How do our past lives influence our current ones?

Here's a thought, well a couple thoughts. They've been bouncing around so bear with me if this sounds a bit jumbled or unclear.

For those that believe in or an interested in past lives, How much of our past selves make up who we are currently? In this life we learn from our immediate surroundings and the situations they present. But can past life experiences sub-consciously influence our decisions in life? I don't mean it as in each individual life, but meshed together as one form of thought. Do all our prejudices and desires hold root in the past only to flower in the present? Are we here to achieve what we could not in the past? If there is a "grand finale", is this when we reach it?

I have not undergone hypnotic regression, but i have a "feeling" that I died at a young age in my previous life. I feel like I came so close to achieving success, happiness, and peace only to have it taken from me. As if its all i have wanted but I can never reach it.
My only real fear in this life is irreversible failure.

What are your thoughts?

I think our past lives have a heavy influnce on our present one. One way is to look around your house/living area. I think the very things you hang on the wall, nic-nacks you collect and interests in a particular time in history are indicaters. I also have heard that the people that come into your life are the ones that have something to work out with you. For positive or otherwise. The lessons keep on coming until you figure it out at the soul level. If not learned this time...well, there is always next time.

Blessings
saxony

I think we carry both the positive and negative forward with us. My understanding is that many of our fears and phobias occur because of bad events in past lives. We may be afraid of water because we drowned in a past life. We may be attracted or repulsed by people that we loved or detested in a past life. It's all good and bad. That's why my focus in life has been to get better and better as a human being (our soul knows the truth), and using the example of Jacob's Ladder, further and further up the ladder of Spirituality.

Well, we are born with our past lives progression.

If you are a greedy, emotional, selfish person, you are probably not that "Mature" or spiritually grown as lets say...Gandhi

If you are a lonely person, interested in experiencing alone and in deep tune with systems, (understanding of how things work) you are probably pretty grown, and your life will have many "coincidences".

If you are a priest, monk, or someone that truly feels a desire to help other people, you are very mature. (Note, when born, no matter your maturity, you still may be religious, this is just how you found your way to accomplish your goal for this lifetime)

If you find yourself altruistic, odd abilities that nobody else has, and are able to connect easily with the universe, you are one old being, and were put here to set an example. ( Jesus Christ! )

[edit on 4-5-2010 by gandhi]

I'm pretty old. I'm not entirely sure where I fit in, but my memories and feelings go back to at least Rome. Not sure where I came from before then.

This is definitely my last incarnation, I am sure of that much.

This is a topic I'm pretty interested in. I believe I'm an old soul and this is close to my last, if not the last incarnation. I believe past lives directly effect the present life. I've been told what my lifes purpose for myself is. Whether it's tru or not, I have no idea. I do know that these 2 purposes fit my life and what I need to work on to a 'T'. Things I knew before being told by someone else, they just validated it for me. First is 'forgiveness'. My question to that was 'Forgiveness to myself or others?' The answer was 'Yes'. I do need to forgive myself, I'm my own worst enemy in that area. I do need to forgive others, release the anger and hurt so I can 'move up and on'. The 2nd is 'To accept love, true, unconditional love'. This has always been something I've fought with, for as long as I can remember. I'm exceptionally self destructive in this area. I want to be loved, it's what I've searched for forever but I cant seem to be okay with receiving it. I think that me forgiving myself is step 1 in the whole accepting love thing. Thankfully, I have a husband who loves me enough to not only put up with me but embrace all of me. Thankfully the Universe is just as persistent as He is. It's given me chance after chance to get it right. I would love to have a past life regression. Maybe then I can make sense of why I do the things I do. Maybe I'll see how the ppl in this life have affected my previous lives as well. I'm sure my mother was evil in every one of them...lol.

i feel that the only consciousness your soul retains, is greatly diminished when one chooses the fetus body to incarnate in...
you may grow up with some unexplainable inclinations which are beyond the influences of the environment your brought up in (nurture aspect)

And 'inexplicable' because your DNA & genetic make up would suggest that the composition of your stereotypical makeup could make a 'Mozart' out of the bag of chemicals that a crack-baby is. (nature aspect)


out there, before you adopt a body to incarnate in, you made the selection for some reason... ? possibly desiring to overcome the less than desired position that body would be designed to have to endure ?

I always felt that the the struggles of life and in life are the guidelines & corridors one's soul has to select from to progress their soul...

now, if one chose the easy life full of advantages, (like being born in line to be King or Queen), then the set of standards are somewhat different in your soul progression.
I chose to be a unknown, a quiet commoner, with little advantage/aptitude for achievement/ talents or ability... from these humble beginnings i accepted being a target for diseases, disabilities, a lesser type of JOB
character, always getting bummed, getting screwed, getting dumped-on in every avenue of life,,,,

Eureka, i've never become a Charlie Manson, or Jack-the-ripper person,
i'm still a laid back, caring person in the face of all my adversities in this incarnation...


...it sounds like your springboarding from my post in reply to thread "Where do you come from" ~ www.abovetopsecret.com...

jolois....

in this incarnation i was born in a DP Camp in Pegnitz W Germany, the American sector, about 60 klicks from Nuremburg/Furth. sent to the USA at 2 yo.

but that's not 'where i'm from'
i've been in a incarnation stasis for perhaps 13,000 years, when i last lived during the last ice-age in a tribal group or clan... i was then the groups 'shaman'
i don't really know why i decided not to reincarnate till this era, perhaps it was because of the 2012 date when the present worlds paradigms of living are to be thrown into the ash heap of failed systems.


I have overcome a series of catastrophies to get to live in this era, first off, in the DP Camp, i was riddled with all sorts of ailments; worms, whooping cough, styes, and a mild form of 'scarletina'... the other 5 half-brothers were all hospitalized with all sorts of incapacitating diseases, again in the American section of occupied W Germany.


then in 1972, i was run-over, after i was thrown into another lane as a result of a big blue cadillac pimp-mobile ramming my car into the bridge abuttment. 2 weeks later i came out of coma & spent 5 years recouperating.


then in 1997, i had a brain hemorrhage, just like Bret Michaels is suffering now, andafter 1 week of coma, i spent the last 13 years recouperating...

so now i'm only 2 years from meeting the 2012 date or perhaps 11 more years until i transcend this timescape.


in any event, i have been labeled as a 'future-throwback'...
what this possibly means is that the societal shift to soon happen, is humanity reverting to the dim past ways of social structure, with groups staking out territories, and shamans as the groups connection to health and future trends from the non-ordinary reality that coexists with this natural, mundane world.

excuse please, because neither you nor other readers/contributers to this thread will go the extra yard to read or investigate the substance of the thought bubbles i present....
oh well




[edit on 4-5-2010 by St Udio]

I think our past lives have a great influence on ourselves on many "points" or caracteristics including fears, things you love, interest in history subject, etc.

Fears; If you died or had a big accident in.. let's say water. Then, in your current life you will have a BIG link/attraction towards water. (positive or negative... but in this case: negative).

Things you love; If you were a guitarist in your past life, then maybe in this life you will completely hate music! Or, have a big attraction for guitar and music in general. Maybe knowing the basics instinctively!

Interest in history (or other subjects); If you were from England, maybe in this life you have a special attraction towards England or the UK culture,etc. Maybe if you were a WW2 soldier you would have a special interest in war...etc

That's my toughts about the influence of past lives!

Cheers

I think past lives influence what we feel. Here are my experiences:

I had once entered into a trance (no drugs, no traumatizing incident, was just sitting at my desk when it happened), and what I "knew" to be a past life flashed before my eyes. I was a woman living in the Hawaii islands playing in the water with a man I trusted when he drowned me. In this life, I love the ocean and feel it's like coming home, but it brings me great sadness and I have a huge fear of drowning. I've had these feelings forever, long before the trance. I also don't trust people close to me, but that could easily be due to crap from this life.

Last year I went to a group past life regression session, being pretty skeptical and figuring that if it even works, I'd probably revisit the Hawaii life since I already associated it as being a past life. What I ended up experiencing was the horror of being a ~7 y/o girl in a small village in what feels like somewhere around Cambodia being raided and invaded. My mother scooped me up and put me inside for dinner before it happened, so somehow I was hidden but when I went outside to look for others after the noises stopped, I saw a pile of bodies, where my entire family laid. I grew up alone and in fear but was shot when they did a mass round up when I was around 15. I'm not sure how much this had influenced my current life; I know I was specifically asking at the beginning of the hypnosis when I first had a lump in my throat that's been bugging me for years. So I guess the past life was an answer to that.

Other possible influences: In my current life, I have this strange phobia where I am scared that if I go to the washroom or something, I would come out to find everyone in the room disappeared, like this stupid fear that everyone else went through a time warp or another dimension and left me behind.

I also feel such rage and anger when I hear of killing of entire villages. Most people are upset when they hear of that kind of thing obviously, but people are shocked and taken aback at how enraged I become when the topic comes up.

reply to post by ItsAgentScully


My favourite subject I became a Pastlife Regression Therapist (non-hypnotic), 16yrs ago ... after my first experience of spontaneous PLM's.

I'm off to bed now but I shall be back tomorrow to share some of my thoughts on the subject ... and with the offer for you OP (should you choose to take it), of a 'free' copy of my ebook ... about my own memories' and how these recollections literally changed the course of my present life forever and for the better.

Woody

I used to have recurring dreams for years that I was a Monk running a large Library working for a powerful Abbot in a Monastery (in England?) that was sent abroad to visited France and Italy for rare books for my Monastic Library and to bring back new scientific books/discoveries / MSS

Something about bringing back trunks and always worrying about them arriving back safely on land having first to be transported by ship or something, but the excitement of showing the Abbot what I brought back and the vast amount of books in the Abbey Library - all the way up to the celing - and in the secret cellar as well - all stone - The Abbot at the time (in the dream) always kept his 'secret' books, secreted away. Panels / hidden stone & wood panels - I remember hiding and burying books in trunks. Then digging them up years later. Weird.

Also random images etc. about going off to European Continent to collect rare alchemical instruments and coded manuals from abroad and bringing them to some powerful person high in authority. Ciphers? Espionage?

I also have recurring dreams of sitting in an open Cloister (13th century? France? England? Germany? ) where I was given the task of illuminating the initial letters of chapters and do the margins on the larger books.

There was another artist monk who was a jealous younger competitor of mine, and there were instances where he tried to damage my work or take credit for it. That dream kept on repeating from about the age of 15 to about 35.

Somehow later in the dream, I fell afoul of the authorities and was locked up (for Heresy? maybe from coming across some 'scientifick' book that went against the beliefs of the Church and was caught reading it - or saving it from a fire etc.) - somehow in my dream I see myself involved in Alchemy or the Black Arts.

Then I seem to be remember being placed in a kind of house arrest at the Abbey and watched - I was treated very well, and given every comfort - treated like a Prince - and able to read from a large set of books at a desk etc. but I was never allowed to leave the premises (a Tower? Was I researching something arcane for someone? That was the impression I had - and that the person high up had died, but I was still researching arcana...)

Certainly I remember large stones and brickwork and servants, and also lots of silver and velvet hangings with lots of antique 'alchemical junk' lying around....and was not unhappy doing what I was doing...since I was around the stuff I loved...but only confided in one or two people.

In the present lifetime, I collect rare books - my house looks like a large Library - or antique shop - and as a 9 year old child, as a hobby, I used to sit in my room for hours and try to copy-imitate several illuiminated MSS I checked out of the Library old and I kept this up until I was about age 15.

During all those hours alone, I found it oddly meditative and acted as if I knew what I was doing - instinctively. It was a great way to learn patience since it took so long to complete a single page (and I wanted as a 9-year old to do an entire book, but rarely got past page 5 !)

I also sometimes have a recurring dream that I was a portrait artist (painter) who also was trained to play the Violin & harpsichord - a young man with an artistic bent - sometime in the 18th century it seems. Some connexion with France working for some Court somewhere...

I also have a recurring dream where I have seem to be c. 1860 and I am 9 years old (a boy) with a high fever who is dying of something like Typhus - and I am so thirsty - hot - then chills - so weak - it's funny how I remember my age - I KNOW that I am 9 years old - and the clothes and hairstyles of the women who give me water etc. seem to be c. Civil War period.

Maybe in the northeast somewhere (New York? Maryland?) - tremendous sadness all around the bed - I'm so weak, so dizzy, so hot, in and out of consciousness. They only give me water - and cold compresses on the forehead - no medicines. It is late at night.

The last recurring dream I seem to be about 50 years old c. 1946 - after the 2nd World War - I am bankrupt, out of work, wearing a brown suit and have checked into a run down (Chicago? New York?) hotel on like the 25th floor, and even the room seems brown and dreary..

It is late afternoon and I only have money for a few days left in my pocket to pay the hotel bill. Something about my wife leaving me or me leaving her and wanting to kill myself. There is a single bed and a single window with a ledge overlooking the city. I can see my brown shoes and my brown suit and my brown smallish suitcase and the drabness of the room - the mustiness, the emptiness, the lonliness...I think I must have jumped out the window - I remember walking out on the ledge crying. I am at the end of my tether with nothing to lose...but I regret jumping about 1 second after I feel myself falling...and falling. But it is too late....

That dream I must have had 100 times since I was 10 years old. I am always feeling as if I am financialy 'washed up' in that dream i.e. dead broke and very ashamed of something...maybe for my life not turning out as expected (?) and there is NO hope - weird empty feeling -zero . As if I was diagnosed with cancer - the kind of hopelessness that nothing can cure. I stare out of that window for a long time before I get out on the ledge.

I don't like that brown dream....as if I was coming to grips with something about myself I did not want to - could not - face. It seems it might have something to do with re-incarnation. It's possible that some of these feelings are hard to get rid of if they took place in previous lives with some kind of psychological internal trauma.

Really makes you wonder sometimes ! In almost every dream / lifetime, I seem to be a 'loner' i.e. an artist or antiquary with few acquaintences left alone for longer and longer periods.

I am only aware of one of my past lives, but I have a feeling there have been many more, because I'm far too sensible and caring for my own good.

The one I remember must have been my previous life, directly before this one. I was female and I felt about 40 or thereabouts. I felt my role was as a housekeeper. I'm not entirely sure if the house was one I only looked after, or if I was married and a housewife. It was in a place in Fife across the way in Scotland from my current position, around the mid thirties or forties of last century. My house looked directly onto the newy built Kincardine Bridge, and from this memory I recall being extremely pleased at how close this new bridge was to this house, because it was so convenient for me.
Before I had this regressional moment, I had traversed the same bridge a few times in this present lifetime, always preferring it over the larger Forth road bridge a few miles away.

Anyway, where this ties into this thread, is that I felt very hoighty toity in this past life, and I feel it has rubbed off onto me now in the guise of sensibilities and a slight coating of prudishness.

I'm going to go look up the history of that area and see when the houses were built because the one standing on the land now has the exact same upper floor window I remember gazing out of onto this bridge.

Suppose an Alien civilization wishes to incarnate a repesentative with a mission of service to humanity? So this would be the Being's first Terran incarnation, wouldn't any influence or information that past live's provide be an imprint? It would be a copy? So therefore past life regression would be in a significantly different light, wouldn't it?

I'm curious if anyone has met people that shared past life times.

I've met several. 2 very close.

When you can bounce places and situations without giving the other too much info and the other can give details.

I'm very leary about past life regression. Unless the "regressionist" (?) is VERY ethical and scientific, I think they can front load you into anything.

Read that as a "new ager".

I have three i can count for sure.

dont laugh about the first.

I can remember what I feel to be Atlantis in the last days. I have the about the same general features i do now and have twin serpents on my left? arm twisted. Red and Blue. Red for military, blue for the priesthood.

Some sort of middleground I guess. I had some rank but most of my "command" was for past deeds and not so much my station.

We are on ships coming back from maybe Africa or Europe area. We are nearing Ruta and people are in pleasure boats like we do nowadays. We are telling them "Go back to the City! GET IN THE GATES!". Most just smiled and laughed. "Your the military, you can do it."

They wouldnt listen.

The last thing I remember was we were within the last ring of Gates near a Temple and some other structure. Palace or Something. The Gates had crashed open. We were belly to back with spears overhead stabbing at the throats of the attackers. We knew it was futile but everyone of importance had left already and would be safe.

The next was actually a name given. Aristobulus. That one freaked my out because several years later wife found that it was a real name. I'd like to think it was Alexanders seige engineer but ...

1. Thats pretty damn arrogant even for me.
2. I know I was in the area of Heliopolis but I dont know in what capacity. I just remember seeing the inside of the temple.

A vast, dark hall of tall columns with a central area with an "oculus" effect over an alter. The the only thing is that the light came in but not from outside. Kinda weird.

Third was in about the 1100-1300 area. I was in about lower Wales or upper Cornwall near the coast. Kinda around Tintagel's supposed area. Small town with a ale house. I served a king/lord. I was a captain of the guard. I had black armor or leather cover with a red dragon. My war horse wore a similiar chest plate. I had been away fighting. I think either France or maybe further east or southeast. Because of this incarnation (I've been told by one who was there) I supposedly am not allowed to spill blood in this life. The kicker is, I've had a few times I could have (legitimately) done so but fortune intervened and either the law showed or my better judgement prevailed.

This incarnation I have several living contacts with and one name (not my own unfortunately). Their were many sad events and times. I came back and my woman (who figured me dead in the war) had remarried. That still is a sticking point with us.

She met with a unfortunate accident. She slipped from the cliffs when we were arguing. I can still see it like yesterday. Damn.


Even before these things came to consciousness, I ALWAYS believed in reincarnation. I REFUSE to believe that the Goddess /Diety would give us 80 +/- years to get it right or rot in hell.

What would be the point? We're human, we screw up. This is not to mention the Law of Conservation (Nothing created is ever destroyed completely).

Anyone else have contacts with anyone in their "past"?

I have this feeling of...sort of knowing so many things but these things are actually sleeping in my mind. It is like if the life that was before this one happened and so the spirit came to another person and that person is me. But the things learned in my past life would be down for now but still in the mind so I just have to make it wake up. The only thing that doesn't work is the fact that we have parents and so our personality comes from our parents, grandparents and so on. However, I don't think the personality is exactly as someone before us(hopefully). My parents don't really care much about these things, they care much more about their life and the family. My brother is someone who I can speak with. My sister...is a bit young so she doesn't really care much.
Now, my friends...well none of them. I can't speak of it with my friends. Yep well my friends are supposed to be friends, really I don't know, I know they are not interested in it. So, my entourage is really bothering me in the way that it doesn't help me understanding more things except the physical world. In fact, it is okay but well I loose so much time sometimes...time to think.

So, incarnation is possible but you may never know it...I don't know maybe if we could find something that could explain that the person that just died is therefore the little boy who was born on the other side of the planet, it could leads us to something. What if there is life on other planets nad that incarnation works everywhere? I may be some kind of alien in my mind. I do not know. It can really gets confusing that is too bad. I like it when I can make a clear explanation but well...I guess I'll just read your posts so I will learn more. Probably if we could take everyone's knowledge on the planet and put it all together we could find some answers. I suppose that is the same goal as for this website right.

[edit on 10-5-2010 by sheikhylian]

[edit on 10-5-2010 by sheikhylian]

I wonder how many people are just projecting what they'd want if they were alive "back then?" After all, the harsh reality is that before the Industrial Revolution, about 90% of people in most civilizations were directly involved in agriculture. That being the case, I'd think most people's reincarnations would go something like this-farmer, farmer farmer, farmer, farmer, caveman, caveman, caveman, etc.

And not to mention the fact that childhood mortality was WAY higher back in the day, so most people's list of incarnations would include being a dead kid/baby a whole hell of a lot of the time.

Not that I disbelieve in reincarnation, I'm just sayin'.

Originally posted by Merle8
I wonder how many people are just projecting what they'd want if they were alive "back then?" After all, the harsh reality is that before the Industrial Revolution, about 90% of people in most civilizations were directly involved in agriculture. That being the case, I'd think most people's reincarnations would go something like this-farmer, farmer farmer, farmer, farmer, caveman, caveman, caveman, etc.

And not to mention the fact that childhood mortality was WAY higher back in the day, so most people's list of incarnations would include being a dead kid/baby a whole hell of a lot of the time.

Not that I disbelieve in reincarnation, I'm just sayin'.

I thought of this as well. Maybe the past lives we remember are only those that impact our current ones? If we only lived for five days after birth I don't think we'd have specific memories. We might remember our name or names of our parents.