Have you ever known someone for a short time but felt you've known them forever? Or felt an immediate dislike to someone for no apparent reason? Perhaps you suffer from an ailment that doctors can't seem to diagnose. Much of what's happening to you in your current life is rooted in the past, not just from childhood, but from past lives as well.
Your talents, mental capabilities, feelings, fears and foibles are carried over from one lifetime to the next. What's more, the Universal law of cause and effect, or karma, means that you attract situations and people into your life because of your actions and feelings from past lives.
A fear explained
When Beth was a little girl, she had a profound fear of loud noises, which would send her into a fit of crying. To make matters worse, she had recurring nightmares of puppets dancing outside her bedroom window, followed by an explosion that always jolted her awake. She said that nothing in her waking life could account for these dreams. Then one day when she was 11, her father taught her how to strike a match. This simple event triggered a vivid dream that she's always remembered.
In the dream, Beth saw herself at a park with children. She was 18 years old. Suddenly, there was a violent explosion and fire everywhere. She ran into a burning building and carried out an injured child. She ran into the building two more times, rescuing two more burned children. Then on the third run, a final explosion killed her. She awoke with a feeling of awe at having just witnessed one of her past lives - and the cause of her childhood fear.
Beth believes she was the victim of a bombing during a war, hence her extreme sensitivity to loud noises. And although it wasn't shown in the dream, she thinks a puppet show may have been entertaining the children. Especially in the case of sudden death, memories of the last moments of life are carried over into the next life. For Beth, the puppets and explosions were her most vivid memories from that lifetime.
Source of pain revealed
To find relief for her chronic back pain, which had completely baffled her doctors, Susan sought a past-life regression through the EastWest Institute for Self-Understanding in Sacramento, California. During a hypnosis session, Susan saw herself in a log cabin. She was knitting in front of the fireplace when some embers jumped from the fire and onto the floor, setting the cabin ablaze. When she backed out of the door to escape the flames, she encountered a bear that attacked her from behind. Outside of her body, a short distance away, she witnessed the bear maul her body until she died.
This is another example of how an event that occurs just before death can be carried over into the next life, this time as a physical ailment. The bear had mauled Susan's back, which manifested as back pain in the present. Fortunately, according to the organization's website (pastlivesremembered.org), the discovery of this past-life trauma healed Susan's pain.
Veil of forgetfulness
So why don't we remember our past lives? One spiritual theory is that a veil comes over our consciousness when we're born so that we can't remember our past. After all, we're here to experience a new life, not obsess about an old one. Nevertheless, memories of our past lives are buried in our unconscious. Usually a past life will surface when it's time to deal with the resulting karma from that lifetime. Or, like in Beth's case, an event can trigger a past-life memory.
The Law of Grace
One of the most powerful karmic carryovers is hate. If you had an antagonistic relationship with someone, and you died with this negativity still in your heart, it's a sure bet you'll meet up again in a future incarnation to (hopefully) forgive each other. Fortunately, there is a spiritual way out of this karmic merry-go-round.
Edgar Cayce, known as the "sleeping prophet," was an enormously gifted psychic who tapped into the past lives of thousands of people while in trance. He said that the "Law of Grace" supersedes the law of cause and effect. To come under the Law of Grace, forgiveness and compassion need to replace negative feelings toward those who may have hurt you in the past. This will release your soul from the negative karma.
Compassion leads to healing
A poignant example of this grace is related in the book Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation by Noel Langley. The following scenario is from one of Cayce's readings:
A man named Alden lived during the Salem witch trials. He was an assistant to a stool-dipper, a job he despised enough to declare his sympathy for the persecuted women.
Fast forward to the 20th century during World War 1, where Alden had reincarnated as a German who served as an infantryman. During the final defeat of Germany, he was wounded and would have died if not for the healing efforts of a "luminous supernatural being" that staunched his wounds. He assumed this being was his guardian angel. When he subsequently immigrated to the United States, he discovered Cayce's organization. During a past-life reading, Cayce told him that his "guardian angel" was in fact "one of the watchers or helpers, who have made sufficient spiritual progress to be able to come to mortal aid while they themselves are in the next dimension, awaiting rebirth. Because Alden had shown compassion for the persecuted, and was therefore in a state of grace, an advanced soul on the other side chose to repay him by saving his life.
Your past lives can be revealed through dreams, psychic experiences, hypnosis or just visiting a new location that seems very familiar. Your most vivid past-life memories often occur just before death. Also, powerful feelings that drive you will be carried over as well. Which means that, karmically, the past can indeed come back to haunt you as physical, mental or emotional challenges in the present. Fortunately, living a life of love and compassion can initiate the Law of Grace, which will heal the karma and set your soul free forever.
