Kerkje had no place to come from other than from within. To the best of my knowledge.

 

With other memories, it's the same -- i.e. I know that I know things that I couldn't possibly read in a book or see in a movie, but I would never be able (or care to) prove it. So the pronunciation correction that ultimately wound up validating my two-syllable memory... priceless.

Edited March 28, 2009 by Taomeow

[Taomeow]

----Groningen..close enough..what century are we talking?

Alas, I have no clue. The feel is circa 17th, give or take a century or two. I just had a crazy thought. What if that Schermer woman was your ancestress?

[DalTheJigsaw123]

For me it has been flashbacks, instead of remembering. I had flashbacks of me having other bodies.

[Vajrahridaya]

1. Tibetan lama acquaintance of the current Dalai Lama. Shot dead in the chest by the Chinese during the invasion of Tibet, not long before I was born in 1966.

2. Bagua master, military man and Guangxu Emperor's personal bodyguard.

3. Indian yogi

4. Australian Aboriginal.

5. French person.

6. A couple of animal forms.

 

Each life is a tiny step towards spiritual liberation.

 

Om shanti shanti shanti.

 

Awesome! You were in Tibet during the Chinese invasion too! It's funny... I have a chinese step mom in this life who stole my college money.

 

I was a Lama who had his hands chopped off, but I still showed compassion so they let me go... I can't remember exactly what happened after that though.

 

I was a Bushman, Sahara desert Abhoriginal! We used to do fire cerimonies where we danced around it raising nu'kung, or however that sound is spelt with that snap in the middle. Their word for kundalini.

 

I also was an Indian Yogi!

 

I was a giant who helped build the first pyramid in Egypt. One of those really big persons belonging to that ancient race of giants of which bones have been found. I mean I was about 20 feet tall. I have many dreams with Egyptian deities and I never really studied that religion in this life, not that much at least. I don't have much memorized. I mean I've been initiated into that Alister Crowley Thelema path which is based on that stuff, but I never got into it that much. Though It's kind of like Kundalini yoga in a way and ancient Kabbalah.

 

I was a triceratops a stork, many other things. A humanoid being who had a space ship and had clones of himself doing work in another galaxy or universe.

 

Oh, I was a chinese man who killed a guy in a love triangle. I met him here in new york and the girl in the love triangle, she's on my facebook and myspace. I manifested the same love triangle in this life, but didn't kill the guy this time....

 

hmmm... there's more in there. eh! Yes, we do have past lives!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me it has been flashbacks, instead of remembering. I had flashbacks of me having other bodies.

 

Yes!! Flashbacks! Like a total immersion in the re-experiencing, not like a memory in the conventional sense.

 

Oh, I also saw a few of my past lives with my X girlfriend who we had some really intense karmas together, both good and bad. She also was Tibetan in her past life. She's a kundalini yogi shaivite in this life.

 

The collective unconscious holds memory of everything there ever was, so if you tap into it, or have a leak in your psyche somewhere, the collective memory can seep in and BINGO a fragment from the movie to seduce you, as all humans are addicted to stories.

 

We have our individual mind streams that have individual past lives since beginning-less time. Though yes, at a certain level one can see through any eye.

 

All lives are like misty illusions, seemingly real and tangible, but only seemingly so.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Vajrahridaya

[idiot_stimpy]

Interesting thread

[thamosh]

I just discovered who I was in a past life.

 

When I first seen the picture of this person I knew it was me. They dressed the way i would their expression to the way they sat was all of something that I would do.

 

So then I tested it.

 

I said "I was this person in my past life." An everything in my head went BRRRRRMMMMM very very strongly for almost a minute.

 

This happens now everytime I say that.

 

Since then I started to have flashes of the past life.

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

Gosh, yes, thanks for the bump.

 

The collective unconscious holds memory of everything there ever was, so if you tap into it, or have a leak in your psyche somewhere, the collective memory can seep in and BINGO a fragment from the movie to seduce you, as all humans are addicted to stories.

 

There is truth in that maybe, connected to the strange feeling that one has lived the life of every single person who ever lived.

 

Perhaps, though, there are strands of connectivity within that unconscious which link individual "lives" in some mysterious manner, there is an alignment or symmetry between them which demonstrates their unity at a higher level or dimension.

 

Clear as mud ain't I.

 

But I do rather get the suggestion I was some sort of Lama, and some sort of Daoist.

 

And a Minoan priestess.

 

And a literal dwarf.

 

It sounds so dumb I hate saying it.

 

Some Thing is accelerating, you know.

 

on edit: In this life I sometimes think I am most like those oracles who channel a buddha or deity and then go and sit amongst themselves and have a ciggie afterwards.

...

Edited February 14, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[soaring crane]

I've visited many past lives and can call up the memories and, more importantly, the emotions when I wish. Thing is, I no longer view them as 'past lives' but rather memories embedded in the complex coding if my DNA. That actually makes the experiences even more personal, iintimate, closer to home.

[soaring crane]

One of the most profound was a simple life as a school teacher in colonial America. I was female and madly in love with my husband, experienced sex from female perspective, and motherhood... Helps me understand women more accurately today.

 

Many of my histories involved being either a monk or a soldier. Explains my problems with money today haha

Edited February 14, 2014 by soaring crane