why do we have no memory from before we were born

Jrod: For sure, it is taken for granted that humans are the only sentients. Bear in mind that we are not 'more evolved' than animals--they have been here reproducing and evolving along with us the whole time. True, my dog can't send email. But then again, I can't tell simply by smell whenever a stranger is within 1/4 mile of my house. Touche. It's a matter of specialization. My dog can't do quantum physics calculations, but he knows who he is, and he knows who I am. He misses me when I am gone same as I miss him. Even if I come home in a bad mood, he is happy to see me and tries to make me feel better, in his own little way. There is no 'projection' going on there--these feelings are his alone. The only time 'projection' comes into play is when your animals see how you are feeling and try to figure out : 1-Why you feel that way and 2-If it isn't something they need to be feeling too. For example: "My master seems anxious, and keeps looking out the door...is there somebody coming that I need to be ready to bite?" Granted, all animals aren't quite as sophistacated, but they all make sense from their own points of view.

I kinda get the feeling that we're not supposed to remember 'the before' either. It would just screw things up dreadfully if we did. However, I do think that conditions can come about that can reveal to us just the littlest bit of the big picture. I hate to use the catch phrase, but a kind of a 'glitch in the matrix', so to speak. (No, I'm not suggesting we're all human batteries! ) As I said before, this is one of those things I find really hard to put into words...but I am trying!

Good thread, indeed.

[Edited on 30-3-2004 by Q]

I think we have multiple lives, with a transition period between (what we call 'heaven', 'the otherworld etc).
I also think that our physical lives are designed to teach us something and that if we could remember the earlier ones, it would just be detremental to our learning process.

Originally posted by TheThinker
I believe that when we die, there is nothing. When our brain and body cease to function, so does our consciousness. Look at it this way; when you sleep, in between when you fall asleep and wake up, you dont have any conception of time, it is like a void, like, well nothing at all. That is what I believe it is like after death; absolutely nothing. And please dont tell me I am wrong. I very well may be, but none of us truly know that.

I won't tell you that you are incorrect.. you have an opinion and you have a right to have that opinion. It is what you CHOOSE to believe.
If you are interested though I will share my view with you and you can take it into consideration or dismiss as you have every right to do so.
It is a well known fact that the military has a psychic warrior project. There are several ex-special forces men that will attest to this, the project consists of several different kinds of psychic phoenomena, but one that is key to our discussion here is the Out of Body phenomena. Now.. in my logic one must ask themselves... if a persons consciousness is able to leave the body while it is still living and roam about gathering intelligience then what is the body really other than a physical shell? A mode of transportation for our consciousness in the living world?
Something to ponder.

Here's a bit of Greek philosophy on the subject.

The ancient mystery schools taught that mortal life was a series of incarnations where lessons had to be learnt on how to become one with God.
If you learnt anything spiritually useful during your incarnation, this would come back with you as a part of your soul and spirituality. As you advanced you were placed in circumstances and bodies where you could ladvance even more. But everything connected with the previous mortal world would be blotted out as it wasn't relevant.

I can't remember the story exactly, but they believed that when you die, you have a choice. You could take the left hand path which would lead you to a reuniting with God, or you could take the right hand path, where you stopped to drink from the Cup of Forgetfulness and returned to the mortal world to carry on the learning process.

I believe in the after life, and i have thought about the possibility that there is no life after death.

I guess if I did die, and there was no afterlife, then I would come into a state sorta like unconsciousness, but in reality I would in fact not exist.
I figure that there is millions of years of history before I was born and, speaking on a spiritual level, I dont remember any of it.
If I were to die and plunged back into this state of nothingness, than I guess that would be alright with me.

My belief is that when you are born you are given the breath of life or a soul. The reason I believe this is I have always known something about what happened right after I was born. When I was in my teens I described everything to my mother, she of course thought I was crazy, but when I described what was happening and the colors of things, she was shocked, and she asked me how did I know that, it was just minor stuff.

Excuse my English .It is my second language. I have the same questions you guys have.No memory from before life in this world.Somehow I believe that we may be looking in the wrong place for answers.When we use our brains to search for a past memory we find it within our brain memory cells in seconds just as a computer would find a file the user is looking for. Our brain is an advanced computer. But the answers we look for are not stored within our brain memory cells.Our brain cells did not exist back then. So first we are looking in the wrong place. To find our answers we need to look deeper into our spiritual memory (could not find another way to describe it) How would we accomplish this? I have no idea.I know I was once a sperm. Yet I have no memory of how I reached the egg and how I avoided getting killed in the way there.I guess I had some kind of intelligence back then and some type of sensory sight to avoid getting caught by my mother antibody defenses. There are even diseases that destroy memory or block memory cells causing people to forget events that really happened in this life.They even forget their family members faces and who their children are. Meaning this world memories are stored in brain cells if those cells die so our memories die with them. When we fall asleep is a way of death. We die every time we go to sleep and we resurrect whenever we wake up.While we are asleep our brain cells do not store any memories.That is why we do not remember anything besides dreams.When we fall asleep or we get a skin cut our body heals it for us ,its not me healing than sking cut. Its my body doing that.Wich makes me realize my body has intelligence of its own.That makes me realize ,I am not alone inside my body.There is a type of intelligence that heals my body without my help. To heal a skin cut requieres engineering knowledge beyond our science.Think about it our bodies heal any skin cut by replacing cells that have been lost,I once broke my hand and my body welded it back together. It took six months to heal but my hand is good as new.Did I fix it no ,it was my body with its own intelligence and engineering knowledge. Could human science be able to heal a broken bone without the persons body regenerating itself. The answer is no. Humans can not fix a broken bone on a dead body because the body is no longer fixing itself. We are not alone ever.Our bodies have a type of intelligence of its own, even if its programmed intelligence ,still our bodies do what they have learned for the thousands of years humans have existed. I believe my body is one and I am part of my body. Like if my body was made of millions of beings co-existing.I am just the pilot.I can not exist without my body and my body can not exist without me. I have sensed my body blocking me from having access to this engineering knowledge. The reason I believe is that if I was granted knowledge or If I was to direct how my body heals itself I would mess up big time. So I am kept away from that knowledge for my own safety. if I was to make a mistake I could end my own life by mistake due to my lack of this greater knowledge. Can you imagine if I started messing with my heart beat? , or messing with how my body digests food? .I would have no time for matters in this life and surely would self destroy accidentally. So memory about my past life I have sensed my own body blocking me from having access to it. probably for my own good.I have goals to reach in this life and past lifes are no longer important in this life. I was alive before being born probably in the microscopic world .and probably after I die I will go back to that world with the acquiered knowledge being transfered into my children as it was transfered into my body by my ancestors.If I was to live forever , it would not be fair as the other intelligent beings inside my body want to get a shot at being the body pilot of the children I have.Yes I believe that they transfer into the next generation as my body ages its time to leave and move into my childrens body. many will go with my kids and everyone will get a chance at experiencing being the body pilot eventually. I will die with my body and probably go back to where I was before being born. So yes I am being blocked from past lifes knowledge probably for my own good. And we do not live forever as there are so many beings who also deserve a chance to live. If we were to live forever those beings would not get the chance to experience life as we if our ancestors had lived forever we had never had the chance to live in this world . So yes its nice to come and live in this world but it would not be fair to live forever . as we would be robbing others the chance to come to this world. When we go back to were we came from we will have knowledge from this world and will feel awakened that this life exists.We fight for the chance to live in this world as there is a limit of how many beings can live at any time, as there is a limited amount of food per year. and get ready to go to the next level of life as you will be dealing with those who have died before us. beings that have been awakened for millions of years before us . Just as an adult can trick a kid.Those beings will be so smart that we needed to be put into different levels. For the safety of those who have never lived and lack knowldge that we get when we come here. The question have we lived in this world before ? probably not .we have lived in a microscopic world yes but not in this world . That is why everything is new. And after this life we will be ready for the next level of life.At times I contradict myself as I am not awakened yet . ENERGY NEVER DIES

If I do have another life, it would be a waste not to remember this one.

I have learned so many lessons, even though this wasn't a happy life, it's one I would want to remember.

I wonder if we have the choice to remember?

reply to post by Daughter2


I see your point, but I think your higher self retains all the knowledge...so what you learn here does impact you for your next turn...

reply to post by Daughter2


I have been thinking about your question if we get the choice to keep this life memories on your next life.

Do we have the choice to remember past life memories ?

First if we were given the choice and can't remeber .It would mean we chose to not remember our past life.

second In case we wanted to remember, It was denied. Why? it would give us an unfair advantage to those who chose not to remember.why would I remember and the rest don't. Or maybe remembering 100 past lifes would make this life confusing.memories of you being a woman and at another life memories of being a man, or even an animal.That probably would not help much remembering being a rabbit eaten by a snake.

Last maybe our goal is much higher than just playing continue like if it was a videogame.Our goal must be higher than collecting memories from all of our past lives.yes I agree its a waist to forget the lessons we learn in life but maybe that would hold us back from our true reason of being here. and the who knows we are all in search of answers.

Its a great thread topic and i love peoples views. I always wondered why there are so many different views on the afterlife but with a simularity to what we have been taught or read throughout our lives. A small child can teach us many things as they have not been brainwashed with the ideas of their elders. I am pretty sure im an athiest but come and go when i feel i need external support. Its weird. Theres definately something going on were not supposed to know about and why is that. Well we have been taught many reasons but the bottom line is that know one really knows. I have had a pshycic tell me my future and my past lives. The reading came true even down to the naming of my dead best friend. The energy as weve been taught connects us all. I have experienced the afterlife with visitations from my friend. So i can for sure know that either my mind is more powerfull than ive been taught or there is a ghost in my room turning my light on and off. Everyone has a programmed response for what lies ahead. Ie. Tunnel of light. Reincarnation, blackness. Reunited with loved ones , god, go to hell, heaven or maybe in between. What if your already dead. And your stuck in the in between now. Making amends with your life. Before you live. What if the whole things a crock. And What youve been taught is to steer you away from the real truth. I always like to come up with the most probable , most accepted and taught knowledge on the topic and try to think the absolute opposite. Stir that up and you probably have your answer.

I think it's because memory is a thing of the brain which we are not we are consciousness that exists outside of and filtered through the brain and in all living things and througout the universe and before the universe outside of space and time thefore memory is just an illusion of time and a by product of the brain which is a human thing.

Originally posted by Lakini
'Why do we have no memory of before we were born'?

If depends on how the question is directed. If it is meant before your fully formed as a fetus to be born, or your past life.
In utero it's said that babies hear sounds and touch before birth, I believe as soon as their auditory canal and brain is functioning to revive they can absorb these interactions. Can you remember that time? Some say they can... I do remember things from my childhood at very young ages(maybe not before birth or that i can recall, but close), where most children do not remember.
If you mean soul wise, some religions say that the "soul" is chosen before the life begins to form, others say it is given at birth. I find it possible that the soul's placement is pre determined(but not specifically by a God or Gods). To say it's not random, as you meet the same people in this life as you met in the past one way or another.

For past lives;
I believe most everyone can "tap"into the power to remember... That is to say you're on a second, third, etc., life and this is not your first. Some don't even have to try it just happens at certain times in our lives(which could be joyful, traumatic or even déjà vu), either through dreams, daydreams...thoughts, etc. Some people choose hypnotic regression to find their past live/s. For some, of course, the memory is stronger, and can influence for better or worse their current life.